Post by Ashen on Sept 10, 2012 23:29:41 GMT -6
'Real Werewolf' by Yaiolani
With lots of people who aren't shifters deciding that they are shifters and clogging up the shifter movement, and a fair number of real shifters doubting whether they are shifters, just how do you decide who is and is not a "real werewolf"?
Everyone has their own criteria. I've known physical shifters who have a great skepticism about all non-physical shifters, and who think that the definition of "real werewolves" should include only those who have experienced a physical transformation. I've known some shifters who have become quite jaded, and jump on anyone who shows signs of being "gullible" or "superstitious" with cries of "Hey! Maybe you aren't a shifter". I've also known those who accept the idea that just about anyone that feels a strong affinity with wolves might be a werewolf.
Well, I have my own criteria, and, of course *smile*, I consider it superior to anyone else's system for determining "who is a real werewolf".
So, how do you determine who is or is not a real werewolf? There are literally dozens of signs and symptoms of being a shifter, but none of them is absolutely definitive, and even though real shifters tend to have many of these symptoms, different shifters have different mixes of these symptoms. To analyze these symptoms can provide insight, but no definitive "yes" or "no" can be based on them.
I think there is only one real defining feature that you can base the "yes" or "no" answer on. This is whether the "werewolfism" can be suppressed or destroyed permanently. If you are a real shifter, this part of yourself can be shoved under the surface somewhat, but, no matter how strong your efforts, or how many years you keep them up, that part of you keeps resurfacing and absolutely refuses to die. Furthermore, you experience bad side effects (especially dissatisfaction with life and depression) when you suppress it, and are most mentally healthy when accepting it.
In this way, the definition of "real werewolf" is somewhat similar to the definition of "real homosexual". There are the real homosexuals, the ones that are usually born like that, and that can't ever permanently suppress it or destroy it, and who are never truly at peace unless they embrace that part of themselves. Then, there is another category of "homosexual", which isn't a real homosexual, but merely someone open-minded enough to dabble in it. According to historical records and anthropological studies, even though "homosexual dabblers" aren't that common in modern America, they have been very common in many other cultures, and in western culture during other eras (such as the heyday of Greece and Rome).
Just as there are "dabblers in homosexuality", there are people who are open-minded enough to dabble in lycanthropy. But this doesn't mean that they are the real thing.
According to studies of primitive and native cultures, "furry lifestyle" kinds of things, animal totemism, and "dabbling in lycanthropy" were and are much more common in those places and eras; they are practically unknown in the modern USA.
If you want to dabble in lycanthropy, far be it from me to discourage you. Perhaps you'll learn something, perhaps the experience will be useful to you. But what makes me sick is the shifter movement getting clogged up and bogged down by dabblers in lycanthropy who claim to be the real thing, and furthermore who often give the real shifters a bad name.
If someone is a dabbler in lycanthropy, they should admit it to themselves and to everyone else. They should put it on their werecard. They should say "well, I find this stuff interesting, and I'm open-minded enough to dabble in it and try to explore and develop the animal part of my being. Maybe someday I'll be the real thing, but I'm just a dabbler at present".
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'Werewolf' by Paleo
So when I was a girl werewolves turned into real wolves. That immediately stirred something in me. Yes much of werewolf pop culture is about sex and/or violence, but that wasn’t the point for me. Later on I would find amusement in and use for the sex and/or violence threads in the werewolf mythos, but as a child the *only* thing that was important was that in these stories there was a depicted a possibility to fully experience humanity and lupinity. In some of these stories being wolf and being human were one and the same. To know what both were like was as natural as breathing. Being able to run as a wolf and still have humanity and walk as a human and still have wolfishness. From the first werewolf tales old and new found ways to make me think and rethink on where the line between human and animal was exactly in general and in myself. They illustrate what societies think and believe about animalness. Is animal the opposite of human? Lesser? Greater? The same? Is animalness dangerous? Natural? Sexy? Sinful? Holy? Werebeast mythos explores this and much more.
So yeah, I found a ***whole*** lot of fodder for philisophical and spiritual musings. I started seeing the werewolf as the best archetype out there to identify as in a spiritual and metaphoric way. I still do.
The term “werewolf” is to therians what the term “witch” is to Wiccans. Controversial. Some see the terms as empowering and the best and easiest way to cut to the chase when explaining to others what they feel inside. Others see them as unpleasant conterproductive terms which confuse outsiders and newbies. Every the contrary one, I am in both camps. Werewolf is an important term for me but I also believe that therianthropy should be mostly focusing on just being the animal. Werewolf is an archtype that carries some extra baggage beyond animalness that not all therians embrace nor should the be made to do so.
