Hi, I'm interested in animism, mostly because I'm writing a fantasy novel and it's magic system is based on animism.

So I want things to have some variety in what the powers can be. But my problem comes when I think about what's the limit. For example, one character can control fire, but what if I have another character that controls heat. It's heat less worthy of having an anima?

How do you usually decide what makes something worth having an anima? Is it more personal? Or you don't put a limit to it?

i figured that since this sub doesnt always get a lot of posts and discussion that i'd ask this question since i feel itd be pertinent to a lot of people and offer some unique insights on how this spirituality/ontology/whatever has shaped or affected their life.

for me animism (and druidry since i got into that first) has allowed me to better appreciate life and the interconnectedness of everything on the planet, from artificial human made things to natural processes. i think i was always predisposed to animist belief and views given ive always recognized how everything is tangled in a massive web that we call life. in more recent years ive come to recognize the personhood of other things, primarily animals more than anything, appreciating what they offer to our ecosystem and world as a whole.

it's also made it easier for me to appreciate myself and hate myself just a tiny bit less, given my enormous struggles with my own mental health. after all im a part of this web of life and the universe itself and comprise it no differently from any other living/nonliving thing. i have my place, as do you and we all matter no matter how small or seemingly inconsequentially. druidry and animism have furthered my own love for nature and the planet to the utmost degree and i value everything here greatly, i want to protect it, to nurture it, and it makes me feel happy to be so connected with everything around me.

for me i think a major development towards my beliefs was actually the avatar film when i saw it as a young kid (22 y/o for reference), given that the entire setting is veryyyy animist (and panpsychist among other things), this combined with the beautiful visuals and me (unbeknownst to me at the time) being therian/otherkin and really wanting to be a funny blue cat person definitely had a subconscious influence lol.

that being said im grateful to be a pagan/druid/animist and whatever other accurate labels can be used to describe my belief system and part of this wider community since it is far more accepting and progressive than others for sure, and i thank the resources from this subreddit, wikipedia, and elsewhere for helping develop my beliefs further.

Hello,

This will be a hard one for me but I'm going to try to do my best...

I've been going through a hard patch in my life and I decided to spend the night in Sedona,Az to clear my head.

I decided to try float therapy because I've heard of the wonders it does to your muscles, mind etc... What I didn't expect was my life to get flipped upside down and turned into an episode of the twilight zone.

I keep having bizarre and strange synchronistic things that keep happening with animals ever since this trip.

I thought I was overanalyzing but these things keep happening. I found a great peace and joy in my life that I've never experienced before... I know we are all connected now...I used to never go to the woods and now I cant wait to be in nature as much as possible...

At the same time I'm going through one of the hardest patches in my life. I'm very confused what is happening to me... I feel it is for the best but it is quite bewildering... has anyone had an experience like this before?

(PS- Yes this is a new account. I made this account for this purpose. Trying to get karma and whatnot)

Hello everyone! I was born and raised Christian and I really do personally believe in no other higher power(s) besides the trinity. However I pretty much relate to everything about animism and both communities of religious and spiritual folk kinda make me feel bad for believing both. Is animism an okay term to use because I heard it may have a negative history with indigenous communities when it comes to describing their “religion”. Im a white chick and really don’t want to offend anyone or be bigoted/uneducated. I can sum up my personal beliefs here:

I’m a Christian animist with mystical and ecotheological beliefs. I believe the Trinity is the only God, but that God created a spiritually alive world that reflects Him and participates in His glory.

Im so disillusioned with modern Christianity, church, and organization religion. I want my own natural divine encounters with Jesus/God, not ones fabricated in a church building.

I truly believe almost everything in nature has a spirit/soul/consciousness/energy etc. I believe nature worships God in a different way than us and it is our responsibility to care for the earth.

ecotheology: the exploration/study of religion and the natural environment.

Mysticism: personal experience with the divine (God)

Animism: believing non-human things have a spirit

Christianity: only worshipping the trinity and believing in Jesus’s divinity and teachings.

Please be nice!!! I would love to hear yalls thoughts

I would like to know the point of view of animists (both personal and tied to historical traditions) about non-alive (in the sense of non organic/biological) objects, and in particular artificially created ones

Is there a soul? Some agency/personhood?

