Thanks for helping Scientific Animism a clearer shape in the world Chad! This post brings together so many threads that jumble around my own head all the time.
One related theme that seems to be popping up a lot lately is what it would mean for the non-human world to gain standing in our legal systems, such as the legal hacks employed by Thomas Linzey:
For my own part, I've been grappling with the ways in which my own Jewish tradition is and is not compatible with an animistic reality. Certainly most of its modern forms do not give much space to listen to non-human voices, long before the Talmudic rabbis were deciding that only humans have immortal souls, my ancestors were gathering together to celebrate the wheat and barley harvest, and telling stories about how Moses wasn't able to enter the promised land because he struck a stone instead of talking to it. And contemporary movements that are trying to recover the ecological roots of Judaism, like Organic Torah and Wilderness Torah, give me a lot of hope. However, I remember hearing an indigenous scholar talk about how the fact that the Torah are stories that emerged from a pastoral people made it biased against predators in a far less ecologically minded way that the stories that emerge from hunter and gatherers, who are more dependent on all of creation staying in balance, rather than the flourishing of their own flock of goats and sheep.
Very much looking forward to seeing what kinds of rituals and practices emerge from the Scientific Animism community!
Thanks for these links. I've heard people mention the movement to grant legal personhood to animals, land, rivers, etc—there's even a whole subplot about it in The Overstory. It'll be good to learn more about the current state of affairs.
I had no idea Organic Torah and Wilderness Torah existed! Fascinating. I love thinking about potential conversations between existing faith traditions and Scientific Animism—such a generative space. Like the pastoral-vs-animist compatibility question! I hope I presented Scientific Animism in a way that makes it feel inviting, like ideas/potential-practices worth trying on, even for people like you who are deeply connected and content with their existing traditions.
What a grand project to be taking on. I have actually been thinking about animism a bit lately, and realising that I need to think about it more going forward. So this is good timing for me! Thank you. :)
Thanks for joining me here! I love hearing that you've already been thinking about animism. It reconfirms what I said in the "Why? Because it already exists" section: similar thoughts seem to occur to lots of people all at the same time.
I recently learned the concept of an egregore. From Wikipedia: an egregore is "an esoteric concept representing a non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people."
At first I used it here, describing Scientific Animism as "an egregore trying to introduce itself." But friends encouraged me to keep the language a little more approachable 🙃
Who the "distinct" group of people is, in this case, is an interesting question.
Thanks for helping Scientific Animism a clearer shape in the world Chad! This post brings together so many threads that jumble around my own head all the time.
One related theme that seems to be popping up a lot lately is what it would mean for the non-human world to gain standing in our legal systems, such as the legal hacks employed by Thomas Linzey:
https://www.bollier.org/blog/rights-nature-self-owning-land-and-other-hacks-western-law
Or the group of scholars who are probing the question of how to give political weight to non-human voices:
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/animals-in-the-room/
For my own part, I've been grappling with the ways in which my own Jewish tradition is and is not compatible with an animistic reality. Certainly most of its modern forms do not give much space to listen to non-human voices, long before the Talmudic rabbis were deciding that only humans have immortal souls, my ancestors were gathering together to celebrate the wheat and barley harvest, and telling stories about how Moses wasn't able to enter the promised land because he struck a stone instead of talking to it. And contemporary movements that are trying to recover the ecological roots of Judaism, like Organic Torah and Wilderness Torah, give me a lot of hope. However, I remember hearing an indigenous scholar talk about how the fact that the Torah are stories that emerged from a pastoral people made it biased against predators in a far less ecologically minded way that the stories that emerge from hunter and gatherers, who are more dependent on all of creation staying in balance, rather than the flourishing of their own flock of goats and sheep.
Very much looking forward to seeing what kinds of rituals and practices emerge from the Scientific Animism community!
So glad you enjoyed this post!
Thanks for these links. I've heard people mention the movement to grant legal personhood to animals, land, rivers, etc—there's even a whole subplot about it in The Overstory. It'll be good to learn more about the current state of affairs.
I had no idea Organic Torah and Wilderness Torah existed! Fascinating. I love thinking about potential conversations between existing faith traditions and Scientific Animism—such a generative space. Like the pastoral-vs-animist compatibility question! I hope I presented Scientific Animism in a way that makes it feel inviting, like ideas/potential-practices worth trying on, even for people like you who are deeply connected and content with their existing traditions.
What a grand project to be taking on. I have actually been thinking about animism a bit lately, and realising that I need to think about it more going forward. So this is good timing for me! Thank you. :)
Thanks for joining me here! I love hearing that you've already been thinking about animism. It reconfirms what I said in the "Why? Because it already exists" section: similar thoughts seem to occur to lots of people all at the same time.
I recently learned the concept of an egregore. From Wikipedia: an egregore is "an esoteric concept representing a non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people."
At first I used it here, describing Scientific Animism as "an egregore trying to introduce itself." But friends encouraged me to keep the language a little more approachable 🙃
Who the "distinct" group of people is, in this case, is an interesting question.