The Forgetting and Remembering of Animism

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Matthew Ash McKernan, author of the new Wyrdcraft.

The weird, wild, and wonderful English psych-rock band Hawkwind said it well in their song, “We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago.” What this “wrong step” was is unclear, though one can imagine many while listening to the song’s evocative melodies. What is clear is that it is a dirge, a funereal song, expressing grief, loss, and the sobering lessons of Fate.

Though humanity has certainly taken many “wrong steps” over the course of our relatively short stay on this blessed planet, there is one step that strikes me as being particularly tragic, to the point of being apocalyptic—and that is the step taken away from animism. The animist worldview is one that experiences everything to be imbued with soul. Which leads to the next question: What is soul? Though the mystery that is soul has been defined in many ways and given many names throughout time-space, soul might be considered as something’s true nature, essence, magic, or inherent divinity. It might also be defined as something’s wholeness, meaning, purpose, and process.

One concept that can be used to explore the mystery of soul is wyrd. Wyrd is an ancient concept, and like soul, its kaleidoscopic nature makes it tricky to define. The Germanic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon peoples of Northern Europe described wyrd as the most mysterious and powerful being, or force, in the multiverse—a web-like tapestry composed of the interweaving of many threads: fate, destiny, nature, magic, soul, death, becoming, and more.

And so, this “wrong step” to which I refer as the step taken away from animism and soul might be more accurately described as the step taken away from wyrd. This stepping away can be seen in the transmutation from the word “wyrd” to “weird.” The weird of today—an experience generally defined as “strange,” “odd,” or “abnormal” and easily brushed aside—shows us how much of wyrd’s far-traveling depth and expanse has been forgotten. What are the effects of this loss? What happens when the web of wyrd, that greater all-pervasive mystery that imbues and connects everything in a deeply expansive process of spiritual becoming, is forgotten? What happens as we become unconscious of our deeper meaning and purpose? What are the symptoms of soul-loss? Look around, look within, see, and feel: imbalance, mental and physical disease, ecological crisis, social fragmentation. Ragnarök.

How different would our world be if ancient Northern Europeans and Northern Euro-descended peoples hadn’t forgotten their animist roots? What would our relationships with ourselves, each other, our world, and the divine look like if the ways of wyrd, and wyrd consciousness—the spiritual consciousness of the interweaving and inter-workings of fate, destiny, nature, soul, and magic—had not been systematically demonized?

And finally—and perhaps most importantly—what can our world become as more and more awaken wyrd consciousness, and remember the animist wisdom that is our birthright? What can you and I become as we remember the deeper, meaning- and purpose-filled truths of soul, and the naturally and magically healing ways of wyrd?

(This blog is dedicated to Nik Turner, co-founder of Hawkwind, who passed away in November of 2022. Bless your spirit and the spirit of your friends!)

Our thanks to Ash for his guest post! For more from Matthew Ash McKernan, read his article “Wyrd Mysticism: On Remembering, Healing-Transformation, and Becoming .”