Bibliography and Suggested Reading

One of the things I have sadly noticed about the Therianthropy community is that a large portion of its members appear to have precious little knowledge of the habits and behaviors of the animals they claim to be or otherwise share close connection to. Either that or people will choose the most glamorous and attractive bits of the animal to emulate, claiming that this emulation is the manufacture of some deep and profound connection, or 'therioside'. This has always caused me quite a bit of frustration and bewilderment when dealing with a large number of 'therians'. It would seem as if these people would content themselves with living as some fantasy, idealized version of the animal, very similar to the furry fandom which holds onto a very physical aesthetic and most of the time highly fantasized version of the animal. This is something I have never been able to understand or relate to. Even more bewildering that very few therians have ever actually seen the animal they claim connections to, or if they have it was merely a fleeting glimpse in the wild, or in the confines of the zoo, both instances perpetuating a glamorous and two-dimensional version of that animal to the person. Let alone the fact that a large number of people within the Therianthropy community have spent far more time behind a glowing screen than they have outdoors, possibly exploring the territories or former territories of 'their' animal-sides, or otherwise interacting within the confines of Nature in itself.

This is the reason for this booklist and resource. Books are amazing tools that help educate, as well as plant the seed of inspiration for forming more meaningful bonds with other beings on this planet. About half of the books on this list are centered around animal ethology and behavior, something that I feel is important in opening up and/or discovering deep avenues into one's own animal consciousness. Of these, a large quantity revolve around canine behavior and would be of particular interest to cynanthropes, though I hope to expand this to other groupings of animals as time goes on. Most of these books can be found via Amazon for purchase new or used. Most of these books have helped me alot in my research, and this isn't even the extent of the books I read that I could post here. I just figured I'd start with some basic reading for this page, and work my way from there. Although books should not be a complete substitute for actual experience, they do serve as very useful tools in helping one find out more about themselves and the world around them.

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General Animal Behavior Books:

Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. BiblioBazaar, 2007
Bekoff, Marc. The Emotional Lives Of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter. New World Library, 2007
Grandin, Temple. Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. Harvest Books, 2006.
Lorenz, Konrad. King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animals' Ways. Plume, 1997.
Prince-Hughes, Dawn. Songs Of The Gorilla Nation. Harmony Books New York, 2004.

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Of Particular Interest To Cynanthropes:

Coppinger, Ray. Dogs: A New Understanding Of Canine Origin, Behavior And Evolution. The University Of Chicago Press, 2001.
Dale-Green, Patricia. Lore Of The Dog. Houghton Mifflin, 1967.
Klinghammer, Erich. Applied Ethology: Some Basic Principles Of Ethology And Psychology. Ethology Series #6, Published by North American Wildlife Park Foundation, 1992.
Lopez, Barry. Of Wolves And Men. Scribner Classics, 2004
Marshall Thomas, Elizabeth. The Hidden Life of Dogs. Pocket, 1996.
Mech, L. David. Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. University of Chicago Press.
Ryden, Hope. God's Dog: A Celebration Of The North American Coyote. Backinprint.com, 2005.
White, David Gordon. Myths of the Dog-Man. University of Chicago Press, 1991.

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Note: This section is a work-in-progress and is certainly not exhaustive. As I go through and catalogue my book collection, these listings will grow significantly. Be sure to check back to this place often for further books added.

Essays: Confessions Of An Extinct Canid

Essay originally posted to my personal LiveJournal on December 3rd, 2007

A major facet of my canine identity is my identification with an animal that was both mythic as well as extinct, the Japanese wolf. This canid received mythic status long before its extinction, when its calls where forever snuffed out in a frenzy of diseased madness, fear and rage. The haunting silence that now filled its former mountain range had an almost remorseful feel-- the silence of breath caught in the throat as the antique vase hits the floor and shatters. The old gods where slaughtered on the sacrificial altar of progress, technology and state loyalty. Myths and bones and old folktales. They may be all that's left, and they may be all I have, but they are cherished nonetheless. In a sense I've become a paleontologist piecing together the puzzles of my own history and mythology.

One myth speaks of the Okuri-okami, the 'sending wolf', an almost supernatural being that appears like an apparition on the roads to guide wayward travelers to safety. Seen as a messenger of the gods as well as a god itself, and a good omen besides, this being was honored in small roadside shrines and temples. Though, there was also other tales that spoke of the destructive 'yamainu' or 'mountain dog', a violent and destructive being who had no fear of humans and who's meat was considered poisonous. Earlier still where stories the indigenous Ainu people told of Horkew Kamuy, the 'howling god', at the same time a benevolent being as well as a destructive force of nature, a god over all the other gods of nature.

