Animism In Every Day Life

So, what, exactly, is this blog about?

This is coming out of about three years of long discussions with many friends, both Pagan and not, regarding spirituality and how it is expressed in North America (I'm including Canada here) in the early 21st Century.

I want to talk about things I have been dissatisfied with in my own spiritual practice, and things I have liked.

I have tended to be Solitary because my practices have been so out of step with other Pagans. Oddly, I have been drifting towards my blue collar roots more and more in recent years, although I can't deny that I am a member of the white collar class.

My parents were Welsh. My father came from a long line of farmers, miners and steelworkers from Ebbw Vale (Pretend the "w" is an "oo" sound and it's easy to pronounce). My mother's family was somewhere between working class and middle class from Cardiff. This is important, because it effects my spirituality in profound ways, much more so than I had ever thought, when I first became a Pagan some twenty odd years ago.

I have noticed that the more one works with their hands, the more Animist one is. Never mind if one goes to a church or temple on another day of the week, if your livelyhood comes from the land, the water, the mill, or the mine, those things become alive to you. They feed you and your family. They must be treated with respect because, although they do feed you and your family, they can turn on you.

Heather, over at Adventures in Animism calls these the "Moreworld People"; the non-human intelligences that we coexist with. I like that, because I'm not sure what else to call it.

The spirits are always around us. Some are our friends or allies. Some aren't friendly at all. Some don't care.

So, I intend this blog to be a discussion of that. But also, I want to talk about what is unique to our time and place. I keep running into this thing of Pagans wanting to claim a "tradition".  I don't have a tradition...I'm just making it up as I go along. I have to, because there's too many things happening that my ancestors never had to deal with.