Eclectic spirituality and nonhumanity abounds. Be aware of potentially triggering content. | My main blog is @scatteredsucculents and I follow from there. | Read my pinned.
(I’ll make a cute collage with my 'types eventually.)
☆~Introduction:
Hi, I’m Echie/Ticara!! I’m an adult (‘00), queer, and use any pronouns. I’ve been lurking in the otherkin communities for around 10 years now but didn’t start interacting much until 2018. I’m a paleotherian, otherkin, fictionkin, and in general just very nonhuman. I use both spiritual and psychological explanations for my nonhumanity. I’ve been practicing witchcraft for around the same amount of time so expect some overlapping topics when it comes to both my ‘types and my craft.
I use this blog mostly to keep up with the community, but I’d like to start using it more to discuss my own experiences with nonhumanity, as well as things like journaling, spell keeping/craft talk, and just general nonhuman thoughts. I don’t tend to discuss 18+ things here but I would prefer if my followers were 18+ just for my own peace of mind if I ever do.
More information below!!
☆~'Types:
Kintypes include:
Dinosaur paleotherian (this includes a Dromaeosaurus as well as a Jurassic Park based velociraptor). Tagged under #primordial.txt
Alien otherkin (known as a Xiikus, this is my "main" kintype). Tagged under #experiment.txt
Dragon otherkin (a green western dragon). Tagged under #scales.txt
Hearttypes include:
Fictional demon kintype (I tend to discuss this with friends but not name it outright). Tagged under #code.txt
Questioning:
A liminal/monster based creature, with ties to shadowy/liminal/post-apocalyptic spaces. Tagged under #shade.txt
Fictional Cybertronian kintype (this is a personal OC who came about due to far too much daydreaming that I am still exploring). Tagged under #comet.txt
Various other dinosaurs (including Parasaurolophus walkeri and Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.)
Tardigrades (I love tardigrades, please talk to me about tardigrades.)
Bears.
Lions.
I am also a lab experiment Archetrope.
Mermaids and sirens.
☆~Tags:
My more serious posts are tagged with #transmissions while my less serious posts are tagged with #ramblings.
☆~BYF:
I don’t involve myself with too much discourse and tend to block liberally, but for the sake of time:
I support systems of all types (I (we) are plural but don’t discuss that here and find it’s no one else’s business).
I support physical nonhumans and whatever reasons they have to identify that way.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about shipping discourse.
I hate generative AI with a passion and will block anyone using it.
“There are no ‘elders’ or leaders [of the otherkin community]. Just because someone has a website, has written a few essays, is an admin or a moderator, or has had more ‘experience’ than you, it does not necessarily make them any more qualified than you to say something or any more worthy of respect. There is no arbiter of the truth here and there is no one who should be given special treatment.”
-Excerpt from “Advice for those new to Otherkin,” an article written by Mikh’to in 2014
While I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, I would like to clarify that you should still at least hear those who are older in the community. They've gone through a lot, have lots of experiences to share, and sometimes hearing those experiences can help you through your own.
The young can learn from the old and the old can also learn from the young.
A young alterhuman does not owe an older alterhuman their ear.
Older alterhumans have just as much (if not sometimes more) capacity to be as biased and misinformed as any alterhuman younger than them. Age does not make wisdom, age does not dictate how worthwhile someone is to listen to.
It is worthwhile to approach someone who has more knowledge in a specific field, discipline, or craft than you and ask them for advice on that specific topic, but that's circumstantially based on what someone has actually done, not age. In this same way, age also does not make knowledge.
So, no. Age has no merit innate in itself. Listen to others based on their actions and if they've proven themself to be trustworthy and accurate, not how many times they've been around the sun.
