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Ancient of Days
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Around the turn of the previous century in France, artists needed cafes where they could share with one another about the artworks that they were working on. After the artists fled to the Americas during the wartime crackdown on intellectuals, it gradually became evident that those artists tended to stop producing any art. It was because they were scattered and alone, with no other artists nearby them to talk to about their projects. Without meetings in cafes, they stopped coming up with new ideas, and they stopped finishing what they started. That’s how that kind of thing works.
A lot of the people who post to this forum probably have otherkin-related resources that they’ve been working on and haven’t finished. Articles, books, web pages, stuff like that. Maybe if we bounce ideas off one another in this thread, talk about our works-in-progress, we might get the inspiration, ideas, information that we need to get our projects finished and out in the world. What’s on your back burner lately?
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You’re not wrong. I have a small group of friends I normally bounce such ideas off of, including my current roommate, but I still have a lot of stuff that ends up on the backburner. Oddly, the best person I ever had for helping me translate my ideas into reality was completely fucking crazy…
Anyway, my list of projects… and remember, you asked for this.
- Angelkin FAQ
- Vor’jen FAQ
- Adding otherkin jargon to the wiki. (Know you’re working on a parallel project, figure it doesn’t hurt to have more than one.)
- Otherkin: We Who are Numinous
- Bias in the Community (otakukin, royals, etc)
- Guiding vs Controlling (hypocrasy and human overlay)
- Skepticism vs Cynicism (provoking thought or provoking an emotional reponse)
- Questions vs Attacks (and when questions become attacks)
- Avoiding Manipulation
- The Role of Memories
- Who are you now?
- Through functional to magical
- What are “above-average” distributions in a system with no baseline? (ie, the claim that there are too many wolves, or royals, etc.)
- Are parody and mockery two different things? <- I don’t remember where I was going with this one, but it’s on my otherkin writings list.
- The functional Otherkin – balancing life in the human world with your otherkin nature.
- Councils and Kin – councils as a form of structure/organization for the otherkin community, & alternative options. (For the record, I’m against them. But for a while I was seeing a new “council” of whateverthefuck popping up damned near every other week.)
- Many Hearths – learning to form individual hearths that perfectly fit a small group, rather than imperfectly fit the community.
- Seeking Community – about the drive to find a community where you fit in, & about choosing to make one instead.
- Seeking the Past – about the desire many feel for the “good old days”, both within the community and in terms of past lives.
- Seeking Home – about the wish for your real home, a place you can truly call your own, and how to find or make one here.
- Not if you ask the Right Questions – an article on the importance of asking the right questions to get a meaningful answer within the community.
- Extraordinary Claims – What are they? Why are they said to require extraordinary proof? What is that?
- Warriors, Bards, & Wizards – the tendency to more clearly remember or focus on the lives where you were special in some way, and some observations on the significance of it.
- Born of the Dreaming – about the connection magical races have with the Dreaming, and possible explanations for it.
- Elders – Who are really elders in any community? How does someone become an elder in a community like ours? What is the role of an elder? <- Largely written already, though not generally well received. http://jarandhel.dreamwidth.or…..tml#cutid1
- Path of Awakening – presenting the idea of Awakening as a process, rather than an event. A simple proof that knowing what you are does not make you awakened. Comparing Awakening and Enlightenment as concepts and paths.
- Souls and Species – do souls have a species? Explaining trueform and related concepts.
- Inhuman Bodies – are we really all in human bodies? Do elven physical traits suggest we may not be human genetically? Are there other explanations? (I’m on the yes, we’re all in human bodies and are not genetically nonhuman side.)
- Between history and myths – Arthur lived in the Dreamtime; perhaps we did as well?
- Genetic Memory – could our past-life memories actually be memories of our ancestors? (I doubt it.)
- Memes of Awakening – is there any connection between the idea of memes and awakening kin? Has awakening, and even kinness itself, become a meme? (Sadly, I think so.)
- The Seeds of Truth – sifting out truth from the shifting sands of myths and legends about kin.
- Subjective Truth – a study of the concept, the way it is generally meant, and how far one can take it realistically.
