G&R’s community of readers and writers is diverse – we are all over the world and hold a wide range of spiritual practices. But if there is one belief that may unite us all, it’s Animism.
Read MoreAnimism brings us back to ourselves. It reminds us we are connected to the land and to one another.
Read MoreYou'll think this a strange tale at least, and quite likely you'll think me a liar, but for several years in my youth I was a fox.
Read MoreThere is a solitary witch in every wishing well
filling bucket after bucket with life’s blood.
Read MoreWildness is often used in our modern languages to suggest chaos, disorder. But I was granted insight in those few seconds, I think, into another kind of order that we supposedly civilised humans have lost, and that we struggle to recover.
Read MoreIn the day, the forest and I were one. I was an animal in an animal’s habitat. In the night, I was an unwelcome human being in a bustling community of other-than-human beings.
Read MoreWhen one is an animist, environmentalism isn’t merely about protecting the natural resources for the sake of conserving the resource to be consumable in the future. Instead, it is a way to honor the spirits. It is a way of venerating one’s ancestors.
Read MoreMy mind keeps going back to the sight of that sign on the cave floor, warning that someone was watching, the feeling of sacredness I had in the cave, and the sound of chainsaws outside.
Read Moreyou were a spider busy with
consuming the prey, only to suddenly realize that the prey is a part of yourself.
Read MoreFolk stories and folklore contain the shared knowledge of a collective. They may have their regional differences and several versions, but they convey truths and lessons, often hard ones. Folk stories and folklore are not some passive thing but instead form an active part of our lives today
Read MoreSliding scale and discounted enrolment
Read MoreI feel at home on mornings such as this, want nothing more than to melt into the land, to glide through the woods unseen by human eyes, to breathe in that wood spice scent that only autumn brings. Even as my spirit craves this, instead I must retract my claws, disguise my wildness as I get ready for the day ahead, but for now, in this moment, this is enough.
Read MoreThis is what it is to be animist. We see and feel the spirit within the natural world and know we are not separate from it at all, but connected to it in every way.
Read MoreWith it’s backdrop of mist shrouded hills, lakes that reflect the sky, stretching further than the eye can see, stone circles and hidden waterfalls, it feels like you’ve stepped into the pages of some epic tale of magic and knights, monsters, dragons and witches.
Read MoreBut it is the violets that are perhaps my favourite of the spring time plants.
They start in the corner of my garden beneath the boughs of the mature linden tree and spread across the lawn, their purple flowers like jewels in a sea of green. Violet honey is one of my favourite things to make, though only in small batches because I just can’t bring myself to pick too many of the beautiful blooms!
Read MoreThere is still beauty to behold in this world. Not the fake beauty of photo-shopped pictures, whether of people or places, nor the beauty of expensive possessions and luxurious homes, but instead a beauty that inspires a quiet joyousness within the heart, within the very soul, perhaps.
Read MoreSuccess to me means being able to live the type of life I want. Isn’t that each of us really want? And for most of us, this isn’t given. Just surviving requires a tremendous effort that leaves little time or effort for anything else. We have to push constantly against it.
Read MoreGorse moves exuberantly into the artificially stunted ecosystem of the field, introducing a hostile, rampant diversity resistant to poisoning and cutting, and sheltering the children of the old forest. This is an example we, as anarchists, can — and should — follow.
Read MoreThe woods on a day like today are gloomy. The air is damp and cold, the sky a blanket of grey, making everything seem darker despite the early hour. And yet this is needed. I enjoy the festive period, the sparkle and glow of it all, the food, the drink and the merry making with my nearest and dearest and yet sometimes I just need this. The cold damp air on my face. The scent of the forest. The sound of the birds and the trees, of twigs snapping underfoot.
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