Firstly I did not want to make this post, becouse I had seen it on mostly any therian blog, journal and YouTube channel. I thought, that this theme was effete. But then I realized,that most of them were not actually accurate to me and/or had some mistakes, for example calling being a therian only a spiritual thing. So I decided to write this post.
1. What is therianthropy?
Therianthropy is an identyfy phenomenon. Person, who is a therian, identyfies (not physically) AS an earthly animal on the integral, personal level. Therianthropy is not having a connection to the certain animal (it is called being other-hearted) or just having a spiritual guide, it's identyfing as one. For example, I like wolves, but I am not a wolf. I am a fox therian, I identyfy as a fox. The fox inside me is not a different being talking to me, it is not a being I feel connected to, it is actually me. I am a fox. Not physically, though.
2.What is a theriotype?
Your theriotype is an animal you identify as. It can be absolutely any earthly non-human being, even extinct. It is who you are (instead of being physically and genetically 100% human, do not forget about that!).
3. Views on therianthropy:
The big mistake I have seen in many definitions of therians and therianthropy. Defining it only as a spiritual thing. So let me explain.
There are two views on therianthropy:
*spiritual- therianthropy that is seen as a spiritual thing, connected with spiritual beliefs. It means believing in past lives as an animal, having a spirit of a certain animal, etc.
*psychological- believing that therianthropy is a mental thing (not a mental illness!). For example someone who is a psychological therian believes that his/her therianthropy is an effect of coping mechanism, predisposition to adopt a non-human identity or traumatic event, that happened in the past. Psychological therians are usually skipped in most definitions of therianthropy.
3.Types of therians:
1.depending on identity
*typical therian- a person who identifies as a one animal.
*polytherian- person who identifies as more than one animal.
2. Depending on shifting:
Shift is a state in which your theriotype "shows itself" to you. You can feel phantom limbs such as paws, tail, horns, hooves, claws and stuff like that, wich is called phantom shift, your mind can "transform" into the mindset of your theriotype (mental shift) and you start sensing things, behaving and thinking like it. I am not going to go through all of the types of shifts, becouse you can find a lot of good explanations and terms in this topic and I don't want to duplicate the same thing again. Just please, remember, that physically transforming into your therian type (physical shift) is IMPOSSIBLE! You can read more about shift types here. ♥
*shifter therian-person who time-to-time shifts into an animal.
*contherian-someone who does not experience shifting and stays in a permanent state of half human half animal.
*vacillant therian-someone who experience a limited range of shifting.
*non-shifting therian- a person that is a therian, but do not experience any kind of shifts.
And that's it for today. All this post is just a general definition of therians and some important terms closely connected to therianthropy. I wish it was not too boring for you 😉. If you have any tips and/or find something I forgot to add to the topic, tell me in a comment. I'd love to know what do you think about my posts and learn more new things. Thank you✨
God bless all of you.
~Alsoomse
