A Wisdom Archive on Animism

Some great links with more reading

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Animism - The belief that everything in the universe contains a living soul. The belief that every object is indwelt by a spirit.

Elemental Spirit - A spirit associated with one of the classical four elements (fire, earth, air and water).

See also Animism.

Animism - (1) Religious practices based on the belief that all living things and natural objects have their individual spiritual essence or "soul".
(2) The belief that every object found in nature, whether living or non-living, has a spirit or life-force attached to it which is endowed with the same fundamental reasoning and volition of men. In essence, all of nature is endowed with a pure life essence which holds all things in a symbiotic relationship and a spiritual balance within the universe. This is a core belief in many magical philosophies and practices.

Dionysos - Dionysos (Sanskrit). The Demiurgos, who, like Osiris, was killed by the Titans and dismembered into fourteen parts.

He was the personified Sun, or as the author of the Great Dionysiak Myth says "He is Phanes, the spirit of material visibility, Kyklops giant of the Universe, with one bright solar eye, the growth-power of the world, the all-pervading animism of things, son of Semele Dionysos was born at Nysa or Nissi, the name given by the Hebrews to Mount Sinai (Exodus xvii. 15), the birthplace of Osiris, which identifies both suspiciously with "Jehovah Nissi". (See Isis Unv. II. 165, 526.)

Animism - The belief that all things in the universe are inherently invested with a life force, soul, or mind. This belief is an important component of many primitive religions,

Animism - The belief that everything is alive. The Law of Personification taken as a statement of universal reality rather than as one of psychic convenience.

Animism - Belief that life is activated by spiritual force

Animism - The belief that inanimate things (such as plants) possess a soul or spirit. New Age advocates see animism as a way of rededicating the earth.

Animism - (Latin, anima

Animism - Animism The name given by anthropologists to the attribution of life or mind to inanimate objects, such as trees, mountains, rivers, or images. This belief of the ancients and of many existing peoples was a recognition of the universal sentience of nature.

Also the doctrine of Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) that the soul is the vital principle and responsible for organic functions in the body, and synonymous with Vitalism. This doctrine avoids the logical absurdity of making life at once the cause and the effect of the properties of matter; but it errs in making life something entirely distinct from matter, for such a separation reduces both to mere abstractions.