I believe I am a therian mainly because I feel such a strong sense of belonging with the experiences and people in the community. I feel I relate on such a deeply emotional and psychological level with everything I see people talk about here, all the talk of shifting and feeling othered and having an animal brain seems like exactly me any time I read about it.
Now, to get into the specifics, I have felt like an avian for the longest of times. I knew since I was young that I was meant to have wings and claws and fly freely. But I haven't had the language to express that intuition until the last couple of years.
And that's really all I know lol

Hello,

It has come to my attention that this statement has had some unintended consequences:

(2025-01-07 20:12)DustWolf Wrote:  The main challenge we've had to deal with is the massive influx of new members, primarily young people who access TG through their school chromebooks. Therian Guide is classed as an educational website in content filters, because that's what it actually is. We are a community dedicated to learning to live with therianthropy. However, this has also made us a bit of a target of these young people who don't really have any other online communities to choose from, because of content filtering.

If there are any educators out there reading this and have some kind of an opinion, PLEASE CONTACT US. There are a number of ways you could do this, there's a contact email address on the website or you can just get in touch by creating an account like everyone else.

We recognize the right of parents and educators to monitor the usage of internet media by the kids under their care and in fact we applaud it. If you think the kids shouldn't be on our site during class, believe me the adults using this site certainly agree and we'd be willing to work with you to arrive at solutions that would work for you and wouldn't stress out the younger users of our site.

I understand the concern that identity politics presents to the younger people here, however please try to understand that this is the Internet. Even if I outlaw identity politics discussion on this site, they just will just talk about it somewhere else. I've done everything I reasonably can to not draw attention to it in our community.

In addition, prejudice towards therians is very common and so I understand if you feel some kind of knee jerk reaction regarding what we are telling people here. This is why the younger users of this site haven't told you about it. I would like to invite you to read our FAQ for parents of therians, which also nicely works for educators:
https://www.therian-guide.com/index.php/8-Parents

In short, we are not asking anyone to believe this stuff. We are not making it fun and pleasant to do so. Therian Guide is not a commercial entity and we don't have any agenda. This site is dedicated to encouraging people to explore their actual feelings and deciding how to deal with them. We do what we can to discourage people from creating fictional identities and advertising them to their peers, as all this may seem to be at first glance (considering this is also what you have done yourself trying to emulate them). Naturally young teens (people under 13 years old are not allowed on this site) are prone to exploring these topics with play. I have found that allowing them to try things out and see if they fit works with them very nicely and in fact all of them eventually grow out of their pretend phase. We keep a strong emphasis on being honest with themselves and others, to make sure that they are not led astray by something that only exists in their heads.

I am sorry to other people reading this if this sounds condescending, but I have been in this community for over 25 years and I've formed my opinions based on what I've seen. Therian Guide is a family and I feel the same responsibility that drives parents and educators to express concerns about this place.

For educators, please consider again that we are not asking anyone to accept anything we are saying and that we try to encourage the younger ones to decide for themselves based on what is genuine and to have healthy skepticism about what their peers or people in general claim. What people learn about on this site is for their own personal use and what people believe in the privacy of their own thoughts is a danger to nobody.

LP,
Dusty

For me it's a general disconnect with humanity along with various types of shifts starting from a young age
I've always felt much calmer and more like myself around animals. It's true that a variety of animals don't get along (for example, I've always felt particularly comfortable around cats, when they'd have no problem hunting my theriotype(s)), but I feel like I'm on much more equal standing to them compared to humans. Not to mention a deep yearning for wings and the life of a bird as a whole for as long as I can remember
I've experienced phantom wings on and off for years, and for the same amount of time, have felt like a quadrupedal gait would suit me far better while I lack the light weight and hollow bones of a bird (which probably points to another theriotype I'm still not sure of)
At the core of it, it's a sense of just *knowing* there's some animal part of me

(2019-12-02 15:08)elicat Wrote:  Totems, Animal Spirits, Tulpas, Daemons, etc. may seem similar, but they’re actually different concepts. The below was mostly taken from my TG interview on Therian Talks.

Totems and animal spirits are the most similar in that a totem is a representative of a species as a whole. Animal spirits, similarly, are individual representatives of that totem. So, you could have Dog the totem (capitalized ‘D’) and then perhaps work specifically with a beagle, as a representative of Dog. Or you could simply work with the idea of ‘dog’ and what that means to you; things like loyalty, obedience and silliness can be associated with dogs as spirit guides.

Both totems and animal spirits fall under the category of Animism.

Similarly, a shadow totem embodies something you fear, or is actually an animal you fear or dislike strongly. Common shadow totems for many people would be things like bugs and spiders, snakes or sharks.

