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This article is a project of sorts by someone who knows only rudimentary information of the concept of Elves in the Otherkin community. I have a fairly clear understanding of an Elf in myth and lore but what it means in the here and now in the real world to so many I do not. I set about researching into it to see what the beliefs were. I think as children most of us believe in Elves and Faeries in a very positive way. Movies do not always portray them in quite that manner. Therefore like many in the various associated communities it is very difficult to explain the differences and be accepted other than fringe and a bit daft to the general public.
Most in these communities don’t have a choice as to what they believe because they feel it and live with it on a day to day basis. Being Elven wouldn’t be a choice but what you are on a very basic level. “Most elves, however, do share a love for nature and an ability to see, understand, and sympathize with a variety of viewpoints that can drive the average human desiring a "yes" or "no" to drink.” (Otherkin.net)
Elves are of a large variety rivaling Dragons in this area. Some are not even indigenous to this planet according to those who are apart of this culture. It is a very large group of individuals with a variety of origin stories. Some may believe they are from other planets or even other dimensions and yet others from the Earth. Very often portals or gates are spoken of that were at one time open and now are closed. Not all believe they were Elven in all of their lives but may believe that was what they were originally and are now feeling the affects of being more than one species due to past life memories. The general consensus is that no one knows exactly where the elf came from except in anecdotal stories by various people who are in a minority, but those who repeatedly remember the same things have divined races of sorts.
Most elves are described as being attuned to nature. They are generally slender and very graceful in movement but their height can vary from around 7 feet tall to very short in stature depending on the race. Sometimes the male is very tall and the female is short of stature but in most cases they have pointy ears, but not all of them and the coloring can vary from very light to very dark complexions and the eyes can be a variety of colors.
They are a very mystical, magical group of beings with an innate ability to heal and their path is a very difficult and misunderstood path. They commune with the elemental spirits and have a sort of spiritual manner that cannot be described in terms which most would understand. Some of the types of elves I have found most commonly listed are as follows:
Tulari
Listari
Elenari
Dark Elves
Moon Elves
Silver Elves
Light Elves (Our-Elysium.com)
They have an affinity most often for forests and have been known to build homes in the trees yet there are various races that have been said to be tribal in nature and live in open areas such as the plains, often dwelling in the mountains, living in underground areas or even beneath water. Many say they are allergic to iron.
They are very intellectual in nature but as a grouping they are equivalent in technology to the Middle Ages or feudal periods in Asian societies. There are the rare few that supposedly developed beyond this stage and went into space. Aside from this many claim to be princes, princesses, kings or queens, so their societies do recognize a monarchy type of set-up in many cases.
They are a very jovial lot and love their wine. They can be a rowdy bunch who gravitate toward women and song and for the ladies of course their men. They are gregarious loving a good time but on the other hand due to their interest in most intellectual pursuits and love of learning very often in their lives they are considered a book geek or something of that sensibility. They are known to be very giving and will help those they care about which has given them the appearance of being a subservient type of being but this is illusory because if they are abused they can be a formidable foe.
The Elenari are a race of elves that are found easily when referencing the species. They are a race of beings whose name is derived from Tolkien’s Elvish languages meaning approximately, “The Elven People of/from the Stars." Supposedly this name was adopted because this race of elves no longer remembers what name they originally used for themselves. They are not of Earth but other worlds so this has long been forgotten by the length of time they have dwelled in human bodies on this world. They believe they are from many worlds but are not sure if they were indigenous to all or may have colonized other worlds. When they are significant in numbers on one of these worlds it becomes classified as one of their “Homeworlds.” As a group they cannot remember the actual name of these “Homeworlds”, or “the” original “Homeworld.”
The Elenari aren't sure what they called this Homeworld when they lived there; but they have adopted the name "Sel'ar," which means "homeland" or possibly "temporary homeland." Several different Elenari subraces lived on Sel’ar, including the Tulari, Draestari, Listari, Dai'ari and Kalthilas. Dragons and Unicorns also lived on Sel’ar.
Sel'ar had blue skies with a single sun and moon and a "low" tech level (swords & tools but no advanced machines). Sel’ar had small towns and villages in the plains, forests, and deserts, and some tribes lived underground. There were many forests that included enormous trees that some remember being so big that it took 20 Elves to encircle an average tree. Often, houses were built in the branches of the largest trees. On Sel’ar there were seasonal celebrations with festivals, food, drink, music, dance and merriment lasting all night.
(elenari.net)
For in depth details on this race of Elves and others similar you can read more at www.elenari.net.
Excerpt on the emergence of the Otherkin community:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin
The oldest Internet resource for otherkin is the Elfinkind Digest; a mailing list started in 1990 by a student at the University of Kentucky for "elves and interested observers". Also in the early 1990s, newsgroups such as alt.horror.werewolves and alt.fan.dragons on Usenet, which were initially created for fans of these creatures in the context of fantasy and horror literature and films, also developed followings which identified as mythological beings.
On 6 February 1995, a document titled the "Elven Nation Manifesto" was posted to Usenet, including the group’s alt.pagan and alt.magick. On Usenet itself, the document was universally panned and considered to be either a troll or an attempt to frame an innocent party. However, enough people contacted the original author of the Elven Nation post in good faith for a mailing list to spin off from it.
The modern otherkin subculture grew out of these elven online communities of the early-to-mid-1990s, with the earliest recorded use of the term otherkin appearing in July of 1990 and the variant otherkind being reported as early as April 1990. The therian, vampire, and draconic subcultures are related to the otherkin community somewhat, and are considered part of it by most otherkin, but are culturally distinct movements of their own despite some overlap in membership.
1. Lupa (2007). A Field Guide to Otherkin. Immanion Press. pp. 25–26, 50, 52. ISBN 978-1-905713-07-3.
2. Chantal Bourgault Du Coudray (2006). The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1845111583.
3. Cohen, D. (1996). Werewolves. New York: Penguin. pp. 104. ISBN 0-525-65207-8.
4. Polson, Willow (2003). The Veil's Edge: Exploring the Boundaries of Magic. Citadel Press. pp. 95. ISBN 0-8065-2352-2.
Almost all sources state that the word fairy comes from the French word faerie and has also been spelled fayerye, fairye, fayre, faery. They are known by a number of other names such as the fee (French), fae, fay (Anglican), and fey. Other names are “wee folk,” “themselves,” “good or fair folk,” “green men,” “fatae,” (Latin) and a host of others. The legends of this race of beings, are most prevalent in Norse, Celtic, Roman, Medieval French, Irish, Scottish and English folklore, poems and literature.
Some even state that a fairy is close to the daimon of Greece but that in fact would not be the case as the Greek daimon was a muse of sorts, an entity that helped writers, philosophers and poets with inspiration. The fairy is far from this type of being generally, although there are individual fairies that have been identified to have a similar nature such as the Leanan Sidhe, but they are also considered part of the fairy folk regardless and have another side that is the consequence of association…death.
