Lycan's Theory

Quite simply -

Humans have shot ourselves in the foot with complexity. Everything from our intricate social spider webs to our technological "advances", right down to the complex crutches (i.e. machines, processes, factories, infrastructure) we lean on for survival have made us soft, stressed and and devoid of any real sense of connection with nature or the natural world.

I believe therianthropy -as a state of mind- is a rejection of the artificial, plastic, manufactured world. It is likely an adaptation for survival when these pillars of industrial, consumerist, technological society come crashing down in implosion and they will, eventually. There is no way to sustain our current way of life. It is malignant to us and to the rest of the natural world.

I cannot speak for the "identity" crowd because I am not one of them. Is it quite possible that is another group, entirely, flying under the same label. To me - spiritual, psychological, philosophical or ontological therianthropy makes sense. Identity does not.

Lyc

(2021-05-02 20:41)LycanTheory Wrote:  I believe therianthropy -as a state of mind- is a rejection of the artificial, plastic, manufactured world. It is likely an adaptation for survival when these pillars of industrial, consumerist, technological society come crashing down in implosion and they will, eventually. There is no way to sustain our current way of life. It is malignant to us and to the rest of the natural world.

It's not so different from my theory which has to do with structural dissociation of the mind. What you are referring to is dissociation of humanity from nature. Maybe it even has to do with spiritual ideas about being separated from God or the philosophy that separateness is illusory. I'm pretty sure there is a story with a similar theme in the book of Genesis. Humanity is cursed. But as a non-practicing Buddhist I don't believe animals are better off. We're all subject to suffering.

Aristotle wrote, "For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural."

Now look how the modern economy operates. Unnatural.

Quote:I cannot speak for the "identity" crowd because I am not one of them. Is it quite possible that is another group, entirely, flying under the same label. To me - spiritual, psychological, philosophical or ontological therianthropy makes sense. Identity does not.

I agree. Identity is a method of crowd-control and so it makes me anxious. It's because identity is a human need which can be manipulated and exploited.

Can you please explain what 'identity' means here?

The way I use 'identity' overlaps or is comprised of my spiritual, psychological, and philosophical experience of the world. I can't quite conceptualize 'identity' as being separate from who or what I am spiritually, who or what I am psychologically, who or what I am in my philosophy.

Is it just 'I don't relate to the idea of "I am a wolf" as a label that doesn't mean anything to the person I'm telling it to'?

(2021-05-03 4:46)Autumne Wrote:  Can you please explain what 'identity' means here?

The way I use 'identity' overlaps or is comprised of my spiritual, psychological, and philosophical experience of the world. I can't quite conceptualize 'identity' as being separate from who or what I am spiritually, who or what I am psychologically, who or what I am in my philosophy.

Is it just 'I don't relate to the idea of "I am a wolf" as a label that doesn't mean anything to the person I'm telling it to'?

The word "identity" when describing something like what we experience is a double edged sword.

It can be used to describe who you are at depth or it can be used to describe who you present yourself to be at face value. If used in the former context, it can be as solid as DNA for instance. If used in the latter context, it's a mask that can be worn, switched, discarded at will - a human social construct.

I am leery of "identify/identity" being used as it commonly is. My impression is that a lot of "I identify as 'X'" is being used as a front-facing social construct without much of a fundamental basis.

Lyc

Thank you for the clarification. I think for me, I make no distinction between the two because I have... Not spent very much of my life separating what I perform versus what I am. The idea of wearing a label that doesn't deeply and accurately help you to understand who I am and what that means to me is deeply unpleasant to me.

But I can understand why what one presents/performs, if not accurate to what one experiences, is not great. Both because of the importance I place on authenticity to the greatest extent possible and because of the trial of finding someone else who means what you do when you want to find your own kind.

(2021-05-03 4:46)Autumne Wrote:  Can you please explain what 'identity' means here?

The way I use 'identity' overlaps or is comprised of my spiritual, psychological, and philosophical experience of the world. I can't quite conceptualize 'identity' as being separate from who or what I am spiritually, who or what I am psychologically, who or what I am in my philosophy.

Is it just 'I don't relate to the idea of "I am a wolf" as a label that doesn't mean anything to the person I'm telling it to'?

Identity has to do with where you fit into a group or society. My identity is a card I carry which lists personal details like name, birth date, etc. My identity is a string of numbers issued by the government. When I go to work and walk into a client's home, I identify as housekeeping. When I'm not at work I switch between roles of mother, friend, provider and carer. So you see I don't have many social roles, and have little personal attachment to identity except that it's necessary to function in society.

Self-concept is different. I have an image of a ghost wolf which is a symbolic representation of my soul. The symbol has layers of cryptic meanings which I continually decipher to find meaning in life. From a Buddhist perspective, I exist simultaneously in the human realm, the animal realm and the ghost realm. How can an identity label explain that which is mysterious even to myself? It cannot.

