Ethelshai's Lair

Home of the green dragon

Otherkins and Dragonkins

You're about to read what is probably the most destabilizing page of this little website. The one in which I talk a bit about an aspect of myself (and of many more people around than you may think). So, before continuing reading this page, make sure that you are open-minded enough to read something that WILL sound strange (unless you are an otherkin who simply reached this place randomly). Anyway, if you read it, please respect the beliefs described here because some of what is said here belongs to the common beliefs of my fellow Dragonkins. Otherwise, you can always go back to the home page.

If you are ready to go further, I encourage you to read the whole page before making up your opinion.

You may have noticed on other pages that I sometimes talk about dragons in the first person plural ("We, dragons ...", "us", blah blah), and the word Otherkin itself may be a bit misleading. So, I shall try to explain things as simply as possible (and I must say that, at the time of the writing, I feel a bit uneasy, as I know that this page will be viewable to anyone in the world, Otherkin or not. Not to mention that other Otherkins will probably find it a bit summed up, if so, you know where to find me to chat about it :p ).

First, the word "Otherkin" and the main belief.
It is a word that was built from the words "other" and "kin" (so far, it's easy), but in what purpose ? Well, in a nutshell, it defines a common trait that a category of people share. To make things simple : an Other Kin is someone who believes he was another creature (kin) during a past life that reincarnated into a human in this life. The concept is not that twisted, as some people believing in some Eastern, Hindu, etc ... faiths also believe in reincarnation. The difference here is that we (Otherkins) believe that we are, so-called, mythological (I don't really like this term, but oh well) creatures like Dragons, for instance, reincarnated into human bodies. Yes it sounds crazy ! I don't say that it's easy to accept. In the early times of my spiritual awakening, I also used to think that it was my imagination that was fooling me (and even, sometimes, I may have doubts concerning all this, but I know NO Otherkin who never doubted a single time).
We do not believe that we are dragons genetically ! But we are convinced that our souls are dragon souls that came to be reincarnated into human bodies. Why ? Good question. Some, like me think it is in order to learn something. Some others believe that they were punished, and some take it easy like "Hey, ok I was a dragon, now I'm a human, what else should I say ? *shrug*". What you need to understand is that Otherkin is not a religion and it is not linked to any religion (There are Atheist, Christian, Pagan, Hindu ... Otherkins). It's a personal, very personal belief; I'd even say it is linked to that strange feeling you have very deep inside yourself. One was born with it, even if one discovers it later in the life. It's quite hard to describe, because every kin feels it in a different way and become aware of it in ways that are too numerous to be summed up.

Now, you probably wonder how I became aware of the feeling that I'm a dragon in spirit, or Dragon Otherkin, or : Dragonkin (this feeling is generally called Draconity).

The Awakening
This term sums-up quite well the process of becoming aware of one's Otherkin identity. Not all Otherkins go through it (Walk-ins for instance. But I can't say much about them because I know very little about walk-in souls. But I shall ask !). It may be more or less long, depending on people (I consider that the very beginning of mine was around the of 11 or 12, even if at that time, I was not really thinking about dragons. But I already found them nicer than most people described them in all those stories). Awakenings are extremely different from a person to another. There can be weird dreams, unexplained feelings of remembering something that seems never to have been lived before during childhood, yet sometimes quite vivid (by vivid, I mean realistic and not too blurry. This is not story-telling). Therefore, it is absolutely necessary not to consider everything that pops-up in one's mind as a past-life memory. Imagination works fast, very fast and can make us make awful spiritual mistakes if we don't take the time to tidy up the flow of thoughts and images.
And if you're curious about what I consider as my own past-life memories, I can't really talk for hours about them because there are only four things that I consider as my true dragon memories : a blurred image of a quite big green dragon looking at me, a weird hissy/growly sound without any apparent meaning, the image of my dragon form (it took me some time before managing to get a quite clear global vision of it), and a vague sensation of flying. That's all.

And then ?
Sometimes, people think that they have a too strong imagination or they think they are a bit crazy. I used to think I was a bit nuts thinking that I used to be a dragon in a past-life (but honnestly, who is not a bit nuts ? :D ). Until 2005, I had kept all this to myself, trying not to think about my Draconity (at that time, I didn't know that there were other people like me). No to mention that I had a very crappy Internet access (you know, the old dial-up thing which is not even unlimited). During that year, I got a fairly decent Internet access, which allowed me to spend more time online. And one day, as I was looking for dragon drawings and information about them, I randomly found a few websites that attracted my attention : Dragon Communities. At first, I remember I was a bit puzzled. So I browsed those websites/forums and discovered that there were people having the same belief(s) as me. Useless to say that it reassured me. I remember having thought "Other ... dragons ?". Thus, I've been a member of these communities since that time. It allowed me to chat constructively with other Dragonkins, which is extremely appreciable because past chats help me when my I go through harder times concerning my Draconity. Not to mention that I met some of my best friends on Dragon IRC networks :)

The main problems encountered by Otherkins
Lately, with the very quick development of the easy-to-access Internet and unlimited broadband, online communities have more or less been under the fire of wannabe's, kids, and others. Most of those people (mainly kids and wannabe's) don't realise the spiritual dimension of the Otherkin concept and think it's some kind of cool thing, or worse, they think it's a role-play game they hadn't heard about before. Being an Otherkin is NOT cool (in other words, it's not "zomg-i'm-a-so-special-person-woohoo-!"). It is a deeply personal spirituality and not a game. In the case of kids, they don't get the concept probably because they are too young.
We also encounter some people who want to create some lame "uniformized/universal" Otherkin creeds by exposing their own idealised views about dragons/Otherkins. This is pretty dangerous in the way that it may lead to the invention of some insane doctrines saying what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, and who should be considered as a Kin or not. So, the important point to remember is that our beliefs are strictly personal and CANNOT be dictated by anyone else, even if this person is an Otherkin too (but one can debate over ideas, listen to constructive advice from others as long as it remains indicative advice). The reason for this is simple : There is such a huge diversity in experiences and in origins that it is simply impossible to compile everything in a single universal belief. My experiences and my ideas may not be accepted by another dragonkin, and vice-versa. One believes for oneself, not for others. There may be some common points with other people, but they remain very generic.