Much of what we know about fairies in this day and age comes from a much later time than the Celts which is medieval to modern times. Our view of the fairy is diminutive with wings flitting about helping pollinate flowers. They have a kingdom with a King and Queen and all appear to have some form of magical powers. Most of the time they are not seen by man except in the case of a few children who have not grown out of the area of belief in unexplained phenomenon and are open and sensitive to such things. Some are said to appear at whim. It varies a great deal depending on the being.
Many legends pertaining to fairies are of fallen angels or invisible spirits. Others believe fairies to be the dead and sometimes something other than anything connected to being human in nature. Therefore, are considered by some to be a completely different race of their own which is non-human. Unfortunately on some occasions they are confused with the divas and elementals of nature that deal with the earth and plant life.
“A valuable work of research on the beliefs held about fairy origins among the Celts was published by Evans Wentz under the title The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911). In the course of his work he traveled in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, and Brittany, interviewing first eminent scholars, such as Douglas Hyde in Ireland and Alexander Carmichael in the Highlands, and also people of all classes and types who were believed to have information about the fairies. He found that, among the older people, many of the opinions of the 17th and 18th centuries still prevailed.
There seemed to be some trace of the prehistoric beliefs left, though these were not so explicit as the beliefs in the fairies as the dead, or as fallen angels, or occasionally as astral or elemental spirits.
Sometimes the particular class of the dead is specified. The SLUAGH or fairy Hosts are the evil dead, according to Highland belief. FINVARRA'S following in Ireland seem to comprise the dead who have recently died as well as the ancient dead; but they are almost as sinister as the Sluagh. In Cornwall the SMALL PEOPLE are the souls of the heathen dead, who died before Christianity and were not good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for Hell, and therefore lingered on, gradually shrinking until they became as small as ants, and disappeared altogether out of the world. The FAIRY DWELLING ON SELENA MOOR gives a good account of this theory. In Cornwall and Devon too the souls of unchristened babies were called PISKIES, and appeared at twilight in the form of little white moths. The KNOCKERS in the tin mines were souls of the dead too, but of the Jews who had been transported there for their part in the Crucifixion. In Wales the belief in the fairies as the dead does not seem to have been so common. They were often described as a race of 'beings half-way between something material and spiritual, and were rarely seen', or 'a real race of invisible spiritual beings living in an invisible world of their own”.’
http://home.att.net/~waeshael/origins.htm
“Folklorists have suggested that their actual origin lies in a conquered race living in hiding, or in religious beliefs that lost currency with the advent of Christianity. These explanations are not always mutually incompatible, and they may be traceable to multiple sources.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairies
This particular article will be lightly going into some of the beliefs pertaining to the fairies associated with the British Isles. The information is voluminous so one article can only give insight.
Irish and Scottish mythology regales us of the Tuatha Dé Danann (Too-ah day Thay-nan, or Tootha day danan), who were the fourth group to invade Ireland and are said to trace their genealogy back to Noah via Nemed. Part of the mystery that surrounds the Tuatha Dé Danann is the fact that they were believed to have come out of dark clouds in the sky and land on a mountain, unlike all other invaders who came by ship.
“They were purported to have come from across the seas to the south of Ireland. With them they brought four great magical treasures: the Lia Fáil or Stone of Destiny which shrieked under the rightful monarch of Ireland at the time of his coronation; the Spear of Lugh which would brook no defeat of the warrior who wielded it; the Sword of Nuada (Cliamh Solais the Sword of Fire) from which no one could escape once it was drawn; and the Cauldron of the Dagda from which none came away hungry.
From the Lebor Gabala Erenn:
§55. So that they were the Tuatha De Danann who came to Ireland. In this wise they came, in dark clouds. They landed on the mountains of Conmaicne Rein in Connachta; and they brought a darkness over the sun for three days and three nights.”
http://www.maryjones.us/jce/tuathadedanann.html
“The Annals of the Four Masters” states that they ruled Ireland from 1897 BC 1700 BC. “ The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Irish: Annala Rioghachta Éireann) or the Annals of the Four Masters (Annala na gCeithre Mháistrí) are a chronicle of medieval Irish history. The entries span from the deluge, dated as 2242 years after creation to AD 1616.”
Very little is known about the appearance of the Tuatha Dé Dannan other than they were very tall with fair skin and red hair. This is stated in many sources for example:
"The Dananns were descendants of the goddess Danu and skilled in art and science, poetry and magic. They are described as physically outstanding; tall, red-haired, fair-skinned, powerful aristocratic and mystical beings who mingled with mortals and yet remained aloof and superior to them."
They interacted with the inhabitants but tended to keep to themselves and had a regal nature about them. They are purported to have lived principally around Brú na Bóinne, or the Boyne Valley. There can be found numerous monuments such as the Newgrange which are considered remnants left behind by these people. One aside, there is a legend among islanders of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) stating that long before the Polynesian inhabitants came to live there, there were others that inhabited the island previously and are said to have created the monuments left behind. They were described as a tall, fair-skinned race of people with red hair. Could these people have been the Tuatha De’ Danann? They were known to be great seaman and it has been felt that they traveled much farther than anyone possibly knows.
“Thor Heyerdahl claimed that locals say the original culture consisted of two different races: the Hanau epe, or long-ears, the original settlers of the island with red hair and fair skin, and the Hanau momoko, or short ears, the Polynesian peoples generally associated with the Pacific.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island
After the De’ Danann arrived in the Isles, they put a stop to human sacrifices that were so prevalent in worshipping Cromm, although in some cases this is attributed to the Christian missionaries that later arrived in Ireland from Scotland. They were said to have come from four mythical cities; Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias. They would sometimes take a “mortal” there with them but the Tuatha De’ Danann were not immortal as they could die in an accident or in battle. When they left their “Otherworld” cities they received four talismans, each one from one of their cities for protection.
“They are described in Cath Maige Tuired as "the most handsome and delightful company, the fairest of form, the most distinguished in weaponry and apparel, skilled in music and sports, the most gifted in intellect and temperament that ever came to Ireland.”
"That tribe was bravest of all and inspired fear and dread in their enemies for the Tuatha Dé Danann excelled over all the races of the world in their proficiency in every art."
Another early manuscript states that they were worshipped as Gods, while a Christian poet writing about 1,000 A.D. finds it necessary to comment that "though he enumerates them, he does not worship them." Other texts refer to them as "the men of art" and " the tribe of all the arts."