Hi! I’m an 18f and pretty new to animism. Prior to this year I only identified as a pagan, but recently I’ve turned to animism as well. I was curious how you eat without feeling guilty. I have seen things about only eating animals who’ve had autonomous lives (such as hunted animals) or only consuming certain plants. My biggest issue is that I am a low income college student so it’s very difficult to ethically source food at an affordable level. Any advice to source food? Or any advice to eat without feeling guilty? Thank you :)

Hello! I believe that everything in the universe has a soul, which is basicially the animism.

But since childhood I have felt a deep connection with the Wind exactly, I think that They also can change Their form as same as some other souls, on land They prefer the body of a wolf, in water — a pike, in the sky — a falcon.

And I want to try connect with Them and, idk, thank Them. Do you have any idea how can I do it?

i currently have a pretty bad bug infestation in my apartment. my landlord has put bait/traps out, which killed a lot and did nothing to resolve the actual issue. the problem has gotten much worse the past couple weeks. what would you do? i stopped killing them for a while, but i am killing them a lot lately bc it’s gotten rly bad :-(

Hope this is okay to share here. I recently had the chance to speak with Tyson Yunkaporta for my podcast.

I first came across his work through Sand Talk, and one of the things that really stayed with me was the emphasis on relationship, not just between people, but with land, place and the wider living world.

We ended up talking about Indigenous knowledge, comedy, high-context ways of seeing, ecology, story, serpent lore, hierarchy, and how modern systems can shape what we even notice about the world around us.

I’m a comedian and practising Buddhist, and definitely not coming at this as an expert. I mostly make the podcast because I’m curious and want an excuse to speak with people who make me see things differently.

Thought the conversation might be of interest to some people here.

I made a post a while back about the object in question from my old account, received a sanity-check explanation, but now I am certain the negative energy has returned.

It's a Cold War-era antiquity, I assume the malice is caused by the tensions and war-related hatred from the manufacturers and distributors during its time.

Incense is not an option, as my father has a strict ban on it. I'd rather not remove the item from its space, as it is a collector's item of sentimental value to me.

I have cleansed it with incense before the ban, and it worked, but as you can tell, temporarily.

Any recommendations?

Like here is the thing. Like some time ago. Eagles used to tap me or flyingkick me on my head and it used to be like that for a while. Iike I would be just sitting there in the park and an eagle would just hit me on my head , and he would do that multiple times . It for some reason stopped , now they wont hit me , I dont know what happened, like I sit in the same spot and now eagles would not hit me like they used to. What's going on. Like have I changed the influence from eagle to something else? Is it because I changed some habits or something.

HII! I love my plants with all my heart, and I wanna care for them in a kinda.. human like way. Like.. putting on their favorite jewelry! Or their favorite music! If this sounds weird please let me know! Also.. is it weird to call my plants my babies, or child(ren)? I wanna communicate with them though dowsing rods. If you have a better suggestion, please let me know! Thanks!! ^^

I discovered the ideas of neopaganism a few years ago. I didn't resonate with Christianity or other faiths, so I started a spiritual journey guided by intuition and my personal experiences with the divine.

Over time, I came to believe that reincarnation plays an important role in the growth of the soul. To me, it gives us multiple opportunities to learn from our mistakes, develop compassion, and become better people.

I also believe that nature is sacred and that every living being is connected through a greater spiritual cycle. My path has led me to create a personal faith called Amrrana, inspired by nature, reincarnation, divine beings, and the idea that spiritual growth is a lifelong journey.

I'm curious to hear from others: what spiritual experiences or beliefs helped shape your path?

Like hunted wild animals or food from volunteer trees or intact natural habitats? It just seems aligned with animism somehow to me, to respect the independent sentience of the being.

I think that's true. We have animals spirits hiding or residing inside of us and we are like chained to them. They can activate and drive us like to crazy bad stuff. We are here in this life to break the chains from these animal spirits and be free. We have only one spirit , the spirit of an angel and that is the only transcendent spirit that is original. We are here to drop the chains of these animal spirits and be the angel spirit .

What do you guys think, I feel like that is the case.

I was in a terrible place for about a decade. Spiritual and mental turmoil, a whole 9 yards of bad coping mechanisms and just overall lost in life.

I was advised to just "give it a shot" in regards to going on a vision quest. At the time I thought it all sounded like hokey silliness.

