Modern Animism

[Raiden]

:broomride The Animist Fellowship is calling all magickal beings together to help in the construction of a new belief system based on the ancient practice of Animism.

We believe that it is time that all beings of Magick to unite. It is our hope that Animism can accomplish this.

To truly unite, we need to all work together to create this new belief system, in this way we can ensure that everyone will feel at home, and feel like they belong.

If this is of interest to you, you are welcome to visit our group on Yahoo.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/animistfellowship/
if link doesn't work you may send me or my husband an email: AsetKat@hotmail.com or Raiden_Fairymoon@yahoo.com

Blessed be Aset Fairymoon (Raiden's wife) :smoochypo

[Sibylle]

Hi Raiden!

I have a question, and please don't take this the wrong way: what do you mean by "uniting" all magic(k) beings? Is that a desirable goal? I mean, it's not like we're all working against each other now, only that there's different ways and paths. SHOULD we all be the same? Or have I misunderstood you completely?

[Shanti]

I have the same question already presented.

I have been an Animist since a wee child and unaware of titles or knowledge.
I too dont understand the 'uniting' you refer to.

I read your intro in yahoo groups and it almost sounds like forming a religion. I may be misinterpeting it.

And as for Animism being re-introduced, it never died out if you look into eastern culture. It has always remained very much alive.

It is not a religion so why try to unite it as one? People of many faiths are Animist, including christian.

[Tobias]

Anybody care to explain what Modern Animism believes?

[Shanti]

I have no clue. People of the past that were animist believed that everything has spirit and thats what it is today.....so no clue.

[Raiden]

Stella,

Why Unite????

From my personal experience, in my own area, it seems that we are always fighting each other, not literal fighting, just back-biting. There are a lot of Wiccans that get insulted if you call them Witches, and Witches that get insulted if you call them Wiccan or Pagan. Really if you think about it and do the research, we all basically believe the same thing. I mean, what does a Wiccan believe that a Shaman doesn't? I was just wondering why we can't do it together.

I know a lot of people shy away from the word organization, but I feel that that is exactly what we need, one stable foundation on which to stand. Right now, we are spread out doing our own thing, yet at the same time, doing what everyone else is. Sure there are covens and groves, but even they are spread out and isolated. I think we should come together under one name and make our mark in history. Call me a fool, call me a dreamer, but I believe that together we can affect world change.

Sure we are doing it right now, but only on a small scale. But as you can see, our world is still heading down-hill fast, and it seems like everyone is sitting on their hands, not doing anything about it. Now don't get me wrong, there are small groups that are trying, but I believe that a larger organization might have a better chance of succeeding. This is basically why I believe that we need to come together.



Shanti,

I'm not trying to form a religion, in fact the very word I despise. I believe that Animism is a way of life. I'm quite aware that Animism has existed since the beginning of history, but I do know that now-a-days, many people aren't aware of it's existence. That is what I mean by reintroduced.



Tobias,

I apologize for calling it Modern Animism, I had a brain- freeze and had no idea what to title my post. Basically what we are doing is reworking Animism a bit.



For anyone who wants to know what Animism is, there is a wonderful thread in the Paths section here on Mystic Wicks that explains it beautifully. In short it is the belief that ALL things have a spirit. Everything is alive, rocks, trees, sand, water, etc.

If anyone has anymore questions, ask them, I'm not scared of questions, in fact I'm happy to answer them. Sometimes, I can be a little confusing and I apologize.

Blessed Be
Raiden Fairymoon

[Sibylle]

Hi Raiden,

thanks for your reply. I must say I agree and disagree with you. I do think it's silly that pagans are fighting and back-biting each other. But I for one don't want an organisation, or unification. I respect your reasons, and maybe you're interested to know mine?

1. An organisation doesn't solve the problems. Look at organised religions, and see how much fighting and disagreement is going on there.

2. In my eyes, the non-hierarchical, non-dogmatic, free and not organized structure of modern paganism is one of its greatest assets. It leaves people free to believe what they want, to call themselves witches or not, and to make their practise exactly what THEY want it to be like. I know a lot of shamans who believe completely different things from me. So what? I love coming together and exchanging ideas, I love learning about other people's practise. I don't necessarily agree, but I accept and bless. And THAT's what's needed, not an organised structure that forces everyone together. People need to grow up, to find a mature attitude and acceptance of beliefs and practises that are different from their own. I am sure you can't force people to develop tolerance and maturity through an organised structure.

I for one will always be me, do what I do, and call myself whatever I choose.

Thanks again for explaining, and good luck with your project!

Hugs!!

[Shanti]

I can tell you one big differance between Shamanism and wicca. Wiccans for the most part believe in dieties, not all Shamans believe in dieties. Shamanism is an eastern practise. In siberia its roots lie in Animism and you can belive in spirit in everything without the belief in dieties.

Paganism in its self is very diverse. To organise such diversity would only create problems where none exsisited before. To organise sets up a leadership. As soon as ranking come into play, trouble will begin. Who would lead? Who would want to folllow?

I feel the one thing that brings us together is our belief in total freedom of our selves. Covens are only a small part of paganism as a hole.

