The Path(s) Ahead

This is the final chapter in my current WIP, “21st Century Animism: The Intersections of Science, Storytelling, and the Environment”. I wanted to publish it here as both a teaser, and an broad outline of much of the work that will appear on this blog. As is sometimes said, you find your next book while writing the current one…

Where do we even begin with wrapping up a project such as this one? In some way, we don’t. The work of animism is enough to keep one busy for a lifetime, maybe even for the lifetimes of many generations. Because the truth is that we have a lot of work to do. That work will require all types, artists and animists, scientists and engineers, indigenous elders and storytellers. We need everyone, because that is the how big the work is ahead.  

The world is facing a climate crisis that could be existential for us in scope and scale. I firmly believe we have the capacity to make it through, though we certainly face the prospect of stormy seas no matter which course we set. In addition, there is no guarantee of success, and we, as humanity, may well end up going down with the ship. That future isn’t written just yet, and I think we still have the chance to write a new story for ourselves. 

While it is pretty certain that our climate is changing, we still have some say in how that future shapes out. If we manage, as the IPCC recommends, to keep warming below two degrees (ideally 1.5 degrees) Celsius, our future looks a lot better than say, eight degrees. Eight degrees would in all likelihood, be the end of our civilization and maybe humanity as a species. Surely, life on Earth would move on without us, but I also think there is a whole multiple of futures between two and eight degrees. Personally, I like the ones that include us. 

That’s where the capital ‘W’ Work really lies in my opinion. The work of building a better, more sustainable world for ourselves and for all life. A world where we meet human needs without destroying the planet in the process. For that, I think we have some, maybe even many, of the tools we need. Science is a wonderful tool for guiding our actions towards a better world, but it is not the whole in and of itself. We can answer many questions scientifically, but we cannot answer them all. 

Philosophy, religion and spirituality help to fill in many of the answers that science cannot provide. Questions of values and morality, of living ‘the good life’. Animism for me helps to answer these questions, and so too, I think it has a place in the work to come. A spirituality that grounds us deeply in the natural world, that values life and biodiversity, that is informed by science, and that asked what is a good life? Not just for ourselves of course, but for every living being on this planet. What is, in short, a good life for the whole of a living planet that we all call home?

Fundamentally, what we need is a change in worldview, and a change in the story for the sake of our present, but also for our past and future. As Einstein said once, our problems will not be solved by the same methods we used to create them. We need to look at our future through a different lens, and we need a new story. I think some form of scientific, nature based animism will do a lot of good in at least helping us see the outlines of this new story. It won’t be the work of one person, one community, or even one nation. It will be a grand story for humanity and the Earth, and honestly, I can’t tell you what the final story will look like. It will always be a work in progress.

That all said, I think there are some great thinkers and writers out there that may act as signposts. We know a lot about our planet, and a fair bit about what to do about our changing climate. With that in mind, I’ll close this work with the ideas from minds beyond my own, as lights to points the way in the stormy seas that lies ahead.

A Sustainable, Animistic Civilization              

“Our project of civilization must become a way for the planet to think, to decide, and to guide its own future. Thus, we must become the agent by which the Earth wakes up to itself….“  

“Sustainable civilizations don’t “rise above” the biosphere, but must, in some way, enter into a long, cooperative relationship with their coupled planetary systems. But what does that look like?”– Adam Frank in The Light of the Stars  

All throughout this book, I have done my best to weave together the threads of ecology and society. That’s one key take away from thinking animistically, that we are part of nature, a part of the planet. So to is all the works we like to call civilization. We are becoming a planet-wide civilization, and as the climate crisis is making very clear, you can’t do that kind of work without having an impact. The climate crisis is all of our impacts coming home to roost. As such we need to change that relationship, to be healthier for other humans as well as all life on Earth. 

Adam Frank raises a pointed question here which could fill volumes, what does a long term cooperative, and truly sustainable relationship with our planet look like? That is a question that I have only touched on throughout this work, and beyond a doubt there is a lot more to be said. Unfortunately, that will likely have to wait for another volume. There is always more work to do, and it is important we keep seeking.   

“I am grateful for the new animism, because it counts for something. Its importance cannot be overstated. It is a beginning, even without the history and aboriginal connection to this land. It says the human is searching and with a need to be in touch with this land, or other lands of origins in a time when the world is so achingly distressed.” – Linda Hogan “We call it tradition”

As white Westerners, myself included, we have a lot of baggage. Like even the history of animism as a concept, our history is fraught with the vestiges of of colonial and imperial past, and these threads still continue throughout our present. In many ways, reclaiming ‘animism’ means confronting our past as colonizers here in North America. As Hogan rightly points out, as Westerner’s we don’t have a long history or aboriginal connection to the lands many of us now call home. 

The work animism asks us to do will span generations, though it is still important that we start it now. To even have a chance in the generations to come that work must begin. We must start and continue seeking and searching for the answers. To continue to build and shape the ways of knowing that will help us return to a measure of balance and harmony with our planet and each other. The world is distressed, and it counts greatly that we are searching for ways to heal. 

I am not Native to the state of Michigan, but I seek to be in touch in the land I call home, as well as the ways of my ancestors. We are at the beginning of a new path, of a new era in the history. But unless we are naive, there is no guarantee that such an era is a time of promise and plenty. It could be bad, real bad, even extinction level event for our species bad. There is a lot of learning still to do, and plenty of unlearning. We can look to the wisdom of our own ancestors, and maybe even the wisdom of the peoples Native to this continent. And maybe, just maybe, we can find a new, truly sustainable path forward for ourselves and the planet. That is a long road for sure. Unfortunately, our window for action is also on a very tight time limit with the unfolding climate crisis.           

A ‘Naturalized’ Animism

“What happens when we truly become native to a place, when we finally make a home? Where are the stories that lead the way? If time does in fact eddy back on itself, maybe the journey of the First Man will provide footsteps to guide the journey of the Second” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, in Braiding Sweetgrass

Ecology is sometimes referred to as the “study of home”, of our planet and all the relationships upon it. That’s the relationships between ourselves, the plants, the animals, and the entirety of the planet we call Earth. We are a part of nature, not above or beyond it. I think a fusion of animism and science can lead the way towards bringing ourselves back into greater balance. 

As I have already mentioned, and as Kimmerer mentions, perhaps indigenous knowledge (First People) can lead the way. Maybe they can help us (Second People, white Westerners) find our way home. This is evident in a lot of ways. Right now, the West coast of the US is struggling with unprecedented wild fires, driven by the climate crisis. Indigenous people of the area have had long traditional practices of living with and managing wild fire. The US Forest Service as well as others has had a history of decades of trying to prevent fires, of forestry mismanagement that has resulted in the accumulation of flammable solids. There are beyond a doubt lessons to be learned there. But to learn those lessons, we need to unlearn many of things we think we know. We are the newcomers to this continent, but if we trace our own lineages back far enough, we find we are all ‘indigenous’ to somewhere. There are stories there that may help us as well, and wisdom we may have forgotten. At the same time, the past is the past. Some of those lessons and stories no longer apply, and so we likely need new stories as well. 

Kimmerer illustrates this tension well throughout her book Braiding Sweetgrass, and prominently in the examples of Plantain and Kudzu. The first of these is a naturalized plant, an immigrant that has found a place is North America. Plantain has found a place to call ‘home’ in this ecosystem in a way that does not cause undo harm to others. Like those of us that are also descendants from immigrants. 

“Plantain is so prevalent, so well integrated, we think of it as native. It has earned the name bestowed by botanists for plants that have become our own. Plantain is not indigenous, but “naturalized”… – Kimmerer

Kudzu is the opposite. An invasive plant that spreads rapidly and quickly dominates all other plants it comes across. Remind you of anything? Maybe a world built around an economic system that seeks growth at all costs? My own state of Michigan throughout the 19^th century was logged out so extensively that almost all our forests were stripped bare. The trees that weren’t logged caught fire due to extensive environmental destruction, and this land was left nearly barren. That is in no small way how kudzu operates, and it cannot be the path we follow in the future.         

There are many place we have to learn lessons from, no less the other persons around us. The plants and animals, rocks and rivers, and the land beneath our feet. Through science and spirituality, we can create and shape new relationships, and shape new stories to guide future generations. This work has already begun in a lot of places, and will continue to be important. Animism, ecology, and science more generally are ways of knowing. It is no coincidence that Väinämöinen, the hero of Finnish Folklore is sometimes referred to as a tietäjä, “one who knows”. Curiously, ‘scientist’ has a very similar meaning, one who knows, or seeks, knowledge.

