It is a very common word  today it is mostly used with regard to WiFi, but in truth it has a deeper meaning. The connection of us to the Earth spirit, that lives in the Air,Water,Rocks, Animals and the Plants. I include humans amongst the animals, I see our arrogance to separate ourselves from the animals as the biggest obstacle to overcome.

The earliest form of religion is Animism. The belief that all life has a soul, even the things we see as inanimate, and that soul has control over the environment around us. When I first heard the term I was in an Anthropology class, the lecturer seemed to put a negative slant on the primitive nature of Animism.

 Animism resonated with me, as at that time I had developed a love for the outside. The more time I spent outside the more I felt there was something more to this world hidden behind the curtain. 

Even though I was aware of something powerful running through all things on this planet, I had an awakening when I was working in America and I took the weekend off and hiked up to a place called Eagles Perch I rolled out my sleeping bag and just slept under the stars.  I woke at the first light, and sat on the cliff overlooking a sea of trees as the sun crept over the horizon I looked to one side and saw two Eagles spireling above the edge of the cliff, trying to catch the morning thermals. I remember getting up to leave and feeling refreshed as I took the trail back to the camp. A family of Porcupines started to walk the same trail in front of me, and I could not go round them so I travelled at their pace. Once I returned to camp I felt changed. This 19 year old from Essex England who had no idea about nature and yet I was genuinely affected by this experience.

I had my awakening confirmed a few years later when I took part in a spiritual retreat in the wilds of Wales. During a sweat lodge I was overcome by the feeling of unity with my surroundings, I felt my second self.The part of us all that inhabits the non physical world, it was a brief yet powerful experience. A feeling of belonging as if I was given a chance to see the world as it truly is, a connected conscious symbiotic organism.

When asked by a friend what am I looking for I said to re discover that feeling and let it inhabit me. I have no wish to understand that experience as understanding is a form of labeling and what good would labeling be within the connected nature of life. We need to take the time and live it.    

I am grateful to all that read my work.

Rhys Markham