cen·taur: (noun) \ˈsen-ˌtȯr\

late 14c., from Latin centaurus, from Greek Kentauros, origin disputed.

[gryneos]

Mythical Beings server

For those interested in a Discord server of new and old art of mythical beings (centaurs, mermaids, satyrs, fauns, etc.) here's the invite link (good for a week): Mythical Creatures Collection

Check out the Mythical Creature Collection community on Discord - hang out with 76 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[gryneos]

Djinni/Genie Otherkin

From time to time I think about this. Mostly because the type of djinn I see within me is from I Dream of Jeannie where they blink with a quick nod of the head, whether with their arms crossed up before them or not. Their power is absolute, like it was for Jeannie in the first season of the TV show. I dismiss the constant dumbing down of both her power and her intellect as the seasons progressed, thanks to network suits who were somehow intimidated by her power. So, yeah, non-canon. What I have come to know, like a form of gnosis, is that I have something like an archetype of Djinni in my most basic soul, or Higher Self. She is the same kind of djinni as in that old 1960s era TV show, blinks with the very same magic-sounds, dresses similarly to Jeannie’s sister, Jeannii (written as “Jeannie II” in scripts, but as a writer I find that too awkward to have a character even say, must less mentally tag it for her), though her Djinni-Color is slightly different. Sea-greens for her, named Erica, a brunette, and of a physical, facial, and clothing-style kind of beauty known only to the Djinn (the most beautiful humans are a distant second in comparison). There is a Hungarian actress who looks almost like Erica, and they share the same first name, with different spellings. I was as shocked as anyone to have that recognition upon first seeing her, but body-doubles are certainly a thing in this world of ours. Erica is my inner Djinni, just as Gryneos is my inner Centaur. He’s definitely a centaur archetype of my Higher Self, so I feel this is at least a thing with me. Makes me wonder how much the concept of archetype is a fact for all Otherkin, too. The other thing all of this makes me ponder is among the I Dream of Jeannie community, just how many fans of the show might also be Otherkin as any of the characters, especially of Jeannie, Jeannii, Mama-Jeannie, Marilla, Aunt Fatima, Jeannie’s possible younger sister, the djinni-wife of her brother and mother of baby Abdullah, and any other djinn of the show I have forgotten to mention. Some might even be Otherkin as humans from the show, such as Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows and Amanda Bellows. I just have never seen any of the fans ever mention such a thing, so I wonder too if they would be so open as to admit it as we Otherkin have around here. There are other djinn within my Other Lives as those beings, so not all are from I Dream of Jeannie. Most are, but there are others, including the centaur-djinni reality of my avatar here, Arjhan. I know I promised to tell more about him, and I’ll do that eventually. Erica has just been on my mind more intimately lately, which just means that I sense her wanting to be written out of me more often.

[em-scribbles]

Saw a random clip of this cartoon the other day and wanted to draw the character. 😂 . . . #ericmatos #emscribbles #jeannie #hannabarbera #procreate #ipadpro #pencilsketch #digitalart #idreamofjeannie #genie https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVlLBqrpKy/?utm_medium=tumblr

[youredoingkinwrong]

Hey! Nice to see you active again. Something you posted in one of your other answers had me wondering. I loved the animated Star Wars series "Rebels" especially the mystical side of the Force as revealed later in the series. My wondering was about that aspect of their universe and if you have experienced any of it, or in a way different from what was depicted. Those episodes were often my favorites and fascinating to me because I love mysticism. It often adds a wonderful kind of mystery to any story, and a kind which doesn't really have to be explained to be accepted.

You can reply whenever you like. I'm sure I'll see it. Take care.

Hello hello! It’s very nice to be back (and to see you again)!

It’s funny, it’s been years and years since I first watched Rebels. I actually never watched the last season, which I am hoping to rectify soon! But I do think I remember what you’re talking about - the Bendu, and that kind of strange manifestation of the Force. 

When I first watched the show, I remember just kind of immediately disliking the Bendu I can’t remember why for the life of me, but I assume I’ll find out soon enough once I actually get there in my rewatch. 

... I actually just searched up “Bendu” on my main blog and found about thirteen different posts complaining about him and detailing why I didn’t like him, and really kind of refreshed my memory omg. And it’s not because I dislike the mystical aspects of the Force! In the Clone Wars animated series, one of my favorite arcs is the Mortis arc which is frankly even more weird! I love the stranger and more complicated stories about the Force, because they make me think harder than the rest - it’s always a mix of “Was that real?” and “That seems like total bull.” and “Oh son of a bitch everything’s real” 

But I’m incapable of being succinct when it comes to talking about the more mystical, difficult to believe aspects of the Force - so if you’ll bear with me, I’d like to put the rest of this under a cut for everyone’s sake.

My original gripe with the Bendu was the fact that, at least from my memory, it was straight-up not possible to “mix” the light side and the dark. It was possible to use them both at the same time, once, a long long time ago (and in the sequel trilogy they do exactly that, since the healing technique used in the Rise of Skywalker is technically a dark-side move), but it just wasn’t something you actually mixed together. It frustrated me because the narrative at the time felt very much like it was saying “this is the true correct way to use the Force, the Sith and the Jedi are too blind to see that” which... well! Perhaps I am just still a little bit upset that tens of thousands of Jedi were murdered by the Sith, and I dislike the near-implication that if they just used the Force “correctly” then none of that would have had to happen.

It’s a similar reason why I hate the theory that “true balance” means having an equal amount of Jedi and Sith out in the galaxy, because the Jedi were originally just a group of people who sought to protect and defend people who could not help themselves (and in doing so ended up being used as pawns by a Republic that did not care for their true goals), and Sith, you know, kept trying to keep the entire galaxy under their rule. The people who studied under Bogan’s power did not necessarily mean for that to happen - after all, not every dark side user is a Sith - but the nature of the dark side, and Sith in particular, is that if you are not careful it eats you up and spits you out, and you are a shell of what you once were. It is dangerous. It is the anger that sharpens your tongue or curls your fists and makes you do something you truly don’t want to do. It is the power that feels righteous in the moment, but when the fog clears you see you’re no better than those who hurt you. Letting that sensation rule you hurts, it isn’t good for you, and that is why it’s not possible for it to be “mixed” with the light.

