Why practicing Animism could change the world

What is Animism?

 We humans are creatures of the Earth. We are kin with all the other animals, birds, plants, trees and fungi, insects, reptiles and fish, the rocks and mountains, all the water of the Earth and the air we breathe.

 Animism is the awareness of life in all the beings on the Earth, including the land herself. As all beings have life, they can be communicated with, worked with and honoured. We are all interconnected in the web of life. But its more than that.

Animism is the awareness that all beings have a soul or spirit – including ourselves.

It is the practice of living with this deep awareness of our connection with all other beings and the practice of communication, both physically and spiritually, that comes from this awareness.

More than a theory

I first encountered the word animism when I was at University, studying archaeology and anthropology. The word describes the belief system of many indigenous people and those who live in small-scale societies.

In recent times animism has become something of a buzzword and whilst I applaud its increased popularity, the essence of it often remains mis-understood. There are cultural reasons for this.

Archaeology and Anthropology are the study of people, both past and present. Whilst both subjects involve a good deal of fieldwork, they are framed by lofty theories which dictate the research and influence the conclusions.

The theories academics frame their work around come from the concerns and prejudices of their own society. So that, if you believe that in the past women did the domestic tasks whilst the men hunted, this is what you will look for in your research and will influence what you will find.

Fortunately, such assumptions and biases are challenged these days and research is widening as a result. Yet many remain stuck on the issue of animism and spirit connection.

In our society, our whole economy is based on the view that nature is not only separate to ourselves but is a resource to be used for our economic gain. We have made slaves of our other-than-human earthly kin.

Our society is also largely devoid of a spiritual component, particularly anything which recognises that we have a spirit, never-mind recognising that a tree or a river has a soul.

Spirit connection is central to animism but often ignored when people talk about it. Yet its why many traditional animist cultures have shamans – people who travel through the spirit realms to bring healing back to the people.

For all the recent popularity of the term “animism” and indeed the practice of shamanism, it remains considered to be something that other people do – other people in other parts of the world living in very different cultures to our own. Yet that isn’t true.

Spiritual appropriation

These days many people in Britain seek to gain experience and understanding of the sacred and this desire takes them all over the world to buy and appropriate the spiritual practices of other people, particularly indigenous people and those with less power and money than people in Britain.

There is clearly a need to return to who we really are as spirit beings, to remember and relearn our own practices. The answer is not in spiritual or cultural appropriation.

Indigenous people around the world today live on the edge of the final frontiers, where the last battles to preserve our wilderness are being fought. Their communities retain much knowledge of how to live in right relationship with their other-than-human kin, despite overwhelming adversity from others – us and our ancestors.

We would do well to listen to them and support what they are fighting for. The frontier battles are taking place partly because the dominant global paradigm sees the natural world as something separate to ourselves.

We need to change this perception before the whole world becomes farmland or an industrial site with no animals except those in zoos and farms. This is becoming increasingly certain and we are leaving indigenous people and those without power or resources to fight for us all.

Reclaiming Spirit Connection

For too long we have rejected the existence of spirit as being real. Those who practiced any kind of psychic / spirit-healing/ animist practice, in Britain as elsewhere, have been shunned/ dismissed/ demonised and ridiculed for centuries. This needs to change.

In British prehistory, the indigenous people were animists. Later, throughout the frequent movement of peoples within the land, there remained those who were able to connect with spirit. This ability is part of who we are as a species. We need to find new words to describe these practices and remove the prejudices and power dynamics from them.

There are layers upon layers of interconnected issues concerned with both the human separation of nature and the demonisation of spirit connection. They flow through history everywhere and have impacted the creation of the present world. From the treatment of women and animals, the impact of Christianity, power and politics and the foundation and legacy of colonialism, with all its horror.

Animism is at the heart of who we are as a species and it’s at the heart of the history of our world.

It is now thought that animism was central to human belief and practice since we emerged as a species and for many thousands of years later, all over the world. All our ancestors were animists.

We need to come home to who we really are, to heal the hurt of the centuries of disconnect and all the trauma that has come from this.

Why Animism is Important

Our human story is one of turning away from animism; from our interconnection with our other-than-human kin.

In our modern age, as a species we are more disconnected from our Earth family than we have ever been. This is creating problems as we feel loneliness, stress, depression and anxiety.

We are beginning to understand that if we don’t challenge, change and heal our separation from nature – we will lose everything. Climate change, species extinction, deforestation and the vast plastic pollution in our seas, all derive from this separation.

We are meant to live in community, close to the woods and the sea, creating our lives from working wood and stone, tending the plants and the animals. The more we step away from our instincts, the more we separate ourselves from our other-than-human kin, the more alienated we feel from ourselves.

This is where we belong, where we feel most safe and connected, where we can root down and find peace.

Research is clearly showing the benefits of spending time in nature; walking, sitting, watching. Yet increasingly it’s becoming clear we need more than that, we need to live within nature; immersed in doing, in being useful and productive, having a beneficial place, a role in working with nature in practical, simple, ways.

We are a keystone species, one which has evolved to have an impact on other creatures and beings around us. It is a great responsibility and one which we have largely forgotten or dismissed. We have lost so much, both in terms of species and biodiversity loss and our own disconnection from what is ultimately part of our soul.

We are not separate from nature - we are nature.

Reconnecting with our spirit self and with the spirits within the natural world, via learning the language of spirit communication, is both deeply healing and a political act.

What we could be

Way back, all our ancestors lived sustainably on the Earth, in right relationship with other beings.

They had ties to the land and to each other and knew how to look after the spirits of the land, the animals, the birds and the fish. They knew which areas of the land were sacred and those to be avoided. They knew how to work with ancestral spirits and how to read signs and omens from the spirit realm.

They were intuitive and, above all, they listened and respected the web-of-life and the unseen realms. How do we know this? Because we survived for many thousands of years barely making an impact on the Earth - we thrived.

These memories are still there, embedded in our DNA. To access these memories is possible, when you learn the old ways.

Learning or remembering the practice of animism is about reclaiming our animal self and learning to connect with our spirit self, as one integrated being. It’s about learning to communicate and live together with our other-than-human and spirit kin from a place of deep connection.

It’s about connecting with the spirits of the trees, the plants and the animals, the land and sea we share our planet with. It’s about forming relationships with other beings & bringing awareness to the deeper spiritual aspects of life.

The skills remain accessible; like old hands going over ancient tools, we know what to do and with practice it comes back. When it does, it is with a deep knowing and understanding and a longing to return to what was once so lived and known.

The practice of becoming animists once again could be the most powerful catalyst for positive change on our planet.

Samara Lewis