What Do You Do if You Are Vegetarian but your Therian Aspect is a Carnivore?

". . . while one may relate very strongly and powerfully to an animal form, and there is surely valid reason for doing so, one need not feel that one has to be a carnivore just because their animal spirit traditionally is. The whole idea here is to become through evolution an advanced form of that animal and to retain its special abilities, even enhance them, while also developing one's consciousness in that body and one's ability to live harmoniously in the world to the benefit and satisfaction of all. . . . While some therian may be inclined to hold on to their carnivore urges in order to stay close to their animal kin nature, embracing the consciousness of the spiritual aspects of vegetarianism and being less predatory in nature is surely an opportunity to obtain a higher, conscious and more intelligent animal evolutionary form."


Part One: Why might one soulfully and spiritually relate to being an animal while in a humanoid body?

     Here's the thing. We all have human bodies, at least those who are reading this at present are likely to have such, and yet not all of us feel human due to the fact that soulfully and spiritually some of us are related to various animals. By soulfully, we mean that some individuals feel connected within their s'elves with a particular animal that their sense of s'elf as a soulful and thus feeling being relates to in a profound and powerful fashion. And by spiritually we mean that their actions and their imaginal being associates strongly with that animal type. They don't feel human or see thems'elves as being human, they spiritually are a particular animal kin or kins. This is very similar to how we feel who are elves in spirit but incarnated in a human body in this lifetime.

     Now, there is a psychological phenomenon called Depersonalization Disorder in which the individual doesn't recognize their own face in the mirror. We elves don't so much try to label people into disorders, although we do have our own book of Elven Psychology (see Elven Psychology: Understanding the Elfin Psyche and the Evolutionary and Esoteric Purpose of Mental Disorders), but rather, for the most part we try to understand why people feel and experience what they do instead of judging them and declaring that something must be wrong with them if they are straying from the norm. For the elfae folk, what is normal for us is, after all, being odd, weird, unique and eccentric.

      But our point here is that while the phenomenon of relating spiritually and soulfully may appear to be similar in some ways to Depersonalization Disorder, it is not a disorder for most people but a genuine way of encountering and effectively dealing with the world and their own experience within it. The question we might consider is why so many people experience this in the first place and while we only have theories about this, we think that they have some validity to them and may shed some light on this question. They are, at least, worth considering.

     Evolution is the development of consciousness and with that development the growing power to create our own worlds. In the process of this development, we have, all of us, transited through many and various lifetimes of forms or body types, which is to say various materialized manifestations of that consciousness, that reflect our level of development. There surely were times when we were as steady as a rock, or as serene perhaps as stone, were joyful and fleeting as a flower or as prickly as thistle and, surely we have migrated through many, many animal lives and experienced those bodies due to our level of consciousness at that stage in our evolutionary progress toward Mastery and Adeptship.

     Now, we expect that many of the folks who still feel these lives very strongly inwardly associate with them more than they do with their humanoid bodies, do so because of several possible reasons. One is that they were those animals in previous lives who were killed by humans. Well, humans are murdering animals all the time, consuming them and thus in a sense invoking them. This has resulted in the fact that there are more and more humans and less and less animals. So where do those animals go who were prematurely taken from this world and the place in evolution and whose avenue to being that animal has become increasingly limited? They often take on human bodies but they don't feel all that comfortable in doing so. In their hearts and minds, they are still a wolf, fox, a hawk or whatever. They are still progressing as an animal just in a human body. It is rather like finding that suddenly none of your clothes fit right.

      Many of these have no real sense of their animal being. You can go out into the world and find bulls and cows and sheep and chickens and all sorts of people who are spiritually animals but unaware of being so. They actually think they are human but they are not in the least humane spiritually nor have a clue about what being human really is. These people may be only marginally on the level of human consciousness.

     Thus, two, we have those who were animals in previous lives who were sacrificed by various spiritual groups and these folk have a step up upon those who were merely killed or killed and eaten. The association with religion and sometimes magick gives them a greater sense of connection to magick as well as the continuing sense of being the animal form that they were. These folk may not recognize their therian nature, in as much as they still have an urge, because of religious associations, to conform to human society, but they still feel a very strong association with their particular animal form. Therefore, in a sense, they are therian but would never admit to being so, for fear of ridicule, if they even know that term, which they may not.

     This brings us to our third group, which are those spirits who in their animal form were familiars to witches, wizards, or who were used by shamans and other magic wielders as vehicles for astral travel and temporary inhabitation. The wizard or shaman would take over the animal's body for a while in order to fly, see or whatever. This group are not only more developed magically, they are also less likely to be conformists and thus more accepting of their therian nature and more likely to explore it. Their human like awareness began to develop when they were still animals. This is because of the principle of contagious magic, the presence of the consciousness of the shaman or mage within them has connected them to that shaman and to that higher magical consciousness. They awakened through this experience to greater consciousness within their animal body and are more adept at living in humanoid bodies, although still very much attuned to their animal natures and essentially more comfortable within their spiritual and soulful animal nature. This group may comprise a number of the folks who profess to be in the modern therian/otherkin movement today.

     Now, we realize we haven't even approached our main question as yet, at least not directly, but we will get to that next section. In the meantime, consider the possibilities, as we have only begun to describe the many, dear Kindred.

Part Two: How can embracing the consciousness of the spiritual aspects of vegetarianism help a human of therian nature to obtain a more intelligent animal evolutionary form?

      We have outlined three different but, in some sense, connected ways that one might soulfully and spiritually relate to being an animal while in a humanoid body. The third of these was that one had, in an animal life, been connected to a witch, wizard, sorcerer, shaman or mage of some sort either as a familiar or as an animal that the magic wielder would possess temporarily to share in its powers and thus, by osmosis and association, attaining some of the mage's higher consciousness.

