therians and otherkin?

[Contrast]

Being kin is not solely a wolf thing. Wolves are extremely common types, but so are foxes, dragons, and felines.

Don't you find this odd? I find it really odd. What are the chances that the four most common theiran types are also the most common fursona types which are also related to the most common pets. It's almost like therians are mistaking an interest in certain animals, that are popular in general, as a spiritual thing. Alternatively, we should really be wondering why wolf souls are so much more likely to get misassigned than moose souls.

I'd like to add to this.

Midnight, are there any therians that feel disappointment towards their kintype, or perhaps even dislike them outright? It sounds to me like most, if not all, therians love their kintypes very much (wolves, foxes, dragons, etc), but what if someone discovers that their kintype is an animal they do not like at all, such as a rat or a spider? What if someone who is afraid of dogs learns that their kintype is a German Shephard? Does this happen at all? If souls somehow get lost along the way and end up in improper bodies, then it would stand to reason that all kinds of animal souls could end up in all kinds of random human beings, human beings whose personalities develop independently of that knowledge as a result of environment, upbringing, and genetics long before they ever discover that they are therians. As you've said, some people reach 50 years of age before they awaken. The way I understand it, there should be therians out there who despise their kintype, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

I suppose you could argue that a person with a dog's soul would never hate dogs, and that's why therians never hate their kintypes, but I'd still like to hear your opinion on this.

Please understand, I am not trying to call you out or attack your personal beliefs. I am merely curious, and I find this discussion quite interesting.

[Sev]

And along that thinking, is a therian's kintype always their "favorite" animal?

Also, adding to that:
Do Therians believe that all animals have souls?
If not, where do you draw the line? Do invertebrates have souls? What about fish?

[midnight]

The reason for Miss Moo's statement is this:

What you are trying to convince us of is some new age mysticism. You claim to possess some supernatural understanding that the rest of us do not. That's no different than psychics.

What supernatural understanding? I am not claiming that I can turn into an animal, I am not saying I can levitate or move stuff with my mind. I am simply saying that I, and milions of other people around the globe, feel as though I am, at a spiritual (or if you don't believe in the soul, that I am personality wise) share a part of me with the soul/personality of a non-human being. IT IS AN IDENTITY NOT A CULT.

I feel like I am explaining the same thing over and over and its just hitting the mark. Try reading it again without thinking anything about what you may have heard before, it will all make sense. I am not saying I am some sort of mystic or pagan or wickan or whatever else may spring to mind. I am a normal bloody human I have skin, I write, I read, I talk, I laugh, I cry, I love pretty things like art, I eat, I drink, I use the toilet, I matriculated with 2 distinctions, love music, I like reading a good book every now and then.

I am no diferant from every other tom, dick and harry out there. I don't do rituals, I don't go out and run naked in the field barking and howling. I don't go and kill stuff and eat them. I simply feel like part of me NOT A PHYSICAL PART may be a bit wolf. Its just how I am. I'm not forcing my belief down your throat I am only saying what it is and since there are obviously tons of misconceptions and I am just trying to clarify things.

We aren't a problem to society we don't claim to have any supernatural powers we don't do any sort of rituals or go running around naked in the woods. We are decent civilized people who are just misunderstood because we are animalistic.

People seem to fear what they don't understand and tend to jump to conclusions. For example if a therian says he has the soul of an animal the first assumption is usually that we are insane then when that is eliminated then the usual second one is that we are satanists or are part of some animal worshiping cult. Its just like when an uneducated person hear that a person is a furry the first thought is usually that you like to dress up like an animal and have a fur pile (furry orgy) I know this because when I first told my friends that I had joined the furry fandom this was their reaction.

So as you can see there are tons of misinformed people out there and they believe that we are into all this mystic mumbo jumbo. THIS IS FALSE AND ALSO FOOLISH TO BELIEVE. Magic doesn't exist, therians do not do rituals, we don't claim to have fantastical powers, we don't have anything to do with any evil bull twang. All these asumptions are plain and simple a bunch of horse bollie.

Being a therian or otherkin is not a religion its an identity nothing more. Gust like gender dysphoria in which a man identifies as a woman or a woman identifies as a man. Most therians are species dysphoric that is we IDENTIFY AS our animal so by definition it is an IDENTITY nothing more nothing less. And its not new either therians and otherkin have been around since the beginning of humanity. Its just ignorance and arrogance that have led people to claim its a new thing. WE ARE ALSO NOT "TEEN WEREWOLVES" EITHER. This is a fasion statement we're are an identity.

[Sev]

You're not understanding me:
I'm not saying that you can turn into animals. I am simply saying that Therians seem to possess an awareness of the nature of their souls.

I wouldn't even be able to tell what a soul "feels" like. To me a soul is much like the aether. It's undetectable, and thus might as well not exist.

[Franky]

hmpffffff....

"Aether." argggggghhhhhh. I can't.

I try not to make enemies here because the SA community needs to grow but being a anti-theist it gets really hard to see this stuff happening. And it's happening more and more.

So let's lose some friends in the furry fandom.