But the Tuatha Dé Danann, upon arrival in Ancient Ireland, were not welcomed by the current residents of Ireland, the Fir Bolg. After a time of negotiation, the two sides joined battle. The Fir Bolg were defeated, but they had given such a good fight that the Tuatha Dé Danann let them keep Connaught and took the rest of Ireland. Likewise, the Fir Bolg also held the Tuatha Dé Danann in high regard.”
http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/danann.html
The Tuatha Dé Danann were revered as something in-between supernatural and human by the Gaelic speaking people. Known to be extremely intelligent and knowledgeable about things heretofore unknown to previous inhabitants, it was assumed they had to be something more than human. Even though they looked human in appearance they were said to stay youthful and were gifted with special powers, especially the knowledge of magic. They were seen as a race of ‘fair’ people thus the term fairy or faerie. According to legend they lived hundreds or perhaps thousands of years as they were never taken ill by any disease and if they died it was usually in battle. These were the people or tribe of the goddess Dana (Daw-na) or Danu, translated “children.” Since Dana was the Great Mother of all the Celtic gods her tribe was worshipped as gods and goddesses as well. Note: Not all historians believe that the Irish revered this goddess as a Mother goddess. Also their view of a race of people they thought were gods, was not in the traditional sense as they didn’t exactly worship them but showed them great respect. They didn’t think they were superior but just different. Christian scholars who commented on them in various writings stated that they were Kings and heroes of old. This was a clear demotion in the face of the Irish and Scottish who venerated them.
Unfortunately as time passed they evolved into what is now called the fairy folk rather than Gods of the Goidelic Irish (Gaelic speaking people). The Irish have a slightly different viewpoint as they became the spirit folks of varying types. Actually some considered this to be a degeneration from the race that they were believed to be previously. The De’ Danann were later referred to as the Daoine Sidhe (Deena Shee).
"According to legend, when the Tuatha de Danann were defeated by the Milesians, they retreated to a place called “Tir Nan Og (also found spelled Tir Na Og).”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%ADr_na_n%C3%93gIt appears that the proper spelling of this mythical place is “Tír na nÓg.”
This fairy locale was on an island west of Ireland. Some of them retreated into mounds, raths or under cairns. It is said they created their own places in time and space that parallel our dimension or is sort of a niche in our dimension. It is in Tír na nÓg that the fairy folk spent their time feasting and frolicking. This place is considered a paradise and warriors that are killed in battle are resurrected there to live again the following day.
“Tír na nÓg was considered a place beyond the edges of the map, located on an island far to the west. It could be reached by either an arduous voyage or an invitation from one of its fairy residents. The isle was visited by various Irish heroes and monks in the echtrae (Adventure) and immram (Voyage) tales popular during the Middle Ages. This otherworld was a place where sickness and death do not exist. It was a place of eternal youth and beauty. Here, music, strength, life, and all pleasurable pursuits came together in a single place. Here happiness lasted forever; no one wanted for food or drink. It was the Irish equivalent of the Greek Elysium, or the Valhalla of the Norse.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%ADr_na_n%C3%93g
One of the more notable goddesses in Celtic folklore is the Fairy Queen Aine’. Her name means “brightness or delight”. She was the daughter of Manannan Mac Lír who was the Lord of the Sea and is associated with the Isle of Man. Queen Aine’ was a goddess of fertility, healing, prosperity and protection among other things. Prior to Christianity she was known as a goddess among the Tuatha De’ Danann but later became known as a Fairy Queen.
Stories of the “fairy” are common in the Manx culture but the use of the word is not, in fact there are all sorts of stories about any number of paranormal creatures. This particular Isle having been conquered by the Vikings is a mixture of traditional Celtic lore mixed with folklore from Scandinavia. It makes for a nice blending of legends.
“A good Manxman, however, does not speak of fairies— the word ferish, a corruption of the English, did not exist in the island one hundred and fifty years ago. He talks of ' The Little People ' (Mooinjer veggey), or, in a more familiar mood, of ' Themselves ', and of ' Little Boys ' (Guillyn veggey), or ' Little Fellas '. In contradistinction to mortals he calls them ' Middle World Men ', for they are believed to dwell in a world of their own, being neither good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for Hell. “
The Isle of Man has a couple of interesting locations on the island referred to as “Fairy Bridges”. One is in the Parish of Malew. Below you can see a photo of the bridge.
It was understood to avoid bad luck that one must greet the fairies when crossing the bridge which due to the influx of those not native to the island has somewhat been forgotten, and considered an old superstition of the island; an urban legend. Here is an humorous story excerpted from an article in the Times Online about the fairy bridge.
“There are bits of road where you have to say “Hello fairies” out loud. I was told of a visiting American financier who refused, on the grounds that it was silly and humiliating. The taxi driver slammed on the brakes and wouldn’t continue. What happened, I asked? “Well, they sat there for an hour.” Then what? “The fairies came and beat the crap out of the American.”(A. A Gill)
People tack notes to the fairies on a tree located along the side of the road. (can be seen on the right of photo above) You can see a close-up photo of the tree here:
Some say that the real bridge is located in the Parrish of Braddan. There is a footpath that leads from Oakhill to Kewaigue and it is near here where the real fairy bridge is found.
The Sidhe (Si or Siog) are the descendants of the Tuatha De’ Danann and are now referred to as fairies. All over Ireland are fairy paths. The “New Age” calls them ley lines but they are lines of power and in folklore the fairies warned that it wasn’t wise to build dwellings over the top of these pathways because strange occurrences might happen. It wasn’t uncommon up to the mid nineteen hundreds to consult with a dowser as to where the right spot might be to build a house or other type of dwelling.
According to some tales it is said that when a group of sidhe pass through it is like thousands of buzzing bees. A whirlwind is usually created which has been called shee-gaoithe. These fairies are not like those sometimes described in Europe. They are not generally depicted as small and are regal in appearance. They are a race of beings rather than strictly supernatural and do not have wings. By the Middle Ages in Europe, most fairies were thought of more like the picture below:
The Isle of Skye which is a small island off the coast of Scotland has an unusual legend about the fairy folk. Dunvegan Castle has been the seat of the Clan MacLeod since the thirteenth century. Atop a rock by the sea it is breathtaking and its curtain wall has been dated to before 1200 AD. The castle reminds us of the Norse ancestry that is so prevalent all over this area. One tradition deals with “Rory Mor’s Horn”. A must to prove manhood was by filling this horn and drinking its contents down without stopping. All chieftains of the clan were expected to do this and the horn is supposedly big enough for two liters of claret.
This ancestral home of the MacLeods is believed by some to have been endowed with a special sort of luck because they have in their possession the infamous “Fairy Flag”. They say having possession of this flag helped them to win two battles, Glendale in 1490 and Waternish in 1580. It is believed the flag was given to the MacLeods by none other than the Faery Queen, Titania.
“The "faery flag" is a 600 year old tattered silken banner which is shot with gold thread and marked with "elf spots". Many stories are associated as to how the flag came into the clan's possession, including it being captured and brought back from the Crusades. However, one favorite is of a MacLeod chief being married to a faery. Later, when she decided to return to her own people, she dropped a piece of silk at her husband's feet at a place called the Ford of the Three Burns known today as the "Faery Bridge".
(Wikipedia.org)
According to legend she said:
"Keep this flag and unfurl it to the wind whenever crisis hits you. It will save you and your twice. But woe betide you if you unfurl it a third time".