As I said, Animism can be any faith and any path. I dont think a christian animist and a wiccan animist would want to be organised together.

As an animist, I do not want to be organised as my own belief system is a free system that is based on no limits. To organise sets limits. Its sets ranking.

I believe organising is counter-productive.

Pagans are everywhere. Our numbers are growing. Our voices are slowly changing things. We have rights where we didnt 50 yrs ago.

Also when it comes to Animism. As I have said. I believed spirit was in everything when I was a very young child, my memeory goes back to around 5 or 6. The term animism is what was not known. The term is what people are sometimes not familuar with. The belief is not uncommon.

And animism belives that everything has spirit but not that a rock is alive. Animism doesnt change the deffination of life of the physical world. Personal opinion may do that but it is not the basis of Animism. Animsm believe that all things including inanimate objects have a spirit.

And any and all religious paths can have animism in its individual belief system. If you search you will see that throughout ancient history animism is world wide in most cultures including christianitys history.

So to unite and seperate from christianity is to cast out thr christian animist. You may want to think about that. What if a christian animist wants to join? Will you refuse?

[Raiden]

You know your right I was stupid to think we needed to come together, the world is fine the way it is, I should just worry about myself, thats what everyone else does right, I am whats important here, what matters is what makes me feel good, nothing else is more important than me, worrying about the rest of the world is an inconvenience and I really dont want to be inconvenienced so I will just say good luck to you all, I hope your lives work out for you.

sincerely
The Fool :bouncybob

[Shanti]

You know your right I was stupid to think we needed to come together, the world is fine the way it is, I should just worry about myself, thats what everyone else does right, I am whats important here, what matters is what makes me feel good, nothing else is more important than me, worrying about the rest of the world is an inconvenience and I really dont want to be inconvenienced so I will just say good luck to you all, I hope your lives work out for you.

sincerely
The Fool :bouncybob
I believe the complexities of trying to group people who are Animist can be a complex situation as Animist come from many faiths and beliefs including christian, the people who you feel are causing probs. You can not call Animist together without exspecting some to be christian and of other paths.

That is a valid consern for people who may want to enter a group and one that would need to be addressed.

When you try to do something of this nature you have to be ready for questions and exspect them. People for the most part are bot going to just join unless their conserns are addressed first. You did say you were not affriad of questions.

And to say you want to group under one name, well, what name would cover such a diverse group?

It is differcult to bring a diverse group of people and group them all under one blanket.

People will want to know a lot about how to deal with issues. So they will question. What would you expect us to do. just follow under your blanked blindly?

[Sibylle]

Raiden,

if that's your way of dealing with opinions that differ from your own, no wonder you see so much need for unification. But you should start with yourself... nobody here insulted you, both Shanti and myself just happen to have a different opinion. What a shame that you opted out of the conversation, I had hoped to learn more from you.

[Raiden]

Of course you are both right and I apologize for my outburst it was rather childish, I did react out of frustration, this frustration did not come from this group it came from somewhere else, and it was unfair for me to take it out on you .
Your questions were understandable and expected, I don't expect people to follow blindly in fact I don't expect them to follow, I hoped they would walk beside me I thought we could work together, right now I don't know what I'm doing I don't have the answers to all the questions.
Even now something inside me is pushing me, telling me to keep going and I don't know why.
The other night when I posted my outburst I had all but given up, I didn't want anything to do with it anymore, I even deleted my group which was unfair to my two members.
Right now I'm lost and I feel awful about lashing out at you two, so I again apologize. and I wish you all the best as you travel on your path's

Sincerely

Raiden Fairymoon

[Shanti]

Of course you are both right and I apologize for my outburst it was rather childish, I did react out of frustration, this frustration did not come from this group it came from somewhere else, and it was unfair for me to take it out on you .
Your questions were understandable and expected, I don't expect people to follow blindly in fact I don't expect them to follow, I hoped they would walk beside me I thought we could work together, right now I don't know what I'm doing I don't have the answers to all the questions.
Even now something inside me is pushing me, telling me to keep going and I don't know why.
The other night when I posted my outburst I had all but given up, I didn't want anything to do with it anymore, I even deleted my group which was unfair to my two members.
Right now I'm lost and I feel awful about lashing out at you two, so I again apologize. and I wish you all the best as you travel on your path's

Sincerely

Raiden Fairymoon
I'm sorry Raiden. It sounds like you are having a hard time. I know your intentions are good but it is a hard road, very hard. I wouldnt know how to procede on venture as complex as your idea is. Your dream is beautiful though. I wish I knew what else to say. I am sorry.

[Sibylle]

Same here... I did not mean to discourage you in any way! What I said was my own personal opinion - my reasons for not joining. But that doesn't make it an unworthy cause, I'm just one weird hag out there in Austria ;) I think there are probably a lot of people who feel the way you do about the subject, and if YOU feel you want to do this, then by all means stick to it! I wish you all the best of luck.

Hugs!!

[MorningDove030202]

I have a friend who is animistic but not realy pagan (or anything else) because she doens't feel there is a concious higher being that can comunicate with us. She just belives in spirit, or like "The force" in star wars. She doesn't get into mythology, but she is magick positive. She's realy odd, but pagan friendly.
Dove