Otherkin
On the topic of Otherkin, I am very much a skeptic. Otherkin are those humans who believe themselves to be, on some level, nonhuman. Common varieties of Otherkin include those who identify as vampires, fairies, elves, werewolves, angels and demons. Sound strange? I’ve personally encountered several such beings, and even I think it’s strange. I will not, however, sit in judgment like so many others.
The major critics of Otherkin, primarily occultists and intellectuals in my experience, like to try to simplify the scenario to one easily digestable in their paradigm. I freely admit that I simply do not believe that Otherkin are what they often claim to be. Outside very extraordinary circumstances, fairies, Elemental spirits and other Astral and Mental entities simply cannot incarnate as humans and even within those rare cases, they either do not remember their origins at all, or remember them entirely from the start. Just because I don’t, at this time, accept the story at face value, however, does not mean that I am willing to brush it off as a fantasy or delusion.
I know Otherkin and have met a fair number more. I have met some who were clearly delusional, and others who were obviously screaming for attention (”Look how different and interesting I am!”). Most, however, have been not only quite sincere but also very grounded and intellectual. That said, it becomes much more interesting that magicians make the same accusations of Otherkin that “normal people” make of magicians and under analogous circumstances.
There is, in truth, no such thing as “the magical community.” There are merely magicians who periodically make the effort to ignore their drastic differences. The scenario is ultimately similar among Otherkin. There is no “fitting in”, but only “covering up.” In this, magicians and occultists can sympathize.
I propose that occultists of all traditions and systems refraim from judging the Otherkin phenomenon in its entirety. Instead, we might extend to them the same courtesy we all want from society at large: either leave them in peace entirely, or accept that while we may be different in many ways we are all still deserving of respect in the brotherhood of humanity (at least biologically).
