Your idea of therianthrope and are we making it up?

[Noka_vex_lupus]

I have my own ideas of what therianthropy is. For me in regards to my specific case, it is an unusually strong spiritual connection with an animal or animals or even that they have the soul of an animal and the person usually goes through or can create shifts of some sort, whether they are mental, phantom, etc.

I have read things and talked to people who's ideas are totally different and even seem outlandish and made up at times. For example, a thread on here called "signs you may be a wolf" basically states that the person believes they may be a therian because of seeing well in the dark, being able to smell things like water and flowers, etc. There is also someone I have talked to that says their wolf side is black with a ghost-white handprint on its chest. It was also given the title "protector of the horned ones and keeper of draconian secrets" by the "elders". There are also those that claim they "learned" therianthrope when many people (including myself) will argue that it isn't something you can learn, its something you are or you aren't.

Now, to me, this seems like a load of crap. To me, especially in the second example, people are watching way to much TV and are totally butchering the idea of therianthrope, which brings me to the main point of this thread. What are your ideas of therianthropy? are cases like the ones I mentioned just a bunch of lunatics screwing up the idea of therianthropy? Is it possible to learn therianthrope? And was there anything there at all? Or are we just making it up out of some obsession?
Give me your thoughts.

[TheBlueWolfW.W.]

First off, you are very right. Just because one may have better than normal senses doesn't nessecarily mean they are a therianthrope. There may be, if I may, some way that some one may have been some high form of a protecter in a past life and it simply transisioned over to the current life. Of course, strange were-forms like the one you mentioned don't usually occur in community except by maybe those making things up. Also learning therianthropy doesn't seem to be much of a very true either.

Therianthropy, to me, is that I am, in essence, the wolf. I believe that my spirit, my soul, what basically makes me up within is wolf and that I was meant to be wolf, not human. I guess I am a wolf trapped in a human body. It is a spiritual thing. What makes me up is wolf.

I think there is usually always someone that will jump in and mention that all therianthropes are crazy for what they believe and that we have mental problems. Whereas, I don't agree with this view. Who we are as therianthropes is naturally who we are. We were born this way and most of us have acted (or been is more of the word) animalistic all or most of their life. We do have mental things happen to us via shifting, yes, assuming that one is a mental shifter.

Yet, there are some who attribute their therianthropy to the mind and processes of the brain. They think that they have some cognitve awareness or mentality of a certain animal. And then there are others who simply don't have a spiritual answer or one that deal with the nature of their brain.

So that is pretty much my thought on therianthropy. If something else comes to me I'll add on.

[blueeyes]

First, a therianthrope is an individual. Discussing the concepts being it would be the word 'therianthropy'.

It's underestablished New Age theology. There's not too much you can say it is or isn't in a room with nine other people without ten other opinions showing up.

There's not even a good definition or criteria for the matter. Some insist that therianthropy is a matter of attributes or abilities (such as the ability to mentally shift), while others state that soul of therianthropy is having the soul of an animal. In the former case, 'learning' therianthropy should be possible, unless aspects such as mental shifts require specific and unusual neuron interactions (they do not, in my experience). The later description would make it impossible for anyone to 'learn' something, just as you can not 'learn' a twenty dollar bill. I have very little knowledge of either human neurology, or souls in general, as I have neither, so I will not discuss the matter further.

It's important to understand that a good many of the individuals here (and in aHWW, now) are no longer interested in finding likeminded individuals to discuss their superego with or who share the same id. Many are more interested in searching for something to stroke their ego with, some way to make them appear 'special'. As a result, I strongly suggest avoiding this site for therianthropic discussions. While they are (were?) many good writers on the subject, such as Silent_Darkstalker, Xzengrim, Lorddragoon, and LycanthropicHowl (not a therian, but vocal on the subject), none of them commonly post(ed) on the subject. Compared to Theriansource (now dead) or therianthropy.org, we are all a bunch of n00bs.

While it can be interesting to post on a subject related to the matter here, anything read should be taken with a grain of salt, and the only real reason a majority of posts go unchallanged is to avoid unnecessary angst/confrontation.

[Noka_vex_lupus]

I think there is usually always someone that will jump in and mention that all therianthropes are crazy for what they believe and that we have mental problems. Whereas, I don't agree with this view. Who we are as therianthropes is naturally who we are. We were born this way and most of us have acted (or been is more of the word) animalistic all or most of their life. We do have mental things happen to us via shifting, yes, assuming that one is a mental shifter.

I totally agree with you on that first part. I think humans are programmed to pick on others that they see as weaker or different than them. In my opinion, those people that jump in to attack us for our beliefs are just ignorant. It's ok to disagree but to verbally attack us and call us insane is completely uncalled for and wrong.

I also agree with you that therianthropy is something that can't be learned. I think discovered is a better word for it. It seems impossible to create a spiritual connection with an animal or to create the soul of an animal within you. It may be possible to learn different types of shifts, but without that spiritual connection you'd have to create a false reality in which you do have the animal soul, and even then it would be very uneducated and fantasy at best.

