Animism

ThomasJ79

ThomasJ79

Intertwined
MBTI
infj
Enneagram
1w9
I'm finding that animism lines up with many of my core spiritual beliefs. It is considered a "primitive" religion when compared with the major world religions, but I find there to be a deep spirituality in the belief that humans, all animals, plants, and places are imbued with spirit and that a person's spirit is inseparable from their material body. It is also a way of life that respects and strikes a balance between all living things and nature. I'm curious as to what others think about it. There is no concept of original sin, humans are on par with all other life, God isn't transcendent from the physical world, but part of it. In this view, the universe wasn't created for humans to be live, die, and be judged on their moral fortitude. It seems like just a natural way for humans to connect with the world around them.
 
I remember reading from a passage from a book regarding the occult that there are a lot of similarities between animism and alchemy, there's a connection there to be more succinct. How matter haves it's own soul, and how this connects with the principles of alchemy itself. Really interesting. I don't have it fresh, but i will look through it this week.
 
Animism often entails a belief in a spirit realm that we cannot observe, but have an intuition of its existence. It tends toward pluralism as opposed to monism, and that each living and non living thing has a spirit or consciousness. Often there is a misunderstanding that animists cannot tell the difference between reality and non reality, but this is a typical western, intellectual approach to beliefs of a pluralistic nature. In the West, we are descended from a very ancient monist, and even dualist, tradition. We have lost our creative spirituality and we have forgotten in this rationalist world that if we close one of our eyes for too long, we lose all depth perception.
 
By the way, I'm not writing this to convert or debate with anyone, I just find the concept fascinating and hope that others do too! I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone believes similarly. I don't necessarily believe this is the truth anymore than Christianity or any religion. I think all beliefs, anywhere from New Age to scientism has its limits and none seem to ever describe reality in its totality. I don't think anything can anyways.
 
I'm my own kind of animist. I call upon spirits pretty often actually. It's kind of hard to explain what spirits are though. It's not just an apparition which lives on another plane - that's only the abstract embodiment of concepts so that we humans can deal with it - but rather spirits are a kind of 'being-ness' that all things have.
 
i like it. it reminds me of the eastern religions like hinduism and buddhism.
 
Shintoism may be said to be animistic

[video=youtube;AsHdnPNtY78]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsHdnPNtY78[/video]
 
I've really been developing this spirituality and its roots have become deeper over the years. I've been working toward a fellowship with people I know of similar beliefs so we may celebrate in the woods. It would be a grove with a fire pit and handmade benches and ornaments. It would be a place for us to tell stories, commune with nature, eat together, read poetry; basically have an intimate group with similar beliefs to celebrate life(and death) together. All of this in an effort to build the kind of world myself and others may like to live in.
 
I consider myself an animist. It was by natural way of my spiritual path to lead me to accept the idea that humans, despite our high level of intelligence (if you compare us to the other species inhabiting this planet) are not so special that we are the only ones that might contain a spiritual essence within. It can be reasonably assumed that just because a plant or animal doesn't speak or think like we do, doesn't mean they lack conscious energy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top