As a Jedi, I did try to keep my darker emotions in check. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel them - I very much did - but I didn’t let them control my actions. When you have the power to snap someone’s spine with the power of your brain, you do have to be careful not to actually do that. Maybe it wasn’t as simple for other Force users, I know us Skywalkers were unfortunately built different. Using the Force came as easily as breathing to us. Looking back on it now, the best way I can describe how I used it would be by calling it a magical placebo effect - if I thought I was doing it right, I was. There were not many Jedi around to tell me it was impossible to do something. 

Obi-Wan himself did describe it best in the second “From a Certain Point of View” novel: 

“In his early days of training, Anakin had always been so tentative in speaking about the Force, like it was a word in a foreign language whose meaning he still wasn’t entirely sure of. With Luke, there’s no hesitation. Even though the concept was only introduced to him a few years earlier by a stranger he had previously believed to be a hermit gone half mad from sun exposure. Now, when he needs a reason to go, the Force is telling him exactly what to do, like it’s a guidebook I’d been recommending to him for years but he’s pretending he found all on his own. That’s not how the Force works, I think, and resist the urge to rub my temples, a habit Anakin had always teased me about.”

Ignoring for the moment how Obi-Wan absolutely dragged me for filth there, he’s more right than he knew - that isn’t how the Force works. But because that’s how I believed it should work, it did. And because neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda really sat me down and explained to me with painstaking clarity how it worked, I never really had that same trepidation that Anakin felt as a young boy suddenly surrounded by thousands of people who knew more about this mystical energy force than he probably ever would. Had he been in my position, with only a handful of Jedi left in the entire galaxy, he probably would have been much more brazen about using it, too. And it would have worked.

I didn’t realize the Force was weird around me until I met a lot more Force users. Ahsoka, Cal, Cere, hell I even think Kyle Katarn? Possibly Ezra as well. There was a reason Palpatine was after our family more than anyone else. We alone had a different connection to it. 

So, you know, I had to be careful. I didn’t live in fear that I’d be snapping necks left and right if I was in a bad mood, but I also just didn’t want to let it any of it take root. 

The way I see it... the dark side was primarily about weaponizing your emotions to control the Force. Canonically, we only see them utilize the baser, “darker” ones such as anger or hatred, usually brought about by immense and constant torture. The light side, on the other hand, was more about listening to the Force, discerning what it wanted, more reminiscent of a symbiotic relationship. On a base level, trying to mix those two schools of thought just doesn’t compute to me. Perhaps in other timelines, other galaxies a long time ago in a place far, far away, but not the one I come from. 

It is, however, possible to use kinder emotions in conjunction with the Force. Love, joy, hell even contentment - on their own, emotions are never evil. It is when you use them to bend the Force, or other beings, to your will, that is when it turns dark. But I used love when I saved my father - my anger was too terrible when he first threatened to turn my sister, and it was only after I saw his arm - so much like mine - that I loved him so much, and anguished over his pain, that I forced myself to stop. I always thought Anakin would have had an easier time as a Jedi if they had allowed him to focus using things he loved, if they had taught him how to love in a healthy way. 

I don’t think the old Jedi were unequivocally in the right. They had been stagnant for so many years by the Republic’s side, they had forgotten their true mission. It does not mean they had to be wiped out. It does not mean they were using the Force incorrectly. It just means that when I established my own Academy, years and years later, I did it as far away from the New Republic as I could. We were not beholden to any government. I only trained Force users to wield their powers safely, and I bestowed upon them the title of Jedi Knight if they so desired - but what was more important to me, I think, was bringing up a generation of Force users who wanted to help others. Who used love and empathy to protect and defend. 

Now, I don’t know for certain if I ever met any manifestations of the living Force (aside from the ghosts of my family - Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda, who were all Very Opinionated about how I ran my Academy). I am, however, at least 90% sure that somehow, I did meet the Jedi Council during the height of the Clone Wars, due to some convoluted and complicated Force... thing. It didn’t change my timeline, but I like to think debating (read: arguing) with them helped save at least one galaxy. 

As a side note: I started reading the Thrawn trilogy recently! I’m about halfway done with it and the way Luke describes the Force just feels so accurate to how I felt it. It’s very fun, I’m glad I’m reading it! I might just write up a hugelong post comparing it and the sequel trilogy vs. what I know of my own timeline eventually. 

[gryneos]

Well, that brings up a lot of questions, too! But, I’ll try to keep it focused. I can’t say I know the mythology at all like you do, but I would expect that for anyone with a fictionkin identity. I know the genre and mythology of the djinn and centaurs, and how it diverges for my experiences. Your post has inspired me to write up something more about the djinn I have learned through self-discovery, unrelated to the mythology or stories, but will post that to my blog later.

I think I read the Thrawn books when they came out and that was the last time I’ve thought of them. There was only one part of them which stood out and I can’t find any reference to it in the Star Wars wiki pages. That is, I thought (imagined?) that it was Mara who demonstrated to Luke that she was non-violent and while she used the Force, it was never in the ways of the Jedi or the Sith. Her demonstration was to use the Force to literally make herself disappear (not just invisible) and then returned. That power was never used again in the story, but it’s been so long since I read it, I can’t tell you now if that was Mara or in those books, or somewhere else. Searches on that brought up nothing, so maybe you know the passage, or can tell me that I’m imagining it ;-)

Yeah, Bendu was weird, but then there were also the witches who made Darth Maul and his brother Sauvage. How do they fit into the energy of the Force? It’s never really explained. Good explanation about Light and Dark not mixing. I accept that is simply the way of things for that mythology, even as I have different ideas about other ‘forces’ such as magic. But those ideas have been molded by years of reading various spiritual thoughts on similar energies.

Your insight about the history of the Jedi also brings up parallels to other stories, and how energies people use to manipulate their surroundings often has “forbidden knowledge”. Yet none seem to do further research not only into why it’s forbidden, but why it would work the way it does to make it forbidden. Understanding on a complete level, or at least a deeper level, can also help to defend against any ill effects, or even to thwart its use by others.

