THERIANTHROPY, AND YOU

 

POLYWERE: A Therian with multiple animals inside

MPD: Multiple Personality Disorder

 

THE QUESTIONS

"Am I a Therian?"

"How do I become a Therian?"

These seem to be the most often heard questions of the misguided and non-informed or just plain curious.

Because therianthropy is extremely personalised, it is almost impossable for someone else (particularly a stranger on a message board or in a chatroom) to tell you what and who you are. Therianthropy is something that must be worked out for oneself, although of course nothing says you can't reach out for help and support.

However, simply waking up one morning and deciding "I want to be a mouse today" Does not make you a therian. Unlike religon, you cannot just choose to be a therian. Those of us who have taken the agonising time and patience to find ourselves get increasingly annoyed at the astounding number of 'newbies' to therianthropy who seem to have spent little time and even less thought on this spiritual/occult belief that is held very dear to most.

Becoming a therian is held by most to be an impossability, as you are either born with this connection, or you have not got it.

Other popular myths on becoming a therian include:

*Drinking from a wolf's pawprint on the full moon

*Being bitten by a therian - Getting bitten might give you a nasty infection (since human mouths are pretty unsanitary), but it won't make you a therian. Therianthropy is an 'inner you' concept, not a physical disease.

*Wearing the skin of a wolf or bear

Please note I am not responsable for the consequences of atempting any or all of these methods. Please also be aware that while most myths do hold some shred of truth to their origin, these methods are considered fictional and will not (thus far known) turn you into a therian of any kind.

The best course of action is to Soulsearch.

 

ROLE-PLAYING AND REALITY

Many people new to the concept of therianthropy may also be lead astray by popular role-playing games such as White Wolf's Werewolf: The Apocalpyse, or Vampire: The Masqurade. Two of the most common reasons for this are:

1. Makes an easy escape from "humanity"

2. It reflects some of the feelings many therians have about themselves and their spiritual beliefs.

Role Playing is a game, it's a break from reality, but it is NOT reality. Some people grow dependant on this "break" and so go so far as to incorporate it into their daily lives as a means to cope with reality. This will lead to a downfall 100% of the time, whether it's them crashing face first into reality, or their untimely death due to suicide.

 

SHIFTER'S DISEASE

Another large problem for people newly discovering themselves is to be caught up in what's known as "Shifter's Disease". This is similar to "Medical Student's Disease" (MSD)
MSD is a condition where upcoming doctors are reading/studying notes on diseases, virii, other ailments, and their symptoms.

At some point in these studies, they may read "And the starting symptom of 'delusionitis' (for example) is a headache." Well, you know what? When you've been studying all night with a desk lamp in your face, you just might have a headache.
The student reads on "...tingling and cramping of one side, starting with the hand is also a common symptom..." Oops, said student had been rewriting 4-5 weeks worth of notes in one night... oh no, his hand is cramped!
"Next a feeling of discomfort starts from the upper thigh, through the back to the neck..." Again, the student has been studying all night, and let's face it, those dorm chairs/desks are NOT fitted for the average students 'lower regions.' Thus, the student has neck and back pain from sitting in the chair all night, studying...
By the time the student is done studying, he's probably already convinced himself that these normal, everyday occurrences, are really symptoms of a rare, often never heard of (in this case, fictional) disease.

Shifter's Disease is very similar. Many 'therians' have associated their own normal traits and habits with that of shifting or therianthropy in general.
This condition is usually aided when said person has more faith than doubt.. In this case, too much faith can be "unhealthy."
This is a mental condition, not a real disease. Only the sufferer of Shifter's Disease can correctly identify it, if they are willing, and correct it. No one else has the RIGHT to tell someone else they have Shifter's Disease. Those kinds of people are likely kids, lackies, or those with personal problems. If someone tells you that you have shifter's disease, I suggest you ignore them. If they tell you that you might have shifter's disease, you might want to do more in depth soul searching. Don't take it too much to heart, however don't ignore them completely either. Generally when a good person informs you of the possability, it's for a reason. You can usually discern the 'good' people in this reguard, by the way they inform you of the concept as stated above. Once again if they say you have shifters diesease, it's probably not something you should listen to. If they suggest you might have it, that would be worth examining.

 

INSTA-WERES

Insta-Weres are the folks who latch onto the concept of therianthropy because it either appeals to them in a 'gee-whiz-this-is-neat' way or because it fulfills some basic superficial need: acceptance in a peer group, or a method of projecting a sense of physical superiority, or justifying an anger management problem.

It is easier to take someone else's personal philosophy and adopt it as your own - in the short term. It's much more difficult to look at all of the information available to you and decide what you believe for yourself. People like having things handed to them, especially when the alternative is dirty, difficult soul-searching. And that's what many have done. And that's why they'll suffer many sleepless nights of self-doubt.

 

POLYWERES

There are a large number of therians now a days who have more than one animal they are connected to. These types are referred to as Polyweres, 'poly' meaning many, and the 'were' slang for werecreature, so basicaly 'many man beast' or more accurately, 'many beast man'. See more comments and information on this term in the section 'Terms Overload'

Polys can consist from 2 to as many as 4 different animals, generally. Any more than that and you may wish to go over yourself through increased soulsearching, as you may be confusing a guide with your wereism. Although there is in fact no 'set' limit to the number of animals one's soul may hold. Anyone claiming such knowledge should be taken with a truck-load of salt.

Polywereism is not simply changing your wereside to a completely different animal. For example:
Person A is a wolf, then becomes a fox, then a wolf again over the course of a few years. This is not a polywere most times, this is a person who has either not done a sufficent ammount of personal soulsearching, or is a bandwagoner simply riding the fad waves as they come and go.

Polyweres are most often fully intergrated with each animal, although one type may be more dominate in them than another and can fluctuate with moods. Some polys have an animal so dominant that the other is almost non exsistant, so they tend to refer to themselves as just that one dominate animal. However, they themselves are still aware of their own identity as a polywere.

Therians who have more than one animal connection often find soulsearching and integrating themselves to be a slightly more difficult experience than those with a single phenotype.
This often results in the many flames a younger less experienced 'newbie' may experience in the situation of claiming a redicuous number of weresides. To avoid this, do the research, do the soulsearching and show some intelligence. Being a polywere does not make you more or less therian than single phenotypes, nor does it give you any kind of power, credability or 'specialness'. And vice versa.

 

WOLF PREJUDICE

'Wolf prejudice' refers to the 'favouritism' the wolf as a phenotype recieves in a large part of the therianthropy communities, especialy online. This is most noticeable when 'newbies' come into therianthropy and ask about 'werewolves'. Not werecreatures or therianthropes, but wereWOLVES. A typical result of the popularity of the wolf from tv shows and literiture.

This is rather a personal gripe for many, as they dislike being grouped into something of which they are not. Wolves are not the only 'real therians' out there, and only make up one small portion of the whole.

There are also those 'elite' therians who consider themselves to be above others because of a special talent they possess (such as artwork), or because of their beleifs. These people are best taken with a grain of salt, and you would do well to remember that their views are their own, and not necessarily shared by the rest of the communities, nor yourself. So before forming an opinion about a spirituality matter based on what a popular artist or writer has to say about it, try using your brain. You would not allow an architect to preform brain surgery would you? No matter how popular they were.

Popularity does not induce credability.

 

BALLANCE IN ONESELF

Therians are not always fully balanced or intergrated with their animals, and it is not everyone's choice to strive for this. A lot of therians can be clinically diagnosed with MPD due to an extreme split in personality bewteen their human side and animal side, many others chose to refer to their animal side as a seperate entity. Similarly, some therians have a wereside of the oposite gender. Most often these types are of the 'split' varitiety. However many other therians have managed complete balance in their animal and human selves, to the point they refer to themselves as both, not one or the other in mindset. Predominantly among these are con-therians. whether you are of the split, or balanced therianthropy mindset, neither is more 'real' or 'pure' than the other. What matters is who you are.

 

 

OmniShift and it's contents © "Raksha" RJ Boettcher, unless otherwise stated. Do Not reproduce in whole or part any of the material within without express permission of the author/artist/creator. Unless otherwise stated.