The “Otherkin Rapture”
The “otherkin rapture” is a concept that appears to have fallen off the face of the universe. I can’t say its a bad thing, but its a bit stunning to me, because many years ago now, it seems like the concept was everywhere. Now as far as google is concerned my own essay is the only trace left of the whole thing. I suppose the original posts pertaining to it were all either behind a friendslock/passworded forum, or were deleted long ago out of embarrassment.
What was the so called “otherkin-rapture”/””””otakukin””” rapture”? It was a concept that appeared in the kin community and was briefly heavily discussed around 2007. The idea was that in some coming revelation/end of the world scenario all the kin on earth would either ‘return to their true home’, or be given their true spiritual body here on earth.
I don’t know who spread the idea of the ‘otherkin rapture’ and I don;t know if they, or anyone else really believed the idea beyond ‘well, that would be nice if it happened.’
Its interesting to remember the whole incident, relatively brief as it was, because I doubt such an idea would take hold now, especially on tumblr, even for a little while, with the shift away from spiritual discussion, and the shift toward the extreme end of ‘polykin hell’.
Included below is the entirety of my 2007 discussion of the ‘Otherkin Rapture’ taken directly from my old website, and unedited. The term “otakukin” appears repeatedly. That term is no longer in use, and appears as a historical usage only.
At most, this is a good cautionary tale.
I got wrapped up with a small, private group of people who were (pretty ironically if you’ve been following my blog) cult-like. Or at least “led” by someone who had aspirations of that. They believed in this too. I mostly watched from the sidelines because there was so much fighting, but I might actually be able to provide a source on where the 2010 date came from – essentially, the person in question was claiming to have prophetic dreams about soulbonds manifesting and kin shapeshifting on that date, followed by 2 years of unspecified chaos. 2010 is a nice, even number. And this happened around 2007, so it gave them plenty of time to enjoy the power of their claims and eventually wiggle out of it before the date arrived.
But even years before them, when I was doing some of my first forays into otherkin spaces, there were already people chuckling fondly over rumors about the “veil” falling, magic returning, otherkin vs human war, etc.
I think this was the last gasp in our communities of this kind of thought, and we’re better off. Not to say that anyone with a legitimate belief in a higher purpose is instantly delusional and someone to avoid, but there has to be a balance, and getting people riled up about an apocalypse (and making our communities look like some goofball roleplay at the same time) is way off.
The funniest thing about the group I mentioned is they were literally what we call wishkin/tumblrkin now, before tumblr was even a thing. Every other day, someone was “stealing” kintypes from whoever they didn’t like, or just plucking them out of the air to add to their little collection, and if anyone so much as expressed an ounce of doubt about someone’s identity, it was “drama”.
