Strong Totemic Bond or Theriantropy?

[Jezabel]

Though I have been aware of my vampyric nature for a long time, my therian nature I would still consider fairly new to me, but no matter how experienced we may be in our natures and our paths, I am a firm believer that you can always teach an old dog new tricks. While associating myself with various others in the therian community, I found that a common problem that confuses an individual is deciphering whether or not what they have is just a strong totemic bond, insanity, or truly theriantropy. Now, it is possible to possess any combination of these characteristics as well, but I thought it may be helpful to distinguish the differences between a strong totemic bond and theriantropy.
A strong totemic bond is a bond we have with an animal spirit guide. It is a separate entity that we work with on a conscious level. When they come to guide you or you ask for their guidance, you are also getting lent their powers/characteristics. Like my life totem, the wolf, they bring with them aspects of balance between self and family, guardianship, loyalty, strength, and self-confidence. They are the path setters and bring with them a strong attachment to the spiritual world and they usually make quick and lasting emotional bonds. If this is your life totem or you have asked this totem to guide you (think almost like invoking a deity, almost the same concept, but these are animal spirits), then you must be prepared to welcome these aspects in your life. A totem chooses its owner, not the reverse, however, one may ask a totem to come and help them for a certain task in their lives, but that does not make the totem theirs per say, if that makes sense. For some asinine example, you invoked Kali to help you with your task of doing laundry, after your task is done, Kali won't usually hang around afterwards, same concept with totems. And of course, as you would thank Kali, thank the totem friend who helped you. Your life totem is the totem that you are born with and kind of serves as your protector and guide as well, everyone is born with one. My great grandmother saw the wolf clearly with me from the moment I was born. Sometimes, your totems will even share their spirit names with you and depending on your connection with your totem and with the spirit world, you may see them in a physical sense, or just have a feeling of them being there. Whether you see or sense them or not, know that they are there. It takes longer for some individuals to discover thier totems than others. Doing a journey is still what I recommend to discover your totem, but before you do that think back in your life, has there been an animal or insect that has come to you a lot in the past? For example, a friend of mine, he thought the wolf was his totem, but he really did not have any wolf characteristics or attachment to the wolf other than liking the animal, however coyote was sending him plenty of signals, he liked to joke around and play tricks, he was given a coyote fur medicine bag, he had a coyote necklace, his favorite band was this group called Coyote Run, he went to a totem animal discussion group and coyote medicine was the topic, he had bought a role playing book on the were coyotes, etc. After meditation and journey, he found out, duh, his totem was coyote. Of course, doing a journey to confirm it is always a good thing.
When it comes to theriantropy (and even the other kin conditions), the animal, etc. is part of your soul, your very essence of being. This exists on both conscious and unconscious levels, including in the dream, spiritual, and astral worlds, where a totem animal can also make its presence felt and known. The therian condition also differs because times can occur where you loose control of your inner nature in what is known commonly as “personality shifting”. Just as the vampyre must control his or her hunger and feed both regularly and healthily, the therian must learn the warning signs in this particular type of shifting and control it to avoid an unhealthy encounter with themselves and with others as well as to not be mistaken for an individual with a mental disorder. In some instances, therians can “feel” parts of their animal bodies, I guess the best example I can give is think of an amputee after they have lost a limb but can still feel that part of their anatomy, the “phantom limb”. It is not exactly the same, but the closest I can get for explaining this phenomenon.
Because of the close resemblances, I guess there is no big surprise to find many therians on shamanic and other like paths that incorporate totems. In the end, it is up to the individual to determine whether or not they are indeed therian, but hopefully this can help separate some of the confusion.