05/02/2026
Animism - the experience that all things are alive with their own consciousness - isn’t about believing in the right things or accessing special spiritual information. It’s about how we live, how we relate, and how we take responsibility for being human in a living world.🦅
To live as a healthy, animist adult is to stay grounded. It means being rooted in the body, in place, and in ordinary life. It doesn’t bypass grief, anger, fear, despair or uncertainty, it meets them all. It pays attention to what is actually happening rather than trying to rise above it. Nothing in Animism asks us to escape being human.🦊
Animism is relational. We are not separate from the world, nor are we above it. We are in ongoing relationship with the land, the seasons, the weather, animals, plants and one another, and relationships always carry responsibility. The question isn’t “What can I get out of life?” but “How can I live in a way that supports all life?”🌛
I recently saw an advert for an eco-therapy programme that talked about "using nature as a tool for wellbeing". But thinking of nature this way - as a resource for us to use - is the same extractive mindset that has caused so much damage to the natural world, and our relationship with it. 🌲
Healing happens not from being 'in nature' but from being 'with nature'. Animists ask "How do I arrive well? How do I listen? How do I minimise harm?". They offer attention, gratitude, care, restraint, protection, or practical action - nothing mystical or performative, just good manners and respect for a living world.🌷
Animism is transpersonal without being dissociative. It recognises that consciousness isn't limited to the human individual self, but it doesn’t erase the self either. The ego isn’t worshipped, and neither is it bypassed or demeaned. It is understood and held in proportion - healthy, egalitarian and non-hierarchical. 🐇
Humans are not at the top of a spiritual ladder. Rivers, stones, trees, animals and ancestors are not lesser beings. There are no scales of vibration, no spiritual ranks, no special people who are more evolved than others. Everything is sacred. Maturity is measured by impact, not identity.🐢
This is why shamanism is deeply rooted in animism, and why it's the complete opposite of spiritual bypassing. Shamanism isn’t about light codes, downloads, or escaping density. It's about deep listening, being in relationship, and being of service. It goes directly into the places many spiritual systems avoid: illness, loss, trauma, death, despair. Not to transcend them, but to meet them with presence, skill and care.🍄
Animism doesn’t ask us to stay positive. It asks us to stay fully present in our humaness. Shamanism asks us to see and face things as they really are, to look into the dark. No fake positivity, no avoiding painful truths. Despair and anger are not failures here, they are information. When we hold it in relationship, despair can become fuel for action, protection, repair, change and eventually even hope. 🦋
Animism is quiet, relational, demanding and deeply alive. The shamanic path doesn’t promise transcendence and spiritual attainment, but it does offer belonging and participation. It doesn’t make us special, but it does make us responsible. It doesn’t lift us out of the world, it roots us more deeply into it. 🍁
Shamanism demands of us that we grow up, take responsibility for our impact and de-centre ourselves. The world is not a backdrop for our personal healing journey. The world is alive, stressed, damaged and suffering and it is deserving of our respect and help.
Shamanism trains us to listen before acting, to serve rather than consume. We don't ask “What do I get?” but “What is needed, and what can I do?” 🌿