Here I will give Kimmerer the last word, as she helps to show us the way towards a long term cooperative relationship with the land, nature, and the planet.   

Maybe the task assigned to Second Man is to unlearn the model of kudzu, and follow the teachings of White Man’s Footstep (plantain), to strive to become naturalized to place, to throw off the mind-set of the immigrant. Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land the feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children’s future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer.

The Anishinaabe Seventh Fire Prophecy

“In the time of the Seventh Fire New People will emerge. They will retrace their steps to find what was left by the trail. Their steps will take them to the Elders who they will ask to guide them on their journey. But many of the Elders will have fallen asleep. They will awaken to this new time with nothing to offer. Some of the Elders will be silent because no one will ask anything of them. The New People will have to be careful in how they approach the Elders. The task of the New People will not be easy.

If the New People will remain strong in their quest the Water Drum of the Midewiwin Lodge will again sound its voice. There will be a rebirth of the Anishinabe Nation and a rekindling of old flames. The Sacred Fire will again be lit.

It is this time that the light skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. One road will be green and lush, and very inviting. The other road will be black and charred, and walking it will cut their feet. In the prophecy, the people decide to take neither road, but instead to turn back, to remember and reclaim the wisdom of those who came before them. If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final Fire, an eternal fire of peace, love, brotherhood and sisterhood. If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth’s people” – From Wikipedia, from The Mishomis Book, by Edward Benton-Banai

I felt it necessary to quote this last of the Anishinaabe prophecies in full, because it is very important for the full context. All throughout this work I have talked about the choices we face, and the obstacles that await us in the present, and in the future. Not just as a human species, but also the very existential challenges of all the life on this planet as we stare down the barrel of the climate crisis. In this prophecy, there are choices ahead not only for indigenous people, but for us white westerners as well. 

We are facing the choice between two roads. One that is green and lush. That is the road of a truly sustainable civilization in my opinion. It is the road that has us tackle collectively the climate crisis, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of all the people in the widest animistic sense. There are lots of work along that path, and certainly we might not get it all right. We will undoubtedly make mistakes, missteps, and poor decisions. We may well delay too long, and that could be catastrophic. We will likely get some things right as well. This path will require a radical rethink of everything about our civilization, from politics to economics, to the way we live and work our lives. 

There is a lot of knowledge from science to inform us along this path. A lot of wisdom from animistic living as well. There is much both ecology and spirituality can teach us about living in balance and harmony with all the relatives, the plants, animals and others, all around us. 

Yet, I think it is also fair to say that in all likelihood we currently walk the black and charred path, and I can only hope we have the time and willpower to find some kind of off ramp. I still think there is a chance, a small and dwindling one, but still a chance we can find our onto the green path. According to the IPCC and a growing body of science around the climate crisis, we still have a quickly closing window to act. But to do that, we have to quickly end our use and dependence on fossil fuels. The black path is paved with oil, and that is the path we must abandon. Our burning of fossil fuels is the chief component of our greenhouse gas emission, both methane and carbon. That is the current path we walk, but we have the agency to change. Whether we will or not, that remains to be seen. As Adam Frank puts so well;  

“As children of the Earth, we are also children of the stars…. 

We can make the Anthropocene into a new era for both our civilization and the Earth. In the end, our story is not yet written. We stand at a crossroads, under the light of the stars, ready to join them or ready to fail. The choice will be our own.” Adam Frank – Light of the Stars

I for one believe that our species has a lot of potential moving into the future, but at the same time that future is not yet written. As Carl Sagan once said, we are an ‘adolescent’ species, we still have a lot to learn as we mature. We haven’t figured everything out just yet, even though like so many teenagers, we might think we already know everything. But there is still a long way to go, a lot of growing up still to go. For ourselves and for our civilization. 

It is my hope, with some form of hybrid between science and animism, we might find our way into maturity. We can navigate the stormy waters ahead, and create a world that lives in balance with both civilization and nature. As animism teaches us, we are part of nature, and that a long term truly sustainable civilization includes us. 

This work began with our origins in the fusion forges of the stars, and it only fitting that we have come around full circle. We now live in a time where we are starting to reach back out towards those stars, back towards the celestial beings that created all that we know. To do that, and to find our way along the green path, we will need both wisdom and knowledge. That wisdom and knowledge lies at the intersection of science, spirituality, and the environment.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

The Findians

Hello again folks,

Recently, I was down the internet rabbit hole, and I came across something that I think would be interesting for the readers of this blog. As I am a citizen of Michigan, I spend a lot of time reading about the history of this land and state. This inevitably means I spend time reading about Native Americans of this region, and the history of European colonization of the area.

Which of course brought me across the topic of today’s post; The Finidians.

First, it is important to start out with the caveat that the history behind what I am going to talk about today is well beyond that of any single blog post. The Native American (Ojibwe, Anishinaabe, Algonquin and others) is more than enough for a series on it’s own. As usual, I am providing several links at the bottom of this post for those that want to explore more.

With that said, let’s start with the Ojibwe, a people Native to the Great Lakes region. The map below is from Wikipedia; Ojibwe Territory, before European contact, encompassing Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Midwest, and Canada.

The Ojibwe are an indigenous people to the area, and obviously were here well before European settlers arrived. Just as the briefest introduction, here I brief selection from Wikipedia on the Ojibwe;

“The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family. They are part of the Council of Three Fires (which also include the Odawa and Potawatomi) and of the larger Anishinaabeg, which also include Algonquin, Nipissing, and Oji-Cree people. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were a part of the Iron Confederacy with the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis. The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, as well as their harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup.” (Wikipedia, Ojibwe)

Now, after Europeans started to land on the continent, fight their wars, and eventually form the US government *hand waving over a buttload of contact history*; in the 19th and early 20th century another group of immigrant found their way across the ocean and settled in the same areas. The Finns. The map below is from Wikipedia as well, and these people settled in many of the areas of the colonized Ojibwe.

“Between 1860 and 1924 some 370,000 people left Finland for North America to seek a better life. The main reasons to emigrate were unemployment, social problems and the period of ‘Russification’ before Independence–but a desire for adventure was also a factor. In America Finns worked in the forests and the mines. While out in the woods and at trade union meetings they met Native Americans and even married some of them. The majority of marriages were with members of the Ojibwa tribe, the largest in the region. Finns tended to have less knowledge about their new home country–and therefore also fewer prejudices about the people native to the land than immigrants from other European countries.” (The Findians)

And to the surprise of none of you following along, the Findians came into being. It also turns out, that the Native Ojibwe and the Finns shared something in common; a deep love of the forests.

“There are many reasons for the common understanding forged by Finns and Native Americans, but above all they were united by their intimate relationship with the forest. Just like the Ojibwa Finns hunted, fished and foraged. The locals also valued Finns’ handiwork skills: the ability to build a boat or carve skis. Finns learned how to cultivate maize and use medicinal herbs, among other things. In return they lent their expertise in building log cabins and weaving shoes out of birch bark.” (The Findians).

As sometimes happens when two cultures meet and find common ground, a syncretism resulted that bonded the two people, in marriage and in culture. They shared knowledge and stories, and formed a unique community of people. I realize that is painting with a broad brush, and does gloss over some rather darker truths of colonization and indigenous cultural genocide, Again, that’s way out of the scope of this short post.

But this particular Findian rabbit hole does come at an interesting time for me. There are more thoughts coming; on multiculturism, and syncretism that is part of the American experience, and also part of my own. There is something that speaks to me here, as a Michigander of Nordic/Finnish desecent. (A long long time ago, but still.) There is a common experience of a settler on colonized indigenous land, and maybe the glimmer of finding a better future. But those are all thoughts for another post.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Sources/References;

The Findians. (Check out this site for amazing pictures and more context. https://web.archive.org/web/20210911100325/https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/findians__the_story_of_finns_distant_cousins/9087943

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Americans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwe

Space Engineers – Ship Design

Hello again folks,

After this post this blog will be on hiatus the next few months while I work on longer manuscripts. I have a new novel and a work in progress I want to spend time on, and it’s just easier without having to blog in the the interim. Winter is the best time for such longer work, and a good time to meditate and reflect on the year gone by.