All of us in the otherkin communities are equal peers. Any of us can listen to, criticize, view with skepticism, or ignore any other of us, according to each of our own personal choices. You, me, any of us. And that's good. Each of us creatures came together in this community because of something in common that we already had before each of us met each other, not because we're looking for gurus telling us what to do, think, or believe. That's a healthy safeguard against cultishness. For this reason, it's a red flag for anyone to proclaim themselves a leader of our communities, whether they get an exaggerated sense of importance about running a chatroom, or whether they give themselves titles such as elder, king, princess, alpha, or graymuzzle. That can be a warning sign that they expect to be treated differently than others in a way that they cannot deserve here.
being physically nonhuman and/or having a body like a theriform doesn’t automatically unlearn you of racist and anthrocentric propaganda and ideals. matter of fact being any level of nonhuman or alterhuman doesn’t automatically unlearn you of it either. changing what names you put on yourself doesn’t change the fact that you are still living a lifestyle supported by a habitat that is shaped by systemic racism and human supremacy and sustained by willful ignorance of the everyday evidence of those facts.
this goes beyond the physical nonhumanity misunderstanders in the community too. i’m sick of white alterhumans posting endless lists of labels and microlabels as proof they’re “woke” when being anti-racist and woke isn’t in your fucking identity and self-talk, it’s in your actual actions towards others or by yourself, ESPECIALLY in your reactions to getting criticized for doing something that goes against what you “identify as” standing for.
i will always be a fan of people describing themselves however they want, do not take this as me shitting on any label in any way.
i do think that it is very telling how i see a lot of folks saying that they have "outgrown" the therian label and taken up holothere instead, saying that it feels more real and legitimate.
something about it wigs me out. and i think that it has to do with perceived seriousness and a bid for legitimacy. linguistic shift is normal and expected, it's not like this is really avoidable. but the difference between holothere and therian is not the same as therianthropy vs. therianism.
therianthropy vs. therianism is really just people using the wrong term. it's not intentional. it's what happens when "therianthrope" has been shortened so much that the original tenses and forms of the word are just forgotten. it's an arguably pretty normal linguistical shift. im a little annoyed by it, mind you. "therianthrope" and "therianthropy" are some kickass words that I think should be used more. but i can't really be shocked or even upset that it's happened.
holothere is different. while the coining of the word + the way many use it can be very genuine, there is undoubtedly a growing population that uses it because of its perceived to be more serious than therian. it's adopted as a way to been seen as a more legitimate identity. and i can't really be mad at that, either. to say that therian has lost some of its.... idk.... power? due to it being picked up by certain demographics is not wrong. like there is nothing in the reasoning or the desire that is bad or wrong with any of this.
but it does make me a bit squemish, I think? Because it introduces therianthropy as something lesser within the community. You have an internal conflict with legitimacy, here. And it's based off the label you use. In the past, the community has negotiated legitimacy through grilling. And I am not calling for a return to grilling, I don't think it was a great thing, but... it is something I'm noticing.
How we are changing the way we assert our identity's seriousness is now based off of the initial words we use, as opposed to the understanding of that word.
I could talk more about this. as I said before, this is not an attempt to convince anyone to stop using holothere. I know it has a lot of differences to it and it's deeper to most people. I'm not going to sit here and try to combat this very natural shift in behavior. This is just something I've noticed in the way people talk about the term. It's 7:51 am, I have a final exam at 8:00. So I will be going now. But I would love to hear if anyone has more thoughts on this. I will probably come back around and amend some of what I've said here, I've only been thinking about this topic specifically for like. 15 mins. Give me a day and I'll figure out how to say this a better way.
Personally my biggest issue with the holothere thing is that it's based largely on misinformation– people appear to be using it because they think that experiences like intense phantom and mental shifts mean they're a physical therian, which is emphatically not the case. I think the very vague definition of holothere ("nonhuman in every way") is partially to blame for this, because newcomers to the community with intense experiences read that and go "of course that's me, I'm not human at all", but the "every way" explicitly incudes the belief that one's physical body is literally nonhuman. Physical identity isn't "I feel limbs that aren't there" or "I conceptualize myself as nonhuman" (which are standard therian experiences), it's "I literally have a nonhuman body right now".
