1/6 “Animacy is an overdetermined word, but so is the idea of the Divine Feminine. The reason I have begun to shy away from the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine is their unfortunate identification with gender and, more importantly, their overidentification with humans and their myopic classifications generally. Animacy is plushier. Springier. More mosslike. It seems a soft spot to rest on while I try to understand and explain how very sentient the world is to me these days.
6/6 I'm not throwing her out, the Divine Feminine. I'm throwing her in. Melting her down. Mixing her into the messier, polytemporal animacy of everything I touch, change, and become.
The animate earth is a verb. An assemblage of verbs. A mycorrhizal system sewing together a whole forest. A shared breath. A midsummer celebration where everyone is invited.”
Whilst you walk, thank the landscape for its beauty. Speak to the spirits that inhabit the space. Respect those who have come before you and listen deeply, for they might have a lesson or two ✨️
I like #puddles , pools, ponds, so this is a great time of year for me- #SpringMelt ! + since we keep alternating melting #weather with snow (more to come in the next few days after 18-19C/64-66F today) the puddle season is extended! Not so fond of mud, but oh well!
I shot this icy puddle the other day, where there'd been a much larger pool a week or two back- on viewing on the screen, I realised there was a face, then 2! Not creepy, I think they are #winter#spirits saying goodbye! #animism
Spring has truly come in (even though the chill is sticking a bit longer). Flowers, trees, animals, elements and more dance the season into being. What's more, the old teachers I had thought were done with me have returned. The support being offered to me by the spirits and deities at this time is deeply felt. However, the internal animal part of me wonders what this could all about. I hope this year is a good one.
Jaguar (and black panther) were one of my first teachers/protectors when I was just starting out. I find them coming back into my life and bringing with them a fierce inspiration and new lessons to learn.
Its fascinating how powerful #animism was at protecting the environment for most of existence. I just learned recently that the #nymphs in #Greek#mythology really no different than local #Shinto deities, or animal spirits of the Americas. Every rock, stream and tree had a spirit attached to it, and if one wanted to change or use the land, they had to know how to appeal to these spirits and do it sparingly.
Even #polytheists had some variety of lesser animistic spirits that get lost among the big names. Of course, major roman brownies got upgraded to gods when they saw and liked the Greek #pantheon.
To this day even if they don't actually believe in it, Icelanders use the concepts of land #elves as kind of an extra layer of bureaucracy before changing the land. Animists have been looked down on, as the most primitive form of religion. As modern science shows us that the environment is one of the most important things to protect, perhaps it is the most important and advanced form of #religion .
Wanton destruction of the planet only happened when we switched to #monotheism and converted all those spirits into evil #demons in our minds. It opened up many new scientific and technological advances but wrecked the planet. Perhaps we need some form of applied animistic bureaucracy such as giving all things a certain level of rights and autonomy to ensure they survive for future generations to also enjoy. #environmentalism
Ivan will be speaking in the Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor of the Anthro building.
NB due to building work, you need to use the main entrance of the Archaeology Institute round the corner in Gordon Square. Please plan to arrive between 6:15-6:30 if possible.
Ivan Tacey is a sociocultural anthropologist who has worked with Batek hunter-gatherers of Malaysia since 2006. His current work challenges ahistorical, apolitical and gender-blind accounts of #animism associated with the 'ontological turn'.
On Feb 27, 6:30pm, he will be speaking LIVE in the Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology Dept. You can join us on ZOOM (ID 384 186 2174 Passcode Wawilak).
Ivan writes: "This talk draws on longterm fieldwork among Batek Dè’ and Batek Maia hunter-gatherers /post-foragers living on the edges of the rainforests of Peninsular Malaysia. It presents the main activities of shamans and the vivid cosmotopographies revealed in their soul journeys. I suggest these reflect longterm historical relations with various outsiders and the influences of Malay, Arabic and European ideas and imagery. By incorporating the perspectives of Others and drawing on the perceived power of specific entities and places (human/nonhuman, local/faraway), shamans reconfigure their contemporary and historical relations within a realm where they hold considerable power. The creative potential of mythopoetic story-telling and embodied shamanic experiences does not refute modernity or obliterate history. Shamans draw upon the power of modernity and history to remake socio-spatial and temporal relations with an array of human and nonhuman others."
In these pages you'll find the pantheon, rituals, symbols and practices of Ariadne's Tribe, an inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition.
With a pantheon headed by a triplicity of mother goddesses who embody the three sacred realms of land, sky, and sea, Minoan spirituality calls us to remember a time when women were valued as equals to men, when the Great Mothers took care of all their children (all means all), and when the sacred touched every person every day of their lives.
Minoan spirituality is so relevant to our times, when we’re doing our best to move forward and away from inequality and oppression.