With that in mind, I wanted to leave you all with another ‘just for fun’ post after all the seriousness of politics and spiritual philosophy. As I’ve talked on the blog before, I’m a big fan of the game called Space Engineers. I really enjoy building, exploration and creative games, and being able to build starships just brings me a lot of joy in life. As such, I want to show all some of how I design and classify ships in Space Engineers.

The Basics – The Ship Design Trifecta

Every ship, in real life, and especially in Space Engineers is a compromise, a trade-off between various aspects that shape the ship to its intended mission. The major trade-offs are armor, firepower, and mobility. These three points make up the design trifecta, sometimes called the Iron Triangle.

Mobility – Mobility is the turning agility and acceleration of a ship. Engines, fuel tanks and gyroscopes take up space, and take up most of the interior space of a given ship. In line with power-to-mass ratios, mobility decreases with increased mass (without adding more engines etc, which also add mass). As such, ships designed for high mobility often sacrifice heavier armor and weaponry.

Armor – Armor is the basic protection of the ship, as well the major component for hull structure and durability. However, it adds mass to the ship, and heavier armors obviously add more mass than lighter armors. Adding mass limits mobility, and so heavily armored ships tend to be less mobile.

Firepower – All the dakka on the ship; turrets, artillery, rail guns, missiles and so on. Firepower tends to add a fair bit of mass, but also takes up a fair bit of space inside (ammo, conveyers, magazines..) and on the outside of the hull. In order to add more bada-boom to any ship, you will often lose some mobility and armor as a result.

I classify my ships primarily in the game by mass and block count. More blocks (guns, armor, engines) generally adds more mass, so larger ships simply mass more. There is some variability of course, as some blocks (such as heavier armor) mass more than lighter armors or interior components. Still, the general rule holds, more blocks = more mass. The other consideration is in-game PCU limits, and the abilities of my admittedly aging gaming PC. I don’t want to cook the poor machine after all, so I probably build smaller than players with higher-end rigs.

With all that in mind, the last note is the game Stellaris. I love Stellaris, and I take inspiration from that game when it comes to ship design. The short version for my purposes is that every ship class in Stellaris is twice the size of the ship class before, starting with corvettes. I use that system for my SE ships. A corvette is a size ‘1’ ship. A destroyer is twice the size, a size ‘2’ ship, and thus double the mass/blocks of a corvette. A cruiser is double the size of destroyer, and so on. Of course, industrial ships don’t always fit this scheme so I’ll talk about those last. Let’s jump into it!

Corvettes and Frigates (Mass: 500,000 – 750,000 kilograms. Blocks: 500 – 750 approx)

Kuutar Class Corvette

Zisune Class Frigate

Corvettes and frigates are the smallest classes of warships I design in Space Engineers. Corvettes are the smaller of the two, with frigates basically being ‘heavy corvettes/light destroyers’. These ships are designed for short range escort and scouting missions. As such, they are usually fleet or station based, and heavily select for mobility above all else. They sacrifice armor and firepower for agility, making them great ships for exploration, raiding and piracy… I mean fighting pirates. Totally legitimate salvage operations….

Destroyers (Mass: 1 million kilograms. Blocks: 1000 approx.)

Etsija Class Destroyer

Destroyers are the gunboats of Space Engineers. They are bigger than corvettes and frigates, and designed to bring extra guns to the gun fight. At the expense of armor and some mobility, these ships select for firepower. As short-medium range ships, they operate best as fleet support or station based operations. They are mobile enough to hunt corvettes, as well as powerful enough to bring the fight to larger ships in limited engagements.

Cruisers (Mass: 2 million kilograms. Blocks: 2000 approx.)

Risteil Class Cruiser

Cruisers tend to be the workhorses of my fleets. They bring a good balance of armor, firepower, and mobility to any operation. In addition, these tend to be the ships I loadout with jump drives for medium to long range tasks. Cruisers gotta cruise. These ships are large enough to operate solo for exploration and patrol, as well as bring smaller support craft along for the ride as group leaders. The balanced nature of these ships makes them a good choice for many different tasks.

Battleships/Battlecruisers (Mass: 4 million kilograms. Blocks: 4000 approx.)

Tuho Class Battleship

Battleships are the largest warships I build in Space Engineers. Their entire purpose is to bring pain to the unlucky sods of the opposing force. Due to their immense size, mobility is out the window and these ships select for maximum armor and firepower. Like cruisers these ships are usually jump capable, but due to their large size and low mobility are best found leading battlegroups that can screen them from smaller, more agile craft. With numerous forward facing railguns and artillery, these ships also excel at breaking bases and fortified stations.

Battlecruisers differ from battleships slightly in that they tend sacrifice some armor for greater mobility while still bringing the same amount of firepower. ‘Fast battleships’ is an apt name for a battlecruiser. These can have thinner hulls, lighter armor, and even make up some the mass in extra engines and gyroscopes for added mobility.

Industrial Ships (Mass and block counts vary.)

I just wanted to note that the above classes are more for warships than for many of the other types I build. For industrial ships, those for welding, grinding or mining, the scheme I’ve outlined here doesn’t really apply. Warships are built around combat, and often have extra armor, redundant systems, extra bulkheads, and avoid empty space (like docks and hangars) where possible. These are critical weak spots in combat. These kinds of guidelines aren’t followed in my work ships, which are set up for different and more varied tasks than warships. So here is a just a few examples of those kinds of ships, and a brief discussion of what makes them different.

Arbeider Class Industrial Frigate

The Arbeider is built on the corvette and frigate designs above, but with slightly lighter armor and less weapons, and more capacity for salvaging, mining and transport. Like with most industrial ships, it tends to be very durable, and honestly this one works alright in corvette and frigate roles. It’s more tailored for short range mining though.

Telakka/Tyolainen ‘Cruisers’/Mobile Bases

These ships are by far the largest in my fleet currently, coming in at around five million kilograms. They mostly serve the role of mobile bases and shipyards. However, it would be a mistake to call them battleships in any meaningful sense. They are fairly well armored and durable in order to withstand the rigors of space industry as well as the occasional ship-to-ship impact *coughs* ahem… They are only defensively armed however, and would not stand up in any kind of prolonged fight. They have jump drives and are meant for deep space mining and construction. Both these ships have refineries, assemblers, as well as open hangars for small ship maintenance. The Telakka in particular is meant to service and maintain a single Arbeider slung underneath in the shipyard area, as you can see above.

I hope you enjoyed me geeking out a bit and showcasing my ships.

As always, thanks for reading! Wish me luck on my hiatus with these bigger projects!

Michigan Politics & Animism – Democracy

Hello again folks,

I am into the part of year where I start focusing on longer projects and this blog goes on a temporary hiatus. There are about three more blogs in the works, and I’m a little bit behind posting this one. There is this post, one coming on the nature of spirits from my perspective, and then a ‘just for fun’ post about Space Engineers, because we will end off on a silly note.

While the bulk of this post was written before the election, it is now being published after the US midterms that took place on November 8th. While this country continues all the failures of a two party system, there were some needed victories in the mix. Michigan passed all three ballot proposals that I talked about in my last post, as well as having a Democratic trifecta at the state level for the first time in about 40 years. That’s a big deal, and I’ll talk about that more later in this piece.

Let’s jump into it today. I have to admit, I struggled a lot with how to really kick this series off. What issues and policy would I talk about? Because the truth of the matter is, a lot of this stuff is intersectional in that many policies have impacts on others. They don’t live alone on separate islands in isolation, they impact one another in real (and sometimes unintended) ways.

As I mentioned in my last post, let’s just get the basics out of the way. I support democracy, I support the idea of governments by the people, for the people. Not dictatorships, not monarchies, not oligarchies… So let’s get basic definitions out of the way. The US is described as both a republic and a democracy; so let’s define those curtesy of Merriam-Webster;

Definition of republic
1a(1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president
(2): a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
b(1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
(2): a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government

Definition of democracy
1a: government by the people
especially : rule of the majority
b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2: a political unit that has a democratic government

There is also a great discussion under “republic” on Merriam-Webster on whether the US is a republic or a democracy. I agree with the ‘both’ definition. We are a republic because our chief executive is not a monarch, and specifically, a president. We are also a government where power resides in the people, and we elect people to represent our interests. This is also the B definition of a democracy, as we elect representatives directly or indirectly. I’ll get more into this in a moment, but I think it is best to refer to the United States as a constitutional republic (the shape of said republic is outlined by a constitiution) AND a representative democracy. (we elect representatives via elections.)