Physical identity has recently usurped spiritual identity as the "most real" in people's mental hierarchy, so there's a social pressure to say you have a physical identity even if you don't– and it's easy to use phantom shifts to justify that if you're coming from TikTok and don't know that most therians have them, or if you feel like you won't be taken seriously otherwise. It's watered down both therian and holothere/physical therian as terms because the difference between them has been reduced to Vibes when there is actually a very specific distinction (the "physical" part is literal).
As I've said before, the current situation with therianthropy is very reminiscent of what happened with fictionkin in the 2010's, and if things go the same way (which they likely will, online trends die out but communities persevere even if they get fragmented) we are not going to lose the legitimacy of "therian" as a term, and we should be fighting to make sure it stays a serious, well-defined word– not abandoning it because we're worried about being associated with roleplayers on TikTok. We will always be associated with roleplayers and furries by outsiders, if it was avoidable we'd have figured out how by now.
Oh the other thing I wanted to say about this is that stuff like "linguistic shift is normal" only applies if the people in question are the ones responsible for the change! Currently what's happening is that the word therian is being appropriated by people outside the community, which is entirely different from if therians themselves suddenly decided to water down their own term.
"Language changes" was actually one of the biggest arguments KFFers used to justify their appropriation of the word "otherkin", and I'm not about to let people think that ceding a decades-old community to a social media trend is a reasonable and justified thing to do.
The language is ours, it only changes if we want it to.
Reminder that alterhuman =/= nonhuman. Those are not the same thing! Nonhumans can be considered alterhuman, but so can many humans. Otherhearteds, systems and their members, those who are both human and nonhuman, fictionfolk who have human sources, factfolk, the list goes on.
"Human" is not the opposite of "alterhuman". To describe a non-alterhuman, you're looking for "orthohuman". To describe people who don't identify as human, it's "nonhuman" (but also remember that you can be both nonhuman AND human, they don't cancel each other out).
and in all of this, there is a power fantasy. what if i was stronger. what if i was feared. what if i didn't have to submit to men around me. what if they saw me as a real threat. how do i find strength and respect that is legitimate, not spawned from my role as a wife or mother. im drifting through a crowd. i am not here, i am not anything to anyone. what if i had power. what if i had the choice. what if big claws and teeth that sprung from my flesh. what if people made room for me on the sidewalk.
“how do i figure out [identity related]?” brother you have to sit with yourself for a second. instant gratification has ruined the process of self discovery.
I've never been entirely sure why "treat me like my kintype" and "treat me like a person" are antonyms to a lot of people. Treat me like my kintype. I am my kintype. In the context of interacting with me, that character is a real person.
Sorry to subject you all to a screenshot of Tumblr Mobile, I am a mobile user
First off, nothing I put here is rhetorical, I want everyone to talk about fictionality at all times. 8 )
Yeah, that's my best guess as to what people are talking about? At this point our primary method of engagement with fiction is our fictotypes, not fandom, so I might have a skewed idea of just how hard it can be to reframe your perspective of what treating someone "like that character" means. From my point of view, it reads as saying "I am not actually fictionkin" even when I know that's not what anyone meant.
Oh, yeah, as someone who does dabble in a bit of fandom, and watches other people who are into fandom, the idea of treating someone "like that character" reads a bit differently to me, haha.
I treat it with a bit of leeway in fictionfolk spaces because, hey, we're in a weird spot, people are gonna use familiar words in different ways. But a lot of (non-fictionkin) fandomgoers are gonna see "fictional character" and think "object and narrative tool to be fucked around with for fun" and not "important basis/framework for a real living person's identity", unfortunately--and if they're not used to interacting with fictionkin (or their only exposure to fictionkin is through Kinning(tm)), then the idea of divorcing the two is...very hard to wrap their heads around.
