I recently attended an event called Samhain Symposium and I have to tell you a few lights went on in my brain. This happened in a few different ways but the ones that really stood out to me I will talk about below.

It seems that Animism (something I have known about, but really only existed outside my bubble) may be way more up my ally than deity worship. I think I probably need to preface that, considering both beliefs/activities are not exclusive of each other, nor is Animism necessarily anything like Deity worship and as such should be compared. So I will preface it this way:

I don’t do well with Archetypes, wherein Archetypes I will define as humanoid expressions of energy, aka gods and goddesses. I did horribly with the idea of God (spelled with a capital G, in Christianity) in my upbringing. Never made sense to me. I pretended that He existed because I thought that was what I was suppose to do, and when I was really little I was able to play like that with the best of them. But, as I grew up and moved away (read: ran screaming) from the cult* I was brought up in I found other means of spirituality far more accessible. Wicca was at the top, but again there was that unknowable aspect of an ethereal being that ruled over “stuff”. Of course the gods and goddesses of mythology ARE still more accessible than “God”, and I really appreciate that. They have foibles and flaws and different combinations of energies are represented in each. They aren’t all knowing and all ruling like the Christian God. No where in Wicca is there the “One True God” sentiment, instead there is a bounty of mythologies to draw upon. I went searching, and maybe I am still searching for Deity that speaks to me. They calls to me to work with them. I am hesitant because archetypes, in my head, are still made up things. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely support the human need to create an archetype to bring them closer to that wich is ethereal and unknown. That is human nature at its finest! I understand it, psychologically it makes a LOT of sense to me. At the end of the day, though, to me its all just energy, and somehow my brain feels closer to an abstract concept than a man-made personification of energy. Maybe it’s why I am an abstract expressionist when I have a brush or putty knife in my had and pile of mixed media by my side. I LIKE the mess, photorealism is too tidy.

Back to Animism. To which I will confess I have no mastery of, because I am JUST NOW pulling it into my frontal lobe, but the concepts definitely spoke to me as they were outlined by fellow Canadian Dodie Graham McKay in her talk at Samhain Symposium, “Witches and Animal Allies.” She covered the idea that all creatures in the animal kingdom are equal to and equally filled with spirit as humans. In animism the same is true for all things in nature, rocks, trees, etc. but the focus of her talk and her most recent book (I JUST GOT IT, will report back), A Witches Ally: Building a Magical Relationship with Animal Familiars and Companions is specific to animals in particular. Somehow I think, inculcating these ideas into my current belief system will be rather seamless because all the AHA! moments of “Yeah! Exactly that!” that bubbled forth during her talk were seemingly endless. I just now have some framework. THANK YOU Dodie! (Also, if you see this, thank you for invited us over for drinks that night at the hotel restaurant, such a lovely chat with you and Kelden!)

Speaking of Kelden, who also spoke at Samhain Symposium, what a breath of fresh air it was to attend his talk “All Hallow’s: The History and Folklore of Halloween.” It’s always been my belief that literally no one, not even archeologists, can 100% tell us what ancient people did. Scientists, Archeologist and the like, can look at evidence, they can make assumptions based on evidence. But none of us were there. The time machine has yet be invented. Just like someone who reads the bible and says its literally God’s word and should be followed even today (don’t get me started) ….. the idea that we as witch’s can say Samhain is an ancient festival day …. is bohunk. Now these are my words, no his. But you get my point. This talk tore apart the idea that we as modern witches can claim we are IN FACT doing OLD ANCIENT THINGS when things like Samhain (the name in particular) is a pretty modern construct.

Side Tangent: I think my doubt in any religion that says they practice ancient ways is pretty valid. We do have some things like the bible and the Koran that can shed light on the past. What a gift! But were we there? Do we know the context in which is was written? Do we even trust that men didn’t make changes over the years to suite their own societal beliefs when manuscripts were handed down? How can translation even really happen from ancient languages reliably, when an “imperfect” man is in charge of that translation? Prophecy and the word of God it may or may not be, but the human mind that conceived and captured any part of it (ie the bible) only has his own surroundings to derive the context of that prophecy. So all those words are based on their ideas, their environments, their assumptions and surroundings. My thought is and correct me if this doesn’t sound right… The place that we are in now, the environment we live in, the evolution of beliefs and practices since ancient times, much different and harder to conceive to an ancient human, no? So many reasons we cannot say, “This is 100% truth” about literally anything that makes assumptions about ancient practices or writings. When we read the bible you don’t read about modern conveniences like cars and microwaves, its quite obvious that they are filtering whatever message was gifted them through their own life circumstances. Evolving beyond that was beyond them, they only could work with what they had. It is very frustrating to think that God (re the Christian god) woudn’t continue to send the messages…. messages that would evolve through time as we evolve. I have heard all the explanations, but again, faith based and not in my belief wheelhouse. And now-a-days? No one can agree…. so my belief in any of it wanes rapidly. There is no ultimate truth. There is no proof of any one religion or spiritual practice to be more valid than any other. You choose whatever practice you need (religion, spiritual practice) to understand that which you cannot see (god, spirit, energy..) and then you just do it. How is this hard? Tangent complete.

*This is not a sneer at Christianity on a whole, this is just the cult-form of Christianity that had a hold on my family then and does to this day. RE: JW’s. For the record, if an all knowing and all seeing “One True God” with Jesus and the Holy Spirit as pickle in the middle, is what your human brain needs to live in this world and connect with the unknown, cool….. just maybe a message for some of them: Stop trying to push that on other brains that don’t need it and don’t work that way.

Find more about my new witchy friends Dodie and