You can do whatever you want forever. Let's be nonhuman together

also, we really think other people need to think about this a bit more deeply than they probably are

So.

Don't you think it's a little weird that people have this sort of purity test for the definition of "therianthropy" where they try to restrict it to extant living animals?

As if maybe it has to be based on some kind of ancestral or genetic memory. Or, if it's spiritual, then it has to be spirits of things that are living, or at least, have once lived.

Because, wolves? They aren't anywhere on the human evolutionary tree. You cannot go back far enough into prehistory, into the ancestry of humans, and find wolves.

And this goes for absolutely every extant lifeform today, including primates. We're all descendant from a common ancestor, but we are not ancestors of each other.

So, that means, whatever's going on with therianthropy, it's not genetic. At least, not in the sense that we have some kind of biologically based memories, or mix up of instincts like that.

Now, humans are neurodiverse and extremely complex. And, really, so is a lot of other life. Life is a complex system that shows many, many countless instances of chaotic fibrillation and development.

It's not inconceivable, as an example of one possible explanation, that sometimes someone is born and develops in such a way that their own personal drives, instincts, and sense of identity better match another animal, just by chance. By an act of chaos (in the chaos theory sense of the word).

So, if you're going to base your understanding of therianthropy off of anything scientific, you have to recognize this. Otherwise, there's nothing scientific about your model of therianthropy.

And just what is it, exactly, that makes that more possible than someone also growing up to be a dragon? Nothing.

Of course, there are also spiritual explanations for this.

But there are so many different spiritualities out there, who is to say that one model is more accurate and true than all the others?

And, the line between a mythical creature and a spirit is a really super blurry one, that changes depending on your own religion.

So, when someone says that they're a dragon therian, the only counter argument that can really be made is something along the lines of "that's not what the word was supposed to mean when it was coined."

And that's a bullshit argument, because not only does language evolve, it should evolve when it needs to. And this is a case of it needing to. (Assuming this is a case of it evolving in the first place, because we don't trust claims that therianthropy was meant to only include extant animals when it was coined by people who identified as werecreatures, a mythical type of being [and a totally legit thing we're not criticizing], and the past is also so easily rewritten.) Whatever the history of the word, there are mythical and fictional people and beings today that need the word "therian" to describe themselves, and in this era of discrimination and crushing oppression of so, so many people, it's fucking awful to try to take that away from them.

Anyway, so, dragons.

Dragons are neat because we were not invented by just some guy.

We're a catch-all umbrella category of a myriad of both mythical and extant living organisms. (Komodo dragons, bearded dragons, and leafy sea dragons are dragons.) Some of us are fictional, some of us are mythical, some of us are extant species of animal, and some of us are plants.

There is no one myth that you can point to and say, "that's where all dragons came from". And there is no singular characteristic that a dragon must have in order to be a dragon. Not flight. Not even breathing fire. Not even scales.

And we're ancient. We grew up with humanity and humanity grew up with us. We are embedded in their psyches and cultures as far back as the earliest pieces of art that have been dug up (or damn near it), even if the word "dragon" isn't nearly that old. The seeds of our memetic identities were there in creatures with horns and wings and long tails and monstrous moods carved in stone and bone and horn, all along.

(scientifically speaking, we probably don't predate dogs, but it is possible. there's no way of proving it one way or the other)

It should be absolutely no surprise that a child of humans wakes up periodically and goes, "Oh, I'm a dragon, actually."

It has historic precedence, after all. Like, even royalty does it occasionally (though, that might be a slightly different thing).

Something that is a constant point of talk in the Alterhuman community is "Where are the Elders at?" "Why don't Elders post as much anymore?"

And as someone who's been in the community for over 10 years now, I distinctly remember thinking "Hah, that'll never be me. I love posting about my alterhumanity" But low and behold, I've kinda fallen off from posting daily. Heck its a miracle if I make a post once a month! Sure I lurk around the tags and forums. I'm active in the comments at least. But I've definitely noticed my presence in the community falling to the back burner.

So I'm calling all "Elders" and "Greymuzzles"

Go ahead and pick a couple of questions from the following and answer them (or answer them all, I'm not a cop) vvvvvv

What are some ways that you still struggle with Alterhumanity?

What are some Alterhuman Success stories you have? (Whether it be finding a neat hack for dealing with species dysphoria or a fun affirming encounter you had such as coming out to a friend)

What are some lessons that you've learned after all these years?

What are some writings that you've done that you think are still relevant now? (feel free to link to them!)

What are some major differences in what the community was like when you discovered it vs how it is now?

How did you deal with the "Hype" of discovering your Alterhumanity wearing off?

1. I still struggle a lot with my alterhumanity namely in that I feel like I'm acting too human a lot of times! While I believe myself to be nonhuman down to a physical level, the fact that I still have to walk around mimicking a human routine and doing human actions can be pretty distressing. I catch myself feeling and thinking "I'm not even a human I shouldn't have to do this I could just run away right now." quite often, but less so than I did when I was in my teens. Especially early teens.

There is also an ever present worry that I've made it all up even though I've been reminded again and again by everything about my life that I absolutely am not. I don't know if it will go away, but it's gotten much easier to ignore.

2. This is more of an Adult Money Can Be Used For Goods And Services type deal but I got a human sized dog bed and set myself up a den with a nest inside of it beneath my bed so that I have a comfortable, dark, and cozy place to relax and hide away when I'm feeling stressed out and unable to function around others. My roommate very much so understands as he is a dog in some way, and so he's very supportive overall of my lack of human behavior and need for space.

3. Don't worry about it. It's very basic advice but it's the one I stick to the most closely. Constant worry and examination of your own identity will only lead to more doubt and distress in the long run. While I do participate in a bit of discourse from time to time and generally encourage people to use the correct definitions and terminology, I am not the identity and microlabel police. If that's what works for you, good on you, but please don't feel pressured to attempt to label and explain away every aspect of your identity. Also, Write. Please write. I already have a whole post detailing this but please write about your experiences. We lose out on hearing the voices of our whole community if they refuse to speak.

4. My neocities holds all my essays I think are relevant and some that are outdated but I keep up for posterity and archival reasons. I actively encourage anyone who may read this to keep a Neocities, Dreamwidth, Strawpage, Carrd.co, etc. About themselves.

5. In a way I feel the community now is both more open and less policed/harshly restrictive towards new members. I remember the 2000-2010s Period in which every new member was holding up Thorn of Therian Territory as their primary source of advice and the older community had reactively closed off in response to the very unflattering and rude portrayal of Naia Ōkami in the documentary she featured in as well as the rise of "therian" documentaries that depicted our community as being weird and cringe which in turn encouraged folks on tumblr to begin making otherkin and therian cringe posts. (Take this with a grain of salt. I was born in the early 2000s. I mostly experienced the 2010s aspect of this which had a huge uptick in bullying over youtube.)

We were policing the community out of a need to protect our own. And while there is certainly less now, I think we may fall back into a level of gatekeeping with the uptick of bullying on tiktok and us being present in the news now. I don't think we'll ever be allowed the same level of privacy and secrecy that we once had again, but I fear we may repeat ourselves out of perceived necessity.

I enjoy, genuinely, how open this community is. But between the misuse of terminology that's been around for ages, the attempted re-coining of some terms by certain individuals or the coining of new terms for experiences we already have words for (ie. The whole "Faunaluna" situation that went down on Tiktok late last year/earlier this year.) or the rise in folks claiming others are "larping" their alterhumanity, I think we may backslide into restrictive attitudes again if we cannot handle these with grace.

6. All that was exciting will eventually become mundane. I did feel disappointment and disconnect after the "wow" of discovering my alterhumanity wore off, but through keeping up with myself(selves) and engaging with my nonhumanity in little ways each day I've been able to keep that connection. Through how I dress, speak, act, eat, make art, etc. This is how I stay connected.

I also remind myself (and others) that it is well ant truly ok to feel disconnected some days. It will happen. Be gentle and kind to yourself.

7. I think from our newest generation I've rediscovered a bit of the spark I used to have back around when I was a similar age. Which again, not very long ago, but so much has changed. The emphasis on gear and masks and quads especially, and I do love the crafty part of our community.

In some cases you can find concentrated pheromone oils/sprays for game animals. These are meant for hunters but nothing is stopping you from using it as a casual outing scent, other than some people being irritated by the smell. I wouldn't recommend putting them directly on the skin, I've gotten some on my hand and had mild irritation afterwards, but you can do roughly the same act by spraying it on clothing and rubbing the clothing against objects.

I also would recommend sticking to cheaper sprays for this since you'll have to spray *more than average* for anything to transfer, unless you're doing it seconds after applying which could feel unnatural. Theres also always the alternative of just spraying it directly on the object which takes less sprays for any scent to stay, I think thats what most people already do, but again it'll feel less natural doing it that way.

overall, i believe i an a vessel of the many winged, many eyed beasts, moreso metaphorically and related to my alterhumanity than a spiritual thing, but it may prove to be spiritual for me.

also the universe works in beautiful ways. my watcher oc from like 3 years ago was named Tau. which i just learned is a greek character which the first keepers were named after!!! my name is tau ohh my god!!!!

And sometimes, I hate it.

I instigate. I push buttons. I clash with my sibling, and I refuse to back down. Why should I? She's hardly more than a fledgeling. Emotions fuel me, and she feels so many of them so strongly. I always feel bad afterwards, because she's my younger sister and I love her, but it's hard to step away.

I want to cause problems. To make others cautious, wary of their surroundings and of each other. I want them to mistrust everyone and put their faith in me. I want chaos, I want anger and fear and substance.

And I feel bad, because they're my friends and I care so, so deeply for them.

And yet, it's not always a bad thing. I push when others are upset because their masks of annoyance and anger don't deter me, I can see the hurt behind it. Them lashing out doesn't hide it. Eventually, it gives. And I can comfort them once it does.

I can take the energy and excitement of a group and direct it. I run games, and manage them easily because I live for it.

I am a Watcher, I feed off emotions, and it isn't always bad. I can channel that urge for kindness.

I mean, I'm not really a god per se, but I'm still a deity in some sense? We (Watchers) don't really have individual domains, but we still cover eyes/observation/games/chaos and things like that. We're very well-rounded beings, of course

I don't exactly want a full following/worshippers, but the sense of "leaving something out for (insert thing here) just to cover all bases), y'know? I'm not that big in terms of... godhood, idk. But maybe an offering here, small prayers there, just some acknowledgement. I even have two different "gendered" names, for void's sake! It's really quite easy, you know (addressing the humans here)

one, EYE WHITES BAD are you challenging me?

thing is that i mostly mask it when the kin is strong and otherwise its not a huge part of my life sadly

a maybe related, short vent-ish thing below

It's always been hard for me to talk about what kind of alterthing I am from a definition standpoint. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that my Watcher kintype is spiritual - I get glances of memories, much more often emotional bursts that feel like deja vu just sucker punched me either with joy and intrigue or pain and sorrow.

I tend to assign the spiritual label to my Cryptid kintype for the same reason, as I have reason to believe that past life is technically the same one, just after the Fall. When I came down from whatever cosmic perch I had, I had to assume a form and the Lone Pine Mountain Devil is the absolute closest entity I've found to what I connect and identify with. It's like looking into a pond to find a reflection but it's always drizzling a bit, the picture is clear enough but not perfect - but when I look in that pond, I can still recognize it's me, just with a LOT more eyes than normally depicted. How I was for a time and likely will be again.

The haziness really comes in when I think of my other types. I feel like a lot of therians are able to pinpoint, at least with time, what kind of origin best fits them. Ex. "I was a wolf in my past life, and I feel I am still a wolf in -blank- way." Most folks, at least outwardly, keep it pretty simple and assign that as spiritual unless there's some other congruent factor to be physical, psychological, etc. Some folks were like me growing up, they formed a special interest around most/all animals, likely focused on a certain species or two, and it stuck with them and fundamentally changed who they are. They'd probably say they're an otherspin, or an otherfix, depending on the species/reasoning. Even if it takes a while to find the origin that they feel fits (which is not a requirement btw, but it brings a lot of folks, including myself, comfort), they're usually able to identify for each species or category of creature/thing that they are.

I feel like multiple things are true for my theriotypes. I honestly, truly feel like my therianthropy is so hard to pin down and get comfortable with because of how many overlapping exomemories I have, the instincts get muddy and human life stressors make it harder for me to shut my brain down and just feel things. I am a fallen watcher and when I fell, I either gained or kept an ability to change my form. And what I did for thousands of years was explore the area that I had a special interest in as a celestial being. Sometimes when I look at my theriotypes, I feel the same joy and intrigue that I have when looking at my favorite anime now, but it feels detached. This interest, this feeling of wanting to stick to the shadows and observe every movement of my theriotype, see how they are, what they do, how they act - that part isn't the me that's alive right now, that's from before, the Watcher I was, being entirely entranced with animal life on the planet, finding the coasts of North America breathtaking, wanting to break free of the cosmos and fall headfirst into the ocean to see the creatures that don't breach the surface or only come up for air sparingly. I think, honestly, that my past self realized polymorphing into these creatures was not sufficient to experience what I craved - to be that animal and understand it, you have to be one from the beginning and learn from the others how to be that animal, those instincts come from somewhere specific that can't readily be replicated. So, I reincarnated instead. I think some species I came back as more often than others, or maybe some I kept reincarnating until I could really get it, like maybe I was always the odd one out. The one on the edge of the herd, the dispersal wolf who never quite got the family hierarchy the first few tries, the seal who just wasn't that good at avoiding predators so it took a lot more iterations. I don't know, but I know I was those animals, just not only those animals. I'm a cosmic being cosplaying those animals until I truly became one, and so I still am them, by being marinated over time with love and practice.

My theriotypes are not spintypes for me but they likely were before I took this form. I am fenikae, I feel absolutely certain that when I die I will be my old self again, a Watcher who has a deep love for animals, even human animals. I loved them so much I wanted to reincarnate as different species, again and again, to experience what they experienced and be so beautiful, and to feel what they felt. My theriotypes are instinctual, I do not tend to get fully formed memories from them, instead I get direct urges/the motor memory of an action; digging into the shore to snatch up and crack open a clam, huffing to get others attention or wanting to howl but never wishing to bark, wanting to score my claws deep into a tree and just climb towards my den, giving a brisk/hard stomp as warning and wanting to just headbutt that asshole with my antlers, diving into freezing water headfirst and gliding so naturally in search of a meal. But behind all of those instincts is a cosmic being with Too Many Eyes who is so thrilled and giddy about all this and wants to do it again, maybe the same animal, maybe a new one, maybe another human this time, maybe I can get things "Right" next time. I probably never will but that's fine, the differences are also the beautiful thing about creatures. I may not be a perfect human or seal or wolf or bear, or anything else I've been, but I know I was and still am in a lot of ways even if I can't always pin it down at that moment.

kin talk. slight unreality