Home  Content Archive General Topics Otherkin or Otherwikkin? A Highlight of the 2007 St. Louis Pagan Picnic
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Otherkin or Otherwikkin? A Highlight of the 2007 St. Louis Pagan Picnic |
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Written by Tavthe
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Sunday, 10 January 2010 |
The following was written about the 2007 St. Louis Pagan Picnic.
This year’s St. Louis’ Pagan Picnic featured a generous array of workshops but the one I wish to pay most attention towards, was the Otherkin workshop entitled Dragons, Faeries, and Elves…oh my! Having a more than average understanding of Otherkin, I attended the workshop expecting to hear something remotely similar to my own instruction in it. Unfortunately all I found was otherkin stylized Wicca and an extension of Wiccan disdain for what has become part and parcel to the stereotypical Otherkin tale. It is very difficult to find a formal history of the Otherkin subculture documented in books or on the internet. Its roots are extremely obscure. Wikipedia reveals a very tiny element of it and claims that Otherkin arises from Elven exploration , which arose from the influence of epic works of the fantasies of Lord of the Rings and the poetry of William Butler Yeats, combined with the earlier forays into Wicca from the 1960’s and 1970’s.
A representative of a St. Louis Otherkin group spoke with attendees in a roundtable format on Saturday, July 14, 2007, in which he briefly explained that his group practices the same basic tenets as Wicca, with a flair of fantasy which focuses on a spiritual and psychological connection with dragons, faeries and elves. He then asked each of the attendees to share with the group what attracted them to the workshop, that might reveal a connection they share with any of the aforementioned mythological beings. He placed a great deal of emphasis on a dual system of ideologies which run central to humanity, logic and emotion, and how they relate specifically to dragons and faeries. The coldness and straightforwardness of logic was purported to be associated with draconic instincts and the emotive side, as he explained was synonymous with the faerie characteristics. While he was quite familiar with the mannerisms and characteristics of some types of dragons and faeries, much of what he said could be typified by merely common subspecies of each type, and would not provide too wide a general spectrum with regard to people who identify with such figures on a deeper, more intrinsic level. Early on, he made it abundantly clear that he did not care to hear anything that did not directly relate to dragons, faeries or elves. He also did not seem interested in any stories which might lead one to consider any element of truth in the belief that one may possess a non-human soul, a theme that is highly prevalent among the Otherkin subculture today.
Possessing a profound interest and a good deal of familiarity with the subject of Otherkin, I decided to listen to what he had to say. Much of it to my surprise had next to no similarities with the Otherkin subculture. He was more interested in working with dragons, faeries and elves in the way that they are included in Dragon or Faerie Wicca, than in the spiritual exploration of Otherkin as a new age belief. The practitioners of Wicca do not, in general, hold a very positive view of Otherkin, as people who believe they possess non-human souls. Wiccans are in fact extremely skeptical. I wonder if they are more skeptical of Pagans who practice varegated forms of Wicca interspersed with dragons and faeries, or if they are more disdainful of people who think they may possess non-human souls. With the wealth of mythologies we have about non-human entities which had, at one time existed on Earth, in many different regions the world over, why now do some people who subscribe to alternative spiritualities have as much a difficult time accepting the possibility that some of us may possess non-human origins as do the practitioners of mainstream religions?
I came away from the workshop feeling particularly disappointed. A more well rounded introduction, in my opinion, would have only been successful if in addition to his angle, he had also addressed the modern subculture of Otherkin, including their beliefs, methods, and the impact it has on theoretical spirituality as a whole.
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