My identity is nonexistent so I can't with that either.

I often have thoughts about the "animal" way of life making much more sense than the human one. Everything seems so pointless, simply unnatural, and often actually grosses me out and always has.

It's not really something one can talk about because people immediately get offended even if I don't mean to affect their decisions nor their view on certain things. So I usually just keep it to myself.

I don't get the hype with technology either. In the end it simply makes people lazy and awkward in social situations. Happy I didn't have that social media stuff before adulthood. Never cared either. Loved playing DS, that was it.

Ahhhh... now here's something I can wholeheartedly agree with.

I've mulled this topic over in my head many times, and I've also come to the conclusion that therians are there as a sort of defense mechanism against the general populace for the earth... hence why we're so few in population and most all feel very strong inherent connections to nature. It's why I feel a sense of duty and hate the identity terminology as you do... I have no desire to be understood in the public eye or to be more open at all, since, by nature, that's not why my brain works the way it does.

(2021-05-02 20:41)LycanTheory Wrote:  I believe therianthropy -as a state of mind- is a rejection of the artificial, plastic, manufactured world. It is likely an adaptation for survival when these pillars of industrial, consumerist, technological society come crashing down in implosion and they will, eventually. There is no way to sustain our current way of life. It is malignant to us and to the rest of the natural world.

To me - spiritual, psychological, philosophical or ontological therianthropy makes sense. Identity does not

I'm not sure I entirely agree with you, because WVZ has established pretty thoroughly that therianthropy is not a new phenomenon, and it probably about as old as humanity itself. Although the way it manifests itself in this current age, is probably somewhat unique. Just because we have the internet, and are living farther from nature than ever.

Taking your original theory and adapting it to accommodate this larger timeline, perhaps therianthropy — as a state of mind — is a reminder to the rest of humanity that we are connected to everything else in the circle of life. An adaptation for survival, because when we loose sight of that we destroy nature, and ultimately thus ourselves who depend upon it. An adaptation that ensures a certain amount of the population still knows, instinctually deep down from their animal part, how to survive. Some of the beasts among us who would call themselves therian have forgotten that and prefer to play human. To take up their time with petty online squabbles of a highschool level. There are those among us though who remember how to fish, and hunt, and life with the land rather than from it.

Personally I like to believe that why we're here, now, as therians, is as guardians of nature. A wolf therian is uniquely inclined to protect wolves, a bear therian uniquely inclined to protect bears, for the same reason a human is uniquely inclined to protect humans. A therian is inclined to protect nature as a whole, because that is the way of life for the wolf and the bear. Just like a human is inclined to destroy it as a whole, because this is the way of life for the human. Although I think it's important to recognize that it doesn't have to be. I think if you look at a lot of the cultures of humans who didn't do this, they have a strong connection to animals/ plants, and animal symbolism. It might seem simpler to just be a wolf or a bear, however we have the advantage of human hands, and human minds which can think and plan far into the future. A bear can protect nature only as he sees it in that moment. We also have the ability to communicate with humans in the only way they will listen, with words.

I do wonder about the role of therians such as you or myself. What does a domestic therian have specifically to contribute vs a wild one? Or in my case a foreign one vs a native one? Or a therian who is an extinct species? I'm not sure. Perhaps it has something to do with adapting to the changing climate, or growing human population.

I agree with your message though. This world will fall, either into death or complete slavery as it is trending towards. And when that time comes it doesn't matter what you identify as, or the reason for your therianthropy. Either deep in your nature lies the animal who knows these skills, or it does not. You will live or you will not. And even if you have animal within you, that doesn't guarantee survival.

Sometimes I have visions where it is just me. Plants have taken over the cities, there are pools of fish living in the ruins of sky scrapers. It's probably just wishful thinking, but I yearn for that time.

(2021-08-18 18:38)Atlantis Wrote:  I do wonder about the role of therians such as you or myself. What does a domestic therian have specifically to contribute vs a wild one? Or in my case a foreign one vs a native one? Or a therian who is an extinct species? I'm not sure. Perhaps it has something to do with adapting to the changing climate, or growing human population.

So, I see the purpose of therianthropy as being more or less the way you describe it, guardians of nature. I think there's some difference for me though, specifically around like... what purpose the species of a therian serves to that end. I mean, as a coyote, coyotes in general are doing fine. More than fine, really; they've expanded their territory with human encroachment, instead of the other way around. So if my goal was just to serve as a guardian for coyotes, there's not necessarily a whole lot I'd need to do. But I see my goal more broadly, to help defend nature in general. Instead of speaking for the coyotes specifically on behalf of the coyotes, I see my role as bringing the coyote perspective into the conversation as a whole. Similarly for bears, wolves, domestic animals, and non-Earth creatures. There are different perspectives that are important to consider, and it's important that all be heard in terms of trying to achieve a larger balance.