What is Animism?

Animism is the belief and cultural practice that everything in existence is inspirited. Everything that exists has Soul &/or is part of the Anam Mór (the great soul) of all things.

There is no great distinction between things spiritually. There is no thing that is without Spirit. For a thing to Be, it must have Spirit. Spirit is the foundation of existence. Beingness is Spirit.

There is no hierarchy of importance in animism. The Great Soul is fite fuaite - interwoven and sewn together. There can be no thinking of one being as having more or better value than another. Existence alone equals Spirit and Spirit is the same regardless of inherent skills or purpose or use of or for the Being to the world.

My USE of a Being does not impact it's value of Spirit or it's worth or right to exist in the world. All things in the world - human and non-human exist in a state of Beingness that is valuable,as it is.

Animism is based in BEING, not doing or having or even creating. We are all Beings sharing a world of Form together that is fite fuaite / eadar-fhighte with Spirit. Inseparable, interwoven together from the beginning.

You are. They are. We are. Being is the foundation.

Animism was the first type of recorded organized belief system for human beings. It's the oldest and continuing 'religious' practice at 350 000 years. Forms of Animism were and continue to be practiced by Indigenous nations all over the world. There are regional differences, but the premise of a world inspirited is fundamentally the same.

Think trees and a forests being perceived by industry as having no value until They are hewn down and made into products for profit. FALSE. Trees and forests are valuable in their own Beingness, exactly as they are. Indigenous people have understood this value for thousands of years.

Celtic cultures are animistic.

There is the recognition that the world of form is inspirited and that there is something beyond form - something that "goes on". We believe in reincarnation.

This is a foundation belief represented in the triple spiral. Three cycling arms representing all the trinities of life: birth-death-rebirth, past-present-future, universe-community-self. Celts believe in tuar and direct, spiritual knowing. Every part of the world of Form is Soul and can teach us about ourselves, our past, our future and about our world; Spirit and Form together fite fuaite / eadar-fhighte.

To the Celts, the land itself is Inspirited.

The great cabal of gods and goddesses is called the Tuatha dé Danaan, which means the People/Land of the Goddess Danu. Danu is water. Danu is the goddess that the River Danube is named after.

Tuatha means both people and land.

The great gods and goddess of the Celts were water, land and the people who were all kin to one another. The land itself was inspirited and the gods and goddesses are our idealized superhuman ancestors.

There is no separation of Spirit and Form in Celtic Animism. Ceolta na cruinne is the song of the universe, or "world music". It is the music that is made when Spirit sings in harmony with Form. When you feel the delicious delight of sun warming skin that has been moistened by cool morning fog - that is the Song of the Universe. When you dance and feel the beat and the joy of being alive fountain up through your body - that is the Song of the Universe.

The Irish Ogham alphabet was created out of the Ceolta na Cruinne. Each letter came as a sacred tree. Communication in animism is the dance between Spirit and Form, meaning and symbol.

Celtic cultural belief requires coming into communication with the Presence of the Land. The Land and the People are one and mothaitheacht/mothachadh is feeling with you always, the Presence of Spirit in the world of Form.

I am a Celt on Turtle Island.

My mothachadh is with Turtle Island. I feel the Presence of Spirit on Turtle Island. This Land has created the Form of my ancestors for hundreds of years. I am both the recent and old Celtic immigrants to Turtle Island. I have 7 generations of my mother's ancestors on Turtle Island and I haven't yet found the ancestors who first came to this Land.

I have Celtic software expressing through Turtle Island hardware.

This is ancestral roots in literal ground.

These are symbols pointing to real things. (This is also why growing as much of my own food as I can and eating local is a goal - albeit, far from realized). The Land literally builds our bodies - our hardware, and that relationship with Land is immediate and Present.

This Land is all Land and your Body is the Earth and the Earth is Inspirited.

Seasonal Awareness and Being with Cycle

This process begins with awareness but must go further than just observation of the cycles as they happen. We are required to come into rhythm with the natural cycles of the Earth. Daily, seasonally, with lunar and solar movements, through the entirety of our lifetime in Form, we flow with the energies both very near and very far.

As Celts we live in a triple spiral of human existence:

Everything is more stable in 3’s:

• Universe - family/community - self in relationship with Universe. (This cycle repeats infinitely inwards and outwards. Taking in and expressing out - our beingness is the in-breath and out-breath of Creation.)

• birth - death - rebirth

• past - present - future

• sow - grow - harvest

We are an inseparable part of an ongoing cycle and relationship with Inspirited Land, which necessarily includes the end of particular Form.

Western society sucks at being with “death”.

Western society sucks at teaching and supporting it's members through the transition of death. It is denied, repressed and subverted with awkward discomfort.

Everyone dies. Death is waiting in the wings for everyone. Birth and death are a guarantee that we all have in common.

Talking about Death doesn't bring it closer. It's already everywhere, and you cannot avoid it. Not ever.

Animism says that “death” is not stopping.

The Death of Form is not the end, but a change, a transition. Reincarnation is a fact of life and death to Celts. It is a foundation of belief and culture and an arm of the triple spiral. Everything is born to Form again.

Spirit is. I know the "dead" go on. None of the words for "dead" fit very well. To call loved ones "departed" speaks just to Form, because their Soul Self hasn't gone anywhere at all. There is no where else. The life of Spirit is fite fuaite with the life of Form - the "dead" aren't kept apart from us.

"Passed on" is the same. Where'd they pass on to? Here. They're all still here.

In the world of Form, Soul and Spirit is as close or as far from us as we allow.

Animism lives from the truth that Spirit continues - but none of us really know specifics.

Seasonal awareness and connection weaves us back into the fabric of the world of change for Inspirited Land. Seasonal relationship gently includes us in the ongoing, infinite cycles of Being.

We are Nature.

This is our seasonal turning also. When we can be present with autumn and the harvest and the “time of death” every year in our relationship with Land - we become less fixated and sure of the idea that "dead" means stopping. We also become more aware and engaged with birth and the ability to bring new knowledge and vision into the world of Form when we are connected to and operating within the natural cycles of Inspirited Land.

Oppressive and dominant societal values have traumatized us with the insistence on separation between Form and Spirit.

Our Ancestors and our Spirit knows that's just not true, and they're ready to tell us about it.