"New" Animism, "Old" Animism and Ceremonial Magic

[hengruh]

I belong to a group of blogs brought together in an online community called the New Animism. The New Animism is essentially, in my view anyways, an effort to create rapprochement, from the French word rapprocher: "to bring together", a re-establishment of cordial relations, between the old gut-level Paleo-thought we all have as kids that everything

Comments

[wakingbear]

Once again, fantastic overview. I could quibble here and there, but on the whole, I find your critique of New Animism to be very much in line with my own thoughts. I always recommend Graham Harvey's "Animisim: Respecting the Living World" as a foundational book to understand where I am coming from, but I qualify it with many other texts because its just a piece of the whole...I think of it as a wonderful gateway to help folks begin to grasp animistic thought...then I dive into my ancestral traditions to deepen that beginning understanding into one reflective of an "older" animism. Many of the "new animists" I have encountered (though certainly not all) remind me a lot of emerging trends in American Buddhism...atheists wrapped in spiritual garb. Which is fine for what it is, but its not quite my cup of tea.

[hengruh]

yep. And don't worry about quibbling. I enjoy when people help me strengthen my reasoning or correct my facts. It makes my thinking stronger and therefore my writing as well.

I think the "New Animism" has much more in common with "Religious Naturalism" than it does with "Old Animism":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_naturalism

And by the way, Buddhism IS in a sense atheistic...or perhaps more accurately, nontheistic:
http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/buddhaatheism.htm

[wakingbear]

Depending on the school of thought, I'd agree...but for a nontheistic worldview there's an awful lot of deities in some sects of Mahayana and Vajrayana. :-)

[hengruh]

Buddhism is a lot more diverse than the term "Buddhism" would lead one to believe. It's similar to lumping the huge diversity of beliefs of Copts, Catholics, Baptists, Orthodox, etc. under the term "Christianity

[anonymous]

Oooh... oooh... I'm gonna quibble :-)

"When you talk to a Glacier as a Person, but that the Personhood is an expression as an element of a larger relational (monistic) system, and in effect you are self-talking-to-self with the Glacier as an external system, that sounds like what I am hearing the New Animism is all about."

I certainly don't think that personhood is an expression of the larger relational system, in as much as personhood defines individuality... I think it is an expression of the causal feedback of the system that is the person... which, while admittedly can only exist within the context of the larger relational system, involves as much unique identity as I myself would lay claim to. So I do not regard it as self-talking-to-self, it is definitely one communicating with other just as I would regard communication between you and me, whether mediated by airwaves or in this case, electrons

Adam (animystic.org.uk)

[hengruh]

I guess the main thing then is that it all reveals your deepest model of reality.

My deepest model is the family. Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters. So that's the model I use when thinking of the world. Kinship between people. Very simple in a good sense, while others would call it "simplistic" in a not so good way perhaps.

In your response, you speak of "causal feedback of the system," "airwaves," and "electrons." It sounds to me like your deepest model is scientific rationalism. This is the same system people use when they speak of "energy" etc.

People talk a lot about the conflict between religion and magic...but the real victor was scientific rationalism over both. Even now, when we speak of magic or belief, to be acceptable to our modern rationalist minds, it must be amenable to scientific belief structures and explanatory patterns.