[midnight]

Being kin is not solely a wolf thing. Wolves are extremely common types, but so are foxes, dragons, and felines.

Don't you find this odd? I find it really odd. What are the chances that the four most common theiran types are also the most common fursona types which are also related to the most common pets. It's almost like therians are mistaking an interest in certain animals, that are popular in general, as a spiritual thing. Alternatively, we should really be wondering why wolf souls are so much more likely to get misassigned than moose souls.

I'd like to add to this.

Midnight, are there any therians that feel disappointment towards their kintype, or perhaps even dislike them outright? It sounds to me like most, if not all, therians love their kintypes very much (wolves, foxes, dragons, etc), but what if someone discovers that their kintype is an animal they do not like at all, such as a rat or a spider? What if someone who is afraid of dogs learns that their kintype is a German Shephard? Does this happen at all? If souls somehow get lost along the way and end up in improper bodies, then it would stand to reason that all kinds of animal souls could end up in all kinds of random human beings, human beings whose personalities develop independently of that knowledge as a result of environment, upbringing, and genetics long before they ever discover that they are therians. As you've said, some people reach 50 years of age before they awaken. The way I understand it, there should be therians out there who despise their kintype, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

I suppose you could argue that a person with a dog's soul would never hate dogs, and that's why therians never hate their kintypes, but I'd still like to hear your opinion on this.

Please understand, I am not trying to call you out or attack your personal beliefs. I am merely curious, and I find this discussion quite interesting.

You are actually remarkably correct. There are lots of therians who don't like their kintypes. Personally I never really liked wolves. In fact I disliked them quite passionately. My favourate animal has always been, and will always be horses. Like I said its not about identifying with but rather as the animal. And to answer the other question yes a person can have the soul of any creature, from mammals to fish, serpents, birds and reptiles, even insects and arachnids.

[midnight]

You're not understanding me:
I'm not saying that you can turn into animals. I am simply saying that Therians seem to possess an awareness of the nature of their souls.

I wouldn't even be able to tell what a soul "feels" like. To me a soul is much like the aether. It's undetectable, and thus might as well not exist.

In your case let's replace the word soul with consciousness

[Franky]

You're not understanding me:
I'm not saying that you can turn into animals. I am simply saying that Therians seem to possess an awareness of the nature of their souls.

I wouldn't even be able to tell what a soul "feels" like. To me a soul is much like the aether. It's undetectable, and thus might as well not exist.

In your case let's replace the word soul with consciousness

Not fully understanding something doesn't make peoples personal assumptions more real. There is a way the world works.

[Leeward]

I feel like I am explaining the same thing over and over and its just hitting the mark. Try reading it again without thinking anything about what you may have heard before, it will all make sense.

Midnight, I feel like saying the exact same thing to you. We're not saying you're crazy, a cultist, a shapeshifter, deranged, criminally insane, or whatever. We understand that you're a normal person, and we understand when you say it's an identity. We're just asking how you came to that conclusion.

[Sev]

"Aether."

Meh, "unicorn" / "Unicorn". Same deal.

[midnight]

I already answered that. As I have said before I always knew something was a bit off, I didn't feel like I was supposed to be a human but still I accepted that I was, like I said as a kid I thought my dad (who I never met) was a werewolf lol anyway I grew up realized this was stupid.

One day my buddy confided in me, told me he was a therian, I inquired as to what it was he explained it, that afternoon I went straight to google, spent about 5 weeks researching all the different theories and reading lots of peoples own accounts, by this time I knew I was a therian. Started meditating, researching, analyzing my behavior, emotions and thoughts.

At first I thought my theriotype was a hyena but 2 years of self doubt, kin hopping and research I finally realized I am a canadian wolf and have been content ever since

[Leeward]

So, research and introspection? Okay. But tell me, what is it about the Canadian wolf that makes you feel you are one? Why that species in particular? And by extension, why not human? What exactly is it about being human that feels "off" to you?

[Raven Song]

If I may offer my own story on this:

When I was eleven my parents got divorced. During this time I was sent too one of the best child psychologists in South Africa to help me deal with it. She determined I may have MPD (Myltiple Personality Disorder) but because you need tests and all that jazz she sent me to several other clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and I spent a week with a psychology professor at WITS who was working on a thesis about the development of MPD in children. One of the personalities I experienced was a large black body, which often took on the shape of a wolf with black bird or dragon wings. When I say a shape, if I lay on a couch or in bed and pictured how I looked when I was feeling the way that personality made me feel, that's what my mind created.
For a long time I didn't understand. I went through high school with issues etc. as one does, and I continued seeing shrinks. Eventually I outgrew, or perhaps learned to manage, most of the personalities.
Bar this one. I often find myself, when walking the street, or dealing with people I dislike, a feeling of destruction. Like I want to tear them apart. But I, as in me, Tammy, the short fat ginger girl, just cannot do it. But he, the big black wolf type thing with long black "arms(?)" reaching out from him, he can do it. He can easily crush the mortals that chew with their mouths open, spit in the street, speak obnoxiously loud... he can do it.
He scares me, he is inside me. I cannot become him. I cannot change myself. But he can become me. He can, and probably has... not controlled, that's a weak excuse, but influenced me... in the past.
He is a part of my soul, my mind, my consciousness. He's the one staple that's always been there.

