Animism, broadly defined, is the belief that not only humans, but also animals, natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls. A better way of putting it might be to say that there is a "living spirit within all things"- bearing in mind the poetic license in that statement. From my personal perspective, to be an animist means that you accept that "personhood" is not limited to human beings and that the natural world, and all of its seen and unseen regions, is full of non-human persons. "Person" in this sense refers to beings that are aware, animate and living- though not all of these persons must have bodies of flesh and blood.
Seeing the features of our world this way, a human person can encounter and even have a relationship with non-human persons- stones may be non-human persons; trees or plants may be; animals certainly are; even the wind or sun or thunder can be experienced in this way. Any natural phenomenon can be understood and experienced in terms of its own unique personhood- even though they lack the sort of "embodiment" that human persons normally have.
One thing is certain: by virtue of the fact that all persons belong to the same natural world, the same natural matrix, all persons are related- there is a natural kinship that exists, and can be both intellectualized and felt intuitively. This reality of kinship (sacred, deeper kinship) does not normally carry with it life-transforming power until it is felt intuitively.
It is easy enough for humans to rationalize how all life forms must be "related" on some genetic level or level of material; it is something else to sense and feel a complete belonging to a sacred community of persons- persons that express themselves in countless forms. That intuition brings forth a need for respect and compassion.
Spirits
The idea of "non-human persons" coincides with the somewhat more common notion of "spirits"- spirits being loosely defined as "modes of intelligence or awareness that do not possess a human form." Indeed, in the case of many non-human persons and spirits, "form" as we understand it is meaningless; spirits may not have a fixed form, and may take many different forms. This is how these beings can be encountered as natural phenomenon, objects, animals, or even in a human form- or may be encountered invisibly, in terms of presences, dreams or visions. Their nature as cohesive living persons is their core; their form is not nearly as important.
Some persons or spirits can easily change their form; all may change their minds and behave in many different ways, at different times, or in different situations. This is another important aspect of personhood- persons relate to their environment and other persons, and change in attitude, behavior and thinking by so doing. A non-human person or powerful spirit who was friendly to people in one sacred story may be presented as threatening in another; one who counseled humans to prudent living may be presented as wasteful in another.
Personal Ambiguity
The “shifting” of behavior and broad ranges of activity and personality does not destroy the character of a person in question; it merely presents the organic and fluid reality of life, which is very familiar to nearly all human beings, no matter how ill-at-ease some are with this natural, mercurial quality, or how much they ignore it or deny it.
This is why it is almost impossible to categorize people or non-human persons into "either/or" categories- no person is simply either "good" or "bad", "good" or "evil". Some may act more good towards some and more evil towards others, and some may be largely "good" or "evil" to everyone and everything else- but a potential still exists for the shifting web of causation to change and for that person's behavior or thinking to change.
Animistic societies tend to shy away from qualifying persons in extreme, hard categories, a mark of wisdom on their part. In all cases of such natural ambiguity, respect and prudence is the key to successful relationships.
The Needful Shift
To view the world as an inter-related and sacred collective of persons, both human and non-human, requires an enormous epistemological shift away from the normal Western way of thinking- and most Eastern ways, as well! The desirability of this shift (some would say its necessity) is easy to see- for too long, human persons have neglected a real and fundamental "ecological duty"- even a "spiritual-ecological duty"- to this world; and the results have been disturbing, to say the least.
As much as people (rightly, perhaps) focus on outward examples of environmental destruction, there is also an inward destruction and impoverishment of the human spirit when it takes part in an organized cultural "turning away" from the animistic awareness of which I am speaking.
To re-approach the world in terms of the "personhood of the world" and the personhood of its parts is to approach it as an equal, with your human person as a member of a great community. This way of seeing leads us to approach all things with a spirit of respect and help, not with the spirit of an overlord who simply "uses" the world and its parts as though they were dead or soul-less matter, denying their personhood and disposing of them as he or she sees fit.
A person who sees and feels in terms of inter-related personhood cannot justify being destructive needlessly; they cannot justify taking what they don't need; they cannot justify waste, and they cannot fail to be thankful for what natural resources they utilize out of true need, for the taking of natural resources always involves (at some point) a sacrifice on the parts of other persons.
How a modern person who has been entrenched in non-animistic thinking can truly make this epistemological shift is a fascinating line of discussion all on its own- traditional animistic initiations or visions may not be enough; these things are less accessible when they are sought from within the "staring place" of non-animistic cultural assumptions. I can only speak for myself and from my own experience; there is no magical formula that changes a person, on the deepest level, into an animist.
I know that my transformation followed on the heels of personal visionary guidance, deep interest in and respect for the sacred traditions and life-ways of animistic peoples, and my ability to release myself from the narrow boundaries of Western scientific materialism and from the parallel cultural condescension that so many Westerners show to primal cultures and their sacred stories and beliefs.
I was able, on some intimate level, to disabuse myself of the notion that the world, and all of the immensity of life, was a "thing" that could be fully explained away with reason or empirical observation. I realized that the sacred stories of the primal peoples I encountered (and the myths of many ancient animistic peoples) were telling important truths about the world, using a strange but appropriate organic system of language and symbol- a sacred language which serves to encapsulate things that are crucial to human understanding, but which cannot be satisfactorily discovered or expressed in other, less mythical or less poetic ways.
Sacred stories are not able to be placed in an "either/or" dichotomy; they are not "either true or not true"- they are simply sacred expressions of the principles of life and inter-relation, and they teach people many lessons of value, and help people to find wise perspectives on life.
By allowing myself to be open to possibilities that most people from my background would shun for some reason, or dismiss, I found that deep transformations began in me- things that often took years to make their full impact known to me. Little by little, I began to approach things in my world differently. Soon, spontaneous acts of respect for non-human persons just happened; feelings of respect and even religious-seeming awe or exhilaration for a wide spectrum of life and phenomenon were there, and they were not based on some effort to have them. I had simply internalized the "Way".
A natural respect for those who lived close to nature and who treated all natural powers as kin arose in me; and spiritual powers came to speak to me in dreams. Perhaps they always had; now, I had the eyes to recognize them for what they were. My ancient people, too, were animists; the power that was passed down to me from those distant grandmothers and grandfathers recognized what I was doing; it recognized, with joy, what I was re-discovering. It approved.
