Awakenings

[Seric Phriam]

How did you find out that you're an otherkin/therian?

For me, I always knew I was 'different', somehow. I felt like I had to force myself to learn how to act like a human. When I was ten, I decided that I have the soul of a dragon. It just felt right.

In high school, I ended up suppressing it quite a bit. But in my junior year, I discovered the term 'therian' on DeviantArt. I then found Therian-Wilderness, and realized I had found a term that described me. I then bought and read Lupa's 'A Field Guide to Otherkin'.

And... I still feel like I'm a dragon. Some other things, too, but it's a lot.

So how did you guys come to realize what you are? And even then, I think none of us are done discovering things about ourselves.

[Kai]

Woo awakening stories. ^.^

Like most otherkin/therians I too felt more animal than human since I was very small. When ever we would play I refused to be a human. Around late junior high, early high school the feeling seemed to almost intensify. My desire to be non-human grew, and it was around this time I discovered anthropomorphic art on DeviantArt. Well needless to say I took a shine to this and adopted the art of drawing anthros to help relieve some species dysphoria.

It wasn't until sophomore year that I really questioned my humanity, and identified that I really felt non-human. At the time I had what might be considered head mates. Two original characters I had created that became developed to the point of becoming their own entities. I was in counseling at the time for other issues but to add this on top of that and therianthropy, I dismissed my dysphoria as me just being crazy.

A few months later I became determined to rid myself of my trouble some head mates (they really were destructive to my psyche), and worked hard to discipline my mind, putting up walls to keep out their voices, and to stifle any feelings of animal I felt.

Around the end of my junior year a close friend of mine came out to me about being a fox therian. He's also a fellow Christian and (since he's not the best at articulating) gave me a couple of web links where I could read and learn more about therianthropy, and one link that talked about specifically Christian therianthropy, and how being non-human in one's essence isn't blasphemy or psychosis.

After that I stopped feeling like I was crazy, and in doing so a massive weight was removed and I was able to slow down and think rationally and examine how I really felt. Remnants of my OCs stuck around with me until I graduated in 2008 and this lead to a lot of confusion about what my theriotype really was (one of my OCs has a fox/wolf beast type creature as an alternate form). It wasn't until a year later when I entered college that they had been completely purged from my system and I was able to properly identify feline as my main theriotype and work from there.


....sorry that was so long. I'm a bit of a writer at heart and so once I start going it's hard for me to stop. ^^;

[Seric Phriam]

@ Kai

Gee, I write and I talk to my characters when I'm writing. It's like they're real people, you know?

Do you still have the link to that Christian therianthropy site he gave you? It sounds interesting.

[Kai]

@seric: I completely understand. I have been really cautious ever since high school though not to let my characters get too independent with their personalities, and my tabletop rps have helped with this. Now instead of becoming their own entities they are more an extension of myself, with certain variances that still make them unique. :3

EDIT: I feel stupid. I totally had it up to copy the link and then forgot to paste it here. XP
Here's the link the the Christian therian forums I'm on. It's been pretty dead for a while now though, which is rather saddening. :<
werecat.proboards.com/index.cgi

[Bulwark]

I just want to say, before I begin, I'm using the same explanation as I used on TW, simply because it is semi-long and I just woke up really, so my typing skills are shite, I'll just add a bit I feel is needed.

So yea, my discovery story... might not be the most dramatic, but it was a strange time for me and I see myself as lucky to come across it in such a young age, for all I know, I could still be unaware if I wasn't for one specific guy... first of all I want to point out that I have always felt different, you know the feeling yourselves, but I wasn't able to pinpoint what was wrong, I just had a huge affinity of animals and I was pretty much facinated by the whole werewolf myth from an early age, I remember back when I was like... 8 I guess, me and 2 of my friends used to play "rodeo"... this game was simply based on the fact that I was alot bigger than everyone else in my class at that time, so I could without problem carry them on my back, and then they had to hold on while I tried to get them off without using my hands... hehe, fun times... anyway, the whole discovery story...

all in all, I started talking to this guy online who said he was into shamanism and astral stuff, so he told me about Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming and it got my interest, I decided to look into it and ultimately give it a go, I have had a few lucid dreams in my time, but the best experience was when I managed to do a more or less complete astral projection, strange thing was that as I was wandering about the nearby forest, it came across a pond and upon looking into it, a tundra wolf looked back at me, at first it shocked me a bit, but it was like I was prepared to see something out of place...

and after that time I kept doing my astral projections and stuff, it eventually became a daily ritual, and if I wasn't able to do a projection or lucid dreaming, I just did some good ol' meditation, in time I became aware by small messages in my dreams and during my trance like state during meditations, I also started getting sort of visions in my normal dreams and small strange flashes even while awake... me being an angsty little teenager at the time misinterpreted it all, which I bet alot of people have done, so I went through that whole "rawr, im a werewolf" phase... Im not proud of it, but hey, I was a kid... I can't remember when I got over that phase, but thats when I really realized what was going on, and I started feeling better about myself, I generally got happier and learned to smile at trouble, then it didn't take long before I fell over the term "therian" and searched up a few websites, and well, I finally managed to figure why I am the way I am

so here I am today, 20 years old, fully aware of myself, unfortunately I do not have any close friends who are otherkin or therian aswell, so thats why I seek out places like this, I have a need to conversate with like-minded people.

[kami]

I'de always known that there was something different about me but couldn't put my finger on what I was feeling until the day I saw the word therian. I began my search and at first I thought I was a wolf and then a tigress, but after intense dreams,mediation, and soul searching I came to the conclusion that I am an african lioness,jaguar, and leopard. It has been a long journey for me but I'm very happy to be a therian.

[railaybara]

In therianthropy in general I found out of boredom one day that I didn't have anything to do.
As for my type..I know that a celestial wolf sounds kind of odd but it's what I call myself. At first it was just a wolf, nothing too special for years..until I started noticing something different..I had almost dragonic-like wings on my back that never went away. I would know since I'm always shifted.
I started getting visions and flashbacks of this creature...this weird black wolf, with glowing symbols, and red eyes, and a scar over one of the eyes...as made up as that sounds..it's absolutely real. The feelings..the dreams, and everything I couldn't deny. It wasn't even nearly the regular wolf.
Then of course the blue shark.
I just started to feel fishy one day and so I started to look more into it. I guess I eventually found out it was a blue shark..nothing to exciting about finding this type out.
-Rail

[Kai]

@rail: Heh, you and I can be weird types together, rail. An enormous red cat with tattoo-like black markings sounds pretty fluffy too, even for myself. ^^;

[railaybara]

Kai
Glad I'm not the only person with a weird theriotype. Makes my life a little easier, haha.
-Rail