Science, of course, tells another story. The story of a small and secretive wolf that populated the Honshu mountain range of Japan, along with the slightly larger cousin who inhabited the island of Hokkaido farther north. Gradually, as humans came to populate the Japanese islands, the primitive domestic dogs they brought along where allowed to breed with their wild cousins. The lines between 'wolf' and 'dog', 'domestic' and 'wild' began to blur substantially, as did the boundary between 'beneficial' and destructive. 'God' and 'Demon'. The 'yamainu', the destructive dog-wolf of the mountains that held no fear of humans, unlike the shy and elusive 'okami', seemed suspiciously to resemble the hybrid and feral dogs that seemed to crop up in areas where humans allowed their dogs to run loose and breed freely. In addition, prior to the establishment in Japan of the Linnean classification system, what constituted 'dog' and what constituted 'wolf' was merely a matter of who lived with humans, and who did not.

The coming of Matthew Perry's ships opened up Japan to the West, bringing with them the promise of technology and progress. Trees where cut back to make room for the large and sturdy western horses, as well as beef farming and dairy production. The realm of the gods became less mysterious, and diseases brought by domestic animals quickly infected the wild populations. The hybrid wolves, losing their ground and stricken with desperation and disease, gradually spilled into the tamed and manicured countryside. Disease, mostly rabies from domestic animals, swept through the population. The beneficient and guiding messenger of the gods became the mad-eyed and poison-fanged demon of disease and destruction. The Japanese, learning well from their American tutelage, took to the task of killing their wolves with gusto, and soon all where obliterated in a frenzy of gunfire, flame and madness, with western-style wolf-hunts on horseback and dead livestock stuffed with dynamite. Those animals who weren't shot or blown up died of starvation or disease. By the 1930s no one had seen or heard of the wolves again. Mostly. Every so often someone makes the claim of sighting a wolfish canine that appeared and then disappeared like an apparition. At night, in the more secluded villages that remain nestled into the mountainsides, people still stop and listen for the long and low howl, fearful and breathless. People still whisper. The legend endures. So too does the guilt.

When I stopped to actually piece together the myths and tales of the Japanese wolf with the animal's biological history, it was as if a bomb had gone off in my mind. It explained so many things to me, why I seemed to feel 'dog' as well as 'wolf'. Feral dog, hybrid wolf. Dogwolf, as opposed to 'wolfdog'. It was devastating too initially, as I had hoped that the canine I had found the closest alignment with would be one still alive, one that I'd might be able to see some day. The feeling began to fade with time however, as I began to see pieces of myself in most, if not all dogs and wolves. Coyotes too, as over the years my relationship with that totem has caused me to absorb many of its traits. I am a creature not of shifts but of continuums, sliding subtly across species and subspecies barrier, as flexible and transformative as the canid gene pool itself. My legacy also lived on in many of the world's primitive dog breeds. I was extinct, but I wasn't alone. Nor was I really bitter. There will always be sadness, and a sense of longing. Something that would spawn wild fantasies about going to the mountains of Japan and finding one of my kind still alive. But the feeling seems less when I am around other canines, and within lies the inspiration to become more involved in wolf conservation. A salve perhaps for the deep burning sensation within, like a gunshot wound, that seems to erupt when thinking about the past, of what once was.

Preferably, I live now in the present, and look towards the future. I may be a wolf, but I am a dog as well, and a part of me will never be extinct.

Essays: Personal Mythology

Essay originally posted to my personal journal on October 3rd, 2007.

When people within the otherkin and therianthropy communities ask me what and how I identify as a nonhuman entity in a human form, I generally smile and respond by explaining that I identify both as a supernatural entity as well as a 'common' flesh-and-blood creature, independent of the human condition. If you're reading this you might already be familiar with the otherkin subculture, though just for some background, I define someone who is 'otherkin' as anyone who identifies as something other than human, that something being supernatural or mythical in origin. I define a Therianthrope as anyone who identifies as an Earth-based critter, though I have noticed some overlap in how others use these terms. This is merely how I choose to define them. I identify as both, and this is where my personal mythology steps in to explain, exactly, why.

Cusm has this to say about mythology: "The purpose of mythology is to explain one’s origins and place in the world, and offer answers to questions of how the world functions around us." He goes on to explain his definition of a personal mythology: "A Personal Mythology is any story explaining one’s personal spiritual origins or identity. It may not even be a story, so much as an internal understanding. For as a story creates an internal reality, so too is an internal reality expressed as a story, even if it is never actually told." My personal mythology helps explain what makes, or has made me who I am. Being personal, I am never apt to reveal all of it, but I do reveal enough to help people understand why I am the way I am. This story is a telling of events I believe to have happened in my spiritual past. These events are real to me, though I do not expect them to be real to anyone else, nor would I be able to provide proof of such, any more than a Christian would be able to prove the events in the Bible did actually occur with any empirical evidence. That said, like the Bible it helps guide my spiritual outlook on life, and binds my own inner truths close to my being. As with past life workings, this is a fine line to walk, the line between empowerment and inner truth, and delusionment and escapism.

