Animist poet
For a long time, these two facets of human experience have been on opposing sides, clashing over everything from big, universal questions – why are we here? – to intimate, personal ones – is my sexuality ok?
Animism might seem to conflict with science too, at first glance. But animism isn’t a religion, nor a New Age spiritual movement, and it’s relationship with science can be surprising.
The word witch traces back to the Old English wicce/wicca meaning wise person, magician or sorceress, and possibly futher back into Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo_European with a relation to words meaning sacred, to divide, to divine or to wake.
In the modern world, witchcraft encompasses a vast array of practices, beliefs and traditions. Many of these have roots in ancient Northern European paths, while others are rooted in other lands and cultures. It’s relationship with animist is fluid and complex; these are areas of living experience that aren’t easily defined into tidy boxes, and they vary between people, place and time.
But for me, witchcraft is a part of animism and also a religion that grew out of animism. It’s a part of animism because much of non-religious witchcraft in the UK and other European countries is a continuation of deeply animistic folk magic, mysticism and reverance for the land and ancestors. These are practices that our ancestors have held and worked with for millenia, and while in witchcraft they take on a particular aesthetic, structure or intent, they are still deeply concerned with the relationships between people, their land and their community.
In this way witchcraft is a branch of the tree of animism, a particularly Northern European branch with rich modern resources.
But witchcraft can also be a religion, when it becomes hierarchical and organised around specific rules, such as which deities to honour and which ceremonies to practice at certain times. As we’ve talk about, animism is not a religion; and while our animistic ancestors would certainly have recognised the deities and ceremonies used in modern religious witchcraft, the highly ordered practice between separate communities would be alien to them.
And neither is all animism witchcraft; many people who practice animism use no folk magic at all. They work with angels or ancestors but no pantheistic deities or land spirits, and their ceremonies draw from completely different animistic roots and lands.
When we’re talking about deeply personal spiritual experiences and concepts like this, it’s important to remember that we can’t – and dont need to – define the experiences of others for them. While I call my spiritual practices animism, others who have the same viewpoints and methods use different words, like witchcraft. While shared language is helpful, so that we can share and learn from each other, we have to remember that these words are simply viewfinders that help us work within a vast and ambiguous field of experience.
What matters more is our own personal understanding of the terms we use and the methods we apply, and our ability to work with them is a way that’s helpful for ourselves and for others.
Magical and animistic practices that are good starting points for people of Northern European descent:
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but merely a place to start working with animism and magic that honours your own heritage while respecting the heritage of others enough to not occupy it.
Those of us with Northern European heritage have rich roots of animist to draw upon in our practice, and while the animism of other cultures can be beautiful and inspiring, we have to be careful not to bring materialist and collonialist attitudes to our spiritual practice.
It’s clear that all humans have animist heritage and access to magical methods, but that when we take the spiritual language and methods of cultures we don’t belong to, we rip them from their roots, damaging both our own practice and that of the people we took them from.
Alternative medicine is a range of “systems of healing or treating disease not included in the traditional medical curricula of the US and UK”.*
It includes many methods that you’re probably familiar with, from vitamins to reiki, and it can overlap with some animist practices, notably energy medicine, herbalism and folk magic.
Alternative medicine is a big umbrella containing everything from relatively scientific osteopathy for backache to fermented cabbage for homosexuality (no really*). Saying that a practice is ‘alternative medicine’ tells us very little about it’s origins, function, effectiveness or intent.
But a common misconception is that animism itself is an ‘alternative medicine’ like reiki or herbalism. While animist practice can include methods that have healing effects, like herbalism or energy medicine, a person’s animist practice doesn’t have to include any of these. And it’s possible for an animist to use these methods without any intent of healing or treating disease.
Animism is a highly practical path which focuses on effective solutions over ideology. Animist methods rarely conflict with traditional medical treatments in the way that alternative medicine can. Because practical and effective solutions are the goal in animism, refusing treatment in favor of unproven methods is very unlikely.