A Tulpa is intentionally creating a mental construct. Sort of like inventing a conscious persona that you can talk to in your head. It’s my understanding that tulpas are like an imaginary friend: you talk to them, bounce ideas off of them, ask for advice, etc. within your own mind. It’s not a separate entity, but rather an extension of your own consciousness.

Daemons are like tulpas in that you intentionally create a useful thoughtform to work through ideas or problems with. Daemons were made famous though as being external entities, like totems, in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials where they appeared as an animal, alongside their human counterparts. Totems and daemons are not the same thing though.

Tulpas and daemons are internal mental constructs, whereas totems and animal spirit guides are external entities.

Also, depending on who you ask, you can have either one totem for life, or you can have more than one that can change depending on where your life’s journey takes you. I tend to believe that totems come into your life to teach you a lesson, unless you reach out to them first.

Finally, totems, animal spirits, tulpas, daemons, etc. are not the same thing as therianthropy. Therianthropy is what you are, inside. Whereas totems are external forces that are independent from you and your identity. Many therians have totems that are completely different species than what they identify as so if you’ve found and worked with totems, that doesn’t automatically mean you are that same species. However, there are some therians who do work with the same species as their animal guide. But it’s not necessary for the two groups to be the same.

If you’re new to the idea of therianthropy and have yet to figure out what animal you are, it can be helpful to reach out to a totem or animal spirit directly to try to learn more about yourself. However, meditation takes practice and to get the most honest answer it’s recommended you repeat the process many times before coming to any one conclusion.

And as a warning, take what you learn in meditation or in working with a totem and animal spirit with a grain of salt. You need to make sure to do research into the species itself and pay attention to your own habits and behaviors before coming to any absolute conclusions. Identity is a learning process and it takes time!

Ooo I like this description
Although, my tribe had a different definition on Spirit/totem animals are if I could write that. Although you have it sorta pieced through what you said.

(2025-01-07 20:12)DustWolf Wrote:  We've added customization options to allow you guys to pick your colors.

Ok so I may have already asked about this on the staff journal, sorry, but yeah, this is what I meant x3

Hey everyone,

We rarely make these announcements lately. I thought I'd make one just to show users who are not logged in that we are all still alive here and that something is going on. As the guy-who-pays-the-bills I guess it's my responsibility.


Lately there have been changes on Therian Guide. We always try to learn from past experiences and remain open to new views.

What we've learned is that we should focus more inwards and this is mainly what we have been doing. That is, Therian Guide's most important part is it's community. We've promoted staff who genuinely care about our community. We've added customization options to allow you guys to pick your colors. And we've been fine-tuning the rules to make sure therians are comfortable here.


The main challenge we've had to deal with is the massive influx of new members, primarily young people who access TG through their school chromebooks. Therian Guide is classed as an educational website in content filters, because that's what it actually is. We are a community dedicated to learning to live with therianthropy. However, this has also made us a bit of a target of these young people who don't really have any other online communities to choose from, because of content filtering.

If you have newly joined and have been waiting for months to get your account activated, I wanted to inform you that this is normal. Simply put, because our community is so important to us, we can only allow new members to join gradually and slowly, to give everyone a chance to get to know each other. Given the large amount of applications we get, this unfortunately means long wait times for you.

Don't worry though, you will not be forgotten. Staff use tools that make your application obvious even if you have not recently posted. Obviously of course, if you check back regularly that let's us know you are still interested.


There is more I could write here, but as we have been focusing inwards, most of the changes we have been making only really concern our community members and are not appropriate in this public post.

If you are interested, be sure to follow the Staff journal for new relevant information.

LP,
Dusty

I'm not sure this theory holds up with feline therians since most felines are solitary in nature.

I agree with @Teivor Tulpas are intelligent and separate. They may be created in the mind of an entity, but they are often taken as separate consciousnesses. I would say that when we think of them as separate characters, they have their own personality, opinions and feelings. Yes, they are still part of our conscious or subconscious mind, but they are capable of making decisions for themselves and being independent. They are basically just an invention of our minds, but they are what we create them to be. So when we think of them as other/separate entities, then they are perceived by us as separate. Or at least that's my understanding and Jeffer/tulpa agrees with me.

Therian communities in general and TG in particular are places where I feel at home. Where I feel accepted and embraced. It's nice to finally be somewhere where you're not looked at as a weirdo. I love it because it's a place where I don't have to put on a front and I can be myself. It's also amazing in that I can share my experiences and make friends with beings who understand me. I am grateful to have discovered TG and will try to do my best to make others and newcomers feel comfortable here. I admire you so much and thank you for creating and maintaining TG our staff

No matter what age, pup or adult; I think we should all be careful of online safety anywhere. Both on tg and off tg.