And if it's something deeper than a fursona, look up other/animalhearted (not therianthropy or otherkin as some are mentioning as an alternative, not even close - the animal and/or nonhuman being is you in that case)
I never thought of chimera furries, which in hindsight seems obvious having watched Dungeon Meshi and seen Laois’s fursona(does that count? It’s basically just his ideal form for a monster. Idk). I’ll have to consider that!
Years ago heard a more apt term for how people USE spirit animal is muse, and thats the term we've been using since.
I say cause an animal like a hyena is sort of all our muse, the familial pact herd silly laughing goober, is not a great fursona for any of us 4, really!
idk my folks in the bronze age had guardian animal spirits prior to imperial white europe forming and attempting to codify and slam everything into a box labelled shamanism the same way assholes like joseph campbell tried to linearize myth into the heroes journey as a reductive whiteness template
we did have stuff, but its so completely destroyed by centuries of shit like kings and lords and bastard empires of abrahamic religions that the fact any of it even remains in trace amounts in museums is genuinely a miracle given how hard the fetishists of whiteness tried to wipe it out
3000ish years before christ on the calender, some 5000 years ago we were free, and then 1000 years later the empires as we know them today began dicing us up and hunting our own and turning on them
and then when we ran out of ourselves to be cruel to, we turned it on the rest of the world
No seriously tho, its so crazy to me how many yt people are just stupid when it comes to the issue behind spirit animals and refuse to be normal about it when the issue is brought up.
If you aren't in a native American tribe, you don't get a Spirit Animal. End of story ✌🏽
For some reason, I never knew how i felt abt that topic (since i didn't knew what animal spirits really meant since, yk, i'm not american).
But, looking by that side, i have, at least, 5 different fursonas.
Fun fact go to Juneau Alaska, for example, and there are stores set up just for tourists that "tell you your spirit animal," and sell you the animal carved in mammoth tusk. So this nonesense is propagated by the very people you are speaking for i assume since you are also probably not native.
🔮 fucking THANK YOU I’m a Two Spirit Native trans and seeing people try to claim spirit animals or anything like that in the furry community is really disgusting
Specifically for the pedantic folks; unless you were assigned a totem by your tribes elders after usually a ceremony, some soul searching and/or coming of age, you don’t have a spirit animal.
Haha my coworkers said some Spirit Animal stuff and I was like.”Y’all ain’t Indigenous Americans, you don’t get a spirit animal, you get a Football team. Most of you chose Dallas, I’m a Raider’s girl”
this is a tangent but ppl are so dumb like "here's my transphobe assigned horoscope" because if they were actually brave, intelligent, humble, or cunning, they wouldn't be self reporting on their undiscerning palette and unscrupulous morals like that
The fuckin harry potter houses to me as an outsider just sound like
-the good boy chosen ones
-the autistic kids
-the EVIL autistic kids (which to HP fans might as well be a chai tea moment)
-the good autistic kids who know their place
A lot of celtic cultures were animists and though the term "spirit animal" isn't completely correct for their beliefs, the reverence and respect for perceived traits interpreted from animals were prevalent.
So no, people aren't indigenous Americans, but there are other cultures in the world.
Hadn’t actually heard about this so I researched it a bit. The Celts didn’t write a lot so most sources from this are 2nd hand accounts from the Romans and there isn’t any solid accounts I could find from briefly reading through sources. The largest argument I see is from a poem in the 8th century
I’d take the idea with a large grain of salt. The Celtic anthropology calendar seem likely manufactured and coinciding with preconstructed ideas from the Chinese calendar. Also most people pushing it online from what I saw are treating it that same way. Just some food for thought ^^’
I'm Scottish and I've done considerable research into Celtic mythology and history, along with their attitudes towards animals in heraldry, tradition and cultural opinion, so I'm going to stick with my own heritage and understanding on this one, thanks for your thoughts.
But yeah, I consider fursona different to a kindred spirit or symbolic animal someone might spiritually relate to. My sona is something a lot more literal lol.
Actually we have fylgja.
Very close to the same as a spirit animal as I understand it.
But a rose by any other name... 😉
Fursona however is a whole other beast.
it's so so funny how whenever someone talks about Shit White People Do (Derogatory) there will always be at least five motherfuckers in the comments going "it's me!!! :D I'm the person in the post!!" Have some self-respect my god
I mean theriotypes are kinda similar to the concept of spirit animals right? Like, a certain animal one believes they habe the spirit of. Then again, i'm white so if I am totally wrong feel free to correct me
I'm not going to speak for all tribes bc IDK how it is in other places but with how I was taught, it's more akin to a guardian angel, not an identity. It is a literal real spirit (or type of spirit) that is your guide, because different aspects of nature have much to teach us.
I just wanted to ask because I'm a therian and i've always thought of it as something similar in concept to spirit animals, and have explained it in such a way to people who don't know what a therian is
I think of therianism as a type of reincarnation mythology, and since reincarnation is one of like 3 possible things you can think happen when you die, it isn't particularly culturally specific.
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I say cause an animal like a hyena is sort of all our muse, the familial pact herd silly laughing goober, is not a great fursona for any of us 4, really!
and then when we ran out of ourselves to be cruel to, we turned it on the rest of the world
I look forward to a day when every person has one instead of whatever the fuck is going on in the Vatican or the Whitehouse right now.
Its a truer deeper connection to any of the oldest ways of the species than any of the terrible shit we do today to eachother.
"What am I supposed to do
If I want to talk about peace and understanding
But you only understand the language of the sword?"
Sometimes the sona is like a kind of psychic blanket.
Other times, its truer than I am.
If you aren't in a native American tribe, you don't get a Spirit Animal. End of story ✌🏽
But, looking by that side, i have, at least, 5 different fursonas.
thank you for speaking out 💝
Well, not yet, lol. Still shopping around for the right design but there's so many potential options.
-the good boy chosen ones
-the autistic kids
-the EVIL autistic kids (which to HP fans might as well be a chai tea moment)
-the good autistic kids who know their place
It's the right thing to do
So no, people aren't indigenous Americans, but there are other cultures in the world.
Very close to the same as a spirit animal as I understand it.
But a rose by any other name... 😉
Fursona however is a whole other beast.
So I can say I have a Fylgja
I don't, only spirits here are the neglected ones in the closet, but you know... I -can-
Does that make him my fursona now???