Now, there is a great deal of nuance within both of these concepts and I’d like to explore that more in two specific contexts, the US Federal government compared to the state of Michigan.

Michigan and US Federal Government Comparison

Democracy exists on a kind of spectrum. On one side, there is representative democracy. This should be self evident – in that this is a democratic system in which representatives are elected by the people to make decisions on their behalf. On the other side is various forms of direct democracy, in which the people directly deliberate and vote on decisions and policy. In between the two stands the semi-direct democracy that combines aspects of both.

There are all kinds of variations on these forms, from parliaments to presidential systems to executive councils. I’m not going to cover all those here for brevity reasons.

As such, the US Federal Government, the national government, is a presidential representative democracy. We the people elect the President, Senators and House Representatives to make national level decisions on our behalf. This is not a direct democracy, as we do not directly vote on nor propose legislation.

By comparison, Michigan is a semi-direct democracy. In addition to electing the Governor, Senators and Representatives at the state level (as well as local elections), we also have citizen initiated legislation and petitions. The citizens of Michigan can recall our elected officials, directly propose legislation as well as constitutional amendments or even entirely new constitutions. Michigan has had four constitutions in it’s history, and has been amended many times directly by the citizens. In fact, we just passed in the most recent election all three constitutional amendments, which I have discussed before here. These proposals expanded essential democratic foundations such as voting rights, government transparence, and basic reproductive rights. In addition, the Democratic Party won all three branches of Michigan government, and I’m hoping they pass some policy more in line with what I value.

Why do I mention these things? To illustrate clearly that there are many ways to do democracy, and many ways it might be improved. In addition, when you look globally, you can see countless forms of democracy and governance. Some of those ideas might be better than what we are doing now.

Expanding democracy and the limits of two parties

There a lot of ways I think we could improve and expand on our democracy, and for inspiration I pull from both the US Green Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. I think in many ways Michigan, and even the US, would be a more functional democracy if they looked like Finland, Sweden*, and the EU, respectively. These include elements such as;

1. Enact proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state and federal levels. (Most of Europe uses some form of party lists, that tend to be more proportional.)
2. Enact Ranked Choice Voting for chief executive offices like mayor, governor and president and other single-seat offices including U.S. Senate. (Alaska and Maine are already experimenting with ranked choice, as are several US cities.)
3. Substantially expand the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives together with electing the House from multi-seat districts by proportional representation – both by Federal legislation – to help make the House far more representative of the nation’s population and rich diversity. (This would be required under a more proportional system.)
4. Enact elections by proportional representation from multi-seat districts on federal and state levels, with enough seats in each districts to eliminate the possibility of unfair representation produced by gerrymandering, because in such multi-seat districts, even small political minorities do not waste their votes and are able to elect their fair share of representatives…. Enact federal legislation requiring that Congressional districts be determined by state-established independent citizen-redistricting commissions. (Michigan passed an independent redistricting commission in 2018, and may have resulted in the Democratic trifecta just won in the 2022 midterms.)

The above list is pulled from the US Green Party platform primarily, and is of course edited for brevity. As I have said before, I think the two party system of the US is incredibly limited, in scope and in the diversity of political expression. The EU has about 8 parties in it’s much larger parliament, representing views from the far-left to the far-right, and everything in between. By contrast, Michigan and the US are represented by two parties, both of which are right wing in general, making the mythical us ‘center’ at best center-right. We deserve more diverse and more proportional representation, and I think the points above are good starts for sure.

As far as implementation, both of these would have to happen through constitutional amendment. In Michigan we just passed three, so I can see this being on the ballot for some future election. We are a semi-direct democracy after all. As to the US, I’m less optimistic that such a change will be implemented by either legislation or constitutional amendment due to the constant gridlock and duopoly of the two major parties. I also think the US would benefits from some aspects of semi-direct democracy, but again, that’s probably an impossible longshot of a constitutional change. The vast majority of Americans won’t entertain that notion, and those that do are probably best described as ‘fringe elements’ of the population.

But wait, what does this have to do with animism?! Maybe that is what you are thinking, and where does the ‘wellbeing of persons, human and other-than’ come into play? Well, the well being of humans should be obvious, and I think a robust democracy is necessary to the protection of human rights and well being. Michigan just passed voter rights and reproductive rights into our constitution, that is good an necessary animistic work. In addition, if we wanted to really think about ‘persons’ in an animistic wordlview, we could talk about the rights of nature, and environmental personhood as aspects of a robust ecological democracy too. After all, should non-human voices (or their representatives) be silent in an animistic-inspired democracy? A rhetorical question to be set aside for the moment.

I think I will leave that here, so as always;

Thanks for reading.

Sources/References and notes;

* Sweden is technically a constitutional monarchy, but I refer here more to the multi-party nature of their parliament. I am not promoting monarchy here. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party parliament, and more closely resembles what I would like to see in Michigan.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

https://www.gp.org/democracy

https://www.dsausa.org/dsa-political-platform-from-2021-convention/#deepening

A Michigan Animism – The Grand River and Lake Michigan

Hello again folks,

My wife and I recently got to go on vacation, and there is a lot to consider and write about. Coincidentally, this trip also overlapped with my Michigan Master Naturalist coursework on inland waterways and coastlines, so it was the perfect time to go exploring!

First, a little bit of context. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, my home is on the Grand River watershed. This is a large watershed that connects a large section of the west side of this state, and flows through my home city of Jackson, connected with the Red Cedar that flows through MSU (my alma mater), and from there through Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and out to Lake Michigan.

It’s a big one. There is also a great artwork in Grand Haven in bronze of this watershed. Too big for one picture, sadly.

Grand River/Grand Haven

The Grand River is a very important river to me, and a very powerful spirit in their own right. The Anishinaabe people know the river as Owashtanong, the “Far flowing water”. That should be no surprise, owing to the length; the longest river in Michigan.

In addition, this river is deep in part of Michigan’s colonial history. From wikipedia;

“The river formed part of a major demarcation of land ceded by Native Americans enabling U.S. settlers to legally obtain title to land in the area. In the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi ceded to the United States all lands in Michigan Territory south of the Grand River, with the exception of several small reservations.”

My understanding of spirits is in the ‘natural phenemona’ school of thought, in that I think of spirits as the totalilty of complex systems that intersect cultural and natural features. This river spirit has appeared to me in an plethora of ways. As fish racing down the streams, as water cascading over rocks, and of course; at the beautiful confluence where it meets Lake Michigan.

Grand Haven, MI

Grand Haven, MI

Lake Michigan

It is damn near impossible to even begin to describe the majesty of Lake Michigan natural and spiritual sense. It’s just too big, figuratively and literally. Trying to describe the natural features, as well as the deep cultural interconnections of countless indigenous and settler cultures could fill libraries.

According to wikipedia, the name of this Great Lake, and the state of Michigan;

“The word “Michigan” is believed to come from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ michi-gami or mishigami meaning “great water”.”

In addition, according to the Decolonial Atlas, it has the following names;

Ininwewi-gichigami (Illinios’ Sea): Lake Michigan

— ALSO AS Mishii’igan (Grand Lake): Lake Michigan

— ALSO AS Mishigami (Great Lake): Lake Michigan

We visited this Great Lake both at Grand Haven, via the state park, and also at wonderful park south of town called the Rosy Mound Natural area. If there was a case to be made for a ‘secular Shinto shrine’ on Lake Michigan, this would be it. It’s a stair heavy trail that takes you through woodlands, and up and over dune lands to a great scenic outlook over the lake. We left our offerings there, and stayed just to take it all in.

Up, up, up the stairs we go. Rosy Mounds Natural Area

The overlook. Great meditative area.

And the view of Lake Michigan from the overlook.

Closing Thoughts

It would take a lot more words, spiritual poetry, art, and other things to really begin to even encompass how these spirits impress upon you in person. I could have stayed in these places a lot more time (and will in the future) to even to understand where to begin… There is so much more work to be done.