     However, we may also consider the fact that in fiction, mages that take over the body of an animal for a period are often warned about doing so for too long because of the fact that they could get lost in the animal's consciousness and not be able to return to, or even be aware of, their own humanoid body.

     So, we might also consider that some Therians were shamans or mages that, in fact, spent a good deal of time in animal form and consciousness and became so attached to that link that they carried that sense of connection on in successive lives. After all, it was a sort of relationship, and relationships can form lifetime and multi-lifetime bonds.

     Now, we might consider for a moment why mages temporarily possess an animal and take over its body for a short period in the first place for this will bring us back again to our main question concerning the conflict between being a vegetarian and yet soulfully and spiritually relating to a particular animal who is most often a carnivore.

     In doing so, we need to ask ours'elves why a mage would take on an animal's body in the first place. And the answer is that a particular animal may have powers that the mage would otherwise not have. It might be able to fly over great distances and see with very clear sight like many birds do; or have a tremendous sense of smell, like canines do; or even regenerate limbs, like a starfish; or it may have some other absolutely amazing ability that would be very convenient and beneficial if we had them in humanoid form.

     One of the reasons many folks relate to were-wolves, vampires and others are because of their mystical abilities, their fast healing abilities and other powers. Evolutionarily, we seek power. Not necessarily power in the world or power over other people, although there are more than enough individuals who seek that, but primarily power over our own s'elves. Power to control our lives, power to heal, power to be successful and create and live in the world that we desire. This is what evolution is about; becoming ever more consciously aware and intelligent and powerful (or perhaps empowered is a better word here) so we can be the amazing magic wielders we inwardly know we are destined to be.

    Clearly, animals have many abilities and freedoms of experience that many of us would love to have. We, while in human bodies, may be advanced in some ways, such as certain abilities to think logically (although very few actually seem to have developed or use this power to an advanced degree) but animals are often advanced in many other ways. It is only reasonable that some individuals would see animal form as an ideal for their own being. Note the Russian television series Sniffer or Nyukhach, about a man who assists the police with his sense of smell that is as keen and discerning as a canine.

     And there is plenty of mystical lore, as well as fictional lore, that would agree with the notion that animals can develop superior consciousness as well. Dragons, unicorns, phoenixes (or is that phoenixi?) who are clearly animal beings or have animal forms, none-the-less, live upon the higher realms of manifestation as advanced beings. (And we should note that C. S. Lewis's Aslan, the god in his Narnia series, is a lion.) There are also demi-gods in some religions who manifest in animal form upon those same planes.

     While a higher developed animal being like these advanced mythical beings may have incarnated at some point in humanoid form to gain the intelligence thereof, and they have returned to animal form in their higher state, there is no reason to suppose that having an animal body makes one inferior. Living in a predatory world as many animals do, however, can be hell-like, that is true, but that is true for all of us, humanoid or animal. Let us not forget that aside from the viruses, who are the alpha predators of this world, mankind is surely the beta predator. Killing sometimes, just for the "sport" of it, along with a long history of wars and disingenuous rationalizations for engaging thereof.

   

     It is also highly probable that less predatory humans have learned this intelligence from having past lives as less predatory animals, like many birds and the deer. Or that a human may benefit in their advancement of intelligence from going back to an animal life of such a gentle nature, while developing the ability to get along with one's flock or animal community. Some of the most loved characteristic of humans are carry overs from their past animal lives. We gain something from each of our lives and manifestations that we carry forth in lifetimes.

     And let us not forget our own faerie lore wherein Trolls can be turned into stone by the sun and that they often have stone-like skin, as do gargoyles. They are stones with slightly advanced consciousness. Note the Mountain Giants battling in one of The Hobbit movies. This is to say that even rocks have a sort of intelligence that evolves.

     And so, this is our point, beloved, that there is nothing inherently inferior about having an animal body, particularly if that body has developed advanced consciousness, as say mythical beings like dragons are noted to have done. There is surely something painful about being trapped into a predatory world of suffering in which one's life is relatively short and nearly always in danger. As it happens, humanoid manifestation offers one an opportunity (that many don't bother to take for lifetimes) to stop being predatory and become more harmonious as an individual and as a people.

     Thus, while one may relate very strongly and powerfully to an animal form, and there is surely valid reason for doing so, one need not feel that one has to be a carnivore just because their animal spirit traditionally is. The whole idea here is to become through evolution an advanced form of that animal and to retain its special abilities, even enhance them, while also developing one's consciousness in that body and one's ability to live harmoniously in the world to the benefit and satisfaction of all. We wish to be rising to the higher planes of manifestation, where we can create the realms we wish and where we will not prey upon each other but be energetically s'elf sustaining and other supporting. While some therian may be inclined to hold on to their carnivore urges in order to stay close to their animal kin nature, embracing the consciousness of the spiritual aspects of vegetarianism and being less predatory in nature is surely an opportunity to obtain a higher, conscious and more intelligent animal evolutionary form.

     The Christian image of the lion lying down peacefully with the lamb in paradise is not mistaken. Would our Elfin ever be without animals? Will there only be humanoid elves there in Elfin? Surely not. Our faerie kindred, our therian brothers and sisters will abide with us in those magical and mystical realms of enlightenment and fulfillment, as conscious, aware and advanced beings just as many of the traditional fairy tales have prophesied. Remember, it is not a matter of bodies, or forms (we will create those for ours'elves as we please upon the more subtle and magically actively dimensions), but a matter of consciousness and spirit.

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