[Noka_vex_lupus]

Blueeyes, first off, sorry about the grammar issues. I wasn't paying attention and its rare that I ever do. :o

Secondly, I agree that therianthropy is a very diverse topic and therefore extrememly difficult, even impossible to get just one solid definition for. It's a bit like trying to catch fog in a butterfly net. In addition, if you have the links to any therianthropy message boards that you find to be very good, I would appreciate it so much if you could send them to me.
EDIT: I mean other than Therianthropy.org. :)

[TheBlueWolfW.W.]

I totally agree with you on that first part. I think humans are programmed to pick on others that they see as weaker or different than them. In my opinion, those people that jump in to attack us for our beliefs are just ignorant. It's ok to disagree but to verbally attack us and call us insane is completely uncalled for and wrong.


I think it is more than just "those humans" but society in general. The thought that someone could be something other than human in spirit or wherever is generally unaccepted and not very well understood. I think it could mainly be because of you more prevalent religions and how they would view something such as therianthropy. I would know because my friend I came out to who is heavily Christian firmly thinks that animals don't have souls and whatnot and that there doens't seem to be a way that humans could have an animal spirit or soul.

Regardless, I still respect those who don't understand because they simply just don't understand us. If you walk up to a person and say, "I'm a wolf." or something contrary to that, of cousre they won't get you, unless that person is a therianthrope, Otherkin, or someone is who in on the subject.

Anyway, you wanted some sites. I would try the Werelist (http://www.werelist.com). I also recommend Were.net, however it is small and not much of what it used to be, but I still enjoy it.

[Noka_vex_lupus]

Thanks, BlueWolf, for the websites. I'll be sure to check them out. And as a little side note, I'm Catholic (although considering Wicca if I can hid it well enough from my parents, shouldn't be too hard) and I can't really support some of our beliefs, which of course would be the part about animals not having souls, limbo, pergatory, etc. That damnable society! *theatrical pounding of fists on the ground*

[blueeyes]

I would advise against hiding a change of religion from your parents. That's got the potential for them thinking you're joining some satanic figment of the parent generation, as opposed to just trying to find a (relatively) normal religion you can agree with.

Of course, I don't understand why other animals having souls would strain your conscience, and was under the impression that limbo was not part of official Catholic dogma, so my advice lacks experience.

I can't honestly think of many other good sites for therianthropy-related matters than the (elitist) were.net or therianthropy.org. Most others have gone offline (such as theriansource) or decayed too far (such as boomshift).

[TheBlueWolfW.W.]

Some more links. No forums, but still very good.

Dream of Horn (http://dreamofhorn.com)- Has many hosted essays, writings, links and all that. I recommend it.

Therianthropy Resource (http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1927/greenspiral/resource.html) Mainly one whole long page of writing relating to therianthropy contributed by many therians including dear old Katmandu.

These are probably two of the better if you're looking for good information. In regards to the message boards, I don't think there are very many good remaining ones out there, or they are all just small. Personally, I like to try Otherkin forums as well since they do have therians on there and I find that I can relate very well to Otherkin.

[blueeyes]

There's also SwiftPaw's Tree (http://www.otherwonders.com/swiftpaws/therian/old/essays.html), which while old enough to have some issues regarding links to outside sites, and a little teenage angsty, is still pretty comprehensive.

Utlah's WEREweb (http://www.swampfox.demon.c o.uk/utlah/index2.html) mis also be worth reading up.

Unfortunately, therianthropy.org's Shifters.org and Mokele's Jungle have since bitten the big one (not sure why). Thankfully, Shifters.Org's Newbie Guide still survives on inside the Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20031204084714/www.therianthropy.or g/so/newbies/).

[TheBlueWolfW.W.]

:D

Nice choices, BlueEyes. Thought about Swift myself, but didn't want to bother to find the url.

More essays and stuff: Feral Scribes (http://www.feralscribes.org )

[Kale Sohma]

My bit of therian and what it means to me. It is who and what you are. Part of your very soul. But, I think everyone has some therian inside them, whether they are active or dorment I do not know. For todays therians, I beleive they have had a recent life as a animal or their soul is just strongly connected to it. And the non-therians ethier haven't been a animal latley or just is not very strong with it. With this im saying I beleive in reincarnation. Multiple lives of the past, you would have to be a animal soul in a human body, or Fedex just delivered you into the wrong adress. Anyways, I think since at the dawn of time their was no humans, we still have a bit of animal in all of us, following my reincarnation beilf. And that some just have their therian side dorment, which I think can be caused from neglect of focus, today's society has it so that these things do not exist and are a mental disorder. But it would seem that it is now opening up or so I have seen. Now for me, Im a therian wolf and possibly cat and dragon, still figuring it out. So that puts me in the odd bunch of polywere. But what I feel deep inside of me, is some power or greater understanding of this concept and many others just waiting to be unlock and I am looking for a way to unlock it. But thats me and what I think I feel. Happy 4 of July everyone, except those who dont celebrate it......have a good day then.

[Noka_vex_lupus]

Kale, that was kind of moving. Hehe. I agree that more people would be in touch with some sort of animal or even just nature in general if we could learn to be open minded and focus on things other than our society, which by the way is completely screwed up. Happy 4th to you. Oh, and I was reading one of the other threads and I wanted to know how you go about practicing energy manipulation. Some tips for the beginner would be appreciated in a pm.