- Kin Philosophy – are there any truly unique worldviews & philosophies among kin, or have humans thought of them all before?
- Flows vs Spells – two approaches to magic, a study of how they compare in theory and practice, and how they can mesh together.
- Spirits of the Natural World – working with them, what they are, and our unique connections with them as kin.
- Spiritual Logic, Scientific Inspiration – a study of how the paths of science and spirituality can compliment each other.
- Kin Parents, Kin Children – a look at both, seperately and together.
- Faery Tales – what sparks of truth remain in the stories told to babes?
- Sword-dancing through life – a study of blade-dancing as flow-work and zen-like practice.
- Nonhuman Culture – a study of kin cultural elements and how they compare with human culture.
- Nonmagical Kin – kin who do not use magic; alien kin rather than otherworldly kin?
- Entitlement – do kin have a tendency to think access to information and other community resources are things they are entitled to? Why?
- Ye Old Wild magic – what is so called “wild” magic? Why is it considered important?
- Mundane vs Banal – what the two terms really mean.
- Oppression – does mainstream culture, or “mundane humanity” routinely attack otherkin? (NO!)
- Spiritual Frames – Looking at paradigms & worldviews from the point of view of NLP.
- Species Traits – do certain species possess certain personality traits? How acceptable is it to excuse certain behavior because of one’s species? If races do not have such traits, what is our basis for knowing we are otherkin?
- Of Memory and Dream – bordering on each, what truely distinguishes otherkin memories?
- Otherkin Beliefs in Mainstream Religions – they hypocrasy of calling us deluded because we think we’re not human.
- Seeking Evidence – most people seem very unaware of the many anomalies known to science. Would the community benefit from information about such anomalies?
- Novice Gurus – on the natural impulse to share what you’ve learned, and one harmful expression of it.
- Family vs Clan vs Clique – an analysis of these different concepts and the positive and negative expression of each.
That’s my current official list, with some commentary added. There are probably also some things I’ve been thinking of writing that I haven’t put up on it yet. For one, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a book about otherkin. Less of a field guide for outsiders, like Lupa wrote, and more for those who are or think they might be. Keep debating on the exact contents…
Edit: Oh, and this also doesn’t include some works that might be tangentially but not directly related to the otherkin stuff – like the thoughtform essay that will finish up my series on basic energywork, or the Reiki and Thoughtforms essay I want to write after that to go in depth into my current understanding of Reiki as a magical practitioner.
Edit again: Missed a couple that I have saved as drafts but not on the list. “Exploring the Elven Archetype in Fiction, Myth and Memory” – this is basically my attempt to look at what makes a “generic” elf and if the generic elven archetype is really all that valuable compared to specific elves from specific cultural groups. “The River of Memory: Lethe vs Mnemosyne” – About the shift in the community away from discussing memories. “Relating to the Other” – About our relationship with that which is Other (than human). The basis for the relationship, what we put into and get out of the relationship, positive and negative approaches to the relationship, relating to the animistic world as Otherkin, etc… may end up breaking this into multiple essays.
Last edit, I promise: The one you’ve asked me to write up about glamourbombing – the concept, the problems with how it’s commonly practiced, how to make it better/more effective/correct said problems, and other groups doing similar work.
Ancient of Days
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…Oh my stars, Jarin!
I mean, I have a few things I’ve kind of picked up and put down, but great googly moogly! (Personally I would be most interested in 4, 17, 24, 27, 35, and 44, the Elven Archetype thing, and glamourbombing.)
The main things I haven’t done are:
1. Completed (or even got into a good basic first draft, really, since something like this would be an integrating resource, forever added to in bits) the notes and examples for the workshop I did at MythiCalia in 2010, which to my confusion went over like a lead balloon (MythBusters notwithstanding on that idiom), about motifs, themes, symbols, etc. in fiction that otherkin have found either identifiable with or usable in real life. There was somewhat of a focus on the elven-faery spectrum because to try to be all-encompassing would be crazy, but other types could be included here and there as well. (I don’t usually attempt to be encyclopedic or catholic about these kinds of things; some stuff on my website is applicable to otherkin in general independent of type, but I don’t try to encompass all types individually.) I got discouraged about this because of the lukewarm/confused reception it got (“no, I don’t find anything of myself in any fictional nonhumans, it’s never meant much of anything to me aside from as stories” was pretty much what everyone said) and haven’t picked it up again.