Seeing how the Jedi had this huge store of knowledge like a library in Coruscant and yet it didn’t seem to get much use always seemed such a waste to me. You’d think that there would be Force Researchers attempting to discern its very essence and scope of ability all of the time. Maybe there were such individuals, but we never saw them in the shows, movies, or books. Not a very exciting form of career to feature in most stories.

Perhaps, though, that’s how some of those ancient temples came into being, by Force uses who knew all or almost everything there was to know about the Force, and then infused and imbedded as much of that knowledge into the temples. I can only guess that by how details are revealed in some of the shows and episodes. So much still to ponder...

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[punkpanda]

To expand on that last paragraph, I think that a person cannot *really* have their identity take full shape without having had exposure to the media they might be from.

They might be able to describe an amorphous, foggy longing or scattered bits of what someone looked like, but how many people would be able to take a vague description and point them to the right source material when the odds are low that they would know it either?

Like two of my kintypes I’ve never seen portrayed…anywhere. At all. Not myth, not media. Everything I have for them is built from the ground up connecting dots that I don’t really know whether they actually connect or not.

Cringy comparisons alert, I like to compare it to my lived experience as having ASD or being trans. Before I had exposure to those realities and gained the language to express my experiences I had no way to talk about those parts of my identity except for the misery of not being understood, of being an outsider with no roots and no sense of community.

A person can be having a very real experience, but without the words to explain it how can they convey that to anyone else?

[gryneos]

@punkpanda With regards to your last thought, the way I see that is due to the extensive nature of the Internet and social media, such individuals will seek knowledge about what they are feeling. That can then lead them reading about the concept of Otherkin. From there, the decision to accept or reject that notion is up to them. My educated guess is that most reject it, at first. It just may take more pondering about their experiences to push back to looking again and the likelihood of being presented yet again with the concept of Otherkin. When you keep seeing something over and over, it starts to make an impact on your thoughts. Some people will continue to dismiss it anyway, but others won’t. None of us would be here now if we had chosen the path of dismissal.

[punkpanda]

Well said, and something that aligns perfectly with my observations. Several of the people I know outside of the community make almost painfully obvious otherkinity-adjacent statements, but shy away as soon as the community is mentioned.

Like a dear friend of mine that I met through work many years ago, talking to me about feeling like she has memories of fighting and dying at Waterloo, but as soon as the suggestion of past lives come up she gets flighty and changes the subject.

Not to mention the reputation the word otherkin has gained over the last few years and how quickly so many people jump ship from that conversation as soon as the word comes up because they don’t want to be associated with the exact kind of people actual otherkin are trying to oust ourselves.

[gryneos]

@punkpanda 

That’s a good point and observation, too. Although I think many people would still be apprehensive to admit to being Otherkin even before we gained our problems with young people distorting the meaning. It would still be perceived as too weird of a concept to accept.

Now, they might be more accepting of it if a mental health doctor suggested it. Because that’s an official authority. I know from experience trying to get my parents to accept even simple healthy ideas that until they hear it from a health authority, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Plus, for some people, their religious beliefs prevent them from accepting things like past lives, or they have been told that they shouldn’t, again by an authority they trust. And, we are not within the scope of those authorities.

[punkpanda]

Very true, and luckily some progress is being made on the medical side. Religion, though, can be a bit trickier because it doesn’t grow and change the same way science does. Being a former Christian, I can definitely say that my family would lose their minds if I ever brought up the idea.

[gryneos]

Yeah, many religions are quite rigid, though I do still enjoy reading about some of them, mostly through the Sacred Texts archive.

One interesting fact about all of this is that many people are dropping religion these days, though that doesn’t automatically mean they are becoming atheists. I don’t know how big New Age thought is anymore as I don’t pay attention to it like I used to do, but even then it was always growing.

I still consider myself a New Ager even if I don’t practice much of it like in the past. But, it molded my thoughts on my beliefs, and on Otherkinity. Perhaps as people walk away from organized religion, we’ll see more people accept Otherkin, whether for themselves or just for the concept of it as a whole.

[punkpanda]

Love seeing some Sacred Texts rep. I’ve been a semi-regular there for years studying different things I’ve been interested in. I’ve been on a long journey from evangelical Christian dominionist, to anti-theistic atheist, to Norse pagan, to agnostic humanist that hasn’t completely let go of a few witchcraft practices–all of which has influenced my views of Otherkinity over time as well. I have plenty of respect for people who can be spiritual and openminded, I’m just tired and ready for the stone-headed folks of all walks to knock it off and, if the overall trend of society becoming more tolerant with time holds true, should eventually include Otherkin as well. It’s just a matter of time and whether or not we’ll be around to see it happen.

[gryneos]

While I don’t study any particular religion, I am thankful that there are people willing to put useful archives about all beliefs online. That alone can help people become more tolerant as they at least have the means to read whatever they like about any belief that exists, including Otherkin. I don’t know if our alter-human beliefs will ever get archived in those religious-thought places, but it does get discussion sometimes. Here are some links you might be interested in perusing, things I’ve collected over the years for casual research or just mild curiosity: http://www.sacred-magick.com/PDF.php http://www.arcane-archive.org http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Main_Page http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm https://www.interfaith.org The last one has a forum, too, but I don’t know if they’ve ever discussed Otherkin. Might be worth checking for that. I do know that they have the full Apocrypha of Christianity, and that is interesting to read :-)

[technoxenoholic]

“kinning is literally just for fun”

no, actually, being otherkin is not “just for fun”.

it’s a fundamental disidentification with humanity in some way/to some degree, for whatever a person’s reasons are (it varies by individual).

people who only “kin for fun” are misusing a term that means something else—and has always meant something else, since its inception—and are most likely not actually kin. (but i will not discount the possibility that some are actually kin and haven’t fully explored that yet, obviously.)

being kin is harmless. but it’s not “just for fun”. we can have fun with it, of course, but it’s identity. and dismissing someone’s identity as just something they do for fun is rude at best.

and as a trans nonhuman, let me give this example—you can have fun with being trans, but wearing nail polish/skirts/vests/ties for fun doesn’t make you trans. you can have fun with being kin, but liking or relating to a character or creature and roleplaying them/using them as your online mask for fun doesn’t make you kin. those things are totally fine, and not harmful or anything, but they are still different from being trans or kin even if they may appear similar on the surface sometimes.

