Some of my clients and website visitors have noticed recent changes to my website offerings at Monarch Trancework.
One in particular that I’m being asked about is what I’ve called “Ancestral Animism”. I want to clarify what I mean by Ancestral Animism, and what it entails in terms of sessions with me through Monarch Trancework.
For me, Ancestral Animism is a distillation of several aspects of my own life, practice and experience.
It is a foundation for a practice of reconciliation, an internalization of the centre of spiritual practice and awakening, and a way to realize and manifest one’s own place in the cosmos.
Perhaps the place to start is with the term itself – “Ancestral Animism”; and I’ll take it in parts, beginning with Animism.
Many of the practices I utilize in working with clients arise out of Michael Harner’s “Core Shamanism”, so before I begin, some thoughts about “shamanism”.
“Shamanism”
Having been involved with the ongoing practice of reconciliation, cultural safety, and trauma informed practice; and because I have some very good friends that are kind enough to challenge me and my thinking (particularly as I have grown up a white male), I acknowledge that “shamanism” as it is commonly used in both anthropology and common culture is an inaccurate and culturally appropriative term. The origin of the word “shaman” is derived from a very specific type of practitioner of animist spirituality amongst the Tungus people of Siberia.
For me, it feels inappropriate to use a term that refers to a specific animist spirituality rooted in a culture which is not mine. The practices of Harner’s “Core Shamanism” are also not solely based on Tungus practices, so perhaps something like “Core Animism” would have been more accurate; but the term “shamanism” had already become operative in anthropology at the time of Harner’s work, and the awareness of the harm caused by cultural appropriation was not yet fully and openly acknowledged by the predominantly white male scholarship.
Animism
So what then, is animism? The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article on animism actually does a pretty good job to get us started…
Animism (from Latin: anima, 'breath, spirit, life')[1][2] is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence.[3][4][5][6] Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples,[7] especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organised religions.[8]
In my work at Monarch Trancework, as well as in my work as a Spiritual Health Practitioner at Victoria Hospice; even and perhaps especially while I was Abbot of Zenwest Buddhist Society, more and more of my conversations with people about their spiritual and religious beliefs seem to me to indicate a re-awakening of animist belief and practice on a large scale.
Perhaps it is the very power of nature itself here on Vancouver Island, perhaps it is the presence and proximity of spiritually vibrant First Nations here – although it seems to be a global phenomenon - I don’t know; but for a person to absolutely accept and readily talk about trees, mountains, rivers, stones, animals, fire, storms, insects, deceased ancestors and unborn descendants as living beings endowed with spirit, presence, and reality - that a person might engage with in meaningful and reciprocal relationships - is a frequent and common experience in my work.
I would even go so far as to say that the majority of people that I engage with in conversations about spirituality include at least some animist belief in their world view.
So, one might say that animist belief is the view that all “things” in our sphere of experience are actually beings with whom we have relationships.
Animist practice then, is the intentional and purposeful investigation and cultivation of healthy, meaningful, and reciprocal relationship with the beings we are engaged with in our lives.
Practices that can be used to investigate and cultivate relationship might include things like meditation, guided and/or sonic journeywork, making offerings, trancework, ceremony and ritual, study, and working with plant or other medicines.
A key aspect of animism that is important to understand and acknowledge is that the centre of authority in a person’s animist spirituality is located within the individual person themselves.
Animist practice is concerned with one’s relationship with the world and with the beings in one’s sphere of experience. Just as nobody can tell you how to be a partner to your partner, or a friend to your friend – because they are outside of you and that relationship – nobody can tell you how to harmoniously manage your relationship with the foods you are eating, or the land you live on, or your ancestral spirits.
It’s up to each individual to cultivate the capacity, tools, and skills to listen, see, and communicate; and to use these to build healthy relationships. An animist practitioner might refer to an elder for advice on how others have done it in the past, and even try that advice for themselves (which may or may not prove to be effective); but the responsibility for one’s spiritual relationships and development is entirely one’s own.
The reason I mention this is that this is one of the key reasons that organized religious and political institutions historically have so universally belittled and made every effort to stamp out animist spirituality; calling it everything from primitive to superstitious to downright evil. External spiritual authority is anathema to animism.
It is important to realize that any person raised in colonial western culture is absolutely steeped in a societal belief of the intellectual and spiritual inferiority of animism; and it is critical to understand that only direct personal experience can hope to undermine that foundation.
The good news is that for many, animism is quite natural. Many people I speak to have childhood memories of speaking to trees, or faeries, or toys; and when they share about these early animist relationship experiences there is almost always a sparkle in their eyes and a joy in their voices that touches into the magic of belonging to the fabric of existence – of being a part of a family that includes non-human beings.
If we grow up in a materialist culture, very quickly we are taught to “other” these beings, to object-ify (turning beings we relate to into objects we manipulate for our benefit), and that our relationships with these beings “aren’t real”… and even so… we continue, often at a subconscious level to acknowledge the beingness of the so-called “objects” we are in relationship with – we name our cars, talk to our plants, reprimand the corners we walk into etc.
Our tools and innate capacities to make relationship with non-human beings have often atrophied through lack of use (perhaps like social graces during COVID), but these capacities are in-born, and we can develop them simply by using them to engage with the beings who have been around us for our entire lives – who have been offering relationship all along.
Ancestral
I’d like to turn now to addressing the ancestral part of Ancestral Animism.
Before I begin, I want to state that my own ancestry is of white European descent. My family lines arise from Ireland, Germany, Norway, Scotland, and France. Much of what I will say in reference to myself comes from this history and perspective.
Personal family ancestry is something that I’ve been interested in for more than a decade, and until recently I could never really explain why. I always found the response of many friends and most family members to be profoundly negative. They would say that my interest was a total waste of time, that it amounts to being obsessed with the past, when I ought to be looking into the future.