2. Faery-topic stuff for my website:
- So what do I mean when I say “of Faerie”? What defines this kind of faery?
- The realm of Faerie; lands within Faerie. Underworld compared/contrasted. Otherworld or Otherworlds. Faerie considered as a realm tied to Earth, and as something entirely separate. Changelands and “held” realms.
- The faery – sidhe – TdD – elven – angelic – demonic mess. Connections (or lack thereof) to nature spirits, elementals, spirits of place, Underworld beings, the Dead.
- Relevance of any human-folkloric bits, for example: iron; seelie and unseelie; high and low courts.
- Faeries and glamour. “Banality” and “Dreaming”. Are we created by human imagination? Faery as creatures of magic.
- Faery magic style (touches on the perennial “wtf is so different about otherkin magic anyway?”). Symbols and techniques. “Just doing it”.
- Being part of a group/tribe/court of some kind vs. my own memories of solitary existence. Royalty/sovereignty. Ideas about “faery queens”, etc.
- What personality traits, likes/dislikes or behaviors are common? Nature-fae and city-fae. Has all that “dancing in rings” stuff got any relevance at all?
- Why is the imagery involved here so strongly Celtic – British – European flavoured? Jarin sez: Maybe this is just people not knowing what else to call things. Perhaps they’re actually menehune, for example, but it’s similar enough to something Celtic that they call it that, not even knowing there was someplace else to look. Is there an actual preponderance, or is it only apparent?
- Faery admixture in human bloodlines. Waking the Old Blood. Faery body because a faery is in it. Changelings. Relation to lack of memories – not remembering a “past life” in the way many others are (especially offworlders), but because this is an emergence perhaps of a new phenomenon – faery “essence” being born into a human (or not-entirely-human) body for… what reasons?
- Gathering or at least linking to some specific faery/sidhe memories if I can. Try to find or solicit things which demonstrate the differences and similarities re: faery, sidhe, TdD… Also some things which are about specific folkloric types would be good, but from the otherkin perspective rather than just history/lore.
- How about physical traits and etheric traits? Whassa deal with wings, anyway?
- Not-to-be-taken-literally links to images, poetry, stories, music, etc. (or reposting of my own where appropriate) that gets across the feel I’m trying to talk about.
I may have scrap notes on more things at home, but that’s all I can say for sure off the top of my head has been “backburnered”.
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What can I say? I was put on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I’m so far behind that I will never die. 
I should really make an official list for my non-otherkin magical writing projects too… the one I have only has six items on it and is woefully out of date.
I’d be interested in seeing most of the stuff you’re working on. And for what it’s worth, I do identify with things from fiction – but not always with depictions of my actual kintypes. I see more of what I feel is elven in the Minbari, the Taelons, the Tayledras, even in Aragorn than I do in Legolas or Elrond.
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Hey, tangential question – mostly for Arethinn but if this rings a bell for anyone please chime in – do you recall an essay either by Tiernan or someone else in the TNO/Boston-area otherkin crew that dealt with Glamour, specifically exuding it while (I think) dancing at a club? I have this niggling itch in the back of my mind about it, and I’d like to re-read it and possibly cite it in some of the articles I’m working on, but I can’t seem to find it or even remember where I saw it exactly. I’ve pulled up archive.org copies of Tiernan, Magpie, and Aine’s old websites and it wasn’t there. Not on the Elven Cabal site either, as far as I could find. Wylde’s old page doesn’t seem to have been archived, and I don’t recall if Omnedon had a separate page at any point. And not really sure who else it could have been by…
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Ok, I just got some *really* good material that has bumped the glamourbombing article up to the very tippy-top of my massive to-do list…
Ancient of Days
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Jarandhel Dreamsinger said
Ok, I just got some *really* good material that has bumped the glamourbombing article up to the very tippy-top of my massive to-do list…
You tease.