For me the archetype of Werewolf is a *tool* that I often use explore and understand my therianthropy. It is the psychological and spiritual *use* of that tool that makes me identify as werewolf, not exactly therianthropy. Therianthropy led me to werewolves and werewolves led me to therianthropy if that makes sense. To me the difference between being a therian and being a spiritual werebeast is that with one you believe you are somehow animal in mind and or spirit and in the other you are consciously using a mythological archtype for shapeshifting and other spiritual pursuits. Being one doesn’t make you the other but some people the two fit together rather nicely. Therianthropes and modern werewolves *are* different things with different focuses, on that fact I’ll be very insistant. I’ll also be very insistant on the right of mature, sane therians to use werebeast mythos and practice as a valid way to understand their animalness.
If I could artisticaly depict how I really and truely feel inside in real life it would be a being that is itself no matter which form, animal or beast, it took. In myth that is called a werebeast. In real life that is me. I just lack access to a lupine body.
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Virtual Were vs Practicing Were by ShadowsMyst
What this fellow was frustrated about was the amount of Virtual Weres floating about in cyberspace. Claiming this and that without having a deeper understanding of what being a were REALLY means, spiritually. The computer shuts down and the 'beast within' shuts down with it. Many of these people are outcast, misfits, looking for a place to belong, a friendly cyberhug, and a open ear. They want to be something more than they are, they want to belong to something. They need something to believe in. And so they read a few pages on weres and decide they feel much as Weres do. So they figure they are a were.
A practicing or real were is one who has( but not necessarily ) discovered it off-line, in the real world. Being a were to them isn't something you do for an hour or two in the day, it is a way of being. It's not an easy one either, full of turbulence, doubt, hard searching, and hard knocks. Being were is that. Being. Not just saying 'I'm a werewolf' on-line, it is actually BEING a werewolf real time. It's a part of your life. it's the way you are. It is what you are.
Being a virtual were is kinda like being a virtual wiccan. You can recite the books, spew the slang, but still miss the spirituality underlying it, the real meaning that brings enlightenment.
Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not slagging those who are 'virtual weres' what I'm saying is that you don't know yet. Your wearing a coat to see if you like it. You haven't bought it yet, you don't know if you REALLY want to wear it. But you have to let people know that. It's the same as saying 'I don't know yet', and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with saying you don't know. To say you don't know is to seek to learn, and that is what will give you the knowledge, your truth to answer your question to if you are a Real Were or not.
Take nothing at face value, question always. Keep an open mind, and open ear and a grain of salt handy. Learn, listen, reflect. Please don't take my writings as gospel, they only the findings of ONE Tigress. If you do not seek always, you never find what you came here for. Good luck.
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With lots of people who aren't shifters deciding that they are shifters and clogging up the shifter movement, and a fair number of real shifters doubting whether they are shifters, just how do you decide who is and is not a "real werewolf"?
Everyone has their own criteria. I've known physical shifters who have a great skepticism about all non-physical shifters, and who think that the definition of "real werewolves" should include only those who have experienced a physical transformation. I've known some shifters who have become quite jaded, and jump on anyone who shows signs of being "gullible" or "superstitious" with cries of "Hey! Maybe you aren't a shifter". I've also known those who accept the idea that just about anyone that feels a strong affinity with wolves might be a werewolf.
Well, I have my own criteria, and, of course *smile*, I consider it superior to anyone else's system for determining "who is a real werewolf".
So, how do you determine who is or is not a real werewolf? There are literally dozens of signs and symptoms of being a shifter, but none of them is absolutely definitive, and even though real shifters tend to have many of these symptoms, different shifters have different mixes of these symptoms. To analyze these symptoms can provide insight, but no definitive "yes" or "no" can be based on them.
I think there is only one real defining feature that you can base the "yes" or "no" answer on. This is whether the "werewolfism" can be suppressed or destroyed permanently. If you are a real shifter, this part of yourself can be shoved under the surface somewhat, but, no matter how strong your efforts, or how many years you keep them up, that part of you keeps resurfacing and absolutely refuses to die. Furthermore, you experience bad side effects (especially dissatisfaction with life and depression) when you suppress it, and are most mentally healthy when accepting it.
In this way, the definition of "real werewolf" is somewhat similar to the definition of "real homosexual". There are the real homosexuals, the ones that are usually born like that, and that can't ever permanently suppress it or destroy it, and who are never truly at peace unless they embrace that part of themselves. Then, there is another category of "homosexual", which isn't a real homosexual, but merely someone open-minded enough to dabble in it. According to historical records and anthropological studies, even though "homosexual dabblers" aren't that common in modern America, they have been very common in many other cultures, and in western culture during other eras (such as the heyday of Greece and Rome).
Just as there are "dabblers in homosexuality", there are people who are open-minded enough to dabble in lycanthropy. But this doesn't mean that they are the real thing.
According to studies of primitive and native cultures, "furry lifestyle" kinds of things, animal totemism, and "dabbling in lycanthropy" were and are much more common in those places and eras; they are practically unknown in the modern USA.