(and i am not equating being kin and being trans, btw; it’s just a useful example for the sake of furthering understanding. and again, i am both of those things.)

footnote: do not use the word “k***ie” on this post. i will block you the instant i notice it no matter where you stand on this issue if you use that word.

[gryneos]

Nice post, and thanks for writing it :-)

One thing I do wonder about those who ‘kin’ for fun is do they then also feel phantom limbs/bodies? Do they feel the extreme longing for that life? Do they feel out of place in their human life?

Because if you do not experience any of those things, you should just call it roleplay instead of KFF. Roleplay is an appropriate term for such activity. Otherkin is not.

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[punkpanda]

To expand on that last paragraph, I think that a person cannot *really* have their identity take full shape without having had exposure to the media they might be from.

They might be able to describe an amorphous, foggy longing or scattered bits of what someone looked like, but how many people would be able to take a vague description and point them to the right source material when the odds are low that they would know it either?

Like two of my kintypes I’ve never seen portrayed…anywhere. At all. Not myth, not media. Everything I have for them is built from the ground up connecting dots that I don’t really know whether they actually connect or not.

Cringy comparisons alert, I like to compare it to my lived experience as having ASD or being trans. Before I had exposure to those realities and gained the language to express my experiences I had no way to talk about those parts of my identity except for the misery of not being understood, of being an outsider with no roots and no sense of community.

A person can be having a very real experience, but without the words to explain it how can they convey that to anyone else?

[gryneos]

@punkpanda With regards to your last thought, the way I see that is due to the extensive nature of the Internet and social media, such individuals will seek knowledge about what they are feeling. That can then lead them reading about the concept of Otherkin. From there, the decision to accept or reject that notion is up to them. My educated guess is that most reject it, at first. It just may take more pondering about their experiences to push back to looking again and the likelihood of being presented yet again with the concept of Otherkin. When you keep seeing something over and over, it starts to make an impact on your thoughts. Some people will continue to dismiss it anyway, but others won’t. None of us would be here now if we had chosen the path of dismissal.

[punkpanda]

Well said, and something that aligns perfectly with my observations. Several of the people I know outside of the community make almost painfully obvious otherkinity-adjacent statements, but shy away as soon as the community is mentioned.

Like a dear friend of mine that I met through work many years ago, talking to me about feeling like she has memories of fighting and dying at Waterloo, but as soon as the suggestion of past lives come up she gets flighty and changes the subject.

Not to mention the reputation the word otherkin has gained over the last few years and how quickly so many people jump ship from that conversation as soon as the word comes up because they don’t want to be associated with the exact kind of people actual otherkin are trying to oust ourselves.

[gryneos]

@punkpanda 

That’s a good point and observation, too. Although I think many people would still be apprehensive to admit to being Otherkin even before we gained our problems with young people distorting the meaning. It would still be perceived as too weird of a concept to accept.

Now, they might be more accepting of it if a mental health doctor suggested it. Because that’s an official authority. I know from experience trying to get my parents to accept even simple healthy ideas that until they hear it from a health authority, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Plus, for some people, their religious beliefs prevent them from accepting things like past lives, or they have been told that they shouldn’t, again by an authority they trust. And, we are not within the scope of those authorities.

[punkpanda]

Very true, and luckily some progress is being made on the medical side. Religion, though, can be a bit trickier because it doesn’t grow and change the same way science does. Being a former Christian, I can definitely say that my family would lose their minds if I ever brought up the idea.

[gryneos]

Yeah, many religions are quite rigid, though I do still enjoy reading about some of them, mostly through the Sacred Texts archive.

One interesting fact about all of this is that many people are dropping religion these days, though that doesn’t automatically mean they are becoming atheists. I don’t know how big New Age thought is anymore as I don’t pay attention to it like I used to do, but even then it was always growing.

I still consider myself a New Ager even if I don’t practice much of it like in the past. But, it molded my thoughts on my beliefs, and on Otherkinity. Perhaps as people walk away from organized religion, we’ll see more people accept Otherkin, whether for themselves or just for the concept of it as a whole.

[gryneos]

Socialkin Media

Okay, so this is a post to help us share and join more social media catering to Otherkin in some way. While Discord and Tumblr are my primary sources for socializing with my fellow Otherkin members, all outlets are welcome. Yes, even TikTok :-)

First, a message board which has been online for less than a year, but which had become popular. If you are not aware of it, they go by "Nonhuman National Park" and it will be in the list below.

For Tumblr, I pretty much rely on just a few known tags, but if y'all have any you wish to share, add them here, whether in the tags-section or in the body of your text.

Discord is likely where most of us go to meet with those closest to our kintypes or to just be part of a larger community and have those big flowing conversations in real-time.

I know a few servers which are willing to share with the general populace here and always open to new members. Some have restrictions (specific regions of residence, or certain kintypes only) so I'll detail those with the links. I ask that if the ones you know have similar restrictions to please note that in your reblogs. Also note what it is (Discord, message board, Twitter, etc.)

 Message Boards Nonhuman National Park https://nonhumannationalpark.boards.net

Discord Servers Othermind https://discord.gg/yyzEPwd3

Texas Alterhumans Resident Texans and native/“naturalized” Texans who may not be current residents https://discord.gg/zXUKx3TR

Mythcord Mythic and mythic-related kintypes and therians 18+ members only – basically discussions at college-level and above https://discord.gg/6D7VyBfP

An Other Place A friendly, casual place for serious otherkin/alterhumans to hang out, chill and chat https://discord.gg/c5GZRQY

you ever seen a centaur before A spot for centaurkin to meet, have fun and share art and other interesting stuff. Very centaur focused. https://discord.gg/rRXQKhF7 (invite expires in 7 days, so ask for a new one if it doesn’t work for you)

Tags #otherkin #otherkind #therian #therianthropy #nonhuman #alterhuman #mythological #fictionkin

[gryneos]

it's quite comforting and reassuring to see adult otherkind. we're 17 at the moment, and looking around alterhumanity communities, we mostly see other young folk like ourselves. it certainly doesn't help with the anxiety that this is just some fad, lol, but seeing people and blogs like you and yours really eases that worrying voice. thanks for simply being present and open about your otherkinity

I’m glad you found some usefulness to my post(s). I still have more to write about my djinni stuff, yet my post about obscure Otherkin seems to have encouraged more to open up about that. In a way, that was part of the intention, to find more who didn’t fit in with the bigger (or more popular) groups of Otherkin.

