Is somafera the same as therianthropy?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is mostly no. Therianthropy is a modern spiritual/religious/philosophical practice centered around either cultivating certain relationships with animal spirits, or centered around cultivating one’s own inner animal nature, depending on focus and belief. Some therianthropic practices seem similar to somafera, including mental and spiritual shifting, but these are, by their very definitions, not somafera. In the first case the mind of the therianthope becomes the mind of an animal. While this certainly does occur in somafera, it is only one component of somafera. Likewise, spiritual shifting is not somafera either, because it involves just the practice of spiritually transforming into an animal, which is only one facet of somafera. There is a rare form of therianthropy called physiological shifting which does seem to be somafera, because it involves mental and spiritual shifting, as well as a transformation of physiology.
