Did you use something before “Otherkin”?

I’m gonna take a totally wild chance here and assume that everyone on this board has heard of the term “otherkin” by now (it kinda is in the title of this forum, and all). So most of you probably either use that to describe yourself or know someone who does.

But was there another descriptor you had before discovering this one for people you knew who are or yourself when you discovered you were? Think way back (for some it might not be all that long ago) to when you first awakened. Did you already know to use “otherkin” or did you make up a term for it till you found this one? Did you bother to even give a name to it?

I ask cause Elinox’s Terms thread got me thinking about way back before I’d ever heard of “otherkin” or was aware that so many related to feeling a similar way about themselves.

Some friends and I instead used the phrase “something else.”
Yes, I know. Very descriptive but then none of us turned into English majors so you can’t expect all that much. So a lot of our conversations would go something like:
“So what kind of something else are you?”
“Hey, I found out I’m something else”
“Do you think [insert name here] is something else, too?”

Then I discovered otherkin and was both relived and mortified that there were more of us and we couldn’t blame it on being in New Jersey anymore.

So did any of you have a different term before you discovered this one?

demon... plain and simple. i didn't know there were others like me, and others with other types, so i stuck with the obvious. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

I just knew that human didn't quite cover it...so I guess I was a "human doesn't quite cover it" <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

We didn't really have a name for it, just a recognition that we might have been something else in a past life. One of my childhood friends said she was part unicorn. My other friend may have been elven. We all did the wolf thing, but that was role play to some extent. For awhile, I called myself raptorian, part human and part bird of prey, but at the same time I also recognized that I was some type of angel on those days when I felt particularly daring. I imagined myself living in a place where most, if not all people were some combination of human and animal. But thinking about it came and went, sometimes I'd identify with it and other times I'd throw it back in the closet and try to ignore it. Later when I joined a coven I took the role of Door Warden and it suited me extremely well. I would often guard the circle with my birdlike consciousness in mind. I tried to explain to my high priestess that my soul was...androgynous? she asked...I said 'not human.' She then rather unhelpfully encouraged me to study angelic script. I sort of laughed at the idea. Why would energy beings require a written language? I also told her about the vision about Horus. She directed me to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. I puked and didn't bother to study any more Egyptian. One of the people in the coven used to call archangels at the quarters. She rather rudely mentioned that if I stepped outside the circle at the wrong time they would blast me. I thought, 'No, they would know I'm like them. They would smell it on me.'

I ran into the phrase on the net once and thought I'd come home. Finally! People who understood! Then I threw it back in the closet and forgot about it again. Later I met people on my shaman group who talked about it, so I looked it up again. I thought, hmmm....which kind am I? Dragon maybe? Then I realized how dumb that question was. I had known what I was for a long time even if I wasn't sure what to call it.

I also remember calling hawks my 'spirit kin.'

I always just thought I was "different" as a kid.

No I had no term before I heard of an "otherkin." I spent years, literally, without a word for it.

Before I discovered otherkin, I thought that everyone was able to use their energy the way I do, so I was just a 'witch' back then. I called myself a few other things, but mostly as jokes.

"psychological manifestation of difficulty accepting the humanity of the things that which were painful to me in a past life".. was the concept at least..
It evolved into "plus", as in Human(+).
And then I learned the word.

I just called myself more animalistic and more in touch with my instincts. I thought everyone was this territorial, possesive, smell sensitive, etc.

Malakoi Wrote:I always just thought I was "different" as a kid.

same, for a while i also used to say i was addopted because i knew my parents were not different like me.