If I ever considered myself otherkin etc. He would be the otherkin I identify with...

[Franky]

"Aether."

Meh, "unicorn" / "Unicorn". Same deal.

It's not your grammar that made me cringe.

[Leeward]

If I may offer my own story on this

Now that's something I find a lot more believable.

[midnight]

Never really fit in. Even now I can't understand what the heck it is with some of the things "normal" do. With me its different I don't care about stuff that other ppl fuss about. Anyway at about the half of the second year of trying to figure out exactly what my kintype was I remembered as a small child +-5 I would always feel like I should have been a canine so started looking into different canines narrowed it down to wolves from there did as much research as possible on how different wolves from different regions and sub species interact and generally how they are. Ended up realizing that my kintype was a canadian grey wolf and well after that evrything just sort of fell into place.

[midnight]

If I may offer my own story on this:

When I was eleven my parents got divorced. During this time I was sent too one of the best child psychologists in South Africa to help me deal with it. She determined I may have MPD (Myltiple Personality Disorder) but because you need tests and all that jazz she sent me to several other clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and I spent a week with a psychology professor at WITS who was working on a thesis about the development of MPD in children. One of the personalities I experienced was a large black body, which often took on the shape of a wolf with black bird or dragon wings. When I say a shape, if I lay on a couch or in bed and pictured how I looked when I was feeling the way that personality made me feel, that's what my mind created.
For a long time I didn't understand. I went through high school with issues etc. as one does, and I continued seeing shrinks. Eventually I outgrew, or perhaps learned to manage, most of the personalities.
Bar this one. I often find myself, when walking the street, or dealing with people I dislike, a feeling of destruction. Like I want to tear them apart. But I, as in me, Tammy, the short fat ginger girl, just cannot do it. But he, the big black wolf type thing with long black "arms(?)" reaching out from him, he can do it. He can easily crush the mortals that chew with their mouths open, spit in the street, speak obnoxiously loud... he can do it.
He scares me, he is inside me. I cannot become him. I cannot change myself. But he can become me. He can, and probably has... not controlled, that's a weak excuse, but influenced me... in the past.
He is a part of my soul, my mind, my consciousness. He's the one staple that's always been there.

If I ever considered myself otherkin etc. He would be the otherkin I identify with...

Sounds as though you are saying your kintype is a pterolykos

[midnight]

pterolycus made a typo last lol

[Leeward]

Sounds as though you have way too much time on your hands.

[midnight]

Uhm lee no offense but it was like one of the first creatures I learned about in my crypto-zoology course which covered 1530 different creatures. I can identify more or less any mythological creature by simply getting a description of it. If it had ever been described in the past chances are I have it stored away somewhere up here under my hair lol. When I lived with my aunt for a year she forced me to take a course that would last the duration of the year (as if I didn't have enough homework already) anyway I spent my entire sixth grade behind books put hell that course was very informative. You might want to take a mini course yourself. Very fascinating lmao

[Rakuen Growlithe]

o.0 you spent a year doing a course to learn about things that don't exist?

[Contrast]

o.0 you spent a year doing a course to learn about things that don't exist?

That sounds exactly like something Giles would do.

[midnight]

o.0 you spent a year doing a course to learn about things that don't exist?

Be honnest, if you were forced to spend an entire year doing a course. Would rather learn about cool monsters (crypto zoology) or bugs (insectology)

If, like me, these two were your only options, what would you choose? I think the answer is quite obvious.

[Raven Song]

I wouldn't have been able to choose... I always wanted to be an entomologist (the correct term for someone who studies bugs etc) but I am really fascinated by cryptozoology...

I always fancied owning a cockatrice...

[Leeward]

I know quite a lot about mythology already, thank you very much. Cryptozoology may be more interesting than entomology (not insectology, as already pointed out, and bugs are only an order within insects), but I would rather be able to tell how quickly I'll die from an untreated insect sting/bite than know the difference between a gryphon and a manticore. How is that knowledge in any way useful?

[Raven Song]

I know quite a lot about mythology already, thank you very much. Cryptozoology may be more interesting than entomology (not insectology, as already pointed out, and bugs are only an order within insects), but I would rather be able to tell how quickly I'll die from an untreated insect sting/bite than know the difference between a gryphon and a manticore. How is that knowledge in any way useful?

Sometimes knowledge doesn't have to be useful... it's sometimes just nice to learn things that fewer people know about...

[Leeward]

Call me a cynical pragmatist but if that were the case I think we'd have a lot more astrologers and the like.

[Raven Song]

I'm not going to be upset at you for that. But secretly... I'm upset at you for that...

[Sev]

Well, in all fairness, Leeward does have an extensive knowledge of certain fantasy universes.

Hell, I probably know more about Star Wars and Warhammer 40k than I probably should.

[Leeward]

Thanks for the compliment, but um... Could a mod please censor my human name from the post above?