Over the past two years, as I began to explore conversations around reconciliation I noticed that in many traditional cultures, conversations often begin with an introduction; an introduction not only of who you are, but who your people are and where you and they come from.
What started to strike me is that for many people like me, which is to say white, colonial European descended people; we just don’t know. At best, we might be able to name the country that our ancestors came from – Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Ukraine etc. – but which part, or what my people did there – or even why they left that place? No idea.
In conversations around reconciliation, and on several occasions, I have heard a statement to the effect that the first step in reconciliation is coming to know one’s own roots. This sounds like a simple thing – but really it isn’t; and as I began to explore my own roots, I began to discover a spectrum of reasons why uncovering ancestral roots can be so difficult.
A very common reason is trauma. For many families and individuals the act of leaving a homeland in itself is traumatic, and adding to this is often a motivation strong enough to push or drag an individual or family to leave a place where they have been for hundreds or thousands of years. Famine, war, slavery, poverty, industrialization, racism, religious discrimination and disease are some of the more common ones.
People who survive trauma are naturally disinclined to talk about traumatic events. Lacking safe and appropriate means of processing trauma, we are often forced to try to put it behind us or “leave it in the old country”. I’ve spoken to many children of immigrants who were always told “forget about that, we are Canadian now”.
There are a number of reasons that this can be problematic.
The first is that trauma which is not processed is trauma that is carried forward through generations. Habits and behaviours that are borne out of traumatic experiences are easily passed on to future generations.
The second is that this barrier of silence not only avoids the trauma experience, but obstructs all of the family history before the experience; which is to say all of the family’s roots.
A third problem is that people who are escaping or trying to cope with trauma can behave in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t even imagine – causing harm and trauma for others. Having done so out of a survival drive may generate a significant amount of shame, which even when hidden is transferred to a person’s descendants.
Facing this first barrier, and stepping into reclaiming ancestry can be truly frightening. We may begin to learn about the traumas that our ancestors experienced, and even about actions taken and trauma caused by a grandparent, great-grandparent, or ancestor that we knew and adored that are shocking or even deeply disturbing. Embracing our roots is a commitment to look at all of this material, to engage with it, and work to digest, heal, and release it.
Beyond the first barrier, if one wishes to continue towards ancestral roots, things do not get any easier. As an example, if you are exploring European ancestry, to go beyond relatively modern history, you are confronted with the reality of cultural and spiritual genocide.
Recently, an acquaintance of mine was commenting on his own experience of exploring his ancestry and commented that he felt his ancestors were boring because they are all Scottish Christians. In many conversations I have with colonial European descended folks, this sentiment is something I hear frequently, and I have to say that it breaks my heart every time. It breaks my heart because this comment is the fruit of successful cultural genocide.
Christianity came to Scotland in about 500 CE, to Scandinavia in about 1,000 CE, and to what is now known as Germany between 400-700 CE. So, to speak and conceive of only Christian Europe, is to limit our scope of ancestral roots to a period of about 1,500 years.
By contrast, the Callanish stone circle in Scotland is said to have been erected in 2,900 BCE, nearly 5,000 years ago. The medicine woman who was found in Bad Dürrenberg, Germany is said to be 8,500-9,000 years old. Cultures in Scandinavia are recorded as far back as 7,500 BCE, just after the end of the last ice-age.
It very quickly becomes clear in exploring European ancestry that it is difficult for many to even conceive of ancestry or culture that predates Christianity. It’s as if there is a line beyond which there is a vacuum; and that line is a multi-generational cultural genocide that took place sometimes violently, sometimes politically, often religiously, and usually economically. The results however are unmistakeable. The culture and spiritual life that existed before this time was villainized, scapegoated, diminished, ridiculed, and finally extinguished to a degree that it literally falls out of mind.
Further, traditional ways of knowing – oral tradition, ritual, storytelling, animist practice, journeywork, plant medicine work, and communication with spirits (ancestral, nature, or otherwise) were swept away by the written word. Individual spirituality (animism) was subdued and replaced by the organizational religions of the Church and State.
For me personally, coming to terms with this truth has been incredibly painful, because within it I’ve come to understand that the genocide that has been committed in North America by my own European ancestors is a continuation of the same genocide that was committed against my earlier ancestors. It is a millennia old case of victims becoming abusers.
This realization has also profoundly and vastly increased my appreciation and respect for the many diverse and vibrant First Nations cultures in North America, who have resisted and continue to resist the efforts at genocide that persist to this day.
There is so much to be learned from making relationship with local First Nation people, and with the land that they have been in relationship with since time out of mind, which I am blessed to live on. I say this last with much discomfort, because I recognize I was born onto stolen land, and is therefore a blessing that has been a curse for others. Accepting this, I commit to the work of stewardship, healing, and reconciliation with this land and with this people – and to the recognition that this work begins with the practice of stewardship, healing, and reconciliation with my own roots and my own ancestors, through Ancestral Animism.
Ancestral Animism
Ancestral Animism at Monarch Trancework entails practical research and study into the historical, geographical, cultural, and spiritual roots, practices, and customs of one’s own family lineages. By cultivating skills, tools, and capacity through meditation, guided and/or sonic journeywork, making offerings, trancework, ceremony and ritual, study, and working with plant or other medicines practitioners begin building reciprocal relationships with the human and non-human beings in one’s experiential sphere, including ancestral and supportive spirit beings.
Ancestral Animism is necessarily unique to each practitioner, even when two people have the same ancestral roots; in the same way that two siblings can share a common friend but have entirely contrasting relationships with that friend.
My role is simply to act as an experienced guide and support for you as your journey into Ancestral Animism unfolds.