The Otherkin communities have grown in recent years, thanks to people being willing to question and accept that Otherkin is a real phenomenon, instead of a fad or something to do just for fun. The latter is still a problem, but we just have to keep educating the ignorant. They’ll eventually move onto something else, or as I am often saying “The next shiny object.” But we do have to take back our vocabulary from them so it doesn’t get watered down any further by incorrect definitions. That will likely take more effort.

Keep looking around at the other communities, and if you ever want to know some places to try out, there are a few Discord servers worth joining, as well as the still relatively new message board “Nonhuman National Park” (it’s only about a year old now). Of course, I can only recommend the ones I still visit, but maybe we need a post just on Discord servers worth joining :-)

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[punkpanda]

To expand on that last paragraph, I think that a person cannot *really* have their identity take full shape without having had exposure to the media they might be from.

They might be able to describe an amorphous, foggy longing or scattered bits of what someone looked like, but how many people would be able to take a vague description and point them to the right source material when the odds are low that they would know it either?

Like two of my kintypes I’ve never seen portrayed…anywhere. At all. Not myth, not media. Everything I have for them is built from the ground up connecting dots that I don’t really know whether they actually connect or not.

Cringy comparisons alert, I like to compare it to my lived experience as having ASD or being trans. Before I had exposure to those realities and gained the language to express my experiences I had no way to talk about those parts of my identity except for the misery of not being understood, of being an outsider with no roots and no sense of community.

A person can be having a very real experience, but without the words to explain it how can they convey that to anyone else?

[gryneos]

@punkpanda With regards to your last thought, the way I see that is due to the extensive nature of the Internet and social media, such individuals will seek knowledge about what they are feeling. That can then lead them reading about the concept of Otherkin. From there, the decision to accept or reject that notion is up to them. My educated guess is that most reject it, at first. It just may take more pondering about their experiences to push back to looking again and the likelihood of being presented yet again with the concept of Otherkin. When you keep seeing something over and over, it starts to make an impact on your thoughts. Some people will continue to dismiss it anyway, but others won’t. None of us would be here now if we had chosen the path of dismissal.

[punkpanda]

Well said, and something that aligns perfectly with my observations. Several of the people I know outside of the community make almost painfully obvious otherkinity-adjacent statements, but shy away as soon as the community is mentioned.

Like a dear friend of mine that I met through work many years ago, talking to me about feeling like she has memories of fighting and dying at Waterloo, but as soon as the suggestion of past lives come up she gets flighty and changes the subject.

Not to mention the reputation the word otherkin has gained over the last few years and how quickly so many people jump ship from that conversation as soon as the word comes up because they don’t want to be associated with the exact kind of people actual otherkin are trying to oust ourselves.

[gryneos]

@punkpanda 

That’s a good point and observation, too. Although I think many people would still be apprehensive to admit to being Otherkin even before we gained our problems with young people distorting the meaning. It would still be perceived as too weird of a concept to accept.

Now, they might be more accepting of it if a mental health doctor suggested it. Because that’s an official authority. I know from experience trying to get my parents to accept even simple healthy ideas that until they hear it from a health authority, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Plus, for some people, their religious beliefs prevent them from accepting things like past lives, or they have been told that they shouldn’t, again by an authority they trust. And, we are not within the scope of those authorities.

[gryneos]

The Djinn - Part-II

Part-II

One thing I feel I need to clarify is that I do not consider each life lived in another time to be a separate kintype. A kintype is a type of being, just as right now we are all the type called human, and that our individual lives are not a kintype. Some will disagree, but it’s how I define my Other Lives and differentiate from this one and life-type.

As mentioned before, I have Other Lives (my term for past/present/future/Other-Reality lives) within the old TV comedy series I Dream of Jeannie. Those lives are not canon. The strongest connection of the many in their reality is of Jeannie. However, unlike in the TV-show, my age as Jeannie is over twice what it was depicted in the series. There is mention of her age in one of the reunion movies, but most fans would consider those to not be canon by how much it was changed from the series. From my perspective, that age of over four thousand years rings true to the life as her, just in a different reality from the show. Most everything else of each reality matches up, just with more detail from my channeled determinations about it all.

Now, maybe her strong passionate character also influenced how I seem to have a preponderance of female djinni lives in her realm (not all djinn have masters or live in the world of humanity), though I am not sure about that. I recognize that I also have not discovered all of the lives to which my soul is connected in her reality, either. Finding them all is still a huge task, and I feel I’ll never complete it.

There are several other djinn in realities unlike the main two (Arjhan’s and Jeannie’s) and sometimes they work their magic like Jeannie and sometimes in unrelated ways. Arjhan’s djinn don’t use many gestures, and don’t blink. Then there is the animated series from 1973 and I know I have a couple of lives in that one.

Maybe I need to give some background info on the TV-shows, just to help the younger crowd. Sure, you can go look this stuff up on Wikipedia, and that might suffice, but I’ll save you some time. Jeannie is a djinni who, in 1965 is rescued by an astronaut who had his rocket fail to make a proper orbit. He goes down on a deserted South Pacific (and uncharted) island where he finds the bottle and releases the djinni (I also use “djinni” instead of the Western “genie”). Jeannie makes her magic work by blinking her eyes with an accompanied magic-sound. Sometimes she crosses her arms to help with the concentration though the use of that is inconsistent in the series. She also can do some of her magic without blinking.