These spirits are old and powerful, and trace their ancestries back to the glaciers that shaped this land. This is where the words fail, and all you are left with is the experience. For that, I am grateful.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Sources/References;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_River_(Michigan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan

Decolonial Atlas

A Michigan Animism – A Shinto Framework

“Shinto seeks to cultivate and ensure a harmonious relationship between humans and the kami and thus with the natural world.” – Wikipedia

Hello again folks!

If you are like me, a white American and an inheritor of a history of colonialism; you know the cultural struggle that many of us face. The feeling that we are constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place – not being indigenous to this continent, and also being the descendent of Old World cultures that many of us no longer have little if any direct connection to. I don’t share the cultures of most of my ancestors, I don’t speak their languages either. I’m also not indigenous, and certainly don’t share those cultures.

So what are we to do, those of us that are adrift like pieces of wonderbread? White, and without any claimable substance? For me, the answer has been continuing to develop, create, and recreate a kind of local/bioregional spirituality. It is a syncretic mix, just like my home state of Michigan. I look to the cultures of my ancestors, the native cultures, and see what inspires me. I also spend a lot of time outdoors, with the lakes and forests of my homeland looking for local spirits of rocks, plants, animals and whatever else I happen to stumble across. Michigan is a place of many peoples, from indigenous Anishinaabe, to the Germans and Finns that made this place their home. That cultural cross section, which includes many of my ancestors, and the rich diversity of other-than-human spirits in this land is more than enough to keep me busy. It also lead to a much bigger project (or series of interrelated projects).

That project would be this one; shaping a Michigan animism for myself, as well as sharing it here. Or at least, sharing the public parts. There is a lot of behind the scenes private work that won’t ever be posted here. In other words, lacking any real cultural ‘traditions’ for my spirituality, I’ve set to work shaping my own. But, as you can guess, this is a massive undertaking. Bigger than any one person really. Still, you have to start somewhere. So where to begin?

As mentioned, I look a lot to the cultures of the people of Michigan, which often intersects with my own Germanic/Norse/Celtic/Finnish/Complicated ancestral history. This is is addition to the Native peoples that have lived in this land for generations, and also animism as a general worldview. In fact, much of how I define animism comes from Irving Hallowell’s work among the Ojibwe, a local indigenous people. Yet, I don’t claim these cultures as my own, and also want to do my best to avoid appropriating living cultures outright. So, that kind of inspired syncretism is one part of this project. The other is what I will be looking at today. How Shinto can act as a rough ‘model’ for the kind of animism I’m creating for myself. Today (and after a long winded introduction), I want to look at the aspects of Shinto that grok with how I understand animism, and how Shinto might inform a ‘Michigan Animism’ as a kind of conceptual framework.

I’ll be drawing from Wikipedia article on Shinto for this discussion, because the scope of this is immense and I’m hoping to keep this brief. So, we start basically with;

“Shinto (Japanese: 神道, romanized: Shintō) or Shintoism, is a religion that originated in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan’s indigenous religion and as a nature religion.. Shinto has no central authority in control and much diversity exists among practitioners.”

Right off the bat we have a kind of nature religion. I think that is a great start for any kind of Michigan animism. It should be based in nature, and that nature of Michigan. In addition, many forms of animism and modern paganisms also are often considered nature religions, so we have some important overlap. Another important note is the lack of central authority, and an inherent diversity. It means a lot of different people can approach this in different ways, and there is no ‘one true way’. Shinto is often translated as the “way of the kami”, and is treated as a worldview more than a specific set of religious doctirines. That works a lot with animism being a worldview, a ‘way’.

“Shinto is polytheistic and revolves around the kami, supernatural entities believed to inhabit all things. The link between the kami and the natural world has led to Shinto being considered animistic. The kami are worshiped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as kannushi, who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami and to solicit the latter’s blessing. Other common rituals include the kagura dances, rites of passage, and seasonal festivals.”

Okay, so kami is one of those things that doesn’t translate well into English and can easily be both/neither god/spirit. I will be using spirit as a general term. The important components here is that we have spirits, shrines, and spiritual specialists in this mix. In addition, there is a host of private, family, and public aspects. The idea is to cultivate harmony with nature through a variety of cermonies, festivals, and other rituals. In my past posts on naturalism, animism, pantheism and polytheism I think all these aspects could find a nice home in a Michigan animism, and all all deeply interconnected in my own practice, and in Shinto.

“In Japanese, it is often said that there are eight million kami, a term which connotes an infinite number, and Shinto practitioners believe that they are present everywhere. They are not regarded as omnipotent, omniscient, or necessarily immortal.”

Here we have little bits of spiritual philosophy, and theology. The idea of ‘8 million kami’ is one that deeply appeals to me, because I understand the spiritual world as immanent; that is the divine/spirit is manifested as the natural world. Michigan is home to tens of thousands of native species, and countless individuals within each species. As well as just shy of ten million humans, and all our own cultural diversity. This is a good way to describe animism in a diverse and pluralistic way, and treating the spirits as ‘everywhere’ is a good way to frame immanence. In addition, treating these beings as not all knowing, all powerful, or immortal (but certainly there are some that are very long lived); is a good basis for a dynamic and ever changing animism that reflects the natural world.

“The term kami is “conceptually fluid”, and “vague and imprecise”. In Japanese it is often applied to the power of phenomena that inspire a sense of wonder and awe in the beholder. Kitagawa referred to this as “the kami nature”, stating that he thought it “somewhat analogous” to the Western ideas of the numinous and the sacred. Kami are seen to inhabit both the living and the dead, organic and inorganic matter, and natural disasters like earthquakes, droughts, and plagues; their presence is seen in natural forces such as the wind, rain, fire, and sunshine. Accordingly, Nelson commented that Shinto regards “the actual phenomena of the world itself” as being “divine”. The Shinto understanding of kami has also been characterized as being animistic.”

This is why I general use ‘spirit’, as it is vague and imprecise. We have a habit in Western thought of wanting everything clearly defined and put in neat little boxes; This is X and that is Y. Nature is often vastly more complex, dynamic, and chaotic than that. The ‘power of phenomena’ is exactly how I understand the concepts of spirits. As I have spent a fair bit of time talking about ‘the sacred’ in previous posts, this part also fits well. Being able to see kami and spirits as inhabiting all of nature, both as beautiful trees as well as floods, is a great fit for the animism I am trying to shape for myself. “The phenomena of the world itself being divine’ is quite like how I view Spirit in a naturalistic, animistic, pantheistic, and polytheistic way.

“Kami are not deemed metaphysically different from humanity, with it being possible for humans to become kami. Dead humans are sometimes venerated as kami, being regarded as protector or ancestral figures. One of the most prominent examples is that of the Emperor Ōjin, who on his death was enshrined as the kami Hachiman, believed to be a protector of Japan and a kami of war. In Japanese culture, ancestors can be viewed as a form of kami.”

This basic idea is also present in Germanic, Norse, and Finnish forms of animism. In fact in Finnish, there is a deep connection and overlap between the spirits of the dead ancestors, and spirits of the earth. We can become the dead, and the spirits of the earth. Our spirits move through the cycles of life and death like the water and minerals in our bodies. The forest floor is the remains of the dead, and this nourishes the living. This is another good concept for a Michigan animism.

“Although some kami are venerated only in a single location, others have shrines devoted to them across many areas of Japan. Hachiman for instance has around 25,000 shrines dedicated to him.”

This speaks to the shrines aspect we touched upon earlier. I could easily imagine a kind of Michigan animism that has local spirits honored at single places, as well as multiple places. Maybe a particular rock formation in the UP has a single shrine associated with it. Whereas our long rivers and Great Lakes would have multiple shrines in many different places, owing to the massive influence these spirits have on our lives. These are Michigan spirits, that could easily take on the ‘pan-regional’ aspects that you see in Old World cultures like Thor for example.

“A key theme in Shinto is the avoidance of kegare (“pollution” or “impurity”), while ensuring harae (“purity”). In Japanese thought, humans are seen as fundamentally pure. Kegare is therefore seen as being a temporary condition that can be corrected through achieving harae. Rites of purification are conducted so as to restore an individual to “spiritual” health and render them useful to society.”

I find it interesting that humans are fundamentally ‘pure’ in Shinto. We are not a fallen species, we are not born with sin. As such, ‘impurity’ is a temporary thing, and I am understanding as the idea of ‘right relationship’ found in pagan and animistic thoughts. We are not inherently ‘a plague upon the earth’, more so we have created systems (economic and so forth) that cause harm to the earth. Our relationships with nature are what need work, so a Michigan animism could have ceremonies and rituals that reconnect us with nature and heal our relationship to it.

