A is for Animism

"Raven Woman" © Susan Seddon-Boulet

Animism (from Latin animus, -i "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.

We have all done it, from the time of our first words to today - to attribute sentient traits on inanimate objects. Despite what Piaget said, that a child's tendency to assign these qualities to everything is a sign of their immaturity (later refuted), children apply their knowledge about human beings to other animate objects or even to inanimate objects, while at the same time able to label things as 'alive' and 'non-animate'. This is a normal and natural stage in the development of cognitive function in every person. However, it doesn't end there.

One of the most frequent traits of pre-contact indigenous tribes is that they tended to assign all items into one of four categories: humans, nonhuman animals, plants, and nonliving things. Because of their rich knowledge of local flora and fauna, there tended to be more items defined as animals and plants, especially by the shamans of the group. However, even today there is a tendency to assign even large unmoving objects as alive - for instance a mountain - and at what point do we consider this untrue?

Crystals are actually living objects - they grow, change and spawn. In the words of Nikola Tesla, "In a crystal we have clear evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is nonetheless a living being." Until science progressed enough for us to see and understand crystals, we simply didn't know enough about them to know they were alive. As modern quantum physics continues to expand, we start to realize that the knowledge we base our lives on, the scientific method that we trust so much, is flawed in a fundamental manner. We can no longer assume that what we 'know' is all we can know. Don't get me wrong, the scientific method has allowed us to understand, test and progress to the degree that we have wi-fi, iphones and space travel, phenomenal developments to common people living even 75 years ago. But it is important to keep in the front of our minds that what we 'know' is only a small fraction compared to what we don't.

Animism, to me, simply makes sense from a physical and spiritual view - energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply moves. It's been shown that energy transfers are everywhere - when you touch a tree, when you touch a glass, when you place your hand on your car, energy transfers. Your energy is literally a collective of everything you have touched in your life, and a piece of you has found a home in everything you have touched. It is a connection that creates a rich and complex web of life that includes the entire planet and beyond. This is widely believed and felt, and it is only a short jump to believe that this energy encompasses some form of spirit. From there, we've seen sentience in any number of animals and plant life, but even in the mundane day-to-day items, we can feel spirit. When you decide you want to use a particular mug, when you walk and find a particular route that speaks to you, that spirit is interacting with you, and is worthy of respect. Tread lightly - there are spirits everywhere.