Animism with Gordon White

One is constantly surprised by the world and universe we find ourselves in. Every Ecosystem seems to overflow with life, be it forest, desert, tundra, even cities. The longer one sticks with Magic, the more it seems like the whole Universe is somehow alive. Yet despite things we can identify as certainly being alive, perhaps some of the denizens of the ecosystem we say clearly aren’t alive- actually are, including the ecosystem itself. This is Animism. In this Episode of WMiT?, Doug is joined by Gordon White of Rune Soup to hash out the ultimate epistemology of Magic. The world is haunted with Spirit and Life, time to see it that way.

Gordon is an author, Blogger, Permaculture Designer and Podcaster. I’ve mentioned his work in many episodes. Gordon has also released a whole book about Animism appropriately titled Ani.Mystic!

Show Notes (More than any other, please please Check these out)

• Ani.Mystic: Encounters with a Living Cosmos by Gordon White
• Gordon’s Blog Entries on Animism
• Let the System Complicate Itself – Rune Soup
• Staring Up at You From the Shewstone – Rune Soup – This article blew me away
• Dr. Jack Hunter – Dr. Hunter knows his Animism
• Greening the Paranormal: Exploring the Ecology of Extraordinary Experience by Dr. Jack Hunter – Perhaps the best beginner’s introduction to Animism and the strangeness that we all know and love. Must Read
• Alfred Irving Hallowell and the Ontological Turn
• More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews by Amba J. Sepie – Download the PDF and read. Fantastic
• “Animism” Revisited by Nurit Bird-David
• Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description by Dr. Tim Ingold – Clicking this link will download the Book. All the Essays within are amazing, but Rethinking the Animate, Reanimating Thought is recommended. Dr. Ingold is one of the greatest scholars talking about Animism today
• The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill by Tim Ingold
• Anthropology: Why It Matters by Dr. Tim Ingold – Highly recommended
• Dr. Tim Ingold at TEDx – Well worth a watch
• Animism and the Dead – Blog Post from Aidan Wachter
• Everything You Need to Know About Animism – Blog Post by Sarah Anne Lawless – Wayback Machine but unreal resources here. Sarah takes Animism very seriously. Such a treasure of a post
• An Animist Manifesto by Graham Harvey
• Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey
• The Handbook of Contemporary Animism Edited by Graham Harvey
• Reclaiming Animism by Isabelle Stengers
• We Have Never Been Modern by Bruno Latour
• Animism in Rainforest and Tundra
• The Relative Native: Essays on Indigenous Conceptual Worlds by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro – The Mind of de Castro is unlike any other. To understand Perspectivism this is Recommended
• How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human by Eduardo Kohn – Must Read! This book shattered me
• How Forests Think & How Magic Works – A Presentation by Eduardo Kohn
• Further Thoughts on Sylvan Thinking by Eduardo Kohn
• Eduardo Kohn’s Guide to Forest Thinking
• Animism in the Sciences Then and Now by Cornelius Borck
• Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Cthulucene by Donna Haraway – Highly Recommended
• Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs by Rane Willerslev – I love this book. Amazing
• Ordering-machine: sketchy maps? by Phil Hine – Interesting thoughts from Phil regarding Soul Hunters
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer – Such a Beautiful Book. Highly Recommended
• Thus Spoke the Plant by Monica Gagliano – Picked this up on Gordon’s recommendation, it floored me. Brilliant
• The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
• Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets
• Stephen Harrod Buhner Books
• Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing by Robert Wolff
• Letting in the Wild Edges by Glennie Kindred
• Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux
• The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind and the Self in Nature by Emma Restall Orr
• Finger Pointing at the Moon
• Tsuut’ina Nation – I grew up on Tsuut’ina country. A beautiful First Nation band
• The Final Passage: A Journey into Chauvet Cave – Just watch it. Put it on the largest Screen you can with the best speakers ya got. Magic