Sevenfold Silence

Novelist R. A. Ramsey is looking to portray otherkin respectfully and intelligently in an upcoming book of hers--which is always a valuable goal! Wanna help her out? Look here.

My answers (warning: it's long):

1. How old were you when you realized that you were Otherkin/Therian? - I was 18 or so when I started having stirrings of otherkin per se, but I'd been "odd" as long as I could remember. I only came to terms with it when I was about 20 or so.

2. How did that realization come about? - I stumbled across some otherkin materials online, scoffed at it, moved on my way--and proceeded to be haunted by it for weeks, months..and gradually, over time, years. I ended up with a physical symptom that wouldn't go away, namely phantom wings coming out of my shoulderblades. Psychosomatic? Maybe, but even if so it was (and is) reflecting something deeper psychologically--namely me identifying with that nice big word 'otherkin'. Eventually I let go of the "but that's crazy!" struggle and grabbed hold of it with both hands as word that reflects who and what I am, and I haven't let go!

3. What was it like those first few years of trying to understand what was going on? - It was scary and upsetting. I'd always comforted myself with the idea that people who believed "that sort of thing" were most definitely and certainly crazy, and then falling into the crazy camp wasn't really very comforting. I tried to talk it out with a few friends but they weren't interested and dismissed it as "crazy" and thankfully it hasn't come up since since I don't think they'd be very open-minded or friendly about it--I've actually been known to make fun *of my own subculture* to them, without of course announcing what I am, to deflect suspicion and probably deal with my own insecurities. I dealt with varying stages of "this is crazy: I must be faking this" for easily two years before I finally threw up my hands, said the hell with it, and accepted what seemed to be going on.

4. Did you have anybody you could talk to? How did they help you get through this? - I tried bringing it up to some real-life friends, as I described above, but that didn't go so hot. Eventually I made a LiveJournal at maybewinged.livejournal.com (mostly defunct, although has a few essays on it still) to discuss stuff. I friended some people whose writing I liked, out of the blue, and they had the courtesy to friend me back and comment on my entries and generally cheer me through the whole scary process. I never got a very personal connection with any of them, unfortunately, at least on that journal--my "real" LJ, which I keep wholly separate from that one for privacy reasons, is where I talk with those people. It's kind of like I'm living a double-life, and I don't really like it.
Nowadays, however, I've met an otherkin in real life. We chat. I'm still largely in the process of awakening (I have no idea what I am in particular, other than that I'm "something fey"), and discussing things is helping me fine it down. I'm sure it helps her out too. :)

5. How does being Otherkin/Therian affect your everyday life? - It's hard for me to say--I've been otherkin to some degree all my life, so I don't really have a basis for context for how it'd be to be any other way. (In my case, it's a current of energy that I seem to naturally fall into, so yes it's a matter of degree.) There are a number of 'symptoms' that I gather are somehow related, like migraines with intense, vivid aura; synesthesia; ease of astral projection; and ease of connection with spiritual entities, and spiritual possession in ritual. Maybe the most practical and obvious way in which it affects my everyday life is in that it's *obvious* that I'm odd somehow--make me up in pretty makeup, dress me in nice clothes, but there'll still be something a little too intense and strange in my eyes. It really does affect the way people treat me, and the 'vibe' I give off--it makes me a little standoffish, I think. (An ex called it a "powerful" look--what a compliment!) --again, it's hard to discuss this because you're asking me to specifically describe something that's been interwoven through my whole life to varying degrees, so pulling out something from my life and saying "x is because of y and z" is hard.

6. How does it affect the way you view the world? - It's given me a sense of the wild, spiritual, and free, that I feel is more integrated with my life than it would be otherwise; I'm not prodding gently at the mysteries from the outside, and instead I'm engrossed in them wholeheartedly since I embody a part of them. I expect I wouldn't be bisexual, as liberal as I am, a heathen and magician, or that I would have such a strong environmentalist streak if I weren't otherkin at my core. Again, that's a hard question to answer in particulars. "It makes me wilder, feyer, and freer" isn't much of a useful answer to you...

7. Do you have any physical manifestations of your “animal self” such as cravings, markings, etc? - That look in the eyes, again. I store tension in my "wings" that I've been looking into releasing through stretching (in the physical) and qigong (in the energetic and the astral)--it gives me a real desire for backrubs. I expect I end up putting on glamours that make me look variously "fey" but I'm the wrong person to ask on how those turn out.

8. How did your family and friends react when you “came out” about being Otherkin/Therian? - I haven't done this. I only come out to people who come out to me first, and the only person who's done that for me has been the aforementioned real-life friend I'm still piecing stuff out with.

9. Have you experienced any discrimination because of being Otherkin/Therian? - Nope, and I'm deliberately laying low so as to not attract it. I'm applying for grad school this year and don't want anything attached to me when they google my name that might result in me getting the hairy eyeball during the application practice, so I'm doing everything very deliberately pseudonomically, and I am not out to friends and family.

10. If you are part of the Pagan community, what has been the reaction from them? - Haven't brought it up. Pagans are actually some of the *least* friendly toward the idea of otherkin, IMO. The desire to "not look fluffy" results in a whole lot of backlash.

General Questions

1. Is there a predominance of one animal type within the Otherkin/Therian community or is it a broad mix? - There's a broad mix, I think, but certain types are more common than others. You're way more likely to find dragons and elves, for instance, than you will imps and goblins.

2. Do the animal types tend to be more of the larger four-footed variety? Or does it include smaller animals, reptiles, birds, and even insects? - There are all sorts of animals out there, but I won't deny that mammals are more common than others. That said, I don't really "do" the Therian thing--they've got a lot in common with otherkin but I just don't hang with them.

3. Do Otherkin/Therians have two souls – both animal and human or is it one combined soul? - In my case it's one combined soul, but I know that plenty of 'kin are "multiple systems" with two or more souls.

4. Do Otherkin/Therians lean more towards Pagan/Non-Judeo Christian beliefs or are there Christian Otherkin/Therians? - I think they do in general, although I'd describe otherkin as more leaning toward "magic" than religion. We may or may not be interested in God(s) but we're definitely interested in cracking open the universe and trying to see how it ticks. Magic tends to go hand-in-hand with paganism; it's not quite such an easy fit with Christians.

5. How do you integrate your spiritual beliefs with who you are as an Otherkin/Therian? - I'm still working on that--in fact, that's been a big part of my spiritual journey as late. I'm a Thelemite, and Thelema has a strong gnostic component, and exploring and accepting myself as otherkin falls under the category of "knowing myself". With it, as I mentioned above, comes certain spiritual territory, like ease of astral travel, connection with spirits, and spiritual possession. With that in mind I'm looking at--and receiving a call to--traditional Norse shamanism called seidh.

6. What is some common terminology used among the Otherkin/Therian community? - Uhhh. I'm drawing a blank here. :P All I can think of right now is "mundane" or "muggle" for a non-otherkin--which, for the record, I object strongly to and consider it virtually perjorative.

7. Is there anything else I should know about the Otherkin/Therian community to properly portray it in my novel? - I can't think of anything. You've covered the bases pretty well here!