(Dark Moon)
Titania is a name given to the Faery Queen in more modern times due to the writings of such notables as Shakespeare. Shakespeare actually brings Titania to life as the wife of Oberon in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. This play introduces them as King and Queen of the Faery. In all actuality the Faery Queen has no name whatsoever. Some consider Titania a goddess and she must have been added into the legend because there are many that say Queen Mab is indeed the “Queen of the Faery”. Mab seems to be a literary creation and thought to be derived from the Welsh goddess Mabd who was considered to be similar to the Irish goddess Maeve. Shakespeare referred to her as being the midwife of the fairies. Even though there are legends of Titania she appears to be fictional in nature.
Folklore is an interesting topic as it is oral and when people hand down stories orally they tend to be couched in extrapolations over time and skewed due to the re-telling over and over and over. It would appear that most stories speaking of fairies come out of the British Isles and later in time it spread into Europe where the stories and beliefs changed a bit. What is interesting about fairies is that there aren’t many mentioned in Fairy Tales. This isn’t something that can really be pinned down and will vary by culture and time period. No matter what your belief might be in fairies, there appears to be enough evidence that something started the stories about them. It is apparent from written records that they were believed to be able to change size and appearance so this may account for that difference in a full sized race of people who ended up having a lot of mysticism built up around them and the idea of the tiny fairy with wings.
(This is the opinion of the author and is no reflection on the views or the policies of the Vampire Nation.)
By SteelIndigo Copyright 2007
Those of us who belong to subcultures that are not even acknowledged or considered a cult or fringe by what we call “mundanes” or the “normals”, many times feel we have some sort of cosmic standard to maintain. A mission if you will to cleanse the culture like a witch hunt.
There are those that believe they have been elected to proctor the communities. Who elected them to play “God”? This appears to be the big question that is floating in a cloud somewhere in the unknown. These people take it upon themselves to step up to the bar and stand on a pedestal proclaiming their indignation for those who appear to be feigning their identity or have titles they think are undeserved. How do they arrive at this conclusion? Generally because whoever the antagonist may be there has been some sort of tiff or they have arrived at a different outlook on the lifestyle they are both debating. One may see things as being dark and the other may say no, it has nothing to do with that and where does it lead? One may believe that vampires only drink blood and the other may say that it has nothing to do with that but is about feeding from energies period which is where I fall in thought. Very often one or the other of these individuals starts shouting the words, wannabe or poser, or the more frequently, “role player”.
My theory is that all of us could be considered “role players” when you get right down to it. Are we what we say because we have all the right contacts, have the buzz words down? Have some social standing because we attend all the right functions? Then there are some who say if you aren’t in the scene (social scene), the clubs, the parties, the court functions, the balls, you know nothing of what we are. How is that so? Perhaps you are someone who wrote a book on the ins and outs of being vampires or otherkin. What does that have to do with the reality of the situation? Now that’s the measure isn’t it, someone’s opinion or personal experiences set in print. Maybe yours or mine have been entirely different, so this guide book to vampire is rather moot.
If we are regulars in groups on the internet we see the heated debates about why some have titles. The rabble rousers come along and start a slander campaign about who should or should not have them and one has to wonder why some complain about this. Somewhere there must be a rule book or list in that great library in the sky that tells you the definitive explanation of what an Elder means and has the rules laid out. Only they have access, some sort of mystical key of course and then you have those that say they are ancients. What does that really mean? Do we just take them on their word because they say so? It is ludicrous and even if they had a past life many thousands of years ago, how does that apply now? People took power by killing and overpowering each other in ancient times so being in a place of power doesn’t necessarily make one wise even if one were to believe the many stories. If we did believe then numerous individuals would be forming a line to receive their ancient card because there is a long list of people trying to say they are one.
I say if someone wants to claim they are something more than mundane then there is a reason and live and let live. If you didn’t create the groups these Elders or whatever name they may be using at the time, are in then you do not have a leg to stand on and need to again, live and let live. If they create harm over time it will get around and you won’t have to challenge status as they will end up being shunned. As adults we can do one of two things. We either can educate them or ignore them. Adults don’t go on marketing campaigns on the internet to get them thrown out of groups. It makes the person starting the fuss no better than those they are fussing about. It is childish behavior unbecoming a group of people trying to make a statement of who they are. If it pertains to rules of said group then that is another issue that will not be discussed here. That would be a given for anyone who went out of their way to break rules knowingly.
No matter what we say or do there will be the complainers; a sort of meddler trying to fix everything to the scheme of things they have imagined in their minds disregarding anyone else’s feelings. Followers will line up and they will say well they feel the same way too but did they before you started to play the complain game? It’s addictive this bandwagon game. Is it perhaps that they are not as well liked, have any sort of title or popular? Have we gone back to High School evaluations? Has it come to cliques that spend all their time ridiculing other groups for some unknown reason other than it appears they do not like someone else’s viewpoints or want to create a pecking order? Could it be a particular person with which they had a disagreement? You see these self same people create their own groups and then boast of “no titles” yet they set the tone and control their group. Could that be “king of the hill” in disguise???
Our standards should be high but sometimes there are friendships that will outweigh rules and why, merely because the person has a good track record. It is known that they will do a good job in everything they take to task. It is the unknown factor that sometimes creates the problem. There are those that come into groups stating they want to be active and help and immediately start writing rules and regulations to change what has been in place perhaps for several years.
Who are these renegades who join a group and then go about trying to change it? Where do they come from and why? What was the reason they joined in the first place? They heard rumors it was a good group? Some friend of theirs belongs to the group? Perhaps some should be more cautious in researching a group and their beliefs and rules prior to joining. Save themselves from aggravation and the group itself with another “drama” person joining “complaining” about everything. Perhaps they don’t have a very nice life off the internet so they take their frustrations out on those in the groups they join to compensate for what they are angry about or missing offline.
Then you have the people who set up sexual situations with just about everyone they meet of the opposite sex online for the sake of social climbing or to pump up their egos. They wine and dine figuratively just about every noted person they come into contact with and then cite how wonderful their groups are everywhere they go online. You see the dropped words and names to connect and gain popularity. Of course they say they are not joiners but they belong to just about every integral group online. The passwords are the endearments like sweetie and honey or hun which of course makes those on the receiving end feel they are special to you when they are someone you have never met and a shadow on the internet or a voice on the phone. Although on rare occasions you have met but briefly.
I am so and so’s best buddy and I plan to do such and such, is frequently stated when they have only been a member for a short time. It is almost like politics where those running make many promises they know they will never be able to keep because it’s not a one man show. It is a team effort and it is these people who seem to forget this idea. When they don’t live up to the things they said or get their own way, what usually happens? There is a falling out and drama ensues. Very often they leave with all their best buddies they brought into the group to go over to another group and gripe and defame the one’s they left. This is done through and including black lists they post on a make-shift website. Never thinking about the legal ramifications and all the other people they could take down with them like dominos.