She lives in the same bottle, instead of in a blinked-up private harem room as would be normal for other djinn serving masters. Not all masters let their djinn roam free, but Jeannie can for the most part. It’s how she knows so many historical figures, despite having been trapped in her bottle for the last 1500 years or so. Almost none of this is canon, so you might still want to look up the canon details if that’s important to you.

The cartoon from 1973 was meant to be a copy and spinoff of the original show, but budget constraints changed it (the IDoJ zealots hate the cartoon because none of it is the same as the live-action show; I am not in their ranks). Jeannie uses her ponytail to work her magic, though she also uses her powers without any physical gestures. I’m guessing that the creators of Shantae saw this cartoon and copied the ponytailing of Jeannie for their character.

Finally, the world in which my centaur-djinn live is Earth-like in size and climate, but very slow to advance in technology. Currently, in Arjhan’s life as I had discovered with him their technological-time would be much like ours in the 1600-1700s. It is a society of humans and centaurs, at peace with one another, and magic is known, though not always believed. That is, most people don’t believe in it, but also don’t dismiss people they might know who have witnessed or experienced it. Kind of like how UFOs are treated today.

Because it’s a mixed society of humans and centaurs, there are human and centaur djinn. The proportion of centaurs to humans is smaller, but not especially small. More like a one to four ratio. Same is true for the djinni-side of their society.

Like the ‘Old Baghdad’ referred to in IDoJ and sometimes visited, Arjhan’s djinn have a similar ancient city which has its own reality overlaid onto their home world. Non-magical beings (enkarjhuu or “magic denied”) cannot get to it without the help of a djinni, and any future sciences will be of no help, either. Magic and science just do not mix.

Okay, I don’t want to go on for too long here. Each of these will take further postings to get into greater detail, and I would like to do that. Arjhan’s just may take the most condensing, because I have written quite a bit about him and that life. I have even more on Jeannie’s kind of djinn, including aforementioned channeled Djinni-Persian words and grammar as well as things like how they measure time. Djinn don’t experience it like humans do, yet they can experience Human-Time when interacting in the human world. I’ll figure out how to reduce all of this more for ease of reading.

[gryneos]

The Djinn

Like anyone, I’ll sometimes go searching online for pages about my kintypes. Finding things on Centaur are plentiful, as are things for Djinn. Where it all gets pared down significantly is when I add the modifier of “Otherkin”. Then hits drop off. Centaur still gets a few, but I get almost none for Djinni.

So, the way to rectify that is to begin by making my own hits. I’ve never talked about my Djinni kintype in depth before, so that’s what I’ll do here. It’ll have to be a series, because I have compiled a fair amount of info on Other Lives, how the magic works, what it’s called by the djinn (not ‘magic’), how it gets into them and remains connected to them, what words they use for each ‘magic power’ and so on.

This first post is just an intro, things about the information which has come to me by inspiration or channeling. To be perfectly honest, my take on the words ‘inspiration’ and ‘channeling’ are that they are interchangeable in how that information comes in. The word “inspire” comes from the Latin word inspirare meaning “blow into, breathe upon” with the root word spirare meaning “to breathe”. That in turn is related to the word spirit. Channeling is an act of meditative contact with other spirits with the intent to breathe in their knowledge and thoughts.

My meditations have determined overlap between my kintypes, such that the avatar I use here is one of my djinni-centaur lives, or that or a stallion named Arjhan. He is one of four I know in a different reality, where only one of those four is female. There was a fifth male human-form djinni, though he was more like an ifrit and evil in nature. His life was ended by one of my other djinni-centaur lives due to how he began attempting to kill other djinn. I’ll get into those lives later.

For some reason, most of my lives in the IDoJ (I Dream of Jeannie) and related realities, I am of the female variety of djinn. Now, I can see that perhaps the Centaur kintype represents my masculine side, and that’s certainly acceptable. There isn’t really anything about the other type which would suggest it has to represent the female side of me. And if anyone is thinking, “Oh, you’re trans” nothing could be further from the truth. I’m an old school cis white male, physically, mentally, spiritually. I simply recognize that my soul can be anything it wants to be, and has had more female-djinni lives when it comes to that kintype. Maybe it just wants the women to be the ones with the power.

This has all led to me determining that my two kintypes do have personalities as their forms, with Gryneos being my Centaur kintype, and an IDoJ-type djinni named Erica being my Djinni-kintype. Neither has ever had a lifetime; they are the core representations of my two kintypes, yet they are alive and have life, just not in any particular reality. Not sure how else to describe their existences.

I’ll get into more detail about my IDoJ connection in the next post. So, time to do a little more writing and pondering.

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[gryneos]

@aestherians That’s good to hear. I do find it difficult to discover all such existing identities, which is another reason for my post: to see who shows up and relates their experiences with all of these fairly unknown kintypes. Gothic became very popular at one point, so I can see people within that community finding solace in identities as various characters from that kind of literature and art. It’s still quite a rich source of fiction.

I suppose if I had been mentally and spiritually evolved enough back in the 1970s I might have seriously sought out information on Otherkin. Yet even when I did get online, I never got onto the newsgroups, which was where the Otherkin community at that time congregated. There would have been even less usable information outside of those groups for me to read and develop any kind of idea about my personal experiences being related to Otherkin. Even so, it took many years of being online and reading oodles of New Age and other spiritual materials to even be able to accept that I had internal identities, and when that happened, it was Centaur first. The decision that my feelings related to the Djinni kintype came only after even more introspection.

So, people with IDoJ kintypes (or any djinni kintype) could still be out there, but they’re still in the introspection stage.

[multiverse-sya]

I’ll admit I was super oblivious when it came to figuring out my species. I ran into the video game (starcraft) multiple times but didn’t make any sort of connection or realization to it. In my opinion, I find that really embarrassing. Relatively speaking, the first game came out in 1998 while the second, in 2010. So a bit old, I think. The latest expansion was 2015.

