The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I'm hoping to get a good discussion going on animism here and our experiences.  I'll provide a little background on where I'm coming from.

First off, I have to say that I haven't read a great deal on traditional animistic cultures at this time.  Of course, I do need to learn more about that aspect of it to broaden my perspective, but the reason I haven't looked into other cultures much yet is that I had an encounter in the middle of the night in the woods near my house and came back home an animist.  I can't really go into details here, but it was beautiful, terrifying, and very dangerous.  Before that point, I accepted animism intellectually, but I hadn't really experienced it myself.

I am coming to animism strictly based on my own experiences, not based on what I have read of other cultures, so I know that I could be completely different from traditional animist beliefs.  In a way, I'm a clean slate when it comes to this -- until I can broaden my studies all I have are my own experiences to go on.  I'm okay with this, though, because it grounds my beliefs in my own local reality, culture, and worldview.  I feel like it is good for me to get a grounding based on how I experience the world before I delve too deeply into other cultures.  It gives me a good context, and it's exciting!

I don't really have all the details of my emerging worldview worked out, but I do have some tentative ideas.  For instance, I have a shrine in my living room for house spirits.  Some of the spirits I can tell are local and may not move with me when I go, some of them I know will go with me.  The shrine is decorated with objects from around my house or from garage sales, etc., which feels appropriate for house spirits.  Some of the pieces I really believe the spirits animate when I interact with them, others like the goats on my shrine represent any spirits in my house in general or nature spirits near me, but not specific entities.

My approach to getting to know the spirits is this: if I see a statue or something that resonates with me, I'll put it on the shrine.  Over time, as I make offerings, I will get an idea of a spirit that has connected to the symbol.  Depending on how deeply that spirit impresses itself on me, I may give it a name and create devotions.  For example, I have a statue of a topless woman with red pants and black skin.  Over time I have come to call her the Black Mother.  I associate her with the night sky (or a stormy sky in day time or night) and chaotic elements.  When I have to move pretty soon, I'll move her symbol (I personally refer to it as an emblem) since the night sky will go wherever I go.

I'm a little hazy as to the origins of the various kinds of spirits.  I'm really unfamiliar with this outside of my own experiences.  But I do have a general idea.  I think the universe is ultimately chaotic based on my encounter.  That's kind of how I look at my house spirits.  When I move to another house, I'm sure the shrine will look different, I might meet new spirits, some may come, some may go.  I think in some real sense my experiences will focus how these spirits emerge out of the chaos we all came from.  I believe these spirits are still evolving and changing, just like everything else.  Ultimately I believe everything is one.  I am not separate from rock or the earth.  Ultimately my consciousness emerges out of nothing.  I can't separate myself from a rock -- we are both mostly empty space.  My consciousness emerges out of nothingness -- it is at least an extension of everything else in the universe (or I wouldn't exist at all).

Outside of my home, I do visit the woods where I had my experience often.  Sometimes I make little offerings of bread and water or bird seed, and I usually bring a bag to pick up trash.  I can feel spirits there, but I get the sense that they stay there, so it's a little different from my house spirits.  My house spirits are more familiar to me as they seem to live in the house with me and we have a closer connection, but I'll continue to work on my relationship with the others since they are the ones who brought me into this new perspective to begin with.

I'm wondering if anyone else has a take on this subject.  If you are animistic, how do you interpret it?  Is your perspective more based on personal experience, studying animistic cultures, or maybe a little of both?  Are there any ways in which you think your animism is different from traditional animistic cultures and religions?  Did you have an encounter that led to your animism?

I'd love to hear some other perspectives!  Thanks.

House spirits don't exist to me because I treat them as archetypes of house keeping skills and other domestic activities, and thus do not receive offerings (in my experience, doing so leads to spectacular ritual disasters and the occurrence of bad omens).

That is an interesting perspective on ensoulment -- I tend in that direction in some ways.

Regarding house spirits, I do have emblems on my shrine for entities that are beyond just the house, but I have never had any kind of disaster with making an offering to house spirits.  That is interesting.  What kind of disaster do you mean?

Everything felt so wrong it gave me a headache, and I had nightmares the rest of the night. Meditating on it that morning I realized that orthopraxy has its limits.

 
I've definitely had the feeling something I was doing wasn't working or that it was wrong, but no headaches or nightmares, and it had nothing to do with my offerings to house spirits and the other spirits at the particular shrine I'm talking about.

Do you think this is a universal, or do you think it is only disastrous for your own practice?  I'm not going to argue with you here, I'm just curious what you think.

Hm...I think it was just a problem of my own practice.

