Atlanta Vampire Alliance [AVA]

[Eclecta]

Therianthropy itself is the state of being partially human and partially animal. Therefore, spiritual therianthropy is the state of one's spirit being both human and animal.

Many people don't recognize those words. Try lycanthropy, which is medically defined as a mental illness. Lycanthropy is immediately linked to... werewolves.

If you have the image of a full moon and a raging beast in your head, please wipe the slate clean. A much better image would be a Native American shaman (medicine man), sitting in trance with his animal totem draping his aura like a blanket. But neither are very close to what I define spiritual therianthropy as.

I'm going to stop using the long word therianthrope and start saying were. Yes, as in 'werewolf'. Why? Because I like the thought of throwing a superstitious word with bad connotations in your face with a totally new meaning that actually makes sense and means something deep. I like that approach, and I'm going to use it.

I am a spirit-were. My spirit is not wholly human, and every iota of my being illustrates this. I'm not going to cite the evidence, because that will come later. Let it suffice for me to say that this is the truth, and not some role-playing gimmick, a delusion, or my imagination short-circuiting.

I am not alone. There are quite a few weres out there, one of which is very close to me. As a general opinion, physically shifting into one's animalself is impossible. My friend and I disagree with this, and my friend has actually achieved small changes in flesh.

Weres are not insane, they are not rabid, and they are not very obvious. Unless you were told, I doubt you would notice that someone was partially animal - you might raise an eyebrow at their massive collection of tiger statues, stuffed animals, and posters, but would you ever think that the seemingly-normal person might be a tiger at heart, in their soul?

I have heard that being a were is both a blessing and a curse. I disagree, unless I could logically say that being alive was both a blessing and a curse, that being on Earth was both good and bad at once. Therianthropy is, and there is no other statement for it. You can no more change your animalself than you can change your gender. (This barring extreme surgery, people.)

Some weres actively shift, some are constantly shifted. Whoa, new concept. Shifting? But I just said that most weres can't physically change! Shifting is not just physical. One can shift their aura, their energy vibrations, their mind-set, their consciousness, their moods, and their thought pattern to match that of their animalself. And some, like myself, are constantly shifted - they are always balancing between human and animal, walking a fine line that lets them have the better parts of both worlds at most times. Sometimes this line fails and we slip into more-human or more-animal, but for the most part, you'll never catch me as a purely human spirit -- nor, indeed, as a pure, nonsentient lioness. Weres cannot 'turn off' their animalself. They can repress it, deny it, shove it to a dark corner where it curls up and dozes until awakened, but it can never be destroyed. This is the difference that *I* see between weres and furries. Furries can shut their animalselves off; we cannot. This off-on switch doesn't necessarily make a furry's connection with their animal any shallower than that between a were and his/her animalself.

I really, thoroughly like the concept of a half-and-half spirit. One half human, one half animal. But there are individuals who are called polyweres -- they have more than one animalself. These animals can be totally separate, as a person could be human, cougar, and wolf, or they could have a merged animalself, and be human and wolfcat. Both are possible.

I want to stress two points. Animal guides / totems are NOT animalselves. They are not part of one's spirit, they are their own entities. The other point? One cannot change their animalself. One can be confused and believe he's a wolf when in fact he's a hyena, or one can think she's a horse when in fact, she's a buffalo. Sometimes, uncovering one's animalself can take years of soul-searching and inner listening. Sometimes one's ego will shove the truth out the window and take a more 'glorious' animalself, such as the ever-popular wolf.

http://kusani.topcities.com/were.html

(Note- This is another subject I know nothing about. I would love to hear others views on the subject tho. )
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"Love is the law, love under will."

[siege]

Interesting! At least now I'm not completely clueless about what werewolves, lycanthropes, and therians are. I didn't know anything about the subject either until now.

[Eclecta]

I was hoping some one would pipe in and say, "Oh I know all about that.. " and then enlighten us LOL>
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"Love is the law, love under will."

[Merticus]

I'll post some material soon. Stay tuned...
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- Merticus

[UTAHVAMP]

I know very little of these people myself, however I have crossed paths with those pertaining to a wolf spirit. I have to say they are some of the most passionate, honroable, people I have ever met. I know I would love to read more information on the subject to better understand them myself when it comes available.

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Chris

[Eclecta]

[Merticus]

lol yea I guess that was back in 2005... geez

"I'll get right on that..." Look for something by 2008... I swear!
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- Merticus

[nightchild]

therianthropy not much is known butt here is this movie based upon lycanthropy it's a true story which happend in Spain around the 1800's. The frist time word lycanthrophy was used to identify the illness. But it's not about a shaman going into a trance just a simple person. I think if correct the film is called Romanasanta it's very interseting movie to watch.So if you want to see a movie one werewolfs besided werewolf in london or the movie about the two sisters that's a 3 part movie.
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who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave.Euripides

[CeruleanTwilight]

Maybe to Merticus a decade is soon. Maybe he's had something like 7 lives and it's all flying by really fast to him.

[Lord_Abdou]

[CeruleanTwilight]

Does this explain your disliking being social in the summertime? Are you part bear except that you hibernate in the summer? j/k!
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I run with vampires.