silence

Silence is a practice in many spiritual traditions. In animism, silence works to increase awareness, connection and knowledge of our relationships.

Practicing silence is such a common and important tool because it allows us the space to get to know ourselves, to experience our inner worlds and at the same time become aware of the more subtle aspects of our relationships with everything around us.

Silence can be an act of power that develops our warriorship, and can strengthen our imaginations by getting rid of distractions and giving us a space to work within creatively.

And combining silence with the natural world can by particularly powerful; by allowing our human words and concepts to fall away for a time, we get to experience how nature communicates, and how that relates to our own inner natures.

Silence is a perfect tool for when:

• We’re feeling overwhelmed by our day to day lives and need some space to let everyone unwind before we can work with it.
• We’re working with a deeply held or complex pattern of feeling and energy within us, one that needs to be coaxed into a form we can work with.
• We’re open to establishing a more conscious relationship with a space, element or spirit of nature, where language and symbolism isn’t as useful.
• We’re looking to increase the power of another practice, such as ceremony or altar work.
• We need a socially acceptable act of power to work with throughout the day.
• We’re exhausted and depleted energetically and need to spend some time recovering ourselves and our energy.
• We need to truly see a situation so that we can accept it.

To use silence as a practice, we simply need to be silent. This practice doesn’t require that our environment is silent, although that can sometimes help, but rather that we ourselves become comfortable not talking.

This is easier at first when we’re alone, especially out in the wilds. But as we strengthen this practice, we can practice silence around other people, either privately or in community.

For more about the fundamental principles of animism, join the free 12 week Foundation in Animism course here:
[