Spirituality or madness?

[---Arawn---]

Hello there, I'm new in this forum (and in any other since it's the first time that I enter a forum). This may be a repeated post since I had posted another one, but I haven't found it. :p
Ok, my question is: theriantropy is a type of spirituality or a kind of mind illness? I do really fit in the theriantrope stereotype. A few weeks ago I was feeling lonely and distant from my friends. On those days, I had a dream in that I was rejected and ignored by my friends and class mates. A wolf then appeared and started to follow me, and I felt liked by him. Since that day I felt more affinity with wolves, even though there are no such animals here in Brasil (not that I know). I started to search in the net about wolves and stuff, and I came about here and first saw the word Theriantropy. I made some research over the net about this, and found that most of the terianthropes are from the wolf type. This may be because of the werewolf myth, but in my case, I don't know nothing about this myth, so it makes no sense. I'm starting to wonder that it's really a kind of rare mind illness. And those people talking about p-shifting and wanting to be a wolf makes me almost sure about it...
What do you think about it?

Sorry if I made any grammar mistakes and have a small vocabulary... I don't write in english very much...

[NeonLightChild]

Welcome to ww.com, Arawn! Great question to start out with :)

Therianthropy can actually be considered both a spirituality AND madness in today's day and age. I say this because the earth-based religions, like paganism and wicca, worship almost exactly that: the earth, the powers of the earth, and they practice respect and "one-ness" (at least I do) with it's inhabitants. WHile you can have more than one totem animal (for example, I have the dog/wolf and the horse), it's always good to strive for respect from all the earth's creatures. I don't mean to try to be "one" with a fly, but if you don't have to kill it, don't. If you ahve no choice or if you must kill it for your own good, kill it quickly and mercifully and thank it for giving its life to/for you.

OK I hope that made sense, that is the way I see things somewhat, if it not correct as to "the book" (of whatever), sue me.

The madness of therianthropy can come from modern times where everything has a name and everything has a pill or some other type of cure. Organized religion focuses on one central being (such as God, Yahweh, Allah, Jesus, etc) and urges life to revolve around the being of choice for that religion. To center your life around something other than these is to be unfaithful to that being and not have a "whole" relationship with it. Not only this, but also the increasing (and overly suffocating) concern about children's actions as they grow is squelching out the (this may not be the right word: ) 'desire' to act out as an animal. I know I grew out of being a horse, but I was probably one of the lucky ones who WASN'T taken to counseling to have the fact that I AM HUMAN driven into me. I figured out that I was human but that didn't mean I had to ignore my animal sides. Kids can't blame their violent acts on "their wolf side" because wolves do not act out needlessly against other wolves unless one is rabid and then, well...it's gonna die anyway. As a society (at least in America), we are also growing farther away from nature. Everyone sees the animals in books and in the zoo, but not in themselves. We build endless seas of parking lots, malls, streets, housing developments...all in the name of progress. I am not against progress. But as we grow, we as a culture grow farther away from our animal selves as we become more human-oriented...materiali sm, fast food, etc. It is important to maintain connections in order for us to know who and WHAT we are...

I'll stop there. I'm sounding like a Sierra Club representative. I hope you get my point. Oh, and by the way, you're English is great for not writing in it very much! I have to say that you write better than half the teenagers in the US. :cool:

[---Arawn---]

Thanks for the info! That made a lot of sense to me! I'm can't say that I'm wiccan too, cause I don't have any covens. But I have been studying it some time (about 4 years). I have also studied druidism and shamanism. I believe in some things of hose three religions, so I can say that I agree pretty much with you. :D

[Xavious]

It all depends on your point of view. In some cases it's spiritual, others madness, and some both. In the public view Therianthropy is often misunderstood and in human nature most tend to fear what they don't understand. Which is why most would consider Therianthropy madness. There is a point where it can turn to madness. When a person thinks they really are an animal and are not human. This is Lycanthropy and is a mental illness. Though in many cases Therianthropy is a spiritual relationship and should not be considered madness. I'm Christian and also Therian. I've sometimes used verses of the Bible to support my Therian beliefs.

[Hellcat]

In my opinion therianism is about being at one with your totem animal. It's about reaching a balance between human nature and the nature of the animal/s that is your totem guide. No human can be anything more than human in a physical sense, but on a mental level they can learn a lot from their animal totem. In this sense therianism is about spirituality.

On the other hand if you don't believe in totems, animal guides etc than the whole therianism can be viewed with distain. For example, some people might suggest that anyone who can belive in the power of the green plastic ash tray is obviously mad. The same attitude could be applied to any spiritual belief. Very few people can accept an idea if they don't understand it, if they don't understand it, they idea is often (in their eyes) seen as being crazy.