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I was just going thru som of mi old notes and came across the following that I wrote on what people call "animism." It was an term which most Victorian and early 20th century religious historians, travellers and anthropologists used to define the apparent religious or spiritual affiliations that was found in traditional, aboriginal cultures all over the world. It was also the defining existential characteristic of indigenous British tribes (though archaeologists who don't gerrout much would argue the toss - but they can rightly be ignored). However, during the 20th century, animism seemed to fall into disuse as an ingredient worthy of discussion - almost that is was merely "an old-fashioned notion", which somehow faded into the cultural unconsious. But its renewal as a cultural psychological primer - or rather, a recognition of it as primary existential relationship we have with the cosmos - is long overdue. The peculiarity is that our animistic relationships ever faded, as both science and mysticism validate it very simply and effectively.
Anyhow - I wonder what people think of this. I initially added the comment to a site on animism, but know it relates to our prehistoric inheritence, megalithic sites and, specifically, to the embedded cosmological patterns of the people who constructed stone circles, etc.
Animism is, simply, a natural relationship with the cosmos - however large or small we may individually or culturally define it. It derives from the simplistic relationship individuals have with the natural world: an embedded, implicit psychological response to the world recognized as a part of us, not apart from us.
As we walk and look upon the motions of a stream (for example), when we sit with it, there arises a simple feeling: a wonder, a curious musing, a relaxation, a fascination - these qualities relating to the sound of the water, it's reflection of sunlight, the tiny currents swirling, the mossy embankments that define its edges, etc. Each of these ingredients and more can, and do (with some folk) liberate subjective responses - subtle or otherwise - that give rise to an organic notion of that which we've experienced.
The more we experience Nature, the greater the affinity that engages us, as more and more aspects of the Natural World give rise to similar animistic subjective events. None of these encounters are "religious", but instead gradually define a cartography of the cosmos that liberates ingredients such as quietude, fear, adoration, amazement, and all subjective facets of the experiential domain: from unconscious, to personal, to transpersonal and mystical. No aspect of the Natural World is devoid of the potential to elicit such feelings/encounters. As such, pre-industrial cultures have been deemed as having an animistic view of the world - but we must remember that this is the natural human condition. Because of this realism, old wells, trees, stones, stars, etc, through generations of tribal and social myths, became engendered with 'spirit'-forms: themselves merely names given to these natural reactions and encounters with the world.
These factors, simply, give rise to what we term "an animistic" notion of the world. The parameters of animism needs to be redefined linguistically to enable it to be reconstituted organically into modern human culture. It's a simple thing to do on a one-to-one basis or on a small scale - but we need to utilise media that operate with larger communicative agility to re-embed our organic relationship with the world.
Animism is seen in daily industrial life in differing ways: where people wash and tend to their cars as precious things; ladies wear their rings and jewelry, giving them properties of love and memory; people's houses defined as objects to protect - inanimate though all of these things are. Animism has never died, simply subsumed. It is very much alive and well, though operating in a socially unconscious reality.
Whilst human beings live on this Earth, animism will merely redefine its objective quantification. It is embedded and preceeds all religious systems. Properly explored, mystical realism is the natural end-product of its resurgence.
Anyhow - I wonder what people think of this. I initially added the comment to a site on animism, but know it relates to our prehistoric inheritence, megalithic sites and, specifically, to the embedded cosmological patterns of the people who constructed stone circles, etc.
Animism is, simply, a natural relationship with the cosmos - however large or small we may individually or culturally define it. It derives from the simplistic relationship individuals have with the natural world: an embedded, implicit psychological response to the world recognized as a part of us, not apart from us.
As we walk and look upon the motions of a stream (for example), when we sit with it, there arises a simple feeling: a wonder, a curious musing, a relaxation, a fascination - these qualities relating to the sound of the water, it's reflection of sunlight, the tiny currents swirling, the mossy embankments that define its edges, etc. Each of these ingredients and more can, and do (with some folk) liberate subjective responses - subtle or otherwise - that give rise to an organic notion of that which we've experienced.
The more we experience Nature, the greater the affinity that engages us, as more and more aspects of the Natural World give rise to similar animistic subjective events. None of these encounters are "religious", but instead gradually define a cartography of the cosmos that liberates ingredients such as quietude, fear, adoration, amazement, and all subjective facets of the experiential domain: from unconscious, to personal, to transpersonal and mystical. No aspect of the Natural World is devoid of the potential to elicit such feelings/encounters. As such, pre-industrial cultures have been deemed as having an animistic view of the world - but we must remember that this is the natural human condition. Because of this realism, old wells, trees, stones, stars, etc, through generations of tribal and social myths, became engendered with 'spirit'-forms: themselves merely names given to these natural reactions and encounters with the world.
These factors, simply, give rise to what we term "an animistic" notion of the world. The parameters of animism needs to be redefined linguistically to enable it to be reconstituted organically into modern human culture. It's a simple thing to do on a one-to-one basis or on a small scale - but we need to utilise media that operate with larger communicative agility to re-embed our organic relationship with the world.
Animism is seen in daily industrial life in differing ways: where people wash and tend to their cars as precious things; ladies wear their rings and jewelry, giving them properties of love and memory; people's houses defined as objects to protect - inanimate though all of these things are. Animism has never died, simply subsumed. It is very much alive and well, though operating in a socially unconscious reality.
Whilst human beings live on this Earth, animism will merely redefine its objective quantification. It is embedded and preceeds all religious systems. Properly explored, mystical realism is the natural end-product of its resurgence.
Jeeezzz.....I can't wait to watch that. His films, Ran and Throne of Blood are some of the best films ever made. 