These are the main beliefs I know of:
Archetypal: The belief that you’re channeling the archetype of your kintype. ‘Archetypes’ in this context are “self-willed and able to act outside of the human psyche, but they are also capable of possessing and overshadowing human psyches” and can be seen as spirits or psychic complexes or both. People who go by this idea have largely spiritual interpretations tied to it, but the idea can stand on its own. It’s very much based on philosophical archetypes, like what Jung and Plato wrote about.
Biological: The belief that otherkinity is based on biological processes, such as brain abnormalities, genetic mutations, and physical appearance. Can be interpreted either as the biological ‘symptoms’ and the otherkinity being intrinsically connected, or in a more “I have green eyes like my kintype, this makes me feel more like my kintype” kind of sense. A common belief here is also that otherkinity is genetic and inheritable.
If physical shifters, vampires, changelings, and similar identities would fall under this definition is up to interpretation (though I’m leaning towards no, since the otherkin community has focused more and more on otherkinity being nonphysical in the last decade or two, and because the vampire community does not want to fall under the otherkin umbrella).
Energetic resonance: The belief that your energy resonates on the same frequency or wavelength as your kintype’s, leading to similar feelings, experiences, and identification, and/or to being drawn to your kintype.
Everyone’s Otherkin: The belief that everyone has non-human aspects, but very few people become aware of or accepting of this fact – i.e. very few people ever awaken. Anyone can awaken, though, and become otherkin given the right circumstances.
Links to Magic: The belief that otherkin are links to magic as an attempt by the greater powers to return magic to this world. It is thus the duty of otherkin to bring magic into mundane life and the world around them.
Magic in general: The belief that otherkinity caused by magic, however you want to interpret that. One example could be that being otherkin is just the way your magic manifests itself. Another example (that people will probably get mad at me for mentioning) could be becoming otherkin via a spell.
Neurological: The belief that otherkinity and the experience of being other-than-human results from atypical neurology
Primal Association: “Everyone has a primal side–this is the part of the brain and personality which is instinct-driven. It may be that in some persons, the primal side is very well-developed. On top of that, the person may identify their primal nature with an animal or animals, similar to the way a dissociative has separated different personalities in their mind” -Winged Wolf Psion
Psychic Connection: “If a person, when very young, developed a very deep psychic link with a certain animal, then they may take on–or take in–the mind of that animal to such a degree that it becomes a part of them, and remains so even after the link is severed.”-Winged Wolf Psion
Psychology: A lot of different beliefs fall under the psychological category. The most common beliefs are imprinting (where the person in question imprinted more on another species than on humans early in life) and subconscious coping mechanisms (where the person went through troubling or traumatic events and developed a nonhuman identity to, for example, explain the events or make the events easier to live through).
Mixed reasons: Any mix of any reasons. Commonly a spiritual kintype that’s strengthened by psychological phenomena, though there are no rules on which beliefs can mix.
Irrelevant reasons: The cause doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is that we experience similar things that make us feel other than human.
These are not the only beliefs about otherkinity and your beliefs do not have to fall into any of these categories.
lgbtqiarchive 