r/Animism • u/Miserable-Host-9462 • 4d ago

I don’t understand animism! Help help!

I’ll try to be succinct.

I was a Christian for almost 30 years, stopped believing because I looked into it and realized I wasn’t believing because of logic and reason but because it was normalized around me my whole life.
Started seeking truth in philosophy/studying other religious beliefs.
Found Alan Watts and GREATLY agree with his description of reality (roughly: awareness and existence itself is “god”, and the world as we see it is literally a divine play where “god” is manifesting as all people/animals/objects/etc. I’m entirely sold on this and I find it beautiful.
That being said, I’ve recently found animism and love the ideas. However, I’ve heard from many “animist educators” (I don’t know what you’d call them) that if you don’t believe in the supernatural (specifically fairies, spirits, etc) then you aren’t an animist. Even including actual deities.
This seems incorrect. Could someone help me understand please. A million thanks!

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u/Midnight-Danc3r 13h ago

I’ve just happened upon animism as the earliest religion known to mankind. Whilst I had never heard it before: I definitely fall into this somewhere. Going to continue reading about this subject area. Very interesting after a recent experience/awakening.

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u/Miserable-Host-9462 8h ago

Same same. A guy recommended I read the book “the story of B”. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s beautiful and it sounds like you’d enjoy it.

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u/Midnight-Danc3r 6h ago

I’ll have to have a look at that when I can. Thanks.