Alive in spite of it all

i really appreciate and love your blog! thank you, even if you cant find anything 💗

I don't have much on hand. I definitely implore you to check out kinstincts, which is a blog dedicated to species affirming body mods (both surgical and non-surgical).

I also know of a few essays about being transspecies:

"Transition and Just Living As Wolf" by Aster (ve/ver or it/its)

"Why I Call Myself Transspecies" by Aster

"Why do people call themselves transspecies?" by Marron (he/him or they/them)

Another notable post is the meaning of the transspecies flag.

To start, my connection to otherkin is purely psychological. I do not think spiritual otherkin will relate to this, and that’s okay. Or perhaps they will, and that’s okay as well.

I occassionally see rhetoric that states variations of “You are not otherkin, you just experience dissociation. You only feel disconnected from humanity because you’re autistic, or because you’re delusional, etc etc.” And the truth is, yes! Sort of. The feelings that produce my strong connection with church grims and the umbrella labels of ghostkin and cryptidkin are driven by my autism, lingering psychosis, and strong dissociation. That doesn’t make it any less real. My autism, psychosis, and dissociation are REAL. They have had a tremendous impact on my life and the way I interact with others. And I highly doubt they will dissipate any time soon.

Alterhumanity is an embracement of that fact. It’s finding joy in my struggles. It’s finding a community after spending years believing I was inherently flawed. A community of outcasts. It’s poetry in action.

I don’t believe I was a church grim in a past life, nor do I particularly believe that my soul is that of a church grim. Rather it is a perfect manifestation of my identity and experiences. I feel distinctly canine just as strongly as I feel like a man. Well, man(?) but my gender is as complex as my alterhumanity.

If you’re in the center of this diagram you’re amazing and deserve the world please never stop existing <3

(pro-endogenic systems + please don’t start discourse about the word queer on this post, if you don’t ID w/ it I still love you)

archetrope: An identity under the alterhuman umbrella in which one heavily identifies with or otherwise experiences an archetype, trope, or otherwise preestablished character model in a way that is central to their identity. It may not necessarily be inherently nonhuman, but has a significant enough impact on one’s identity to be experienced in similar ways as other alterhuman labels. Archetropy may specifically or especially inform one’s identity in deeply influential ways in regards to aspects such as personality, occupation/profession/field of study, gender expression or identity, philosophy, spiritual beliefs, or political alignment. It is a nuanced and complex identity which can fall anywhere on the voluntary-involuntary and “identify with”-“identify as” spectrums. This identity can also have spiritual, psychological, or other origins. It could present as an intrinsic identity one is born with, an identity one takes on for the purpose or self-expression and enjoyment, a coping mechanism, or in a myriad of other ways. It is a flexible term that describes a broad range of experiences of identity and alterhumanity. (Examples of archetropal identities include pirate, clown, ranger, royalty, etc.)

“person who is” noun form: archetrope (For example, “Jane is an archetrope.”) “state of being” noun form: archetropy (For example, “John’s archetropy affects their identity.”) adjective form: archetropal (For example, “Jane’s archetropal identity makes them happy.”)

To refer to specific archetrope “types” (as one would specific kintypes or kithtypes) use the prefix “arche-” followed by the identity itself. (For example, “I am an archepirate,” “They are archeroyal,” etc.) The term can also be hyphenated if the identity label starts with a letter that would make the term difficult to read such as in “arche-explorer,” if the term is multiple words long such as “arche-raised by wolves” or “arche-mountain man,” or if one simply prefers to use that syntax.

It is very important to note that those who created this term do not believe in anyone being forced to identify with any particular term or label themselves any specific way! This term exists to describe a community and identity that is commonly experienced but doesn’t have any specific preexisting terminology, but no one should be forced to identify with it if they prefer to describe their identity in some other way. The way you define yourself is up to you, this is just another option!

This term was coined (and both its flag and symbol were designed) collaboratively in this thread on the Nonhuman National Park forum. Additional credit goes to @monsterqueers and @thelightfluxtastic for their contributions.

For more information on flag and symbol meanings, see the information below!

if someone identifies as a character, they don’t really see that character as fictional, because they are not fictional; their experiences are real.

most of the fictionkin I’ve met believe in multiple dimensions or timelines, meaning that they see themselves as separate from their “source material.”

I’m a therian. I also have schizophrenia. Well, schizoaffective disorder technically, but the difference is negligible. 

The most common critique (if you can call it that) of therianthropy is that all therians are just deluded lunatics who can’t tell the difference between reality and imagination. And the main rebuttal seems to be, “No, we’re perfectly sane, just like you!” So what happens when you’re a therian who’s not sane? 

Mostly what happens is that you feel alienated. I feel like I don’t belong in my own community, because I am Bad Representation, “proof” that therians are just delusional. I feel like I can’t be honest about my experiences, because I’m making the respectable, sane therians look bad.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think my therian identity is a delusion. I don’t believe I’m physically an animal; I know I have a human body. And while my delusions come and go, and are usually not present when I’m taking antipsychotics, I’ve identified unwaveringly as a therian for years, from the moment I learned what the word meant. It doesn’t happen in sync with my psychotic episodes, it just exists as part of me always.

It has been influenced by my psychosis, for sure. I’m a psychological therian, so I don’t believe that I am a reincarnated animal; I believe that my experiences and feelings fall more in line with what is typically thought of as animal than human. That’s a gross oversimplification, but I could write books on what psychological therianthropy means to me, and I’m trying to keep it brief. My point is, psychosis is part of what makes me feel like an animal. Psychosis (sometimes) reduces you to your basal instincts, makes your reactions and thought processes foreign to “normal, civilized” human minds. So I make sense of it by saying, okay, if this isn’t how humans feel and act, I must be something else. That’s a big part of why I identify as nonhuman. But it’s not the only reason I identify the way I do. 

I identify as an animal because in my dreams, I am always a bird, or some sort of bird-person hybrid. I identify as an animal because when I stretch I can feel my phantom wings flexing. I identify as an animal because nothing feels better and truer to myself than being allowed to act like one, without judgement. I identify as an animal because when I see vultures soaring on air currents, I feel deep within me that I should be up there with them.