“In the 21st century, Shinto has increasingly been portrayed as a nature-centered spirituality with environmentalist credentials. Shinto shrines have increasingly emphasized the preservation of the forests surrounding many of them, and several shrines have collaborated with local environmentalist campaigns.”

^^^^ THIS. I think if we are going to create a Michigan animism, then environmentalism should be at the heart of that. Michigan has a long history of colonialization and the destruction of our forests as a result. A Michigan Animism as a nature religion, would easily intersect with environmental protection, truly sustainable living, and supporting the well being of human and non-human species. If a Michigan based animism could cultivate the love of the nature, but also the need to protect and preserve nature for future generations, then I would think that a wonderful thing.

Closing thoughts;

The amount of work here is immense, as I have already mentioned. It will be a big project that I will continue to work on. There will be more forthcoming work on this blog that builds on this foundation, and more work behind the scenes. For future posts I will be exploring local natural areas, talking about them and taking pictures. This will be an exploration of natural, local spirits.

Shinto has a deep interconnection with the society, politics, and values of the Japanese people. As such, a Michigan animism would also have these aspects. I will also be exploring this more deeply, especially when it comes to human society; things like politics and economics of Michigan, and how my understanding of animism influences these things. Especially when it comes to environmentalism and sustainability, I don’t think a Michigan animism can be ahistorical or apolitical in that regard.

There is plenty of work ahead, and so here is a briefest summary of how I think Shinto ideas could translate into a Michigan style animism.

A non-exhaustive list of ideas for a Michigan based animism

• Animistic/Polytheistic nature religion
• Great Lakes/Local cultus/bioregional
• Based around nature spirits/natural places
• Spiritual specialists
• private/family/community/ancestral/public shrines (built around nature/natural sanctuaries)
• Basic value of nature conservation/preservation/reverence
• Diverse/pluralistic/multicultural/multispecies
• local/regional/variation
• Spirits of the dead and ancestral veneration
• Ceremonies and rituals for ‘right relationship’/natural reverence

As always, thanks for reading!

Source/Reference;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto

Michigan Politics & Animism – A Primer

Hello again folks,

This piece is something I have been working on for some time, and have been reluctant to publish. Mostly due to the subject matter – politics – and a topic that gets under a lot of people’s skin. Some don’t think “religion and politics” are topics that should discussed at all. Others think our spiritualities should be ‘apolitical’, as if our actions and values don’t impact the real world or how we judge specific policy.

On one hand, yeah, I agree with the idea of ‘separation of church and state’; in that I don’t think religion should be a foundation of government, and I generally agree with the idea of secular governments. That being said, as a complicated individual, my spirituality deeply influences my politics, and what I think makes for good policy. Politics is in many ways an expression of values and ethics. In addition, those ethics and values have feedback loops through my spiritual practice, as well as my ideas on policy and governance.

I’m an animist and I’ve made no secret of that. I think that the world is full of persons, many of them are not human, and that life is lived in relations with others. Implied by that, is the value for all life; and doing what we can to promote the wellbeing of the environment as well as ourselves. From that worldview comes a whole host of ideas on policy and governance; and that is something I want to talk about in this space. The two are not separate in my mind; and ‘how we live’ and ‘what makes a well being’ are huge questions that intersect both politics and spirituality.

As I’ve mentioned before, this writing is all part of a bigger project; or a deeply intertwined set of projects. I don’t think is is possible to disentangle my spiritual beliefs from my political ones, and so to talk about one, I feel I must talk about the other. Thusly, I will be posting about spirits and natural places, as well as politics going forward.

With that in mind, I also want to state that I will be focusing primarily on Michigan politics. This is the state I live in, and for as it is said, all politics is local. My spirituality is based on local and natural spirits to this area, and my politics is mostly local as well. The local and state level is where I practice, and the place I can have the most influence. Home is where the heart is.

All of which begs for a general outline of this project. First, I will still be talking about the places I visit, as the heart of the project is “What would a Michigan animism look like?”. The complimentary question to that, and the heart of this series, is; “How does a Michigan animism inform how we live?” The second question has many implications, many of which are policy based. Political in nature, in other words.

I’ve talked about this before, but I want to state some things clearly about where I stand, and where I am coming from for this series. First, I’m a dyed in the wool leftist. Broadly, my fellow Americans don’t have a great understanding what this means. Much of that is because our system is painfully bipolar, and both major parties are rightwing parties. Let me illustrate with a comparative example from the European Union Parliament.

An image I made up for the 2020 US Presidential Election, mapped onto the makeup of the EU Parliament at the time.

Under US political terms, I’m an independent. I don’t owe loyalty to the DNC or the RNC, and most of my policy ideas stand to the left of even most Democrats. ‘Left of center’, from the yellow section left on the image above.* I do mostly vote for Democrats, mostly because there is no real other choice in the US. In the EU, I’d vote between green (Green Party) and dark red (European Left). In the US, we don’t have that option. (Probably to be covered in future posts).

To add a little more nuance, I would call myself a democratic ecosocialist in broad terms. First, I believe for as messy as it is, democracy is a good form of governance. By the people, for the people. So don’t come at me with that ‘ahhh USSR commie, CHINA!’ crap. I think many European countries and the Nordic models are in a better place than we are, and good starting places.

As to the ecosocialist part, we’ve already established how big into environmentalism I am. I like a lot of aspects of the US Green Party platform, and I’ll talk about that more in future posts. I think the wellbeing of nature matters a great deal, and climate change is a crisis. We are part of nature after all.

And yes, I’m also a socialist. I think capitalism** is killing our world, and I think people (human and other-than) should be prioritized over profit. I think if more of our economic system was owned and operated by the people (worker coops, unions, economic and worker democracy), and we had more European style social safety systems, we would all be a lot better off for it.

There is a lot of ground to cover there for sure, and I’ll make more a list in a future post. To bring this back around; I think Michigan in particular could easily follow the examples of Finland and Sweden*** in terms of policy as a starting place. I will also explore elements from the US Green Party (an actual leftist party) and the Democratic Socialists of America (also leftist, though not strictly a ‘party’) for other policy ideas, as well as other sources.

In short other words, if Michigan followed the Nordic (and general-ish European) model, what would that look like? If we applied the values and ethics of animism (the well being of humans and environment) to Michigan politics, what would that look like?

If you’ve made it this far..

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Notes;

*There are elements of leftist thought within the Democratic Party of course. People like AOC, Sanders, Warren and others for example. Just the bulk of the party; Clintons, Bidens, Manchins are predominantly right wing in their views.

** I’m using Wikipedia definitions for these.
Capitalism: An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.

Socialism: An economic philosophy based on the social ownership (worker, community, municipal public, cooperative, government, etc) of the means of production

***. Finland is a great ‘half size’ model for Michigan. Their economy and political system is very comparable, with a population about half Michigan’s size. Sweden is very comparable on many measures including population. (I also think the US would be better off with an EU style of governance, but I digress.)

A Michigan Animism – Haehnle Sanctuary

Hello again folks!

Still busy. Still working away on things, and still having new things pop out of the woodwork. There is a saying, that you find your next book when writing your current one. Maybe that’s what some of my recent blogs represent; small pieces of a bigger project, of another book. In addition, I have recently taken land based spirituality classes, and am I’m also currently taking classwork for the Michigan Master Naturalist certification, and that learning is feeding back into my spiritual work, like so many things do.

More than anything, that’s where I want to start today. This post is part of an ongoing project of mine (or maybe a series of interrelated projects), and is really just me meditating on the aspects of that project. While I have no idea what the future of greater pagandom holds, but I have long wondered, what a kind of ‘Michigan Animism’ would look like? How would it come about, what would go into it, what would it take to make that kind of thing a reality? A kind of “home grown” spiritual path, maybe meant for something larger than just one person?

I’ve teased around these ideas before, and even tried to take a few stabs at it. I’m not sure I was on the right track, and I’m still not sure I am. Still, I wanted to explore this a bit more to maybe lay down some groundwork on a what a Michigan Animism could look like. This is a bit of a thought experiment, as well as work in progress, so please keep that in mind.

