Otherkin News

Content warnings: None. A linked article talks about animal suffering.

Several articles in Transgender Studies Quarterly used keywords of interest: trans-species and tranimal.

Lindsay Kelley's article "Tranimals" notes that "The term tranimals debuted at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for Science, Literature, and Art panel 'TRANimalS: Theorizing the Trans- in Zoontology' (Kelley and Hayward 2009)" (p. 227).

In "Transxenoestrogenesis," Eva Hayward talks about the problem of the animal source of some forms of exogenous hormone therapy. Hayward observes, "historically, human bodies hormonally sex-transitioning from male to female have always been trans-species ('tranimal') bodies" (p. 256).

The full text of the journal is freely available online.

Source

TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1. 1-2 (May 2014).
http://tsq.dukejournals.org/content/1/1-2
http://tsq.dukejournals.org/content/1/1-2/255.full.pdf

Emma Allen's short art film, Ruby.

Content warnings: None.
2013-12-02. Tumblr user PranaFaeryFiend wrote "Magical uses for headmates and fictionkin identities."
(Linked with the author's permission.)

Content warnings: Redfern's article describes cannibalism in medium detail. Some unrelated fantasy artwork included with the article shows gore.

October: Cryptozoologist Nick Redfern wrote an article about a w------ trial that happened in Canada in 1879. A Cree man named Swift Runner confessed that he had survived a bad winter by eating the bodies of his family. Swift Runner said this happened to him because he was possessed by a dangerous type of entity called a w------. Swift Runner was executed for cannibalism.

In Algonquin mythology, w------ are cannibal entities associated with cold winters. They possess people and turn them into w------. Sometimes people who know those stories believe they possessed by w------. People of European background think that problem is a culture-bound syndrome, and call it "w------ psychosis."

[Edited 2023-02-23 to censor the word for the unnameable being from Algonquin folklore and mythology, because I have since learned that the word for it not supposed to be spoken.]

Content warnings: Merticus's article lists news articles that talk about violence, murder, sexuality, and sexual assault.

September: Merticus posted a list of last month's news articles relevant to the vampire community.

Content warnings: Witch trial (not graphic).

August 14: EsoterX, a blog about monsters, posted an article about the history of werewolves in Livonia (a region in Europe). The most famous of these is Theiss, who in his unique 1662 werewolf trial testified that he was one of the good "Werewolves of God," now understood to have been a shamanic secret society. EsoterX's article isn't new research, but it's a decent introduction to an intriguing part of history.

Several therianthrope authors connect Theiss to their own experiences. Wolf therianthrope Rosalyn Greene, in her argument for the worldwide antiquity and supernatural abilities of therianthropes, gave Theiss's spiritual practices as an example of astral shifting (Greene, The Magic of Shapeshifting, p. 137-138), comparing it with similar traditions elsewhere. Another wolf therianthrope, Wolf VanZandt, included Theiss in his Therian Timeline, which offers more sources on Theiss.

Source

EsoterX, "I Saw a Werewolf Drinking a Piña Colada in the Duchy of Livonia, and His Hair was Perfect." 2013-08-14. EsoterX. http://esoterx.com/2013/08/14/i-saw-a-werewolf-drinking-a-pina-colada-in-the-duchy-of-livonia-and-his-hair-was-perfect/

Content warnings: For this post, none. For the linked articles: violence, rape, scam.

Vampire Community News posted August 2013 in review, which is a list of news relevant to vampires last month

Content warnings: For this article, none. The linked web-site contains some images that are unsettling because of how they blend human and animal bodies: body horror, the uncanny valley, and artistic representation of injury to humans and animals.

August: A fine artist and therianthrope named M. Bolalek (“your-deer”) created a web-site titled The Artist Bestiary. The web-site is “a collection of art and artists merging the human and the animal,” “approached from a therian perspective,” to “inspire and inform within the therian community.”

Bolalek wrote, “At the moment, there are seven entries, with at least 40 more to come, as well as intermittent critical analysis and musings. I am aiming tentatively for an update schedule of 2 to 3 entries per month for now.”

Some of the artwork showcased in The Artist Bestiary will be familiar to Otherkin News readers, because we have also made note of some of the latest fine art that blends human and animal. Please see the “art” tag on Otherkin News for ours. For example, I'm pleased to see that we both reflect upon Art Orienté Objet's intriguing transformation-as-performance-piece May the horse live in me (mine, theirs). Between both blogs, we'll miss less innovation, and be more enriched. I look forward to seeing more discussion of therianthropic explorations in fine art.

- O. Scribner



Sources

M. Bolalek (your-deer), The Artist Bestiary. http://artistbestiary.wordpress.com

M. Bolalek (your-deer), “About.” The Artist Bestiary. http://artistbestiary.wordpress.com/about/

M. Bolalek (your-deer), “The Artist Bestiary.” Your-deer. http://your-deer.tumblr.com/post/58836997334/the-artist-bestiary

Trigger warnings: mental illness (clinical lycanthropy), violence, religion (Catholicism, exorcism, demonic possession).

July: A cryptozoologist named Malcolm Smith wrote an article about a clinical lycanthropy patient who was last heard of in 1992. The subject is William “Bill” David Ramsey (b. 1943-). Since childhood, Ramsey occasionally had situations in which he believed he was becoming a werewolf, during which he behaved inappropriately and violently, and sometimes had hallucinations. These episodes were so severe that he was sometimes arrested and hospitalized. Ramsey was successfully cured of this problem by an exorcism in 1989. For this reason, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren interpret Ramsey’s condition as demonic possession rather than mental illness. Smith cites from two sources about the Warrens and Ramsey. Michael notes that he could find no information about Ramsey after his interview in 1992.

Here’s some extra context that Smith did not bring up. The below is based on my own research on werewolves and clinical lycanthropy.

Ramsey’s references to moon phases have more similarity to his contemporary pop culture imagery of werewolves than old folklore. His condition had even less resemblance to the behavior of actual wolves. This factor makes it more likely that Ramsey’s beliefs were a mental syndrome rather than a supernatural phenomenon, even if one believes the latter is possible.

I find it odd that Ramsey is not mentioned in the psychological literature on clinical lycanthropy. Perhaps this is only because Ramsey chose not to enter a mental hospital, fearing the stigma. The literature on clinical lycanthropy only talks about people who were admitted to mental hospitals. The lack of formal documentation for this case (aside from the Warrens’ book), and the lack of information about Ramsey after 1992, give me cause to question whether Ramsey’s case might be a complete fabrication.

It’s important to understand that clinical lycanthropy is a psychological syndrome, not a specific mental illness. In the definition of lycanthropy established by Keck, et al., the belief of becoming an animal isn’t connected with any specific mental illnesses. It could happen together with any of them. A person with clinical lycanthropy doesn’t just believe they’re an animal: they really believe they’re physically changing, usually against their will, and they lose control over their behavior.

This case makes me wonder if the scarcity of clinical lycanthropy in psychological literature-- as noted by Keck-- might be because the subjects go to exorcists for help instead of mental hospitals. One of the common features of clinical lycanthropy is that the subject believes that they’re possessed by a demon.



Sources

Malcolm Smith, “The English werewolf.” Malcolm’s musings: Anomalies. 2013-07-31. http://malcolmsanomalies.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/the-english-werewolf.html

(Smith primarily cites from this: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Werewolf: A true story of demonic possession. St. Martin’s, 1991.)

Paul E. Keck, et al., “Lycanthropy: Alive and well in the twentieth century.” Psychological Medicine 18 (1988), p. 113-120.