Otherhearted: What exactly is Kith?

There is one major issue here. What does it even mean to identify with? What qualifies as seeing yourself in an animal or finding them relatable?

(2018-05-13 0:25)Hy McCaw Wrote:  There is one major issue here. What does it even mean to identify with? What qualifies as seeing yourself in an animal or finding them relatable?

You find it confusing, because kith is the "choice" counterpart to therianthropy. While therians are only those sort of born with it and we do not choose our theriotypes, anyone can be kith. Anyone who chooses to identify with a certain animal. Anything qualifies.

LP,
Dusty

This should be helpful for people who are looking into the subject, great job!

(2016-03-22 1:12)Renata Wrote:  Q: Isn't kith and being an animal superfan the same thing?

A: No. You can have a million favorite animals but that doesn't mean you are kith with all of them no matter how much you love them. This is because you can love something but feel no connection or bond with it. In order to classify yourself as kith you need to have a strong connection and/or bond. Loving something isn't sufficient, otherwise than being kith wouldn't really be a thing ya know?

Q: Can the species you are kith with be your favorite animal?

A: Yes. As long as you experience what I described above. The animals I am kith with are coincidentally my favorite animals and always have been. But I have other favorite animals that I am not kith with because I don't experience what I described above.

THANK YOU
I initially thought I was dragon and raven kin, when in fact I am KITH
In many traditional cultures, you have 3 sort of "spirit animals" or totems (but different, I can't explain it) that represent various triple symbols such as mind soul body, triple goddess (mother maiden crone) etc, my 3 are wolf, raven and dragon. These are the 3 animals I feel the absolute strongest connection with. I am kith to all 3, but I am only kin to 1 of them (wolf). I really must emphasise that being kith rather than kin DOES NOT MAKE YOU LESS IMPORTANT or less "coo" etc than someone who is kin, they can often go hand in hand.

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(2016-08-14 3:39)Ailin Wolf Wayne Wrote:  I am wolf hearted and I do experience wolf shifts, though I do not consider myself to be a wolf therian because simply it is just a connection. I have experienced wolf shifts since I was young. So I believe from my own personal experiences, it is possible for a kith to experience shifts.

I definitely agree.
I experience raven and dragon shifts, yet I still do not see myself always as those animals (although sometimes I feel so close, as to be them? its confusing to explain so I just go with kith rather than kin)
and, especially in facebook kin groups, I see a lot of people talk about their kin experiences as a separate entity within them, like their kintypes talks to them or they see their kintype in their dreams (rather than actually being their type, having a strong connection with their type, etc. I often try to explain kith to people and find that for some reason they are extremely resistant to being called anything other than kin. Which is fine, anyone cal believe themselves to have whatever identity they like, and I certainly don't go around telling people what they are and aren't because I simply haven't experienced what they have experienced. But I still don't understand why people are so resistant to the term.

This topic has been a great help to me! Especially that it can be normal to be both kith and therian at the same time. I really do believe I'm a spotted hyena but kith to the other hyenas (brown, striped & aardwolf). This is what had me confused for the longest time...

first of all i want to thank you for posting this Renata and i want to thank Shuual for sharing this in the chatroom.

I was always drawn to the wolf in a sense there was no reason for me to be drawn to them at all but ever sense i joined the internet i personified myself as a wolf and had a deep calling for them. When i first found therians some 10 plus years ago i was drawn to them but i knew in my heart of hearts i wasn't one and so i wasn't one so turned away lived my life through the furry fandom and practiced my my crafts to try to find out what exactly i was. never quite the answer but i did find i had a wolf spirit guide which i am bonded quite strongly with even through i had what called mental shifts and even heighten my instincts once upon a time i knew that the wolf wasn't what i was. what i consider it was i channeled my spirit animal. now i know that term used for what i am is a kith . thank you for sharing

namaste
~awolf ♥∞♥

I love being lionesskith and all, but it makes me doubt myself. I know that I am truly a maned wolf on the inside, and I accept that, yet I always get nervous and think, 'Am I really a therian? Or am I just faking it?'

But then I think about everything that sets me apart. I've always wished to he an animal more than anything, and although I can never settle on one certain creature I LOVE, I know that I IDENTIFY as a maned wolf.

In addition, I believe I have species dysphoria. Still, I then worry: I don't have dramatic or pronounced phantom shifts, am I REALLY a therian? Who do I think I am, posing as someone I'm not?? D:

I know that shifts are not what make a therian as a whole. Identification, connection, and comprehension are vital. I might even not shift at all, and every assumed shift was just a symptom of shifter's disease.

Either way, I'm doing my best to find out who I am inside. Kith or no kith.

Is it possible to choose a kith type, I wonder? I can't possibly imagine to, for instance, start liking tigers very much all of a sudden, so that I'll be known as a tiger kith from now on. I think it isn't as simple as that.
The animal of your 'choice' must resonate with you on a deeper level, otherwise there is no talk of a real connection. What I'm saying is, liking a lot and feeling a connection to are basically two different subjects.
I didn't choose wolf as a kith type, so if I am to say I am kith, I can't be. The only option there is, is to call myself a therian if I am to describe my feels.

I've linked this to a few friends, because some people I know don't get what kith is. Once again, thank you for this!

I just learned something new and quite significant to me. While I am by no means new to the concept of therian, there is still quite a lot of terms and ideas I have not ran into before. Thank you for this post. It is as you said, I am therian tiger, and thus think of myself as being a tiger. However, my whole life I have such a strong connection to dragons, but yet do not consider myself TO BE a dragon. With this explanation and I can now begin to understand that relationship.