When I’d first heard of Animism it sounded like strange-crazy concept based on what I’d been taught in school, church, and by the culture I was being raised in… but also in its way familiar. I was able to connect too easily and thought I was fooling myself for the longest time because I thought it couldn’t and shouldn’t be that easy to connect with animals, plants, a favorite knife, or even the World. But it was. Maybe it won’t be the same for anyone else who reads this, but in the event it is, know you are not alone. And for those for whom it isn’t, with work you too can connect a if you choose, nd maybe it will be easier for you to turn it on and off than it is for we, to whom its almost too easy.

I was sixteen the day I first heard/felt the World scream. It took me a long time to tune it out but a long time also to get to that point where I had to. I was always a very sensitive kid (I believe its called being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) these days, but we did not have such fancy categories for people back then). I felt too much physically, emotionally, spiritually, so much so that neither I nor my parents had any idea how to deal with it. So I had to teach myself. My bedroom was always cold from my earliest memory, I got on with animals better than humans as they were more even tempered than the physical or non-physical beings I had to deal with daily. I did not want to lose my child-like ease with feeling the world about me and to that end I worked to develop and strengthen what came naturally.

Everything is energy. How it expresses itself is unique to the being in question; whether it is created by what we call Nature or by us from Nature. Sometimes that creation is corporeal and at other times non-corporeal. Everything communicates but not always in ways that we as humans can easily understand as we tend to be very human-centered in the ways we are willing to connect and converse with others.

Pheromones, emotions, lights, etc are not what we are taught to respond to in this day and age unless its accompanied by speech and verifiable proof from an acknowledged outside source. You must be very careful who you share that experience with though; or you will be ostracized from many if not most groups (yes, even in the pagan/heathen community) as you will be considered unbalanced. Talking to your sword is considered acceptable only in ancient legend; talking similarly to your carving knife in today’s day and age would likely get you locked up for your own good (and everyone else s’).

Anyone who is a maker likely understands the feeling of Awen/Imbas/Inspiration (hereafter ‘Awen’) flowing through you, regardless your form of creative expression. The Awen allows us to create new expressions of spirit from the building blocks of reality that we are able to access. Creating a connection with spirits of items we can work with (ex. words, breath, spirit, stone, wood, ink, paper, etc) allows us to blend those spirits into new expressions of spirit residing in a physical form. With work those that have been blended can be contacted from the new spirit if one wishes to do that work. The spirits of those building blocks can even explain to you how they may be best combined to reach a desired result and thus a new conglomerate spirit too. As too can the new spirit of course.

Spirits of animals, plants, minerals, human-crafted items, etc. can be contacted in a similar fashion to what I have mentioned before (this is not exactly the same thing as speaking with the Fae, elemental beings, etc as these beings often have societies of their own. At least that is how they have been interpreted in various lore I’ve read and situations I’ve experienced). If you require the focus use a candle flame and while breathing slowly and evenly, project emotionally your wish to connect; following my previous recommendations regarding building within yourself a habit of patience, integrity, and sincerity. What you should look for is a positive feeling of a reciprocated wish to connect. Be wary of any emotion received which gives you a feeling of unease as you may be encountering something which feels your openness and may hope to attach itself in a predatory fashion.

Contacting spirits has always been a discipline which requires the person engaging in it to conduct research and practice due diligence (whether by journey-work and/or physical access to a well-stocked occult library) and appropriate protective materials before making the effort. I’ve not mentioned it before as I felt it was something that is a known quantity of working with spirits of any stripe in our community. Its important you know what you are contacting so you will know if something reaches back to you that doesn’t seem right. Just because you intend to contact the spirit of a tree, a rock, a robin in that tree or a claw hammer does not mean that that is the spirit which will be grabbing hold when you reach out.

Resources for consideration:

• ‘animism’, Britannica.com retrieved 2/10/24 https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism/The-animistic-worldview
• ‘kami’, Britannica.com retrieved 2/10/24 https://www.britannica.com/topic/kami
• ‘Native American religions’, Britannica.com retrieved 2/10/24 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American-religion