One thing I want to make clear is there are many sincere people in the communities and they frequently use some of these endearing names when speaking with friends and have actually forged positive friendships with those online even sight unseen and by frequent phone conversations. I am not talking about these people. You know the ones I am talking about that constantly complain about things, titles and what have you. They feel they are not liked and they are always in a down mood and moving from one group to another because they are dissatisfied by how it is run or feel no one listens to them. You know the type and who they are. Do not fall prey to this. You will find that you will get sucked into a very negative vortex of energy. You will very likely leave the group because of all the drama created by the complainer or people like them, feeling you have something wrong with you. You will succumb to a pervasive feeling that no one likes you when you have just picked up on the “complainers” energies and paranoia has set in.
There are no stars of a state of being. No gurus or people who have all the answers. There is no one who is so special that they have the right to judge anyone, yet you see them come out of the sludge from some other group they probably got kicked out of to carry on their constant soapbox issues somewhere else and why? I guess we will never know. Maybe they are negative feeders and find it pleasurable to get attention and they surely do from speaking out in this sort of way and not in one group but in at least a dozen others as well. They build a following of people who think they are cool just because they are being anti-social. Isn’t this apart of the whole persona of these cultures…the anti-social nature? That is how they get elected “gods”.
Quite frankly it is my opinion that we should stay clear of such people because they are the individuals giving the whole culture a bad name. Not the titles, not those who are a little eccentric but those who go around saying they are trying to help and constantly complain about this and that. I say they need to be fired as gods because they are the problem. Titles are insignificant and if someone is being arrogant about it then let them be and ignore them. If they are more intellectual does that make them any more viable…no because what we are has nothing to do with intellect. If their groups are more drama free are they more viable and I say no and why you say? More than likely it is a group of hand picked cronies that think they are special for being there and most often female.
In a diverse group with many views, there will be disagreements and there will be many ideas brought to the forefront but this is how we learn and the titles the group uses has nothing to do with anything. Yes some people can be pushy and feel they are better for their titles but what do you do…sit and complain about it? No, you leave the group and join one that fits more with your own ideals and that is the end of that. This type of thing is no different than “religious persecution”. Let people be! Until you can learn tolerance the communities will be looked upon as nothing more than a bunch of anti-social misfits. Is this the image you want to portray? I would think it would be better to be seen as individuals that have it together, know who they are and where they are going. Therefore they have organized to help those who are searching. We help our own and anyone else who is curious to improve our place in a world society that will see us as being what we profess. We notice the positive and ignore the negative and in so doing we are better for it and create a culture that is superior to those who built theirs to be different.
My credentials you say….they are nothing more than the school of hard knocks over the years and old age. I have lived it and learned. By the way you can get one of these at the nearest complaint department…enjoy!
If you are under 18 I really can't give you information on the vampyre community. It does exist but don't confuse it please with the clans of Vampire: The Masquerade.
These clans would be Nosferatu, Tremere, Ventrue, Gangrel, Toreador, Brujah and some others. These are from an rpg. Some people I know have also played it live but a game it is and it bears no resemblance to the real vampyre community. Most of the terms used in the game are not used in the community such as Sire. Vampyres are not made except in fiction or superstition.
Here is one of the clans and they are fangsmiths. This is Van Houtens clan, Sabretooth:
http://www.myspace.com/sabretoothx
Here is a good place to get links to interviews and other things going on in the "real" vampyre community:
http://www.suscitatio.com/
I will list here a few Houses you can go and read:
http://www.house-eclipse.org/
There is a big listing here:
http://www.psivamp.org/community.htm
Disclaimer: I am not recommending any one of these groups. They are all members of the vampyre subculture but what I believe about any one of them and they are not all listed at this site, is personal. Everyone must follow their own path. Just don't be confused by RPGs and the lingo from them.
The following are words used by some in the vampyre community and how they define them or some define them.
Mundane:
A term used to distinguish those who are not vampires from those who are. This is, I feel, more accurate than "mortal" or "human", and serves to distinguish those who are merely living normal, mundane lives and unencumbered with the life of a vampire. It is not a disparaging term.
Note: Some also use the term Nils. Then you have the showy people who will say human or mortals, lol. Like as if vampyrics are not human or immortal. It is taken with a grain of salt...they mean the same as mundane in this usage.
Primus:
A vampire, almost always an elder, who founded or is the leader of a large family or coven of vampires. The term emerged from role-playing games as did the concept of covens of vampires but is now accepted by some.
Sire:
A term from Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying system that has crept into general usage meaning the one who turned (or awakened) someone who is a vampire. When used it means awakened and most use the term Mentor or Teacher.
Awakening:
The physical and mental changes that occur when someone awakens to their latent vampire nature. The awakening typically occurs during or shortly after the onset of puberty, but in some individuals may take years to manifest. Those undergoing the awakening, undergo various mental and physical changes. These changes often include an increased sensitivity to light and particularly to sunlight, a growing affinity for night and darkness, having one's circadian rhythm become inverted and switching from a nocturnal to a diurnal sleeping schedule, and experiencing the first symptoms of the thirst. Many experience acute feelings of isolation and alienation during this process, as their changing nature distances them increasingly from their "normal" family and friends. Many seek out organizations or groups to help understand their desires and newfound feelings.
Note: A small minority of people get this thirst for blood. Most don't drink it and some are hybrid although I don't use that term exactly. There is an urge to take in energies (hate to say feed), you just know.
Court:
A monthly social event which is much like a "town meeting" for members of the vampiric community in a specific geographic area. Court is usually held once a month at a local tea or coffee house, lounge or haven, and only vampires and those within the community are welcome. This is an opportunity to socialize with others in the community. News and announcements are made, poetry is read, new members, elders, etc., are introduced. Here vampires are generally free to escape mundane society. The host of the court is usually a locally respected Elder who secures a date, time, venue, and promotes the event.
Elorath / Scrolls of Elorath:
From House Eclipse: "According to the OSV, this is the great vampiric essence and the vampiric astral spirits, called by the Temple of the Vampire the Undead Gods. This is one of the inner teachings of OSV. Some say this term evolved from the word "el-or-ath", which is the Atlantian term for a vampiric spirit. However, this is--" untrue! In actuality, the word originated back in the days of the original Coven, then operated by Raphael Osiris, and the "Sanguinarium" was still "the Sanguinary", and is an acronym for "Eternal Lord Our Regent Aaron Todd Hoyt". Seriously.
The above is some of the more sketchy things in the community and not all follow these things only certain factions and factions there are. I personally dont recommend the last one but to each their own. A lot of things are believed nowadays since some started the modern House system and set up heirarchy within them. Those who were born after a certain time know no other way, to them this is what is the norm for the subculture. Unfortunately it isn't old and it was sort of created by a few people and snowballed from there. All I am sharing and you have links to do your own discoveries if you are the least bit interested outside of the historical or fictional vampire.
Article on gender. Are there more than two? Long speculative article from one of my other profiles.
22:06 Jul 16 2009 Times Read: 899
GENDER: The Binary Fallacy
Man has moved into the 21st Century, which to those born in the 20th Century felt was the century that would be most associated with science, space travel and a consciousness change in societal attitudes. This appears unfortunately, not to be the case. We have moved forward with gadgets, cell phones, ipods, the Internet and some things that could be considered purely for entertainment value. Has this propelled man into the future in a positive manner? This could be debated. Are we overlooking a very necessary condition for the sake of religious views? Are we letting religion dictate biology by continuing to associate society on a binary gender basis? Are personal philosophies interfering with the right of the individual to dictate what the correct lifestyle is for them? Why would anyone do this and for the sake of someone else’s viewpoint?
Could society be idly sitting back and allowing others to take away their power to decide due to either a disinterest or lack of knowledge of the topic at hand? This goes beyond politics, morals and religion, it delves into the very heart of what we are as human beings. This article will not be going into religion or politics since this is a very personal issue and far too complex, but more from a scientific, sociological aspect. There may be references to backup statements to explain an idea but not in the sense of ridiculing anyone’s belief system. I will be examining what biologists, sociologists and geneticists are saying about man’s basic biology; their sex.
Over thousands of years mankind has thought of itself in the sense of man and woman, father and mother, could this idea now be outmoded? The younger generations of today are moving on to another idea. Some are involved in polyamorous relationships, what appears as same gender relationships, unisex dress and renaming themselves by genderless identifications. Some ideas in particular which are labeled fringe are blatantly shouted out by individuals that don’t want to be identified by gender or their choices of mates. Quite frankly not all of these people are other than heterosexual individuals. Why is this happening in society today? Are we finally moving past being identified by gender but more aptly by qualities?
"Nowhere do scientific findings get more mangled than when they’re about the differences between men and women. According to the science pages, women aren’t just biologically hardwired to prefer pink to blue. We’re also predisposed to backstab one another in the workplace, cry in the boardroom, and have both lower iqs and less of a sense of humor than men.
Some misleading stories come from bad science, where the study authors’ conclusions aren’t supported by their own data. Others are well-conducted studies whose conclusions mutate upon contact with the mainstream media. Newspapers and websites are prone to playing fast and loose with their reports on studies, often neglecting to reveal salient facts about a study’s sample group or methodology."7
This is only the battle for superiority considering two genders, but what if there are more? Does this make this whole concept of male versus female moot?
Genetics has theorized from observational studies that those with one X and one Y chromosome are male. Those that have matched pairs of X chromosomes are female. Females are said to only produce eggs with X chromosomes and males produce sperm with an X or a Y chromosome. Could this idea now be believed to be limiting the nature of man and not considering that there might be others that fall into a gray area?
Not only does sex matter, but sex differences must now shift to the forefront of medical research:
There is now sufficient knowledge of the biological basis of sex differences to validate the scientific study of sex differences and to allow the generation of hypotheses. The next step is to move from the descriptive to the experimental and to establish the conditions that must be in place to facilitate and encourage the scientific study of the mechanisms and origins of sex differences. ... Barriers to the advancement of knowledge about sex differences in health and illness exist and must be eliminated (Institute of Medicine, 2001).
The result is that medical research is moving toward becoming gender-based (that is, considering gender as a potentially important variable in all aspects of research and care).8
This still doesn’t address the issue of whether science has been wrong all this time due to religious biases. What if considering facts from a binary viewpoint is obscuring the fact that there are more than two sexes?
In an article published in Discover Magazine by Jared Diamond in 1992, he tells of a young girl who had a happy life as a child until she hit puberty. She began to feel a mass in her left side. She hadn’t started menstruating or growing breasts like most females her age and another mass had appeared in her genital area that seemed to be male in design and it had erections. She was in shock and didn’t know what to make of it and noticed her interests veered toward females. She was afraid to tell her parents. She felt she would be labeled a freak.
This undermines our most sacred ideas of what we are as human beings, either male or female. So what of the hermaphrodite that has been born many times throughout man’s history? Is this truly an anomaly or another gender? It is now referred to as intersexed and is taken very seriously.
The fetus is known to be female up until a certain stage when genetics takes over and the fetus is changed into a male. Can there be in-betweens? Perhaps the brain doesn’t transform and remains essentially female and the body becomes male. Perhaps the brain changes over but the body remains female. How many gender likelihoods would that make if you count them as individual genders? Five altogether that may very well be genders whether by fluke or intended that appear to be happening regularly within society but brushed under the rug for what people term “normal;” the binary tradition of only male and female. The male and the female would be the most common genders but from this standpoint not the only genders to consider. There are other conditions of gender differentiation usually labeled as some sort of syndrome. These are all called intersex conditions. Some of these are:
• Skoptic Syndrome
• Disorders of Sex Development (also known as “DSD”)
• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
• Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
• Klinefelter’s Syndrome (also known as XXY Syndrome)
• Swyer Syndrome (also known as XY Gonadal Dysgenesis)2
"Transsexuals are rapidly becoming accepted in medical terms as being intersexed, even though there is rarely any variance in the chromosomes and phenotype. More and more doctors are beginning to understand that a person’s sex should not be determined by their phenotype and that there is a lot more factors in play."2
"What do we mean by phenotype:
Phenotype and genotype are companion terms that describe an individual's genetic makeup. The genotype is the complete description of an individual's genetic traits. The phenotype describes the outcome of the genotype, but may not always reveal the complete genotype."6
Just to clarify some of the terms that surface in regard to gender let’s look at these definitions below:
"Transsexual" is an older term that usually refers to someone who wants to use hormones or surgery to change their sex. "Transvestites," now more politely called "cross-dressers," occasionally wear clothes of the opposite sex. "Transgender" is an umbrella term that includes anyone whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex of their birth—whether they have surgery or not."3
This is an area I am not going into but more genetic concrete evidence of more than two genders. I am sure that hormones, environment and how one is treated growing up plays a big part in some of these identity fluctuations. They are very real but I am looking into concrete genetic or physical differences. Many of the conditions listed above are called congenital but one source had this to say about the nature of this statement.
“Congenital” basically means of what we were born with. When I looked up congenital in the Word documents’ thesaurus, they describe it as present at birth, innate, inborn, inherited and hereditary. Gender Variations - most think of it as anything outside of the binary xx and xy but in fact it is all the genetic chromosomes. Think of it, xx is a variation as is xxy, xo, xxyy, xxxy, xyy, xy and so on. Even xxy is not in the binary but perhaps a combination of xy and xx or a gender variation in itself, the arguments go on forever. With the chromosome out of the ordinary binary system, we get those who have combined genders (not unheard of in the realm of xxy) or a predominant gender. There is nothing to fear because in essence, this is the way the societies were built from. Some keep their gender a secret, some reveal only a certain part and some go all out and expose themselves to the menace of the world and society regardless. It’s all good.
In ancient times to present, those with two genders were reviled by mysticism and treated special or burned at the stake. Indian legend talks about a “two spirit” and were sought after to become their spiritual leaders in the forms of medicine men or women. There is a definite advantage to being a two spirit, they can understand not only the two distinct genders, but see the world through a combined thought which encompasses not only the male and female, but an extra understanding. The world can certainly use more of those as each gender has blinders to certain things. So really, we are all a Congenital Gender variation, even those who are born xy male and born xx female."15
Two spirits were very common in Native American societies:
"Two-spirit traditions have been documented (and in some cases, photographed) in nearly 150 indigenous North American tribes and societies. In roughly half of these, female counterparts were also reported that lived and dressed as men. Included among the tribes were the Seminole, Navajo, Mohave, Crow, Zuni, Pueblo, Hopi, Kutenai, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, Cheyenne, western Algonquian and nearly half of the thirty-five tribes living along the Pacific Northwest. Two-spirit natives comprised a distinct social class within most of these tribal communities; for example, among the Hidatsa of the northern Plains, two-spirits were observed at no less than fifteen to twenty a village and typically pitched their teepees together in a group."17
A study was completed in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute pertaining to those involved in same gender relationships. The findings were very illuminating. Those that we would normally identify at birth to be male had female brain types and the females were the same who preferred same gender relationships. This would fall back to the idea of females born with male brains and males born with female brains.
"While earlier brain imaging studies have shown differences in brain activation between gay and straight men and women when measuring sexual attraction, the study is among the first to show the differences in areas unrelated to sexuality.
This and other research seems to be sending the same message, which is that sexual orientation is part of a package. It is not an isolated trait," says neuroscientist Simon LeVay, PhD, who has long studied sexuality and the brain."4
Through PET imaging it was shown by the activity of the amgydala which is where the emotional response of an individual originates, that connectivity was the same in what we term a straight female and a gay man. Whether one is left-brained or right-brained has nothing to do with gender orientation. LaVey clearly states that he has not established conclusively that gay men or women are born that way. LaVey published his first work on this topic in 1991 and was a neurobiologist at that time working at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California (City of San Diego). Therefore, it has not been consider from another perspective that it might be the sign of an entirely exclusive gender difference perhaps the problem is perception of what gender actually is beyond the stereotypical binary view.
"The terms “third gender” and “third sex” describe individuals who are considered to be neither women nor men, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders.
The term "third" is usually understood to mean "other"; some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth, fifth, and many genders."9
Therefore what do you call a baby born with both genitalia? Would the baby be a he, or a she, or something altogether different? This seems sort of an academic question but when you realize there are two-million people born all over the world daily, this is a very serious question. Out of all of these births, one out of 2000 to 4000 infants are born with gender differences. How does one make the distinction when it is considered a freak of nature? Perhaps considering that it happens so often, one should consider it may be a natural part of nature that was overlooked due to religious societal viewpoints.
You might be surprised that you may very well know someone who is intersexed and you were never aware of it. Most of these babies get forced into a sex by their parents and doctors and most often it is female due to the ease in operation even if genetic testing showed that the infant was predominantly male. The doctors did their magic in the operating room and with a nip and tuck the baby became a girl. Perhaps the DNA didn’t fully match the concept but it was easier on the parents and all concerned disregarding the ramifications it might cause to the infant later in life.
In an essay that appeared in “The World & I,” (November 1, 1997), Nadeau says that the sex-specific differences in the brain are located both in the primitive regions, and in the neocortex--the higher brain regions. The neocortex contains 70 percent of the neurons in the central nervous system, and it is divided into two hemispheres joined by a 200-million fiber network called the corpus callosum.
The left hemisphere controls language analysis and expression and body movements while the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial relationships, facial expressions, emotional stimuli, and vocal intonations.
"Men and women process information differently because of differences in a portion of the brain called the splenium, which is much larger in women than in men, and has more brain-wave activity. (11) Studies have shown that problem solving tasks in female brains are handled by both hemispheres, while the male brain only uses one hemisphere.
Differences in the ways men and women communicate is also a function of sex-specific areas of the brain. Women seem to have an enhanced awareness of "emotionally relevant details, visual cues, verbal nuances, and hidden meanings," writes Nadeau. Similarly, male infants are more interested in objects than in people, female infants respond more readily to the human voice than do male infants."11
Man has concentrated on these two sexes and what if they have been wrong to do so and this is damaging the psycho/social behaviors of numerous individuals that do not fall within given parameters? What if we are wrong about gender? There seems to be a flagrant disregard in the results of DNA testing in that it is considered an error or some freak of nature when some infants don’t fit into the mold. Society is changing, and as younger generations are recognizing this social bias and trying to change how man relates to exactly who we are perhaps with new technology the barriers will fall. Ideas that have kept those who don’t fit into the preordained stereotype will step over that line that has been drawn and looms large in the minds of society as non-existent. Perhaps they will keep their religious views out of something that clearly exists in nature outside of man. Belief is one thing but factual hard core testing that shows there are more differences in human sexuality than was formerly believed is becoming a present day concern for us all.
Why is it that some Native American tribes recognize more than two genders when people thought they were primitive as foreign countries settled the Americas? The Mojave Indians recognize four genders; male, female and Alyha which is a male who lives as a female and the Hwame which is the female who lives as a man. There are many other tribes that recognized the intersexed person and they were just considered a fact of life and in some cases when they did what was considered a male task they would dress male and a female task would dress in feminine apparel. These things were accepted as part of life. Unfortunately as the Euro/American culture became dominant in the late 19th and 20th century the ideas began to infiltrate into Native American tribes and the last of the Mohave female two-spirit was raped and murdered.
"Gender refers to the differences between men and women. Encyclopedia Britannica notes that gender identity is "an individual's self-conception as being male or female, as distinguished from actual biological sex." Although gender is commonly used interchangeably with sex, within the social sciences it often refers to specifically social differences, known as gender roles in the biological sciences."13
Therefore if someone recognizes themselves to be other than the two roles we accept in society does that make it wrong? Considering if one was born intersexed this would be a real gender identity problem with the way people view individuals as totally binary. People are closed off and feel one has to be one or the other. A baby isn’t usually given a choice, but do they have the right to choose to be male, female or neither? I would assume the operation would be difficult in some cases at a later date.
In cases of intersex, doctors and parents need to recognize, however, that gender assignment of infants with intersex conditions as boy or girl, as with assignment of any infant, is preliminary. Any child—intersex or not—may decide later in life that she or he was given the wrong gender assignment; but children with certain intersex conditions have significantly higher rates of gender transition than the general population, with or without treatment.
"That is a crucial reason why medically unnecessary surgeries should not be done without the patient’s consent; the child with an intersex condition may later want genitals (either the ones they were born with or surgically constructed anatomy) different than what the doctors would have chosen. Surgically constructed genitals are extremely difficult if not impossible to “undo,” and children altered at birth or in infancy are largely stuck with what doctors give them."14
These procedures need to be stopped until the child is old enough to decide for themselves if they indeed want anything changed whatsoever. The problem remains that while growing up simple things such as gym class would be extremely stressful and one would have to choose a gender identity to be able to coexist easily in school. Young people can be very cruel and have been known to kill other young people who have a different gender identity, observable or otherwise.