Yknow nonhumanity can be mundane too. Not all nonhuman instinct euphoria is like "seeing wild prey somewhere deep in the forest put me in a hawk mindset" sometimes it's like "snatching the good table at the library quicker than the 20 other people waiting for it put me in a hawk mindset"
The problem with trying to 'solve' therianthropy OR 'How can you be X if Y is true?' a useless discourse
Preface: Although my concentration is on therianthropy, a lot applies to general nonhumanity regardless of label.
It is often commented that it is difficult to define what a 'therian' is whilst being truly accurate. It is a source of frustration that this is so, as it makes it feel vaguer than it really is and yet, it cannot be accurately described at least not in a concise manner, whilst attempting to provide full information.
The most accurate definition to me is;
"A therian is someone who partially or fully identifies as a nonhuman animal in any way."
('identifies as' can be replaced with 'is' based on personal linguistic preferences)
Now wait - you might argue - shouldn't we explain about involuntariness? Origins? How it has to be real earthen animals? Theriomythics? What if someone asks 'how do you know if you're a therian' rather than 'what is a therian'? Shouldn't we talk about shifts and memories and instincts?
And my answer is no. The definition above can answer both questions. Further study is up to the individual, especially if they don't want to be bombarded with all possible information right away.
It can be as simple as 'some common experiences are...but that's not all' and 'there's many reasons why someone might see themselves as a therian such as...' if they want more information from you or you feel like giving it right away.
Because the annoying thing is any other definition with extra information baked in will always be both right and wrong at the same time especially if you only go on your own personal beliefs.
"A therian is someone who involuntarily identifies as a nonhuman animal on all levels except physical."
"A therian is someone who had a past life as an animal."
"A therian is someone who is an earthen animal on any level at least some of the time." etc etc
None of these are not true, but they aren't fully true either, and thus end up imperfect, giving incomplete information that gives rise to arguments and disagreements later on when someone is sure they are right and meets someone with a different interpretation of certain factors of therianthropy.
Today I saw a conversation between two therians which was not unlike many conversations I've seen.
Therian A: "Therians know what they are based on instincts and behaviours they display related to their theriotype."
Therian B: "That's not always true, for me I had no behaviours or instincts due to being raised as human in a human society, but I still know what I am."
Therian A: "If being raised in a human society got rid of nonhuman instincts them how come many therians still have them?"
The issue here is that B's attempt at educating A on different experiences of therianthropy by speaking of their own had A assuming that B was trying to apply it to all therianthropy.
And I suddenly twigged on to the fact that A, at least in part, was one of those therians who wants to 'solve' therianthropy.
They want a definite, uncomplicated, singular explaination of what a therian is, what they experience, how it works and why.
And I thought of all the different conversations and arguments and discourses I've seen that exist for basically that same reason. Butting heads about what therianthropy should be, could be, or would be if only a strict definition could be achieved.
This by and large is hurting therianthropy and actually hindering our understanding of it.
By accepting that therianthropy occurs in individuals for a plethora of reasons, than it can be voluntary and involuntary, that you can have one or a hundred theriotypes, that there are common experiences (e.g. shifts) but they're neither a requirement nor universally experienced, we can thrive a lot better.
Spend time wondering 'why' and 'how', but do so with the knowledge that your conclusions are just your own and might even only apply to you, and that will be infinitely more valuble than trying to cut out the 'fake therians' and pool together a more singular experience which time and time again has been proven to be impossible.
There may never be a conclusive explaination for why we feel as we do, and we don't need one. We know what we are, we know what it feels like to be what we are, we have history and community and a future...but it has to be one which is open to a more fluid definition of therianthropy and nonhumanity in general and a deeper understanding of the sheer diversity of experiences that do in fact 'count'.
*For those that feel they belong on a different plane of existence/different dimension, choose whichever answer best fits your personal beliefs– e.g. if you feel you belong on the astral plane of present-day Earth and believe that plane exists in this reality choose the first answer, but if you don't believe it exists choose the third one. If you aren't sure what you believe go with your gut feeling about it or just choose the "I'm not sure" answer.
