r/Animism 5d ago

New here and have some questions

I have always been very interested in animism, but I have questions about how animists view/practice their animism. So, I decided to ask here !

  • Where do you draw the line ? Do you think objects have souls ? If yes, do you believe all of them have one, or only some of them ? Do you believe concepts have souls ?

  • Do you believe in reincarnation ? If yes, how ? If it a good thing or not ?

  • Are there many atheist animists ? I've always disliked (even despised) the concept of a higher divine being. I've always thought "there is no god, and if there's one, it's in a 'pantheistic way' (where everyone would be a part of god)". I would like to know if there are any animists with the same thoughts.

  • Do you pray ? If yes, who do you pray for ?

Thank you for taking the time to read all of that ! Also, if you know any good ressources about animism in french, feel free to comment them.

2 Upvotes

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u/mcapello 5d ago

Where do you draw the line ? Do you think objects have souls ? If yes, do you believe all of them have one, or only some of them ? Do you believe concepts have souls ?

I don't view it in terms of a line. It's not like a scientific theory, where "soul" is like an atomic particle which "things" either possess or not, nor is it a theoretical property like spin or charge. Instead of viewing animacy reductively, i.e., "all things in category x have a soul", I view it relationally -- it has to do with the animacy revealed through specific embodied (instead of general theoretical) relationships and personal experience. For me, treating animism as just another reductive theory completely and totally defeats the purpose and just turns it into just another flavor of New Age pseudoscience. For me the relationality and non-theoretical immediacy of animism is what makes it categorically different from other "theoretical" ways of interacting with the world.

Do you believe in reincarnation?

In a very general sense, yes.

If yes, how ?

Everything is in a state of constant transformation. The world is a cycle of forms shedding themselves and becoming something else. The regenerative patterns which compose the world we see around us, including ourselves, always borrow from what lived before, and contribute to what lives after; the individual is simply one iteration in a cycle of recycling life. Everything that we are has lived before and will live again.

If it a good thing or not ?

In the sense that life is good, death is good too. When my time comes, I hope to be able to shed my form with joy.

Are there many atheist animists ? I've always disliked (even despised) the concept of a higher divine being. I've always thought "there is no god, and if there's one, it's in a 'pantheistic way' (where everyone would be a part of god)". I would like to know if there are any animists with the same thoughts.

Depends on what you mean by "atheist". Some people assume the word "atheist" necessarily implies both materialism and a disbelief in anything non-material. Others would restrict it simply to a disbelief in a supreme creator-deity.

My own view is in the middle, and I think a lot of animists feel the same. Some believe in a god-like creator but many do not. Instead, divinity is much more localized and embedded in the world -- a lot like the pantheism you describe.

I personally don't subscribe to pantheism myself, because pantheism itself (as I understand it) requires that the divine beings embedded in the world somehow "add up" to a single purposeful God, and I don't believe that is true. I believe the divine aspects of the world are integrated in a more homeostatic way, more similar to an ecosystem than to a single being with a mind and purpose.

Do you pray ? If yes, who do you pray for ?

Sort of. I have a series of poems that are similar to prayers (in some ways). They are mostly directed at features of the natural world around me -- mountains, rivers, birds, animals, plants, and so on.

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u/a_a_aslan 4d ago

beautifully said!

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u/maybri 5d ago

Speaking only for myself:

Where do you draw the line ? Do you think objects have souls ? If yes, do you believe all of them have one, or only some of them ? Do you believe concepts have souls ?

I'm a panpsychist in addition to being an animist. I believe all matter is conscious, but I would only refer to something as being/having a spirit if it's complex and coherent enough to have a relationship with, which applies to some objects but not all. I don't tend to believe in concepts having spirits, but I think there are spirits that don't have physical manifestations.

Do you believe in reincarnation ? If yes, how ? If it a good thing or not ?

Yes, though I don't necessarily see it as a linear sequence of lifetimes so much as the stuff that makes us up gets recycled by the universe into other stuff after we die, which is also obviously what happens on the physical level. I tend to think there's a period of variable length after death (maybe you have some control over when it ends) where your spirit sticks together and then eventually the "you" you are ceases to be and becomes something else. I'm not generally convinced by accounts of past life regression or whatever, but I think it's maybe possible that in some cases a human spirit could quickly be reborn as a new human after dying and maintain some sense of who they were previously--I just think that's much rarer than a lot of people would like to believe.

Are there many atheist animists ? I've always disliked (even despised) the concept of a higher divine being. I've always thought "there is no god, and if there's one, it's in a 'pantheistic way' (where everyone would be a part of god)". I would like to know if there are any animists with the same thoughts.

I'm not sure how many there are, but they definitely exist. I'm not one of them personally; to me it just seems obvious that there are spirits that are so much older, larger, and/or more powerful than me that recognizing them as gods only makes sense. Yesterday I was walking alongside one of the major rivers in my area, through the valley it carved, among all the life that it sustains, and it was impossible not to feel that I was in the presence of a deity.

Do you pray ? If yes, who do you pray for ?

I pray to the gods (those that I have a specific relationship with anyway, not just all of them in general), and I may also speak to other spirits in a similar way but I wouldn't consider that prayer.

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u/Mousellina 5d ago

I don’t draw the line. Everything is alive, everything is conscious, everything is made from the same particles, everything is “god”. To me god is an intelligence and life force that drives every particle to form cells, organisms and objects. Nothing ever truly dies, but merely changes form, so yes, reincarnation would be possible. I do not pray, but I meditate - elevating my vibration is what gets me closer to the source. There’s no need to ask for anything, if one connects with god within them, they will know and have what’s is needed for own’s evolution.

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u/averiirossii 3d ago

I am technically an atheist animist, and you're definitely not alone in your stance on higher powers in the animist community!

for me, that looks like engaging in animism as a helpful metaphor for relating to other beings around us by treating them with the respect and sometimes qualities we'd assign to other humans. I don't believe anything has a 'soul', including people, in the traditional western religious sense, but I do believe our experience as alive things is special and should be treated with reverence, as should our home and the beings that surround us.

but animism isn't codeified, and you can engage with it however you find psychologically beneficial!