As for the one about glamour and dancing in a club, that doesn’t ring any bells with me. You may be remembering a list thread rather than a website page now findable by archive methods, too. But other possibilities… Thistle? Richard/Unseelie (though I associate him more with Demonic Angels than TNO)? Ghostshadow/Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, though he would have been in San Francisco and not Boston? Wylde would probably be a good call, if so, as I say maybe it would have been talked about on the Twilightfae list rather than an essay on a site, I dunno…
But hey – Tiernan (!) has just popped up on the Sidhelist on Yahoo, which has recently gotten a short burst of life, oddly enough after a post “from” Aine with one of those hacked/bad WordPress links. I guess seeing her name in “From” turned more heads than my plaintive posts about MythiCalia, heh.
ETA: She’s going by Dreamfall these days, and says she still has a lot of TNO archives and will post them on accessible webspace soon so you can look through them if you like. I expect this may be of interest to our own O. Scribner, as well, since AFAIK the only part that’s been readily available for quite some time has been the few digest issues archived at Lavendise. Well, and http://lists.topica.com/lists/TirNanOc/ does still exist, but there has not been actual activity there since 2002. (Wonder if there’s any practical way to slurp the archives of that, lest Topica decide to shut the service down…)
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I’m exhausted tonight, been up since 5:50am with only about two and a half hours sleep and I still have the otherkin chat tonight, but I’m going to *try* to get the glamourbombing article finished by Sunday night at the latest. And when you see what I got, you and your socks will end up in different time zones.
I’ll poke about for stuff by the others and see if I can find the one I’m thinking of, but I’m thinking you might be right and it was an old TNO list-thread. Or twilightfae. Or darkfae. Or… well, any of the bajillion defunct older lists we used to bump into each other on.
Tiernan and I don’t mesh well directly, though I’m genuinely glad to see her back. I knew she was stirring a bit ever since she put up a hartandale site back in February of last year, but so far she hasn’t done anything with it: http://hartandale.com/ I hope she sticks around, and maybe pulls Aine and Magpie and even Wylde back in… it would be nice to see some of the older crew active again.
Now, naming no names of course it’s within the realm of possibility that someone might have slurped that list onto his Macbook (which needs a new power adapter before it can be retrieved) using browser-automation methods for just that reason, back when he tried to see if anyone would talk if the list were poked… It’s also possible he may have done the same for the Dark Personalities Topica List. *whistles innocently*
And it would be AWESOME to have archives of #TNO. Now if we could just get some other list archives back in public circulation… Awakenings, Elenari and Friends, the rest of the original Vorjenhunting archives – not that anyone seems to have saved those – the otherkin royals list, Kaa Haupsetsut’s list whose name I completely forget, etc. I swear, I want a literal time machine that can let me search the web from 1995-2001.
Ancient of Days
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Jarandhel Dreamsinger said
And when you see what I got, you and your socks will end up in different time zones.
*sporfle*
Some of this is drifting off the topic of “unfinished resources/artists’ cafe”; I think I’ll start a different thread.
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Still working on article. Lot of threads to tie together semi-coherently… but it’s in progress. Actual writing is being done on it. Also, I was wrong – don’t have to wait till I get my macbook up and running again, I already uploaded the Topica archives: http://thelibrary.dreamhart.or…..0Archives/
Ancient of Days
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Woot, and the tarballs look like they worked right this time, with just a bunch of .htm files inside instead of recursively zipped.
Haven’t heard from Dreamfall (Tiernan) again yet on the older TNO stuff.
Ancient of Days
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Latest news from her:
Alas. I mounted the old HD but it wasn’t on there, which means it’s one of the files I moved to a CD archive. Which are “somewhere in the garage”. Husbandcritter has been going through the boxes while he’s been off work trying to sort and organize, so if he finds ’em he’ll bring ’em in but I have no idea how long that will take.
If their garage is anything like ours, we will be greybeards first 
ah well.
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