A Sojourn in Animism

To gaze naively at your surroundings is like looking once again, through the eyes of a young child. A child, prior to the embedding of a “particular culture” consisting of “social customs and taboos”, is a soul in its purest state with a perspective clear of civilized theories. Ideals that assume “…only human beings have intelligent souls, and that the other animals, to say nothing of trees and rivers, were ‘created’ for no other reason than to serve humankind” (Abram 6, 7). A view empty of such impressions allows the beholder to experience the natural phenomena, Animism. This is the belief that natural objects, and the universe itself have souls and that the soul is the principle of life and health (Dictionary.com). Take time to smell the roses is more than a cliché; it’s a ritual that should be practiced each and every day. When we pause and allow ourselves time to bask in Mother Earth’s maternal embrace, we experience the gift of youthful sight. It is then, during those precious moments, that we remember how necessary our relation with nature truly is.

However, as mentioned by David Abram in “The Ecology of Magic”, for most, “the animate powers that surround us are construed as having less significance than ourselves” (7). Our continuous depletion of innocence steadily takes us further away from our original, virtuous, simplistic ideals of our existence. As we grow older but certainly not wiser, our conscious is clouded with judgments and false values, “…our attention hypnotized by a host of human-made technologies…” (Abram 17) is successfully adverted from reality as we succumb to earthly muteness. As we continue our lives out of tune with nature’s rhythm the marching to our own beat numbs our senses. Consumed by the civilization that we have created, we no longer allow ourselves to hear the songs that birds sing or the whisper of the wind. Our city lights conceal the starry-lit sky and our smog banks cloak the distant beauty of mountainous terrain. Earth’s valleys are riddled with our asphalt, out-buildings, garbage receptacles, bear boxes, sanitary huts and vehicles traveling to and fro. Nature’s lakes are burdened with our ramps, docks, boats and wave-runners (Abram 21). We humans have created a civilization, a virtual reality for ourselves, one far from where we came from but desperately need to get back to. But how do we get back? Where do we go to escape? And if we do find a place to go and we are successful in our attempt to view the world with new eyes and revive our senses, how do we keep that spirit alive upon our return?

Remember when we were young and we spent most of the day hours outside exploring our surroundings? We were untouched by the worries and distractions accompanied with adulthood. Many of us passed the time collecting materials for building hide-outs in the open fields or forts high up in the trees. We played hunter and gatherers and made pretend meals out of weeds, grass and mud. Perhaps these moments were our first taste of independence and our ultimate satisfaction came when our parents allowed us to stay overnight in our man-made fortress.

I believe we all have a desire within us to return to innocence, but we have confined ourselves in such a way that even Houdini would have difficulties escaping. For some dreamers who never mind the consequences, feel the risk of death is necessary to save their life. Christopher McCandless was such an escapist who “…knew precisely what was at stake” (Krakauer 361). He sought reality; that of which is the state or quality of being real (Dictionary.com). To him, nothing could be more real than the existence of life before man’s imprint, the wild. Falsehoods created by man taunted McCandless to flee the mundane, yet chaotic dilemmas of human life. Returning to nature was Chris’ road to finding truth, to finding his true essence. His journey was his salvation.

There were even times when we thought we could speak to the animals and they understood us; if a bird happened to look down from upon a high branch, we looked up and said “Hello little bird.”, it chirped and fluttered its wings in response. Our smile was evidence enough that we felt successful in conversing with the things in nature. A frog’s hesitant hop meant he was simply pausing to say hello before picking up his pace and heading towards the pond. Even the smallest of critters with gestures too tiny for the naked eye went about their business in a way that we were familiar. Like the working ants moving debris and food back to their fortress they had made, we could relate.

Since he was little, Christopher McCandless often dreamed about living alone in the bush and living off the land (Krakauer 346). Now an adult he was determined to make his childhood dream come true. Fueled by his quest for more adventure and freedom that today’s society gives people (Krakauer 356) he began to traverse civilization. For nearly two years McCandless, AKA Alexander Supertramp, lived a footloose life. He had escaped to absolute freedom. He reveled in his new found ability to get by without depending on much of anything. His days were more exciting when he was penniless. In his own words, “Two years he walks the earth, no phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose name is The Road…” this inscription by McCandless was noted in Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild; a written account of Christopher McCandless’ two year journey (359). Krakauer goes on to note that McCandless discovered what others who ventured into the wild “…already knew: An extended stay in the wilderness inevitably directs one’s attention outward as much as inward, and it is impossible to live off the land without developing both a subtle understanding of, and a strong emotional bond with, that land and all it holds” (362). In other words, something must possess a soul, the essential element or part of something that enables it to bond to another thing such as an agreement or friendship. Soul is also defined as the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments (Dictionary.com). Thus HUMAN – NATURE is the unspoken bond between human and non-human things. As Paul Shepard has observed, “…life is so profoundly in transaction with nature that there is no place for abstraction or esthetics or a ‘nature philosophy’ which can be separated from the rest of life…” (Krakauer 363).

While it may be difficult to remove ourselves even temporarily, from the hum-drum of civilized life, it is of the utmost importance that we do so. By taking David Abram’s advice you can allow yourself time to notice “…the intelligence that lurks in non-human nature…” “…to instill a reverberation in oneself that temporarily shatters habitual ways of seeing and feeling, leaving one open to a world all alive, awake and aware” (14,15). He also notes we must ensure that there is “…an appropriate flow of nourishment, not just from the landscape to the human inhabitants, but from the human community back to the local earth.” “…the relation between human society and the larger society of beings is balanced and reciprocal…” (5). Whether or not we choose to accept our obligation, as humans we are bound and dependent upon nature and presumably visa versa. However there is an exception, one can exist without the other. Nature has and can exist without humans but man will become extinct if his assassination of nature is successful.

Works Cited
Abram, David. “The Ecology of Magic”. The New Humanties Reader. 3rd Edition.
Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company, Boston, MA, 2009. 1-24.
Into the Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Perf. Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt,
Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, and Hal Holbrook. DVD. Paramount Vantage,
2007.
Krakauer, John. “Selections from Into the Wild”. The New Humanties Reader. 3rd
Edition. Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company, Boston, MA, 2009. 343-364.
www.Dictionary.com. 2009.