Tag Archives: animism

Deliver me in a black-winged bird: Meeting an eagle

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

Midnight blue water rested at the horizon under a brightening sky, framing shafts of pine and fir at shore’s edge. It was a July dawn in 1995, and I was visiting Lopez Island, off the coast of Seattle, birdwatching. Bald … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, birding, birds, birdwatching, eagles, meditation | 3 Comments

Being known by a birch tree

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

I grew up in a small white house at the very edge of a tiny town in northwest Ohio. Beside the house my parents had planted just a few years before my birth a cut-leaf weeping birch tree, Betula pendula … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, attitudes toward nature, trees | 9 Comments

Finding tongues in trees

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

Over the weekend I attended a conference on religion, ethics, and nature at Ohio Northern University, where one of the keynote speakers was David Abram. A dozen years ago Abram wrote a book that for me worked magic. It became … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, David Abram, nondualism, panpsychism, philosophy of mind, Spinoza | 4 Comments

Paradigms, idols, and the mind in matter

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

Following Karen Armstrong’s remarks on idols, I’ve been thinking about idolatry in relation to our view of nature. We are wedded to the view that nature lacks mind–to the extent that alternatives to this view, from pantheism to animism, are … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, attitudes toward nature, Descartes, Karen Armstrong, panpsychism, pantheism, philosophy of mind | Comments Off

Animism 101

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

Last week while I was at Prescott College, where I teach in the grad programs, I had a wonderful conversation with Mary Sweeney, who also teaches there. Mary is a cofounder of Her Feet on the Earth, a nonprofit that … Continue reading →

Posted in education, nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, connection, ecopsychology, tracking | 1 Comment

Nature, God, and styrofoam

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

My sweetie and I met two recent Buddhist acquaintances at a “fast world-food” place last night for dinner, just before the start of their meditation meeting. By way of getting to know one another better, one of our new friends … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, spirituality | Tagged animism, dreams, nondualism, panpsychism | 1 Comment