I think one reason I didn’t make the connection was because of the video game graphics, which depending on when it came out, werent really realistic. It took looking into the story and into the artwork and cinematics to make a connection, which looked much more realistic than the game play. At the start, I was also really against the possibility of being from there as well, so part of my obliviousness could have also been due to denial and a terrible lack of self awareness. Because in hind sight, how was I so oblivious?? The signs were seriously everywhere.

It took having to connect the pieces of things I felt and experienced throughout my life and comparing it to what I’ve learned about the source once I looked into it. The feelings were also really repressed at first, so that didn’t help either.

So in my case, I had to really sit down and research to figure it out because I didn’t suddenly know just by seeing them. I’m jealous of those who find what they are instantly, because it would have saved me time and confusion.

[gryneos]

@multiverse-sya

I agree that some just know it immediately, but in my experience that isn’t the majority or the norm. It just takes time to recognize what you are feeling has any meaning at all. And twenty-five years ago, if you weren’t in the newsgroups, or had prior knowledge of the Silver Elves and such origins of Otherkin, there was next to nothing on the early Internet to help you out. In my case, the only reason I knew about Otherkin at all was an old bookmark I’d made, probably searching on spiritual things associated with centaurs (there is some interesting stuff on that connection) and then forgotten about it. I can’t even tell you now what made me think of it again and have a second look, but I did. Then I accepted the idea that I was Otherkin one and a half years later. This stuff just takes extensive introspection and goes far beyond simply relating to a character or creature.

[kanika-vargrhugr]

Texas Alterhumans Discord Server

Welcome to Texas Alterhumans! This is a 15+ server for any kind of alterhuman located in the state of Texas. Therians, otherkin, endels, systems, and nonhumans alike are all welcomed here as long as you're from the state of Texas.

Features:

Friendly open minded staff

Self assignable roles

The ability to assign yourself any color you want

Pluralkit

A verification system to ensure our safety from trolls

Quick and simple rules

An adults only area that is not visible to minors (this isn't just for NSFW content, though there is a channel for that, its also just a place for the grown ups to hang out together)

Channels covering a variety of topics, from general chatter to alterhumanity to hobbies and more

I feel that one downside to how scattered and internet based our community is is that we don't have much of a sense of local community. I would like to do my part in changing that by making this server a fun place to meet other alterhumans within the state. Over the course of my time in the community one of the main complaints that I have heard is "I don't know any alterhumans that live close by, I don't think there are any" and thats how I have felt too. Hopefully this will help some of you see that there are others around! You aren't alone.

This is a brand new server and the first one I've ever made on my own, so feel free to suggest anything when you're in! Also feel free to reblog this post if you'd like, I would really appreciate it.

Invite link:

Join the Texas Alterhumans Discord Server!

Check out the Texas Alterhumans community on Discord - hang out with 4 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[gryneos]

Just thought I’d reblog this for a little more exposure for you :-)

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[punkpanda]

To expand on that last paragraph, I think that a person cannot *really* have their identity take full shape without having had exposure to the media they might be from.

They might be able to describe an amorphous, foggy longing or scattered bits of what someone looked like, but how many people would be able to take a vague description and point them to the right source material when the odds are low that they would know it either?

Like two of my kintypes I’ve never seen portrayed…anywhere. At all. Not myth, not media. Everything I have for them is built from the ground up connecting dots that I don’t really know whether they actually connect or not.

Cringy comparisons alert, I like to compare it to my lived experience as having ASD or being trans. Before I had exposure to those realities and gained the language to express my experiences I had no way to talk about those parts of my identity except for the misery of not being understood, of being an outsider with no roots and no sense of community.

A person can be having a very real experience, but without the words to explain it how can they convey that to anyone else?

[actias-android]

Oh huh, congrats on being the person who finally explained how fictional identities being discovered actually works in a way that made sense to me.

[gryneos]

Glad I could be of help! I don’t know why I decided that I needed to post today. Maybe I just felt my feed was a little too sparse for my liking. But, I have enjoyed the conversations this has spawned, here and on Discord. Seems like it’s a topic many have pondered and never discussed, or not in depth.

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[blackboxwarriors]

Local obscure source person here. I’m from:

- Beast Complex (Ako)

- Space Ace (Kimberly, but my brain combined her with a maned wolf, so it is a weird blend of two identities)

- That one fairy tale that is a rabbit trying to marry a girl (I’m the girl there, no official name)

- Alice: Madness Returns (Alice)

I know half of those examples are practically new in comparison to an arcade cabinet from the 80s and a Germanic fairy tale. But, I wanted to make a point that not all obscure sources are old. I’m just as likely to meet another Ako as I am to meet another Kimberly, unfortunately.

I think why you don’t see more of those identities is for a few reasons:

- Exposure to sources

I’d say that I’m lucky to have heard of Space Ace a few years ago. I heard about it through a youtube video review, and then later on bought it on Steam. It’s a game I had never heard anyone speak about up until that point. It’s a pretty unique arcade game- animated by the Don Bluth studio, which was a rarity.

Point being, some sources just get lost to time. Some of that is due to efforts not able to preserve it, and others just being forgotten. Other times, people don’t seek out something that isn’t popular or well-known, which dooms it further.

- Efforts to save sources (such as them no longer becoming available for purchase or found) are not common

I probably have this view due to being Alice. Right now, the American McGee Alice games are hard to find and difficult to purchase, and as such are in danger of not being able to be preserved in a playable form. Other sources have likely had this happen to them already, and projects such as ToonTown Rewritten would greatly combat this. However, not all fanbases are big enough or are dedicated enough to do this. There’s probably been a ton of sources that have fallen to this fate already over the years.

I wouldn’t say that old media is ignored- it is just in danger of potentially being forgotten if not preserved. A lot of people don’t know about Space Ace, but the best I can do is educate people.

We are out here, it’s just hard to find us unless a fanbase gets a revival. /hj

- Scalene

[gryneos]

@blackboxwarriors I remember Space Ace. I also remember being absolutely lousy at it, and the same for Dragon’s Lair (both were laserdisc-based arcade games using Don Bluth’s animation).