Local Spirits, Local Places

As I constantly struggle in the liminal place between neocolonialism and concerns about cultural appropriation, I have found most of my work recently has been focused on natural spirits and what are commonly called ‘spirits of place’. I seek out these spirits in nature, and try and ‘talk’ with them, and sometimes even give them names. These spirits for me are deeply connected with the land and the waters of my home state. I’ve written about this before, and take a lot of inspiration from cultures like the Finnish, the Norse, and even things like Shinto. I’ll talk about that more in coming posts.

There is a lot of interconnection for me between the ideas of ecology and animism, and so I find a lot of overlap between my spirituality and things like nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries. That’s where I want to start today, as an example.

Place of Birds

I recently visited the Haehnle Sanctuary with my wife, and this was a wonderful place to start this project. As a brief introduction from the website, the sanctuary is;

The Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary, a Michigan Audubon sanctuary, has an area of over 1,000 acres.  The varied habitats include Beech and Oak Climax forests and native grasslands in the upland areas; among those in the wetland areas are a fen, a hardwood swamp, Eagle Lake and Mud Lake Marsh.

We spent some time walking and exploring the nature trails, bird watching, and taking in the scenery. At the same time, my spiritual path is primarily a meditative and contemplative one. Yes, there are elements of trance, divination, and other things, but the bulk of my time is meditative. As such, as a walking meditation, I spent a lot of my time at the sanctuary just being… present. Being aware of my breathing, saying hello to plants and animals (especially Tree Swallows), and also reading the various posts and displays about the history of the place.

A spiritual place, a secular shrine?

Like so many places in Michigan, this was once Anishinaabek land, until it was eventually parceled up, bought and purchased by various generations of settlers mostly of European descent. That is something I was aware of as I walked the lands. I was also aware of the ongoing restoration and conservation projects, and the fact that area was referred to as a Sanctuary, a place of safety, a sacred place for nature and for for people like me.

This, I think, is the real take away for me. As a practicing animist, and modern pagan, these kinds of places are essential to my practice. Not only are such sanctuaries vital for combatting climate change, and giving nature a place to ‘just be’, but they could also be places for a kind of Michigan animism. My practice is a kind of nature religion and eco-spirituality, and so places like the Haehnle Sanctuary are great places, as both a kind of ‘shrine’, and a sacred place.

The spirit of the sanctuary itself is present in everything in the area in both an animistic and pantheistic way, but also in a discrete, diverse, and unique polytheistic kind of way. You feel the spirit(s) with each breath, as part of the oxygen and carbon cycles that connect you to systems of nature in a wide sense. That spirit is also felt in the swallows and other birds that flit about, and even the snake we saw resting in the sun. In a way, the minimal architecture functions in some ways like a Shinto shrine; as a place to connect with the spirit of the place. A place of mediation and reflection and to ‘just be’ as a part of nature.

I’mma snek

Closing Thoughts

Michigan is full of these kinds of places, and they make up an important part of my spiritual practice. I have visited places on the Great Lakes, Waterloo State Park, Tahquamenon Falls, Hartwick Pines, Sleeping Bear Dunes, among many others. Many of these places have the same kind of feel as the Sanctuary, as well as places we could consider a kind of public, secular, and spiritual spaces. These are just a small sampling of examples that hope to explore more in the future. Little bits of a local spiritual path, and a larger work in progress.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Deeper Philosophy – The secular, sacred, and profane

There are two last concepts I want to touch on here that relate to my previous posts. These are ideas that often come up in spiritual and religious discourse, and these are the concepts of the sacred and the profane. In order to explore them more in an animistic/naturalistic context, I think we should start with basic definitions. Like before, these are a starting point, not a final say. Dictionary definitions do not include the full breath and scope of these ideas, which have filled volumes. I am using these just to get the ball rolling.

Sacred¹

1a: dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity

b: devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose)

2a: worthy of religious veneration

b: entitled to reverence and respect

3: of or relating to religion : not secular or profane

I have left out further definitions, as they don’t add much to my purpose here. Right out of the gate we can see call backs to deity, which I covered in the pantheism post. To recap, in a naturalistic, immanent view of spirits, this includes the material world. Nature and physical existence is divine, is deity. Spirits are an intrinsic part of creations, and given the interchangeable nature of spirit/god I have used throughout this chapter, nature is deity, and as such inherently sacred. Nature is worthy of spiritual reverence and respect, and that includes most aspects of these definitions. Sacredness is immanent, inherit to the physical world, not apart from it.

As a note, definition (3) I have included because it mentions profane as the opposite of sacred. We will explore that in a moment, but I also wanted to highlight that this definition also mentions ‘not secular’.

Secular²

1: not spiritual:of or relating to the physical world and not the spiritual world

2: not religious

3: of, relating to, or controlled by the government rather than by the church

This opens up a whole can of worms that are outside this discussion. It would take a lot more words to unpack all that. But let’s touch on it briefly all the same. To definition 1), I am arguing that the physical world and the spiritual world are one in the same, the general idea behind immanence. This is the kind of dichotomy that animism regular challenges, and starts to break down. Just like Cartesian soul/body, physical/spiritual, matter/spirit, or in this case secular/spiritual dualities

For definition 3), I’m not touching that just at this second. Not only does this have very Christian connotations (eg ‘the church), but it also touches on the nature of governance, and how that should be defined. That’s a whole other discussion that I am happy to set aside for now. For the record, I am in no way arguing that priests (even animistic ones) should run the government.

Definition 2) thus becomes the tricky one, so let’s touch on that for just a bit, and as you have guessed, with a definition of religion.

Religion³

1: the belief in a god or in a group of gods

2: an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods

I think I have adequately made the case for definition one in an animistic, naturalistic, pantheistic, and polytheistic context. I think it is fair to say there are beings that could be called gods. I am not going to rehash that all, so let’s put a checkmark by that one and move on.

As for definition 2), this is where things get a lot more nuanced. Throughout this series I have generally treated animism as a worldview, and not as a religion per se. Again, animism is the basic idea that the world is full of persons (spiritual/non-human and otherwise); and that life is lived in relation to others. That in and of itself is not a religion, but a way of seeing the world, thus, a worldview.

That being said, I do think it can, and does have spiritual and religious aspects. I hope this has been clear, but at the same time; all the rituals and ceremonies are something that come later. How you approach nature, the spirits/gods, and the ceremonies that come out of that… Well that is up to you. For me, animism came first, the worldview came first. The paradigm shift. All the rest came out of that shift, and out of my understanding of nature, spirits, and how I relate to those beings. You may choose to reject my ideas, and choose a more atheistic, or supernatural approach. That’s perfectly okay, and even Shinto has those kinds of adherents. Some people go to the shrines don’t believe in gods or spirits, others do. They still find some meaning in the ceremonies and rituals, and it’s okay if your mileage varies from mine.

With that in mind, let’s get to the last part of this discussion, the nature of the profane. For this one there is both a verb and an adjective form, and it’s important for my purposes that we discuss both. Let’s start with the adjective form.

Profane – Adjective⁴

1: not concerned with religion or religious purposes

2: not holy because unconsecrated, impure, or defiled

3a: serving to debase or defile what is holy

The first definition here encounters some of the same critiques I mentioned with ‘religion’ and ‘secular’ above. In fact, secular in a bit of synonym with the first definition. If we are talking immanence, then nature and the world are inherently spiritual as well as physical. There is not anyway to be ‘unconcerned’ as we live a material existence. We are part of the world, and are spiritual beings within it. Now, we don’t have to make they expressly part of a spiritual or religious practice as I said above; as there is more than one way to approach the world. Again, your mileage may vary.

Definition two and three both relate to ‘holiness’, which I think (again synonymous) with the discussions of the sacred already covered. About the only difference here is in the idea of religious or spiritual rituals. Nature is holy/sacred intrinsically, that’s been my whole argument. However, there is the idea of ritual, ceremony, and/or practice that acknowledges that inherent sacredness. There is also the idea of ‘defiled’ in two and three that deserves more exploration.

Profane – transitive verb

1: to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt

2: to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use

Here, profanity is being treat as an action, a relationship with that which is sacred. In our case, nature and the physical world. To profane what is sacred is a deliberate, intentional choice in this case. To defile, to desecrate, this is relational. A case can be made for profanity as something we do.

