Recently, I took a months long course on Ancestral Psychology through the lens of Animism. While it didn't dive too deep into each of the topics we discussed in class, it was very eye opening nonetheless. It made me think about how our actions as a species, as individuals, affect each other, the ⬇️

I hunger for a world with clean water, clean air, and clean soil. I hunger for a world where the human species isn't so self-absorbed into itself and it's own wants and needs that it ends up destroying itself along with much of life on this planet. I wish that people would wake up from their ⬇️

This enrages me. In the 1800s white men slaughtered in a government sanctioned murder spree of millions of bison in an effort to dehumanize and control Native Americans. Today, Trump wants to repeat this. All for Cowboy Capitalism. My mate and I have sworn off beef for bison for our health.⬇️

Home on the Range No More: Trump Wants Bison Gone

nytimes.com

There is no pleasure for me watching a tube of metal cutting through the sky like a burning needle. Humanity glorifies it's accomplishments while the earth burns. Our air, water and soil are polluted. We've lost over 70% of our wildlife in 50 years. We plunder rare resources like they are ⬇️

We all came from Nature's womb. She taught us, fed us, encouraged us to walk with her. But soon we parted the path, believing we could find an easier way. Now our lives are a constant suffering. Nature keeps walking the path, however, and will not wait. We either catch back up to her, or perish.

I notice how the cryptids and the beasts feared by humanity. They are written into cautionary tales about virtue, safety and sin; made to be the evil within and things to be hunted down and killed in movies and novels. The thing I notice is how many humans see anything "unnatural" to them as ⬇️

A few nights ago, I had a dream. It was strong and I ended up having to wake up from it because of the intensity of it. I dreamed that a gathering occurred. It was off a major road, and the building was a rentable building. A bunch of us therians and nature minded humans had rented it for the day, ⬇️

Spring is slowly seeping in. The cold days are less, and the warm days are becoming more plentiful. But there is a wobbling, a mixture still of warm and cold. I take the warm days and the sunny days as an opportunity to walk, to be outside. Today was a decent day. The sun is out for a while, ⬇️

The word 'industry' has caught my attention lately. Learning about the history of industry, we are taught how the Industrial Age ushered in new technologies and advancements. We are shown the results but rarely the process unless it's edited, cropped and played with carefully chosen tracks of ⬇️

That moment between Winter and Spring, where the cold is still present in the air and on the ground, but the warmth of the sun caresses your cheek and kisses your skin, like a lover's promise that Spring will come again.

The world chokes on the fumes of humanity while we fight amongst ourselves. Humans will fight for our own freedoms, our own desires, our own health, our own greedy pursuits before we will fight for the Earth. We scream at the injustice of our own calamities while we bleed the planet dry. ⬇️

Drops of Blood We are many drops of blood; an amalgamation of our ancestors. More than just our parents or our grandparents. We are a wonderful structure bound together with every gasp of air ever taken, every drop of water sipped, every bite taken of flesh and plant. (1/4)

We were supposed to be her greatest act of love; the ones created to be the caretakers for all of her creations. Yet what have we evolved to become are just parasites, destined to consume until there is nothing left but each other. The sad reality is, she has eradicated children less deserving.(1/3)

Last night, the coyotes howled on the outskirts of the apartment complex. Hearing the family of coyotes rising their throats to the sky and singing despite their world shrinking under pavement, concrete and steel, I wondered what was in their song? Perhaps they are singing out of spite. (1/2)

The Seasons of My Life My life has revolved with the seasons. In my Youth, I was Spring. Emerging, blossoming, becoming vibrant and full of ideas, energy surging into my being like the sap rising during the warming of the weather. I was new, finding myself and my place in this world. (1/4)

This morning was a bit of art therapy. All things found nearby at the apartment complex I live at. Needed to feel my hands on earth. The cool air. A canvas and palette that nature provided for free.

In my life not quite five decades old, I have seen the world through the first three seasons of my life. My mind, after seeing the chaos the last few days, wandered to The Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan. I ask myself, what legacy are we making as a species? youtu.be/wupToqz1e2g?...

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

YouTube video by carlsagandotcom

youtu.be

Yesterday's adventure was helping our kiddo find some altar items. They have been exploring animism in their own way and have taken a fondness to deer. So, we went out and grabbed a few things like old, dried mushrooms, certain leaves, acorns, and willow bark fallen on the ground.

How is violence seen through my eyes? I used to believe I hated violence, but then I realized how violent of a person I am. I live in a home built with products from the earth. Wood, steel, and concrete. In the process of gathering these resources, animals suffered violence. Loss of habitat. (1/9)

The full moon will be here in a few days, and in my path to animism, one of the things I've decided to embrace is to burn away the past. Not just any past, but the old, toxic vestiges that choke me like a forest full of dead leaves and needles. (1/4)

Sometimes, we need to acknowledge the little things that are often overlooked. A small bee I saw on some goldenrod along a park trail. A tiny lambs quarter I rescued before the mowers could cut it again.

A snowflake is unique. One of an unmeasurable amount of snowflakes that fall in winter. And when the snow melts, its form is melted away, sent into the rivers and lakes and oceans. Eventually parts of it will be drawn to into the sky and settle again someday as another unique snowflake. (1/9)

What is Animism? For me, it is a connection to the Earth; an acknowledgment that I am intertwined with everything in Nature. I am no more or less special than the blade of grass nor the elephant. Life is in much of everything, even in death, for the dead feed the living. We are just recycled energy.

This account is dedicated to my exploration of Animism, as I seek to reconnect to what I have been apart from for over two decades. Not to say I haven't always been a part of Nature, but I followed life in such a way that I found myself lost in society.