"Words like "soul" and "spirit" are not always useful but are attempts to say what it is about something which makes it alive. Rocks do not breathe, trees do not speak English, hedgehogs do not preach sermons, mosquitoes do not theories, clouds do not aspire to immortality. So what does it mean to say they are all alive?
Animists assert that it is possible to "speak with" and "listen to" trees and hedgehogs, flowers and trout, robins and snakes, rocks and rain. The "speaking with" and the "hearing" may not be a pursuit of information, though some Pagans assert that the trees are willing to communicate in some way things that we would otherwise be unaware of. Erazim Koha'k argues that a philosopher and a tree can converse, neither exchanging information nor "decorating a putative harsh reality with poetic ginger bread" but communicating respect and exploring a
"manner of speaking which would be true to the task of sustainable dwelling at peace for humans and the world alike, a manner of speaking that would be true in the non-descriptive sense of being good."
Perhaps the trees have taught philosophers what they have been teaching Pagans and children for many years: the virtue of respect, the pleasure of intimacy and the vital importance of eco-responsibility. Sadly, children are soon removed from tutelage of trees by adults-- perhaps because of a deeply suppressed and feared knowledge that
" we are not bounded objects in orbit around each other, but we create our selves in relationships with each other. We are the outcome of the intersections of our conflicts and cooperation and the influences we exert on each other."
Like other aspects of paganism, animism should not be considered a belief but an exercise or way of life. It is a theory which is acted on and tested out, an approach or path which is walked. Pagans act "as if" the story they tell is true: as if their deities exist, as if magic works, as if nature is worth celebrating. In doing so, they might find that the intuition or hypothesis fits: things do work this way and life is enhanced by this approach. Acting as if everything is alive and related tends to lead away from an obsession with deities and towards an interest in a wider diversity of other than human persons. Sometimes this can also project a human temperament onto to other than human people. Is the hurricane "angry" or is it merely doing what hurricanes do? Were bush fires around Sydney a warning from Gaia that she is running out of patience for humanity? Rather than such discourses negating animism they should be viewed as part of the problem of finding "good" ways to relate to our environment.
Some Pagans explicitly avow the non-existence of deities, seeing them as illusory projections of human desire or insecurity. This Pagan Atheism in no way diminishes the celebration of those things in Paganism which seem to be more central than worship and theology, i.e. the celebration of nature, the land, and festivals.
The difficulty with Pagan animism and atheism is not with the theory but with finding adequate ways of "speaking" and "listening".
Graham Harvey, Contemporary Paganism: Listening People, Speaking Earth. 1997
I think this is an amazing point actually....
At work the other day I was talking with a co-worker about my work with Bioregional Animism... she couldnt quite grasp the animism concept. That every thing was a person was hard for her to tangle with... " What about say your fork? Is your fork a person?"
"Yes your fork is a person too..." and like all persons it communes with us in some way shape of form... and some times it doesn't."
"How does it communicate with us?''
"through touch, through all of our senses much in the same way any one does that is a person."
"Whats the point in communicating back..."
"Well you dont have to ... you dont talk to every person you meet every day on a walk through the city do you? when you recognize that something is no longer a thing but a person your established way of relateing to it changes. though you don't talk to every6 one you pass on the street you still show them basic respect dont you?"
"Yes."
"So there you go... when you relate to something as a person, NOT like its a person but that it is a person, you relate to it with respect."
Just putting animism like this to her was a really interesting exercise for me... I didn't have to try to explain what a spirit is to her or play off her beliefs... instead i related it to her in a way that I think we can all understand and appreciate in and of itself... you don't have to even believe that something is a person or has a soul to treat something as a person... when we think of how we treat people we often think of how we like to be treated... and in many of us there is a desire to see the world we live in treated in the same way... there is something that is intrinsic to animism as a life way, or a way of relateing to life, which is appealing to all of us.
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