It seems we are starting to recognize that there may be other sexes that we have not acknowledged due to sociological and religious views. We basically never thought about it or thought those professing a difference debased or loony or that it was a freak of nature. It is imperative given the new roles some have taken in society, that the number of people who get sex changes for whatever reasons should be regarded as a serious matter. The possibility of other sexes besides the binary view may very well exist. This may be contributory to why so many have gender identity problems that are never addressed or addressed behind closed doors.
Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist and historian at Brown University, is a trailblazer in the field of gender types. She postulates that there may actually be five gender types. This is what Ms. Fausto-Sterling relates happened when she initially brought up her ideas:
"In 1993, I published a modest proposal suggesting that we replace our two-sex system with a five-sex one. In addition to males and females, I argued, we should also accept the categories herms (named after "true" hermaphrodites), merms (named after male "pseudohermaphrodites"), and ferms (named after female "pseudohermaphrodites"). [Editor's note: A "true" hermaphrodite bears an ovary and a testis, or a combined gonad called an ovo-testis. A "pseudohermaphrodite" has either an ovary or a testis, along with genitals from the "opposite" sex.] I'd intended to be provocative, but I had also been writing tongue in cheek and so was surprised by the extent of the controversy the article unleashed. Right-wing Christians somehow connected my idea of five sexes to the United Nations-sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held in Beijing two years later, apparently seeing some sort of global conspiracy at work. "It is maddening," says the text of a New York Times advertisement paid for by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, "to listen to discussions of 'five genders' when every sane person knows there are but two sexes, both of which are rooted in nature."16
This article caused such a stir that many became proactive over time in the issues of gender types and the intersexed individual. What is interesting about this situation, apparently if you look back in history most cultures recognized at least three sexes and they were spoken of in writings and in some cases had to follow strict cultural rules. For instance:
"Early biblical scholars believed Adam began life as a hermaphrodite and later divided into two people--a male and a female--after falling from grace. According to Plato there once were three sexes--male, female and hermaphrodite-- but the third sex was lost with time.
Both the Talmud and the Tosefta, the Jewish books of law, list extensive regulations for people of mixed sex. The Tosefta expressly forbids hermaphrodites to inherit their fathers' estates (like daughters), to seclude themselves with women (like sons) or to shave (like men). When hermaphrodites menstruate they must be isolated from men (like women); they are disqualified from serving as witnesses or as priests (like women), but the laws of pederasty apply to them.
In Europe a pattern emerged by the end of the Middle Ages that, in a sense, has lasted to the present day: hermaphrodites were compelled to choose an established gender role and stick with it. The penalty for transgression was often death. Thus in the 1600s a Scottish hermaphrodite living as a woman was buried alive after impregnating his/her master's daughter."18
We have grown so much in the understanding of our universe and technology but we are ages away from acceptance of something that has been plaguing society for thousands of years. We will not accept nor allow people to live the way they feel is right for their sexuality which may have completely been misdiagnosed and unknown to the individual. Still it is of great concern that we look deeper into a condition that is scarring others deeply and without the answers to concretely show why people feel and identify with a specific gender we are in the dark. We must recognize that it may be because human beings can be many things we don’t understand and what appears outwardly as a male may be overwhelmingly female in mind and spirit, not to mention biology. What seems to be female may also be a subtle play of biology that was not recognized and others for whatever reasons choose not to be labeled one or the other have the right to decide their gender orientation for themselves. Does this mean there are more than two sexes? It surely points in that direction and hopefully society will grow beyond superstitions of the past and let other human beings be themselves.
To read Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article:
The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~phollowa/5sexes.html
This article was speculative and not even meant as a theory so to read her follow up article:
[Roscoe, Will (2000). Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. Palgrave Macmillan (June 17, 2000) ISBN 0-312-22479-6
See also: Trumbach, Randolph (1994). London’s Sapphists: From Three Sexes to Four Genders in the Making of Modern Culture. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, edited by Gilbert Herdt, 111-36. New York: Zone (MIT).
a b Graham, Sharyn (2001), Sulawesi's fifth gender, Inside Indonesia, April-June 2001.
a b Martin, M. Kay and Voorhies, Barbara (1975). Supernumerary Sexes, chapter 4 of Female of the Species
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1975),
10. http://www.altpenis.com/penis_news/intersex
11. http://www.narth.com/docs/york.html
[Robert Nadeau, "Brain Sex and the Language of Love," The World & I, Nov. 1, 1997, p. 330]
"Theme from Harry's Game" or just "Harry's Game" is a hit song by Irish group Clannad, written by members Ciarán Brennan and Pól Brennan. It was released in 1982 and served as the main track from their ground-breaking album Magical Ring. However, the song was initially written for a Yorkshire Television production called Harry's Game, which depicted The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The lyrics are in the Irish language, and the song is to date the only British hit single ever to have been sung in Irish Gaelic. The chorus "Fol lol the doh fol the day, Fol the doh fol the day", is ancient Irish mouth-music which is common in traditional music. The song won an Ivor Novello award, and launched Clannad's global career. It has since appeared in several Hollywood movies, most notably Patriot Games, in which an IRA member is seen watching the music video for the song on his television. Its use in a Volkswagen commercial introduced Clannad to an American audience.
Puirt a beul (Scottish Gaelic: puirt à beul, pronounced [pʰurˠʃtʲ a pialˠ̪], literally "tunes from a mouth") is a traditional form of song native to Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Usually, the genre involves a single performer singing lighthearted, often bawdy lyrics, although these are sometimes replaced with meaningless vocables.
In puirt a beul, the rhythm and sound of the song often have more importance than the depth or even sense of the lyrics. Puirt à beul in this way resembles other song forms like scat singing.
Some elements of puirt a beul may have originated as memory aids or as alternatives to instrumental forms such as bagpipe music.
Normally, puirt are sung to a 4/4 or 6/8 beat. Performances today may highlight the vocal dexterity by one or two singers, although four-person performances are sometimes made at mods. The Scottish band Capercaillie have recorded puirt a beul (Puirt a Beul on the album Crosswinds; Cape Breton Song on the album Delirium). The Scottish singer James Graham has recorded Puirt a Beul on his CD "Siubhal". Mouth Music also records traditional puirt a beul and original compositions based on the style.
A well known example of puirt a beul is "Brocan Lom", which is sung in the film Whisky Galore!, and occurs as background music in the film The Bridal Path.
Here is Harry's Game since I took off the Celtic Music
Here is something extra
The uilleann pipes (pronounced /ˈɪlən/), originally known as the Union pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. The uilleann pipes bag is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm. The bellows not only relieves the player from the effort needed to blow into a bag to maintain pressure, they also allow relatively dry air to power the reeds, reducing the adverse effects of moisture on tuning and longevity. Some pipers can converse or sing while playing as well. Seamus Ennis and he is suppose to be the best playing this type of pipe. Not sure if they will be playing pipes in this one.
"the Voice" is sung by Lisa Kelly with Mairead Nesbitt on the fiddle. She is my favorite singer of Celtic Woman.
This is the tour that includes Hayley Westenra, the song is Mo Ghile Mear.
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