If you want to dabble in lycanthropy, far be it from me to discourage you. Perhaps you'll learn something, perhaps the experience will be useful to you. But what makes me sick is the shifter movement getting clogged up and bogged down by dabblers in lycanthropy who claim to be the real thing, and furthermore who often give the real shifters a bad name.
If someone is a dabbler in lycanthropy, they should admit it to themselves and to everyone else. They should put it on their werecard. They should say "well, I find this stuff interesting, and I'm open-minded enough to dabble in it and try to explore and develop the animal part of my being. Maybe someday I'll be the real thing, but I'm just a dabbler at present".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Werewolf' by Paleo
So when I was a girl werewolves turned into real wolves. That immediately stirred something in me. Yes much of werewolf pop culture is about sex and/or violence, but that wasn’t the point for me. Later on I would find amusement in and use for the sex and/or violence threads in the werewolf mythos, but as a child the *only* thing that was important was that in these stories there was a depicted a possibility to fully experience humanity and lupinity. In some of these stories being wolf and being human were one and the same. To know what both were like was as natural as breathing. Being able to run as a wolf and still have humanity and walk as a human and still have wolfishness. From the first werewolf tales old and new found ways to make me think and rethink on where the line between human and animal was exactly in general and in myself. They illustrate what societies think and believe about animalness. Is animal the opposite of human? Lesser? Greater? The same? Is animalness dangerous? Natural? Sexy? Sinful? Holy? Werebeast mythos explores this and much more.
So yeah, I found a ***whole*** lot of fodder for philisophical and spiritual musings. I started seeing the werewolf as the best archetype out there to identify as in a spiritual and metaphoric way. I still do.
The term “werewolf” is to therians what the term “witch” is to Wiccans. Controversial. Some see the terms as empowering and the best and easiest way to cut to the chase when explaining to others what they feel inside. Others see them as unpleasant conterproductive terms which confuse outsiders and newbies. Every the contrary one, I am in both camps. Werewolf is an important term for me but I also believe that therianthropy should be mostly focusing on just being the animal. Werewolf is an archtype that carries some extra baggage beyond animalness that not all therians embrace nor should the be made to do so.
For me the archetype of Werewolf is a *tool* that I often use explore and understand my therianthropy. It is the psychological and spiritual *use* of that tool that makes me identify as werewolf, not exactly therianthropy. Therianthropy led me to werewolves and werewolves led me to therianthropy if that makes sense. To me the difference between being a therian and being a spiritual werebeast is that with one you believe you are somehow animal in mind and or spirit and in the other you are consciously using a mythological archtype for shapeshifting and other spiritual pursuits. Being one doesn’t make you the other but some people the two fit together rather nicely. Therianthropes and modern werewolves *are* different things with different focuses, on that fact I’ll be very insistant. I’ll also be very insistant on the right of mature, sane therians to use werebeast mythos and practice as a valid way to understand their animalness.
If I could artisticaly depict how I really and truely feel inside in real life it would be a being that is itself no matter which form, animal or beast, it took. In myth that is called a werebeast. In real life that is me. I just lack access to a lupine body.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virtual Were vs Practicing Were by ShadowsMyst
What this fellow was frustrated about was the amount of Virtual Weres floating about in cyberspace. Claiming this and that without having a deeper understanding of what being a were REALLY means, spiritually. The computer shuts down and the 'beast within' shuts down with it. Many of these people are outcast, misfits, looking for a place to belong, a friendly cyberhug, and a open ear. They want to be something more than they are, they want to belong to something. They need something to believe in. And so they read a few pages on weres and decide they feel much as Weres do. So they figure they are a were.
A practicing or real were is one who has( but not necessarily ) discovered it off-line, in the real world. Being a were to them isn't something you do for an hour or two in the day, it is a way of being. It's not an easy one either, full of turbulence, doubt, hard searching, and hard knocks. Being were is that. Being. Not just saying 'I'm a werewolf' on-line, it is actually BEING a werewolf real time. It's a part of your life. it's the way you are. It is what you are.
Being a virtual were is kinda like being a virtual wiccan. You can recite the books, spew the slang, but still miss the spirituality underlying it, the real meaning that brings enlightenment.
Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not slagging those who are 'virtual weres' what I'm saying is that you don't know yet. Your wearing a coat to see if you like it. You haven't bought it yet, you don't know if you REALLY want to wear it. But you have to let people know that. It's the same as saying 'I don't know yet', and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with saying you don't know. To say you don't know is to seek to learn, and that is what will give you the knowledge, your truth to answer your question to if you are a Real Were or not.
Take nothing at face value, question always. Keep an open mind, and open ear and a grain of salt handy. Learn, listen, reflect. Please don't take my writings as gospel, they only the findings of ONE Tigress. If you do not seek always, you never find what you came here for. Good luck.
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