As an example, let’s talk about fossil fuels. It is unequivocal at this point that our relationship with fossil fuels is driving the climate crisis. I’m one of those odd people that reads the IPCC reports in their entirety, and I’m not here to debate the science. The science is settled. The climate crisis is human driven, and our burning of fossil fuels is a huge contributor to this crisis. Now, in broad strokes most fossil fuels form in the earth through natural decay processes. In a way, coal, oil, and others are one of the many ways planets store excess carbon.

Then we as human dig up that carbon, and use it to drive our civilization, releasing all that stored carbon into the air where it traps heat. That’s one of the driving factors behind the climate crisis we are facing. From a naturalistic and animist perspective, it is our relationship with fossil fuels that is causing untold harm to our present and our future. Our actions in this regard could be argued to be profane, as we are deliberately harming nature and our planet. Which as established, is inherently sacred. In no small way, the climate crisis is a spiritual crisis.

A spiritual crisis that has already done untold harm to our planet, to life, and to ourselves as a species. Our relationships with the planet are in many ways profane, an abuse upon something that is sacred. This is why the climate crisis is among the top issues I will talk about again and again, because it strikes at our very spirit as lifeforms on the Earth. The path ahead is difficult, and full of obstacles, but lets not lose sight that we can change those relationships. We are spirits, we have agency. We can, and should, choose a different path.

Which is where I am going to end this series. Future posts will refer back, and hopefully build on these ideas. As I’ve said, I practice an animism that is naturalistic, pantheistic, and polytheistic. Nature is sacred to me, and manifests as a plurality of unique beings and systems. How we relate to those beings is up to us, and there is a lot of work to be done.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

1https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sacred

2https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secular

3https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

4https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profane

Deeper Philosophy – Naturalism and Immanence

Hello again!

I’ve been writing a lot over the winter, and finally am mostly finished with the second draft of my animism book. A lot of good thoughts fell out of me while I was working away at it, and I want to share at least some of those thoughts here. Maybe consider this a bit of hype, for some future publication.

One of the favorite chapters I have written was about a deeper kind of animistic philosophy, where I explored many different definitions that frequently circulate among spiritual and religious discourse, even among pagan communities. As such, I wanted to present that chapter here as a series of blogs. I think they are worth exploring as a way to deepen my own understanding of my practice, as well as share bits of that with you all.

My understanding of animism, and the various ways I define that, has to have a practical footing. It has to work, and not just for myself. Deep within animism is a community. A community of plants and animals, rocks and trees, air currents and rivers. I have defined animism for myself many times on this blog, and I don’t feel the need here to recap that again, so I’m going to jump right into it.

It’s a big web of interrelations. We are going to talk more about Earth Systems Science in future blogs.

Naturalism

Starting from that larger community, in many ways I was ‘spirit taught’ animism. My first experiences with the wider community and other-than-human persons stems from my childhood. I grew up in a very rural environment, and that can be a fairly isolating experience. Your (human) friends aren’t always close by, and you are often left to make your own entertainment. That is why I say I learned my spirituality from forests and from fields. Those are the places I spent a lot of my childhood, and frankly, a lot of my adulthood too.

This has embedded a deep sense of naturalism¹ in my own practice. By this I mean that I don’t tend to default to supernatural explanations when I am practicing my spirituality. The best way to make the corn grow is with good clean water, and lot’s of sunlight. There is no need for elves or dragons to make the corn grow. I don’t mean this in a flippant or dismissive way, because there are certainly room for such beings (also metaphors, poetics, or other bit of myth making), but that isn’t my default mode, and that is what works for me. Which is really the point I am trying to hammer home, it needs to work, and what works for me may not work for you.

But wait, isn’t that a contradiction? That is what you might be thinking right now, as I just said that I don’t default to supernatural², but there is also room for elves and dragons in animism? This is and/both kind of thing, because if it isn’t clear yet, animism is complex and complicated. Let me clarify with an example, let’s talk about corn again. Corn is natural, a complex organism of multitudes of networks of matter and energy. A nuanced and complicated system of physics, biology, and generations worth of evolutionary history. Those natural processes and complexity is the spirit of the corn, what the corn is as a spiritual person. Corn grows from minerals, water, and sunlight, like generations of corn-y ancestors did before. In addition, corn has been heavily shaped and domesticated by human hands, and the corn we know today is very different than the most ancient forms.

But is there a Corn Dragon? There could be, as we humans are well practiced storytellers and artists. The corn is a real physical being, and so a Corn Dragon could be artistically grounded as a personal understanding of corn as an individual, or as a species. How connect the two is up to us, it’s not either/or. The corn dragon could be a literal and/or poetic/metaphoric understanding of corn and how it interacts with the environment. That’s a complex web, and broadly our minds might have trouble wrapping around the entire complexity that is corn, Sometimes that interpretation is up to us, but also how the spirit decides to present to us. Sometimes metaphors and stories are easier ways to communicate complex concepts as well.

Folklore is full of these kinds of stories, and often contain nuggets of truth about our relationship to nature. The short of it is, corn is a spiritual and physical being, a real natural person. The Corn Dragon can be an expression of that realness in whatever way works for us, and that is the point. We can understand spiritual beings through natural science as well as through stories and art. Find what works for you, and may the Corn Dragon bless you with a full belly. Provided you aren’t deathly allergic to corn, that is.

Animism and Immanence

As my example of the Corn Dragon illustrates, animism isn’t all or nothing. It is complex, multilayered, and holistic. It is a spiritual path, and our way of viewing the world. It as much stories and folklore as it is science. There is nothing in this spiritual worldview that presents us from seeing nature and the world as full of beings, beings with lives and agendas all their own. It is a world full of rock persons, river spirits, and yes even corn dragons if that is what you want. The point of animism is about relationships, and how we understand how we relate to each other and the world around us.

Animism, and naturalism, are also the grounded in the fact that the whole is greater, and so much bigger, than the sum of the parts. We as humans are enmeshed in a world so much bigger than ourselves, so full of life, and spirit and many other wonderful things. We are part of something so much bigger than ourselves, and that is the heart of the spiritual experience. Through animism we cultivate deeper and more meaningful relationships with each other and our planet, and that is both awe-inspiring and at times deeply terrifying. That is the nature of a spiritual life, and that too is a great introduction to animism as an immanent way of living.

Immanence is a concept in philosophy and theology that taken at the simplest, dictionary definition means that something (such as spirit or divinity) ‘dwells within’, and is inherent to the natural world. Wikipedia³ starts off by saying; “The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world.” Speaking more broadly and animistically, this means that spirit(s) are something inherent in the world. They are not ‘outside’ or ‘beyond’ the material universe we are still coming to know. There is not discrete ‘spirit stuff’ that can be separated out from the material world. Spirit(s) are energy, are matter, and is/are part of everything from quarks to galaxies. Spirit(s) are not transcendent, they are not ‘beyond the world’ or controlling events outside of space and time. This is not only a rejection of the body/mind/spirit separation, but also a rejection of the monotheistic idea that any divine ‘creator’ is outside the realm of time and space, setting the ‘clockwork in motion’.

To put this another way, the spirit of the forest is the trees, and soils, and animals, as well as everything else that makes up the forest. But there is also a lot of complexity and nuance here. The spirit of the forest is also the system in totality and holistically. The phenomenon, the experience of the whole. It is more than the trees et al, but also all the relationships between all the beings within the forest. It is the cycle of nutrients through the roots, the cycle of gases between the leaves at atmosphere. It is both corporeal and incorporeal parts of the system, both what we see and what we don’t. It is the ecosystem of countless beings making decisions and doing their own thing independently that adds up to something far greater than individual actions. That’s the whole point of community. The spirit of the forest is the experience of the whole system as much as it is the individual components. Most importantly, when we step into the forest, we are part of that network, part of that system. Through an animistic perspective, a walk in the woods is a communion with the spirits. As a spiritual being in a community with other spiritual beings.

This all scales rather rapidly as well, because as humans on Earth, we are part of a community of communities. Forests become bioregions, and bioregions come together to form the vast and diverse biosphere that is part of our planet. Reaching out to touch a being of that scale vastly exceeds our capacities as individual humans, and so we might only ever understand a facet of that kind of scale. Honestly, there are very real cognitive human limits in place. How does one understand the mind of a forest? That’s where this discussion starts to wander it’s way into talk of pantheistic and transcendent (to a degree) ideas, and that will be for another post.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)

2Here I am defining supernatural as something that is outside the natural laws and forces of the universe.

3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanence