This is a challenge for me. I do not consider myself much of a writer. I am dragon. How is that for a great start? How does it feel? Awkward sometimes. It is a feeling of connectedness with the flows. The flows are energy fields that surround everything. For example, the Force in Star Wars. I can feel the form of a great serpent - in fact there are even times I can see it. I find my actions reflect that of having greater size or bulk. When I "put on the dragon" (a term I use for being draconic) I feel very old. Not as in years, but in time. My head will swing around on a long neck as I turn to look at something. It will feel very large and long. My eyes will feel as though the bridge of my nose has grown and I am looking down the length of it to see. My chest expands and the lungs are audible and loud in my ears. There have been a few times I have grumbled and the chest rumbled, vibrating right up to my ears.
Now entering limited beta. Invitation only.
#otherkin.net migration
138 uses
In terms of the online otherkin community I am pretty old. I was around ten years ago when R'ykandar posted to alt.pagan about the Elfinkind Digest, the very first and for a long time, the only mailing list for elves and associated people. I remember when the term "otherkin" was coined, because it was obvious that there were more than just elfkin around. I state this for context, not to claim any sort of seniority.
Ed: Every so often when talking about becoming aware, someone expresses the opinion that things have become, in some ways, too easy for newcomers to the otherkin scene. At which point someone asks, why should they be hard, what's wrong with helping others...
This site generally gets refered to as Otherkin.net (or even abbreviated to OKN).
Which is a useful shorthand, but the site does have a full name that seems to get neglected
or pass unnoticed most of the time. This is not just Otherkin.net, it is
Otherkin.net: Harmony & Discord.
[Ed: This was originally a soc.religion.paganism post (thus the creation date).
I belive the outside perspective is a useful one. You may also wish to read Shadow of Myth which touches on the same
subject.]
Author's note: This is an excerpt from the current draft of my book, A Field Guide to Otherkin. It's still a work in progress, but it is scheduled for publication in the first half of 2007. I've already contracted it through Immanion Press, who published my first book, Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic (May 2006).
Author's note: This is an excerpt from the current draft of my book, A Field Guide to Otherkin. It's still a work in progress, but it is scheduled for publication in the first half of 2007. I've already contracted it through Immanion Press, who published my first book, Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic (May 2006).
All through our lives, we create our own identities.
Sometimes, society imposes identities on us as well. At home,
in school, in the playground, in the workplace - we have our own
personal identities. Within us, we also have our core identities, the
Selves we know most intimately. Close to our skin.
If you've read the previous entry, you'll notice something. Aside
from the fact that it reflects having been written at close
to 2am after some insomnia. Yes, if you read over all that,
and think about it for a moment or two, youll realize I
didnt really define dragons at all. Not in the sense of a
category. Traits (which all dragons may or may not have) were
thrown out as a sampling, but it yields no cohesive picture,
no line to separate dragons from everything else. Vexingly,
there are also things which are not dragons which fit the
traits given better than most dragons do.
"So how do you define a dragon?" I was asked.
To all those who think magic, majik, majick, however it's spelled this
week, is dead here on Earth...
Popular fantasy-fiction and childhood fairy tales have taught us a certain
view of what constitutes magic. Popular psychology discusses the concept
of "magical thinking", or unconnected cause-and-effect thinking (such as
"if I do A then B will result" with no concrete connection between cause
and effect) as a barrier to true psychological growth. Many of us have
memories of magic that responds immediately and concretely to our
workings. What do all three of these have in common? All three of these
descriptions do not accurately describe what magic is and how it works on
Planet Earth.
[Ed: This was originally written in a discussion about the vampire
community, but the concepts apply equally well elsewhere]
Well, that should get someone's attention. If there is anyone listening.
One can have awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering without
concluding that it is one's God-given right to step into that person's life and rearrange it according to our own standards. judgments and desires.
How do you recognize leadership in a community that is inherently
highly diverse and geographically distributed? Traditional models of
leadership don't seem to map well to the Otherkin community. In large
part, the Otherkin community is composed of highly individualistic people,
many of whom have a distinct dislike for traditional authority figures.
When you combine this with the sheer geographical spread of the
community members, the resulting situation presents serious challenges
to a traditional model of leadership.
There is a certain bias in the occult community concerning fantasy. I
understand it, for I have it, too. When someone speaks to me of an idea or
concept, no matter how potentially valid, if it turns out that their source
of inspiration was a novel, a movie, a game -- then I am less inclined to
listen to anything else they have to say.
"Am I 'Kin?" or some variation of it is a question that is asked quite
frequently on Otherkin lists and boards. The thing is, it can't be
answered. At least by me or anyone else except the person asking the
question. So it is time to turn the question back instead of answering
it. Are you 'Kin?