But, here’s another aspect to take into consideration: there are millions of animation fans out there (because that includes people who like animated movies, not just the fans who like to talk animation). Those who know of Don Bluth and like his style have looked at everything he’s done, other than movies like “The Secret of NIMH” and “An American Tail”. That’s another large fanbase being exposed to fictional material and who knows where that can take a mind.

Granted, younger people are less likely to look up old material, but there are people of all ages in the Otherkin community. We have lived through the time-periods that many currently newish Otherkin would call ‘old’. And there are plenty of members in the community who are in their 40s. The ages above that do drop precipitously, but having us in the community does expose more to the ‘old’ media. I can’t tell you how much stuff I’ve found on The Internet Archive as well.

To me, it’s basic curiosity. Maybe that’s not common, yet I just don’t feel we can say that the old or retro media is truly being forgotten. Plenty of people work hard to archive it for all to enjoy again later. Have a look on any streaming service, and other than stuff that’s really obscure (like the original kinescopes of the British Quatermass series) you can find almost anything from any time period. It just takes a little curiosity and patience (because pacing is often slower than it is today).

Of course, if people are indeed forgetting the past in media, then they are doomed to repeat the stories in the future (to paraphrase an old saying) :-)

[gryneos]

Otherkin Obscura

One thing which has always made me wonder is that on the whole, the Otherkin community just doesn’t have many in it who have obscure identities (besides those who are alien, cosmic, or obscure within the therian communities). I have met just one person who identified as a character from classical fiction (Oliver Twist). Considering just how much fiction humans have created in our world throughout time, there have to be more. But, where are they?

The only reasons which come to mind are that people either don’t know they are something called Otherkin, or they have gotten the wrong idea about the concept and it’s been dismissed. I have no answers on how either of those things can be addressed. It’s something that the Otherkin community is constantly attempting to improve.

My two kintypes can be traced to old literature and myths: Centaur, being a basic part of Greek mythology, and Djinni, tracing back almost as far to the folktales of the Persians and Arabs. At the same time, my Djinni kintype has roots in a 20th century bit of fiction called I Dream of Jeannie.

I know that community, too, and have never seen any of the fans within it professing anything akin to Otherkin as any of the characters. Again, I wonder how many of that community are indeed Otherkin and identify as Jeannie, Tony, Roger, Dr. Bellows, etc. It’s not a question I would propose to them, though. I’ll just have to see if any are around at all in other forums/social media. That’s one reason I’m posting to Tumblr; talking about Otherkin won’t be automatically construed as “taking fandom just too far” as I would expect from Jeannie fans (I know that community all too well).

Now, I do admit that my kintypes are ‘old’ or based on ‘old’ media, and have almost no connection to so much of the Otherkin community which has huge numbers of people with identities related to modern media (be it stories or produced visual media). I can fully understand why that is. Obscure old media is just that, obscure, not read, not perused, ignored, dismissed, and all too often because “it’s old!”

But I honestly can’t be that isolated in having one or two identities which are based on ideas long out of the popular mindset. I know y’all are out there. So speak up and let’s see if we can’t indeed grow the Otherkin obscura beyond the obscure.

[flickerthing]

This is something I’ve thought about a lot too, and regarding your point about Jeannie, I wonder if its being a sitcom has something to do with it.  You’re the first alterhuman I’ve seen with any connection at all to a pre-2000s sitcom, which I think is very neat to see!  I suspect one reason for the lack of others from that source might be that there’s a certain tonal gap between our real lives and the way sitcoms work.  I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know they’re from that source might struggle to recognize themselves not only for the reasons you mentioned but also due to that gap. 

It’s a gap between lived experience and genre convention.  Sitcoms, by their nature, don’t perfectly mimic real life.  For instance, as a result of being designed for comedy, sitcoms so often downplay or leave out altogether the less funny emotions that make up our lived experiences.  Maybe it’s more difficult to recognize ourselves in media where every problem can be neatly fixed in 20 minutes and where the characters don’t seem to feel things like grief, trauma, etc.

It makes me wonder–if Jeannie hadn’t been a sitcom, would there be more alterhumans aware of their connection to it?  If it had been a drama, for example?  I don’t know.   I just think a lot about the intersection of fictionkind and source material, where it intersects and where it doesn’t seem to intersect at all.

[aestherians]

I’ve seen quite a few folks with kintypes/fictotypes from Gothic literature. Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, etc. I vaguely recall someone with an identity from The Picture of Dorian Gray too… But those books have never really left the public conscious - they’re part of the curriculum of schools around the world, they regularly get new film, stage, book, and game adaptations, the characters and themes are constantly referenced in media for all age groups.

I’m 100% certain exposure to source material correlates with the number of alterhumans related to that source material. It does happen that someone will have an awakening and realize later on that it matches a fictional or mythological creature/character, but it seems more common for fictionfolk to awaken after exposure to their source.

[punkpanda]

To expand on that last paragraph, I think that a person cannot *really* have their identity take full shape without having had exposure to the media they might be from.

They might be able to describe an amorphous, foggy longing or scattered bits of what someone looked like, but how many people would be able to take a vague description and point them to the right source material when the odds are low that they would know it either?

Like two of my kintypes I’ve never seen portrayed…anywhere. At all. Not myth, not media. Everything I have for them is built from the ground up connecting dots that I don’t really know whether they actually connect or not.

Cringy comparisons alert, I like to compare it to my lived experience as having ASD or being trans. Before I had exposure to those realities and gained the language to express my experiences I had no way to talk about those parts of my identity except for the misery of not being understood, of being an outsider with no roots and no sense of community.

A person can be having a very real experience, but without the words to explain it how can they convey that to anyone else?

[gryneos]

@punkpanda With regards to your last thought, the way I see that is due to the extensive nature of the Internet and social media, such individuals will seek knowledge about what they are feeling. That can then lead them reading about the concept of Otherkin. From there, the decision to accept or reject that notion is up to them. My educated guess is that most reject it, at first. It just may take more pondering about their experiences to push back to looking again and the likelihood of being presented yet again with the concept of Otherkin. When you keep seeing something over and over, it starts to make an impact on your thoughts. Some people will continue to dismiss it anyway, but others won’t. None of us would be here now if we had chosen the path of dismissal.