I enjoy writing long posts, don't get me wrong, but it's also nice to write something short and less polished. When I started blogging last year it felt nice to just write whatever, some posts more personal and journalesque, some longer and more researched, and some experimental (for me at least). I kinda got stuck over the summer on the idea that I should make everything highly edited and refined. So I'm going to try to make the effort (or not make the effort) to just do whatever.
Like this one. I had this image in my head while I was walking the other day of simultaneously trying to resist being torn apart from the outside (like a scene from a movie where I'm holding ropes and my arms are being pulled in opposite directions) while my seams are coming undone from the inside.
So I started writing and wasn't sure what I was saying or where I was going, and this is the result:
My son and I finally finished decorating our yule log. It's helpful for me to remember that the old heathen yule was celebrated on the first full moon after the first New Moon after the winter solstice (which this year is 25 Jan I think), so I'm not really behind but squarely in the thick of yuletide.
As Rune from Nordic #Animism writes "The implementation of the solar calendar as well as the Christian Christmas have made practices move, notably, so the centre of gravity of #Yule has moved closer to the Winter Solstice. However, many of the processions and drinking traditions from the January period may have originated in the Heathen Yule celebration on this first Full Moon of the year. It makes sense, however, to see Yule as a period of ongoing celebration rather than one point in the year."
"Our thoughts are with those among the dead into whose sphere we are rising, or who are now rising into our own. Others we inevitably forget, though they be brothers and sisters. Thus the departed may be nearer to us than when they were present. At death our friends and relations either draw nearer to us and are found out, or depart further from us and are forgotten. Friends are as often brought nearer together as separated by death."
In Norway food and beer would be left on the table for dead relatives and in Sweden... a bowl of #Yule beer was placed on a chair in the middle of the floor. Cubes of bread would be put into this beer and a Yule candle placed so as to illuminate it through the entire night of Yule. This central blessing of light given to the essences of the earth's life force in the darkness of winter would then be given to the animals or poured on the earth in the Yule morning.—The Nordic Animist Year #animism
"Yule is the ritual centre of gravity in the animist year. In pre-Christian reckoning it was also the anchor point between the cycles of the moon and the sun. The New King, the first New Moon after the Winter Solstice, was the first day of the second Yule month (Midwinter Month/January), and the Full Moon of this month was the apex of Heathen Yule celebrations, but with the rise of Christianity the ritual focus moved closer to the Winter Solstice..." From "The Nordic Animist Year" #animism#yule
"There are old folktales and legends of people who can become animals. Animals who can become people. And there’s a lesson for our own time in those shapeshifting stories — a recognition that the membrane between what's human and more-than-human is razor thin."
The clock radio came on to our local #NPR station replaying one of my favorite shows. David Abram inspires me.
Kinda want to try something new this year and celebrate yule with my son (he's 4). I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing though. Any ideas for how to go about this? Personal practices and/or other resources are welcome.
What I wanted to say is simple - try to find your inner peace. I know the struggle, is very hard and you need to focus. I needed to literally read day after day the same quotes from the same book - Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, before I finally found my inner strength to survive very complex job interviews and finally convince CEO that I am actually worth that money. But right now I know that I can manage next year without this fucking toxic environment as I have right now, hopefully I will be able to sleep, relax, don’t think too much about their issues and their chaos. I cut also bad people off from my life. It took time. But it’s worth it. I strongly recommend to actually sit down, rethink all your plans for next months and ask yourself some questions - how can I do it? How many steps it takes to get there? Etc. Pray to gods. Don’t be such a useless victim. Ask gods and entities for help. They will help. They will provide you all the tools needed. Just don’t miss their signs.
And read Meditations. And Master Therion’s Book of Law. Every day before sleep.
For Indigenous scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer, Western grammatical norms of using “it” to refer to more-than-human relatives absolve settler #cultures of moral responsibility for exploiting and dominating nature. Here’s what we can say instead, drawn from Kimmerer’s #native Anishinaabe. #nature#animism https://deceleration.news/2021/03/19/nature-pronouns/
Curious if other parents of a more animist disposition find themselves struggling to both explain phenomena according to natural laws and also encouraging, for lack of a better term, the innate magical thinking of their children? I have no idea how to navigate that.
#gym when the Sun rises, cold air, feeling of weight when lifting. After that #cyberpunk2077 game to finish #phantomliberty and we all going outside to the woods. We will be in touch with forest spirits, watching.
My three years old girl has been taught last time that she needs to ask for permission. It is really important to get the permission from local entities- trees, river, animals. This is their place, remember. Be respectful, because you are guest at their territory.
I think she understood. Hugged big tree trunk and asked if she could stay here with us and hang around. #animism#pagan#prayers#paganism