 
I see.

In the past I have had to struggle with some issues of my own religious practice that needed to be modified.  I guess that is a pitfall of branching out on your own sometimes, but it's the only way to learn in that unique way.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.  

I'm hoping to get a good discussion going on animism here and our experiences.  I'll provide a little background on where I'm coming from.

      I'm wondering if anyone else has a take on this subject.  If you are animistic, how do you interpret it?  Is your perspective more based on personal experience, studying animistic cultures, or maybe a little of both?  Are there any ways in which you think your animism is different from traditional animistic cultures and religions?  Did you have an encounter that led to your animism?

I'd love to hear some other perspectives!  Thanks.

 


      I am happy to see others interested in animism. I am relatively new to forums and in the first forum (not this one) I participated in, I brought up the concept of animism in pagan religions. I was clearly told by several people who frequented that forum that animism does not belong in any pagan religion. Those who felt this way were for the most part reconstructionists for Nordic faiths with a strong belief that the gods exist in a human like form. This attitude if very different form most pagans I have discussed this with who do feel that animism can be a part of paganism.
 
       For my own experience growing up outside of Philadelphia, I was exposed to Native American religion initially which, at least for the northeastern tribes, believed in animism. From animals to aspects of the land you could feel and communicate with the spirits associated with each. There were some trees where I lived where you could not help but feel a presence of a spirit associated. When I have read the Celtic folklore it seems to refer to animistic ideas especially with the spirits of the rivers, springs and forests as well as animals. The Germanic folklore also has animistic references. Groves of trees and some trees in particular were sacred and worship was outside in nature.

        One question that was repeatedly asked in that previous forum was did I believe that every rock has a spirit. I am not an expert at all but in reference to some aspects of nature it is the collective that seems to have the spirit. Thus one rock may not by itself, but ridge or a valley does have a spirit. A handful of water may not by itself, but in the collective of a spring or river it does.

    Well these are some of my thoughts on animism.

Animism is itself a religion

Except when it's not.

Brina

I'm of the opinion that animism is more of an umbrella term for a group of religions that are similar to each other, if not necessarily related. It's like how paganism is an umbrella term for pre-Christian religions in Europe and the Near East.

I also think it's an artificial term created for the purpose of describing religions focused on nature and associated spirits. Many of these religions are those of indigenous peoples in countries in Africa and Asia. Some of these religions are pretty small (limited to a tribe or ethnicity which itself doesn't have a big population) and are dubbed "animism".

I come from the Philippines where the pre-Christian religions were regarded as animistic since they focused on the worship of dewatas (nature spirits, though the word itself is related to Indian "devas" which are "gods" but that's another discussion) and belief in anitos (spirits of ancestors). While most of the country is Catholic, several tribes still practice animism.

However, members of this tribe wouldn't call their religion "animism" and would not identify as animist. They would use their own word for their beliefs and identify as such. That's why I think "animism" is an artificial word.

Animism is more a set or system of beliefs to me. As polytheism is the belief in many deities, animism is the belief in nature spirits or some such being. Going with that, a lot of pagan religions and modern ones (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto feature rich spiritual beliefs) had or have animism as part of their belief system. Sometimes, animistic beliefs penetrate into the popular religion that replaced an indigenous animistic religion.

As for me, I acknowledge nature spirits, nymphai, and lesser divinities that may reside nearby when I'm out and about in the wilderness. I don't do that often, though. Even while I was Catholic, my friends and I were conscious (some would say superstitious) of angering the anito (pre-Hispanic Filipino word for spirits) of hills, mounds, and even gravestones when we walk by them.

That being said, though, animism is not a major focus of my worship or practice. The only spirit I pray to is the Agathos Daimon.

 
This is a helpful post, thank you, similar to the word "shaman," a term not usually embraced by those it is used to describe from traditional tribes or cultures.

I'm wondering if anyone else has a take on this subject.  If you are animistic, how do you interpret it?  Is your perspective more based on personal experience, studying animistic cultures, or maybe a little of both?  Are there any ways in which you think your animism is different from traditional animistic cultures and religions?  Did you have an encounter that led to your animism?

I am, to a degree, animistic. I haven't researched a whole lot of animistic traditions either. Most of my animistic tendencies come from my primary religion: Hellenismos.

Trees, rivers, oceans, and other such things have spirits (daimonioi) or Gods/Goddesses. I don't know about rocks, but some of the Titans were turned into mountains, or, perhaps more properly, trapped under them.

I always knew about nymphs but wasn't sure there were any in my area until one made its presence known in my very own backyard! Its amazing what one can find when one is looking!