Otherkin


The first Otherkin essay popped up at Witchvox. How is this going to change the Neopagan movement?

As I understand it, an Otherkin is someone whose soul/spirit is mostly something other than human.

I don't know that many Pagans who are Otherkin.

I also have a hard time taking the concept seriously.

We know that there are Neopaganism provides a way for some lonely people to get some attention. Some of these are the just going through the motions, not out of any commitment to belief but because it lets them stand out from the crowd. These are the people who drift in and out of paganism, the Weekend Pagans and the Sabbat People. Some of them are genuinely called, more power to them. Others wear their Paganism like a costume, something that they can shuck without disrupting their lives.

Among those people who need the attention, there are always those who are the latest incarnation of some famous of powerful figure from the distant past. Over the years, I have lost track of how many Merlins or Atlantean Priestesses I have met. Not to mention the Aleister Crowleys, Dion Fortunes, John Dees, and Mother Shiptons.

And that brings me to a very important point.

It doesn't matter what you were, it matters what you are. What are you doing now? It doesn't matter that your destiny is written in the stars, prophecy is never fully understood until after the event anyway. Were you royalty in a previous life? Good. Enjoy the memories. Because absolutely nothing about that experience makes you royalty in this life.

You may be a seventy-seventh generation witch, but that doesn't mean you know squat about either witchcraft or magick. Just because your parents are something doesn't mean that you are something. Skill and discipline are not inherited.

Neither are respect and honor.

And that brings us back to Otherkin.

So you are isolated because you are different. Get in line. As a rule, humans are torn between their desire for exceptionalism and their desire to blend into the crowd.

So the pieces of your soul are not fully human. Okay, how does that mean you will live your life?

Speaking as a witch and Pagan with a practical streak, your soul doesn't entitle you to any special treatment This Side. And it certainly doesn't doesn't give you any deep and abiding wisdom.

I haven't been overwhelmed by the few Otherkin I have met. It seems that they were either some sort of Great Leader or someone who is terribly put upon. Either way it strikes me as Power Over. Bow Before Me Because of My Lineage or Pity Poor Little Me. It is a version of the same game that many of the Fluffy Bunny types play because they think they won't get challenged on it.

I'm not impressed.

Posted: Tue - December 6, 2005 at 04:13 AM
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