Confusion about the meaning of therian

I know, that I'm not confused! But I wonder some times because I'm not a typical therian, if some people in the community based on what I've said before, might think I'm confused...?

I know it's silly to think that way, but I do because I had my awakening so late in life. And I don't really experience any shifts except from the few times I might have experienced very weak phantom ears.

The only way I'm able to describe my therianthropy and how it feels is, that it is clearly an identity that I feel. Also a connection. When I see a picture of my therio-type, think or talk about it, I feel and see it as me on a deep level. A recognition. A familliar face. Longing. Being. And so on. On the outside I'm human. But on the inside there's more going on. These intense feelings that is hard to describe. I also feel it in the chest like tiny little butterflies. But personally saying "with" feels more comfortable than saying "as".

And to describe how I feel, like it were an image, would be like a fox have made a den within me. And I see a mental image of it. Sometimes making my heart ache. It's like it have made itself a part of my very being. Awakened me. There deep in my core. It all just happened without a choice. And without much of a warning. I recognize that fox, my therio-type. I can google thousands of pictures of foxes. But only one type do I recognize myself in. It's not just any red fox. But this particular red fox with it's fur color morph/ mutation. I feel drawn to this particular fox for some reason that I don't understand!

Is all this just a confusion?! Am I mentally ill?! I don't feel that I'm confused or mentally ill though...



(English is not my first language so I sometimes find myself at a loss for words. Difficulties to describe and to form sentences. But I hope I made some sense of what I was saying.)

no i dont think yoire ill or confused, its just how you experience, and it is such a beautiful thing :3

with love,
Star

@LivB08
If you are crazy than I am crazy because that's how it feels for me too!
Or at least most of it

@BearX

I was thinking about this today. Perhaps people used 'with' in the 90's because 'as' seemed too much. As traditionally to identify 'as' something meant to physically be that thing. However, with the transgender community the use of the term to 'identify as' became broader and the inconvenient ambiguity of the term 'identify with' became unnecessary. Now 'identify with' means that someone shares characteristics with and some kind of emotional bond towards something or someone and to 'identify as' means to feel as if you are or ought to be something, thus removing the ambiguity.

The focus back then was not how we related to ourselves as much as how we related to each other. Conversations between weres then were very much different from those between therians now. They didn't angst over their theriotypes, they didn't worry about their species, they were not concerned to describe their phantoms to each other. There was very little discussion about "as vs. with" or "spiritual vs. psychological". We talked about how to get together in real life, how we related to the world and to each other, and how to best deal with the reality of our existence. And at Howls, it would be hard for a passerby to realize that there was something different about us unless they listened very, very carefully.

We could not have cared less about "as" vs. "with" and most of us still could not care less.

I still have a problem with saying "as". I love the Therian community and all, but it's still weird to me!

I know I'm a Fox Therian, but it all comes down to how I feel about Therianthropy. I know it's a real thing but it doesn't keep me from feeling weird about it. That's why saying "as" probably always will be hard for me to say. But I can't say "with" either, as that doesn't cover how I feel and see myself!

I've tried to talk to my non-Therian cousin, and my Wicca Deviant Art friend who have a fox spirit guide, about my Therianthropy. But they never replied back. They probably didn't know how to respond. Wicca is a religion from what my DA friend told me. Therianthropy is not! That also makes me more aware that Therianthropy by society's standards are not seen as normal. That is another reason why I struggle so much to say sraight out that I identify as.

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(2017-09-27 4:45)IAmMeAlways Wrote:  @LivB08
If you are crazy than I am crazy because that's how it feels for me too!
Or at least most of it

I don't think we're crazy though. I do sometimes question my Therianthropy, but it always leads me back to the same answer that is "that I am!"

I rarely say either. The weres I live with in the real world just aren't interested in the concept.

I've been on several Christian and pagan forums and I've been booted off more pagan forums than Christian for stating that I'm a werewolf. (one Christian, I've lost count of the pagan.)

(2017-10-15 0:26)Der_Hyazinth_Ara Wrote:  I was thinking about this today. Perhaps people used 'with' in the 90's because 'as' seemed too much. As traditionally to identify 'as' something meant to physically be that thing.

I actually said this same thing in a post some time ago. You're absolutely right. However, WVZ is also correct in that it never mattered back in the day. I don't remember a single discussion about "as vs with" before I pulled back from the online communities. I'm hoping that folks stop caring about it again.

I am physically human, so it still feels awkward for me to say "as". I do it, because that's the expected thing, but I prefer to say, "internally as". I don't really worry about the ambiguity so much. I've felt I was supposed to have been born a bear for decades, the words I use won't make that any different.

Another thing is that back in the day there wasn't as strong a difference between -kith and -kin. We all felt a connection of varying strength, and that was enough. I continue to assert that therianthropy is a spectrum, and that the way we quantify it in such binary terms doesn't come close to capturing the experience. However, I don't know how better to do it.

with and as for me i always thought meant the same thing, which is why i didnt get kith for a while, and i think... i do now?

i guess kith is really having atraction to a ceartain animal WITHOUT identifying as it , like a favorite animal :3

i thought the distinction was a bit weird at first but gramattically it makes sense.

i personally dont find as as something uncomfortable, well, stating ima ceatacean has been uncomfortable regardless since i used as/with interchangebly.

i personally dont use kith cause im not sure i understand it entirely. cause ive seen varyibg definitions, like saying you itetify with what the animal symbolizes , or its characteristics but not as it...

not sure if thats me and burbs ... i guess because ive always loved the idea of soaring, but i never strongly identified as a birb.

heh. birb.

birbs helped me actually feel like continuing to live because i loved how feathers feel with my human body... its the only thing that i like enough to keep me sane in thus body hah.

also mangoes. mangoes are second on my list cause i get grateful for them cause they si sweet and ive assosiated the flavour to a tropical island ....

though these dont always work, it keeps me distracted until i can fully accept myself and get stronger dream shifts... its not that i wont be interested in birvs or mangoes afterward, though heh xD


wow, that went OFF TOPIC

hey, saw your video, so thank you for the clear explanation. I myself have thought I was therian, but my so-called theriotype, female gray wolf, departed from me and was by a brown male wolf two yeras ago. This seemed starnge to me, and I seem to have mental shifts like a therian. A friend of mine suggested I may be kith, which I jjust learned of today here on the forum. I feel extremely close to the wolf but realize I've never truly felt at all times canine. The two are separated it seems. But I have to wonder why I have mental shifts where I feel I become the wolf and return human? Is there a purpose to this, and why would a spirit animal want to move through the human body that way? I share emotions and thoughts of my wolf sle self, as he feels with me within my mind, stronger at times than others. I would like to know if anyone who shares this idea of being kith, or for me, wolf-hearted if this is what I truly am and beginning to think, have therian-like mental shifts. Mine usually last fifteen minutes for the most intense ones and less at other times when physically tired. Sometimes the shift will come over me out of nowhere like an uncontrolled wave but most times I sense it and can hold it off till I'm ready to let my wolf express himself in a safe place. I'm looking for more help how to really explore myself. Lately, I see a shadow of a wolf standing in front of me while walking or when in a shift itself in the room with me. I don't if this is a shadow of the wolf himself within me I'm connecting to but it's a new experience, sort of scary but one I want to understand. Thanks.know with