when i first learned about otherkin, this is what i learned first. So i was hoping maybe some of you could explain this.
i just want to learn about it from others

I have misunderstood or I've missed something.

Please could you tell me what I'm supposed to be giving an explanation of?

Thanks.

Oh, I do things like this.

I'd love to give my opinion when this is fixed.

oh sorry, i meant to be clearer, but im new to all this.
umm how to rephrase it, can you explain the concept of werewolves, and what it means.
i hoep that makes more sense

There are several ideas for how Weres come to be the way they are. Here you won't find anyone who believes they were bitten by one and turned into a Were because of something in the bite. That is left to Hollywood movies and good books.

For some of us it is simply a matter of being the wrong soul placed randomly into the wrong body, but for many of us it is much more complicated than that.
For the more complicated, less random of us, the belief is that we are the essence of a wolf, a Panther, a Vampire, an Elf, a Wraith etc, living in the shell of a human body.
Like a hermit crab lives inside a whelk shell.
Our essence or 'soul' enters the body before birth, and exits again at the moment of death. The essence will move on to another plane of existence for a while before deciding to re-incarnate, or it may return straight away to be reborn in another body of it's choosing, and begin a new life.
These lives do not have to be human, they could be inside any living creature the essence chooses.
What makes one essence a Were and another a Vampire is, I believe, down to the vibration of that essence. All things in creation have their own vibrational level, one level will be Were-wolves another would be Elves, another humans, etc. Even the colours you see in the world are only different because of the level at which they vibrate.

I am a Vampire but not because I was bitten by a Vampire at any time, and I really am not just a human with an energy deficiency as some people mistakenly believe. I am a Vampire because my essence is a Vampire and throughout it's existence and all it's lifetimes it always has been.
A Were would be a Were for the same reason.

I hope this helps you. If not then please say so, I know it seems complicated but there are lots of people here who would love to help you understand the essence side of all this.

Lady C.

This is harder for me to answer because I'm not exactly sure what I am. I know I have an essence that isn't human, and I have seen parts of it, but I can't make all those parts fit together to make a whole yet. I'm still working on it.

I feel my essence is in charge of it's own destiny though, and taking what I know of myself I can't make randomly placed soul fit, so I'm not one of those. Which I'm glad about really, because I would hate to not be in control, it must be horrid never knowing what you might be next.

I don't know what makes my essence what it is, but I do know it's never been anything else. I haven't been looking into it for very long so I haven't had time to come to any fixed ideas yet.
When I do I'll let everyone know.

Great question by the way.

I love what Camille posted, and when she says for some of us it gets more complicated then that it's true. If what she said wasn't confusing imagine this, having a were side and a human side, but they have a symbiosis. Assuming you don't know what a symbiosis is imagine Venom from Spiderman. Well thy are two people Eddie Brock, and the alien symbiote, Well sevrel were's myself included have this form of realationship.

Their human consiousness and animal instincts or sense help and better them, This is what is referred to as mental shifting when you adopt some of your were sides traits...oops got off topic.

Wolfbrother

thanks so much for your help! if you have anything to add, it would be appreciated though

For me, I'm a tiger in a human body. There's nothing non-human about me physically, but my soul, essence, whatever you want to call it is tiger. I often have tiger instincts and desires, I feel tiger body parts that aren't actually there. To me, you either are a therian/were or you aren't. You can't become one by being bitten by anything because it isn't a physical situation. You might not always be aware of what you are, but it's there.

You are one of the displaced souls Lady C was talking about aren't you Byakko?
I believe I read somewhere that your 'kind' for want of a better word, do not believe in the existence of the essence kind, so perhaps you could explain in greater detail what your idea of Otherkin is? I'm sure rileygirl would benefit from such a vastly differing opinion. The more wide ranging the views she is exposed to the broader and more complete her knowledge will be.
Or do I have you confused with someone else? If I do then you have my apologies.

I am another of the essence kind I am afraid rileygirl and so really have nothing further to say that would add to your knowledge base at this point.

That's me. It's not that I believe you guys with the essence belief don't exist, I just don't see a difference between different types of souls/energies/essences/whatever you refer to them as other than type. I believe all souls are created equal so to say. That they have type, but all have the ability to reincarnate and thus they all have the ability to end up misplaced...or in a body that doesn't match their soul "type" for lack of a better word.

It's hard to describe without sounding like I'm calling people who believe in kin essences wrong. For the record, I'm really truly not trying to do that. We have different beliefs on the subject, but no one's right or wrong.

I am essence kind too, entering bodies with free choice and full control, it would seem that many of us here are. Lady C explained my beliefs quite well, and left me with little to add.

It would seem that here there are several belief systems.
First my own because it's mine, the Essences with free will.
Then you have humans who are also wiccan/pagan in some form or another.
Then you have a few humans, who don't need to be anything else.
Then you have Essences like me who are also Wiccan/Pagan/Fae in their religious calling, who follow a path other than Christian and who may do magics of various kinds.
Then you have Byakko who believes whatever she has just explained she believes. Whether there are others here who believe as she does I am not sure.

Of course in some places you get those who come onto a forum like this and scream "You're all a bunch of nutcases, everyone knows Vampires don't exist". We haven't had one of those here yet, but they are around.
Personally I have to wonder why if we don't exist we seem to matter so much to them. I haven't figured that one out yet.

I am type 4.

Free willed essence with a side order of pagan.

Hiya.

I see.
You no longer say that the essences don't exist, but rather that you cannot believe in anything that has not exactly the same essential make up as you.
Is that correct?

People who enter the territory of a Tiger in order to shout and pull it's tail must expect to get eaten. I eagerly await the first idiot into this Tiger's lair.

How about wearing (were in) a human body glove.

That is the way I think of what we are doing. We get here in different ways but think about it like this. In the same way as you would put on a glove we put on a human body. Admittedly it grows around us but the effect is the same.
If you look at your hand wearing a glove, its a hand in a glove not just a glove. So we Kindred put on a human body and just like the hand in a glove is a hand, we are kindred in a human body not a human..
With some Kindred there is however a problem because they have six limbs so the human body glove doesnt fit properly and quite rightly so they get sticky out bits.....wings.
So beings like Pegasus, Griffins, Dragons and the like have wings that are sometimes visible to others including humans.

Anyway back to the glove analogy. Like your glove our bodies get old and thread bare and dont keep us warm anymore so eventually your glove gets thrown away. Alright you don't throw away the body but the principle is the same. It stops working and gets buried or cremated and whats inside goes off to either be a bare hand or a bare essence for a while.
Then you buy new glove (we find a new body) and wear it until it wears out again.
Incidentally just like you taking off your glove occasionally, many kindred can step out of their body for a while too.

There are also Kin that can swap from body to body depending on what they are doing (walk-ins) and some kin who never use human bodies at all.

Now a were wolf in our terms is simply a Wolf essence inside a human body. Sometimes the Essence develops two distinct personalities so that one is somewhat wolf and the other is rather more humanoid.
Generally they cohabit and occasionally switch between who is in charge.
So sometimes the essence is much more wolf like and others more humanoid depending on what the person happens to be doing at the time.
for instance the wolf is less likely to be sitting in the library reading than the humanoid side is and the humanoid is not as likely to be out hunting as the wolf is.

Zygo