This means that if a medical treatment is the best solution to a problem, that’s the solution we use. Conversely, if it means that combining animist practices with traditional medicine is the best solution, that’s what we’ll do. Often, in Western animism, this means that animist practices are used to support the patient or prevent illness in the first place.
For example, animist methods can reduce stress, which has been proven to cause ill health. They can also be used to change destructive behaviour, such as smoking, or to support a patient in following their medical treatment more reliably.
And animist methods of working with psychoactive plants are becoming more and more recognised for their potent healing potential in social, psychological and terminal illness.*
Rather than an alternative medicine, animism is a personal and communal spiritual stance. It offers no guarantees and endorses no experts, rather demanding that we accept the uncertainty of life as it is.
Folk magic is what happens when animist methods like ceremony, craft, altar work and working with spirit helpers are combined.
Folk magic can be very specific to the time period, location and people who are using it; it’s often shared between members of a tradition, and it’s commonly called witchcraft in European areas. It can be subtle or expansive, more or less structured, solitary or communal; it differs from the Occult traditions in it’s open, flexible, changing nature.
Folk magic is useful when:
Folk magic is the flexible conclusion of animist practices; when we put them together, we have a toolkit for dealing with any situation, and for solving any problem. It is founded on the fundamental tools of animism; ceremony, altar work, crafting, spirit communication, divination.
Once we are comfortable with these fundamental tools, we can play with them to create exactly what we need in our animist practice.
To learn how to use the fundamental tools of animism, join the free 12 week course here.
Energy healing is a practice that many animist practitioners use in various forms, from modern reiki and acupunture, to the ancient energy medicine of the Andes and other indigenous peoples.
This practice works by removing unhelpful energies from a person’s energy system, changing the patterns in that energy system or introducing new, more helpful energy into the system.
Energy healing is useful when:
Energy healing can use various techniques, such as laying on of hands, visualisation, extraction methods, flower remedies, physical release methods, voice work, prayer or stone work. The techniques are used within a ceremonial container, which reinforces the divide between mundane life and the sacred work of healing.
The essential elements of energy healing are the intent to provide healing and relief, and an openness to how that healing happens. We’re looking to create a space for the person to change, let go or see something new in themselves; energy healing allows us to provide that space non-verbally, to bypass rational resistance and sabotage.
Extraction is a practice for removing harmful energy, emotion and thoughts. It’s found in many animist traditions around the world.
Extraction is a form of energy medicine, where problems are addressed at the energetic level of a person’s being rather than the physical or mental. It works through using various tools or pure intent, to draw the harmful energy from the subject’s energy field or body.
Extraction is helpful when:
Extraction can use smoke, stones, breath, touch, the earth, water and many other channels for removing the unwanted energy. The removed energy is then released, often into an element such as fire, so that it returns where it’s needed.
Extraction can be used as part of an energetic healing or on it’s own, and it while it’s a very specific tool it’s also very powerful at the right moment.
Initiation is an ancient practice that marks a transition point in a practitioner’s life with ceremony and symbolism.
Initiations can also be called rites of passage; many ancient forms still survive throughout the world. Some of these initiations are well known in Western culture, such as wedding rites, baby showers and funerals. Others, such as those when we enter a new animist practice or begin a new relationship with a spirit helper, are much more personal.
Initiation practices are helpful when:
Every time we move from one life stage to the next, initiation can help us to honour and let go of the old and become open to the new.
Initiations usually include a form of ceremony; this can be formal or informal, public or private, planned or spontaneous. We often create on-the-spot ceremonies for these moments of transition, as part of our inherent animist natures, for example when we create shrines of flowers in the places where people die.
Initiations are both about the persona who is transitioning in their life, and about the witnesses of that transition, if there are any. In an animist tradition, when we begin a new phase of practice we often experience an initiation with only our spirit helpers as witnesses, but in public rites of passage the whole community may be the witness.
To begin working with initiations for yourself, consider how you might honour your new animist practice. Explore methods to create a ceremony for this new relationship, or allow yourself to be guided in creating a spontaneous initiation ritual.
For more about ceremony in animist practice, join the free 12 week Foundation in Animism course here:
