Therianthropy
What is therianthropy anyway? It's a label; just as with any other label, definitions vary from individual to individual and this one isn't the end of all. Most definitions on the subject are very caught in jargon and justifications of a spiritual nature. I don't find they work well at explaining what this is all about for people who aren't familiar with the concept already, or for those of us who are skeptical individuals, and I need a blurb on this so people know what the hell I'm talking about on Thébaïde.
Therianthropy is a constant state of being and way of experiencing/perceiving the world that leads a person to identify as an animal; thus a therianthrope (or therian for short) is a person who, while aknowledging their human body, feel and think they are a non-human animal identity-wise. The term comes from the Greek therion, meaning beast, and anthropos standing for human being, man; beast-man, human-beast, whichever works for you. While that word is constructed similarly than "lycanthrope", therianthropy is not a mental illness and does not refer to any sort of mythological creature either. To draw a parallel, just like transgender or transsexual people are individuals whose gender identity is different than their anatomical sex, therianthropes are people whose species identity does not match their biological body.
How is that possible? Everybody entertain their own theories, ranging from spiritual explanations (souls, past lives and reincarnation) to scientific takes on the subject (psychology, atypical neurobiology and such as), without them necessarily being mutually exclusive. I am not interested in listing and discussing them; regardless of why we believe we are what we are, or whether people who are animal realized it and found a word for it, the fact is that therians experience the world differently than non-therians, without it being pathological. Therianthropy also is not the same as totemism, where one have a spiritual guide or mental archetype from which s/he may draw on animal attributes. In totemism, the animal is a symbolical or external entity distinct from the person, while therians feel they are the animal themselves. As such we can note that therians can have totems too and those often are unrelated to what animal they identify as.
The concept of being animal inside is not new regarding the rest of humanity, of course, but where did the therian subculture come from? In the early 90's was created a Usenet newsgroup for discussing werewolves in myth, fiction and movies: alt.horror.werewolves, also known as AHWw. A few months later someone there asked if anyone had never identified as a werewolf, and soon emerged the concept of therianthropy, detracting the community from its original purpose. After a few years though the place got abusively trolled and its carcass abandonned. Nowadays a myriad of different websites and forums for therianthropes can be found through the web, each with their own beliefs and definitions. I think the fact the therian subculture grew from a werewolves fans group, to then become populated by folk who'd share animist beliefs, explains why a lot of therian sites and definitions stayed both spiritual and wolf/werewolf-centric for so long - and still is for the most part nowadays.
Part of this shows in the use of the term "were", which was the short for werewolf or any sort of werecreature, and was what animal-folk used to refer to themselves instead of "therian"; naturally it could be quite misleading at times, but this has been discussed enough everywhere that it's not worth delving into here. Another element remnant of the werewolf folklore as well as shamanistic traditions is the concept of "shifting". Obviously animal-people do not believe they can physically turn into an animal. However while some individuals have an unchanging, steady identity, a lot of therianthropes may feel more or less animal at times, and refer as "shift" to any change in animalness they experience. With time a terminology appeared to categorize people in how they experience the animal or shift, and shifts in how they affect the individual. The usefulness of those labels often is debatable, but discussing sementics is not the point of this essay (check out other sites and the next essays in the Croaks section) so just don't be surprised if you come accross complex jargons.
... I can't go on like this, damnit. I'm not part of the "therian community" and I don't like definitions and I don't like that T-word. *Takes a deep breathe.* Let's stray away from serious wording and linear thinking and "making sense", shall we? The meat of being an animal-person revolves around concrete experiences and not debating over theories.
I am an animal-person. I think and feel and experience the world as a feline/corvine being. That doesn't translate well into words, but I like giving it a try anyway, and that's mostly what this site is about. I am a clouded leopard and I am a common raven, and a human all at once, and there's no contradiction because identity is made up of many aspects, mental representations and other concepts, and one of them is gender and one of them is my animal identity instead of a purely human one. I don't know if I was "born" this way; you aren't who you are now from birth, you become it through events and how you were raised. Maybe it also comes from my brain and it was likely from that start that I'd grow into that sort of atypical individual, or some people would say animal bits clung to my soul from other lives and I ended up like this in this one. I don't have the answer and it doesn't matter because it doesn't change the fact that I experience the world as a clouded ravenpard human-thing.
I didn't wake up one day thinking "ah! I really am a raven". There was no "Awakening" with a capital A from some traumatic event, no romanticized sort of call brought by mighty animal guides; the realization of my animal nature was pretty ordinary and drama-free, actually. For most of us that's just the sort of thing that becomes clear someday, because it would show in your daily life and you would end up understanding in which ways you differ from other people. Being an animal in a human world is not something that makes me better than everyone else. Being different can be hard when you have to fit in, which I don't like doing because I like being sincere. At the same time, being an animal does not give me excuses to act poorly, because I am a mature individual and it's not okay to piss on wheel trims or snarl at little children (beside, tongue-sticking's funnier). I am an animal-person, and this is another of my specificities, like I am masculine and French.
This not about faith or delusion. If I stop believing I'm an animal, even when I don't want to be one, it does not go away. I cannot suppress the feel that my body should be like this and this, that I should be able to see my spots, touch my feathers and feline ears. I am always stuck with the urge to lick my shoulder or hiss or sniff people and things. I cannot help the inside of me from clenching when I see other big cats or corvids because I'm like them and yet I'm not. I can't say "well, this can't be" because it sticks to me, something I can't touch but that's very much real and here.
And I'm okay with it.
Hell, I love being myself. In this society you have to be ashamed of your difference so that you're condescendingly told you should be proud, and if you didn't wait for people's approval to take pride in what you are then you're arrogant. I say bullshit. I'm introverted and territorial and I wouldn't trade this for perfect social skills. People find me nice and interesting and want to get to know me better when we click - that's good enough. Likewise I wouldn't trade sexes because I like being what I am, with all the hardships, experience and wisdom that comes with it. I like being an animal person, though as an animal I wouldn't be aware of what I'm missing much. I'm fine either way.
That's what being an animal-person is about: living as a someone both human and animal - and trying to find balance and happiness in this. Sometimes it's awkward, sometimes it's beautiful, other times it's pretty mundane. So is life.
Anyway I'm rambling; if you're interested in what it's like to be a clouded leopard/raven person and other musings, I have a lot of writings in the Croaks section under Along the Path. If you think you may be a therian and are looking for insights, you might want to first check my older essays in the same area under To Start With; you won't find real guides, only records of common sense and personal experience that might be useful to you. Or maybe not. There are many other websites out there. Just keep a critical mind.
~Akhila
November 2004