Before I go further, its important to note that I am not a person who considers time to be a linear thing. That said, linear time is important for the telling of a good story. Humans need sequences of events to piece together for things to make sense. These events, in my mind and memory, I have deliberately arranged to form a sequence, though in reality the truth may be far more complicated. This is one of many reasons why I keep my salt shaker in hand and my Occam's Razor well sharpened. Human memory is a tricky thing even when dealing with those memories that are maybe only hours old. To interpret memories from another world and another time, and as another entity, can be an interesting feat. Cultural and biological factors come into play, facts can get distorted. There is constant work to sort wheat from chaff, and at the same time prevent oneself from becoming to engrossed on what once was or what could have been. Personal mythologies and stories should help one live in the present and plan for the future, and not become so lost in the past that one forgets what is directly ahead of them.

My personal mythology 'began' in Japan, though events might have gone on prior to me 'coming' there. I was born a 'reiko', which is what most people would probably mistake for a 'kitsune'. Whereas 'kitsune' is a term simply meaning 'fox', a 'reiko' is a 'supernatural fox', an entity someone might also refer to as a 'fox-fairy ('huli-jing', in Chinese) or a 'fox-spirit'. This is the one people would think of as shapeshifting, possessing multiple tails, and occasionally glowing in the dark. That's what I did, well at least some of the time. Our 'culture' as it where, was based strongly off of human mimicry, and living parallel or sometimes overlapping with the human culture(s) in that region. We where too wild to fit into human society, but too sentient and intelligent to be counted among the more flesh-and-blood foxes. I begin to wonder if we where more 'fox-like' rather than a type of fox, but that's a tangent for a later time. In any case, at some point during my life there, after I was on my second tail (that would bring me at about 200 years old in reiko-years) I left my family and clan, for reasons that are yet a mystery to me. I always fancied myself a nomadic-type critter, and thats perhaps one of possibly many circumstances that led me to leave my family and go off on my own. I did not do this without a personal transformation of sorts. Reiko are known for their shapeshifting and mimicry. Aside from humans, the beings that seemed to be greatest in number in our world where the wolves, the okami and the yamainu. I was closely drawn to them. I studied them and lived among them, which isn't too surprising after having read of Ainu tales of foxes marrying into wolf clans, as evidenced in the story of a fox-prince who saved the wolf clan and the humans from a demon of disease and starvation using magical arrows, and later marrying into the wolf clan. I can't say I married into them, more like assimilated with them, eventually becoming one of them, almost indistinguishable from the next. As a yamainu I lived, struggled and howled with them, and when the last wolves of Japan died out, I passed along with them.

This brings us to the present...but not entirely. I may have lived other lives on the way, or otherwise assimilated into myself some sort of race memory, of other members of the genus canis before settling into a human form. I believe I am something similar to what has been termed a 'cladotherian', a therianthrope who possesses the traits or associations of more than one animal, usually of the same genus, but not always. For me that genus is canis, and in specific I have kept mostly on a continuum of wolfish-dog to doggish-wolf. In being born into this world, Coyote has taken me and has become a totem that I have later internalized as yet another so-called 'therioside'. My default setting now is a therianthropic one, and to save on confusion I generally tell people that I am a 'canine shapeshifter' to avoid possible confusion or weird looks. I see my 'therioside' as a very important part of the now. The animals and entities I relate to are either still alive, or their close relatives are. Coyote is a symbol of my life as it is in the here and now, and 'wolfdog' describes my psychological and emotional existence. As I grow in this life and discover more about myself, my personal mythology evolves along with it, as does the personal mythology of my twin brother and headmate Duo, who I've shared a number of existences and brotherhoods of some form with.

So you've gotten to the bottom of this thing, and probably think that Solo is either a colorful person or a nutball, or potentially both. Either one doesn't bother me too much. If I am a nutball (and I very well may be) I'm a relatively harmless one, and who's to say the nutball doesn't have some form of truth to his disjointed rambling?

Resources, to whet your whistle:
Cusm, on Personal Mythologies and Worlds Within: http://www.barbelith.com/topic/27109
A Field Guide To Otherkin, By Lupa
Kitsune Information: http://kitsune.heliwood.org

We're open for business!

Well, thanks to the help of some good friends, cynanthropy.com is now online!  Now comes the business of uploading some relevant material.  Stay tuned!

Cynanthropy.com

This is mostly a test-post, but hey.

Cynanthropy.com is going to be my ongoing pet project to archive my therianthropic writings, as well as offer a resource for other dog-minded individuals, and catalogue my progress with research and personal topics related to my cynanthropy.  Next week with the holiday coming up I'll be setting this space up and archiving things.  Expect to see essays, links, rants, book reviews, and a comprehensive bibliography which will constantly be growing and evolving as this place grows.

Stay tuned!