Salutations, friends.

It has been my experience that—even within the Otherkin community—very few people know about transtemporality, let alone understand it. The basic concept is fairly straightforward, and I think it should be easy for anyone with an open-mind to grasp. Transtemporality occurs when a soul or identity that should have lived into another time manifests in the body of someone born in a different time. Like many identities, it has been marginalized throughout history, but there is all sorts of evidence for people of all backgrounds and cultures feeling temporal dysphoria at various points in human history. Living as a transtemporal, you are burdened by the feeling that some point in the irretrievable past is where you really belong. I have never met a transtemporal from a future time, but I do not want to close my mind to that possibility.

That is what transtemporality is. It is equally important, however, to know what transtemporality is NOT.

Transtemporality is NOT anti-technology. While some transtemporals may shy away from copious amounts of digital communication and electrical amenities (depending on what time they identify with) their relationship with technology is not dictated by their time period. I personally utilize most modern technology, because trans or not, this is the time period I am living in and the resources that are available to me.

Transtemporals are NOT “time travelers.” We have never physically been to our time periods, and that is the root of the dysphoria we feel within the space-time we currently occupy. We are only emotionally and mentally rooted in another time. We don’t “move” between time periods, although it is common for questioning temporals to take a little bit of time figuring out exactly what point in the past they are from. For instance, when I first realized I was transtemporal I thought my identity rested in the 1950s for a while. It’s an arduous process of self-discovery, but there’s no judgment from the transtemporal community and our real allies.

Transtemporals are NOT Biblical literalists. As obvious as this should be, I have been mistaken for religious extremists on multiple occasions. Just because we elect to dress differently or do things by hand for the nostalgic peace of it does NOT mean we are trying to emulate the putatively holy lifestyles detailed by the Bible and other religious texts. A transtemporal can have any kind of spiritual/religious/theological alignment, or none at all.



Transtemporality is NOT a childish infatuation with the aesthetics of another time period. Lumping transtemporals into one big category with Steampunk aficionados and Renaissance Fair attendees demeans the very nature of our identity. It is not that we have romantic notions about the superficial details of past cultures, but rather that we feel an inconsolable connection to the society and cultural ideals of another specific timeframe in human history. Transtemporals are born with the zeitgeist of another time written into who they are as human beings.

All things considered, I don’t think it should be that hard for others to ally with transtemporals. All we want is to be respected as temporally dislocated individuals.

Victoriously yours,



Regina