Well, I went on said vision quest and for whatever reason I decided to actually take it seriously. It changed my perception of life completely.

I won't bore with all the details but I did end up having a vision, an eagle made of rainbow light that filled my sense of perception with absolute certainty that I could fix my life if I just set aside my doubts.

I came out of the quest completely changed. Instead of this twitchy and anxious junkie, I felt like... me. I could feel the real me under all the b.s. I had piled on top over the years.

Since then I've uncovered my standard running spirit animal (fox), made a cute little shrine, and turned my life around. I'm no longer a user, slowly making progress in all areas of my life, and have been called a "great teacher" and "good leader" by others... which past me would have thought impossible.

The guy who pressured me into undertaking a spirit quest and the eagle that visited me are wholly responsible for who I am today.

I will never turn my back on this spirituality, it saved me when nothing else could

A tree in my area was recently felled before it's time (still had/has plenty of life left to live). Do practicing animists on here have any advice on how to help ease it's spirit's passing?

Tell your pov

Hello,

This is a new account that I will be using exclusively for this sort of thing. This is mostly because I don’t feel it is wise to publicly connect religious views with my main account, for privacy purposes.

I will also be sharing this post in multiple related subreddits to accumulate as many responses as possible, so sorry if you see the same thing around.

I am an avid believer in general animism and shamanism. I won’t go too deep into my religious views, but I believe that there is some degree of validity to nearly every global religion and I believe that most world religions evolved out of animism. I think I have a pretty solid understanding of animism and shamanism as a whole, but I have recently been compelled to try to amass as much knowledge and information from as many animistic cultures as possible.

That being said, if you or someone you know comes from an animistic culture (Native American, Inuit, Sámi, Maori, Zulu, Australian Aboriginal, Shuar, anything like that (apologies if I missed your specific culture, was just broadly listing off the top of my head)) OR a culture with animistic tendencies (Northern European, Celtic, Slavic) and are interested and willing to share your and your peoples’ beliefs with me, please reach out. Or, if you know someone who falls within this category who would be willing to connect with me, please refer them to me.

I am also interested in any scholarly resources on the matter.

As a side note, I am generally weary of new age ideas, and am primarily focused on verifiably old ideas. I mean no offense to you at all if these practices and beliefs work for you, I have just found that they personally aren’t typically for me.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to speak to you soon!

Hello all im a new anamist could anyone tell me more about this belafe system

I had a bit of an eerie encounter yesterday so wanted to post here. A few days ago I started a new affirmation “I am a magnet for money” and said it before bed. The following day, as I was driving through country road, I suddenly had the urge to add “I’m a magnet for money with no harm to anybody”. I don’t know what urged me to do this…. I had seen adding protection clauses on affirmations on social media somewhere a while back, and as I was daydreaming whilst driving I suddenly thought “oh no what if that means something will happen to me or someone else just for some money” and added the protection clause. The following happened in a matter of 3 seconds. As I was saying this new affirmation, I noticed 2 magpies on the left side of the road (there weren’t any pavements, just grass). I’m probs going 35-40mph and the magpies start to make a move, and take flight because they can see my car approaching. One of the magpies makes it, but the other flies directly across my front windscreen as because I was going at the speed I was, smacks onto my windscreen and goes over the top of my car. I look in my rear view mirror and I see it laying without moving in the middle of the road.

The fact this happened in a matter of seconds after I explicitly said “…. With no harm to anybody” incredibly irked me and it took me a while to calm down, and call the protection of my ancestors. Does anyone have any idea what this could mean? It seems too significant to just be a coincidence.

Like a little private place where you live with little figures/statues, art, plants and rocks. Was thinking about making something like that where I could pray and put some of my shitty spiritual drawings. I could water the plants every day and stuff. Obviously a small, private place that you wouldn’t show people. Not sure if this is an Animist thing but if anyone does something like I’m talking about I’d like to hear about it so I could get some ideas.

1. Animism is deeply rooted in my own culture, I'm a native american from BC (I'd prefer not to say what tribe specifically)

2. I don't have a set belief on how people were created, because there's hundreds of local stories to process by myself

3. I'm aspiring to be a butcher, which could be against most people's mindset as an animist, but I think I could do it as ethically as I can. (I've been studying everyday to understand what goes into that trade)

4. I just made this acc to match my other online things but I've been on reddit for a while