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By now, you have possibly established or suspect that you may be Otherkin. Your belief system has quite possibly gone off-kilter and you are looking at yourself and who who are in a whole new light. With this new information fresh in your mind, you are ready to jump into the numbers of Otherkin (or Therians) and become and established member of the community, right? Whoa! Hold on here!
Before you get ready to run off and probably make a fool out of yourself, let's go over a few things.
The Otherkin communities are swarmed with misconceptions and false information from time to time. If you want to be an established member of the Otherkin community, you should learn the truth about Otherkin.
One of the most common myths about Otherkin is that they are all Furries. Not only is this untrue, but it's comparing apples to oranges. Considering yourself to be Otherkin is a belief, in the sense that you believe in God, Allah, ghosts, etc. Being a Furry can either be considered as a lifestyle or an interest. Some Otherkin happen to be Furries as well, but one has little to do with the other.
Many people also believe that Otherkin is a new concept. Now, by internet and popular media standards, it is. However, the concept— down to its core—comes from man's first belief system: animism. Animism, in itself, is a rather complex system of beliefs that concern the soul. How the beliefs of Otherkin relates to this is that, in animism, a person often had the soul of an animal or of a creature that would be considered mythical by today's views. Animism aside, many cultures have firmly believed that they were part-human and part-whatever else. In Ireland, many families to this day point out one or more members of their family who were said to be faeries (sidhe). In Japan, the imperial family claimed to be the descendants of a goddess. In Western culture, the very idea of it all is laughable. Yet, in older cultures, it's a well-known and serious matter.
Another common misconception is that Otherkin believe that they are not human. Many a heated debate has erupted over the subject. Being Otherkin can lead to a feeling where the person feels as if they are not human or even a long to not be human. The best thing to do is to not feed into that whole mess about how
horrible humans are. Animals kill their own kind too and have been known to commit some of the most heinous crimes against their own and other animals. Otherkin are human. No amount of wishing can make your genes alter themselves.
One of the oddest things that I have heard about Otherkin and Therians is that they have been persecuted in ancient times and now must live in fear of hunters. I have no idea where this myth came from. It does sound as if a bit of Hollywood movies, cheesy novels, and White Wolf games were mixed into a bowl with a dash of Clive Barker's “Nightbreed” sprinkled on to for seasoning. Now, there were scattered werewolf trials in Europe, BUT those records indicate that these were equal to the ongoing witch trials. The “werewolves” in question were nothing more than the mentally deranged or just purely scapegoats for unexplained murders or plagues. There were never any rabid hunters who murdered innocent Otherkin and Therians in their peaceful little villages.
Last, but not least, my favorite: “I am Otherkin! That means I have special powers/abilities!” or “I have a great purpose because I am Otherkin!” So many of us get suckered into this thinking and there is truly no way to dispel this without sounding harsh...so, here it goes: Just because you believe that you are Otherkin does not grant you special powers. Otherkin do not possess special powers or have incredible abilities. If the bird is your theriotype, do
not leap off of a skyscraper in an attempt to fly. You cannot change into an animal and laser beams will not shoot out of your
eyes.
Now, a purpose... Since mankind was able to walk upright and say words other than “Ugh”, we have pondered what our purpose in this world is. Everyone turns to something else to give them the answers while ignoring the very thing that actually does: themselves. What this means is this: Do not let being Otherkin be your purpose, be your own purpose.
Now that I'm finished with what not to think of when Otherkin comes to mind and what not to fall for, I will move on to the most boring part: What to do once you've figured out that your soul's a bit scaly (or feathery, etc.). When it comes down to it, figuring out that you are Otherkin is just the beginning of a long road. What do you do with that scrap of information now that you have it? Do you hang onto what little you know and fly that Otherkin banner proudly? The best thing to do is to dig deeper. Grab every relaxation cd, every book on meditation and past lives, raid your local New Age shop for incense and candles, and get to work. On what? On discovering yourself! The best way to figuring out what type of Otherkin you are, how you live, or even who you are now will not comes from wearing an Elven star T-shirt or from the words of “wise Otherkin”, it will come from within you and only you.
With that all said, stop stalling and go get some self-discovery done!
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