For the last twenty or so years, I’ve had the great privilege of teaching metaphysics and Pagan spirituality up and down the coast. I’m really lucky in that I’ve somehow turned thinking too much and then telling people about the results of my ruminations into something resembling a career. When you think too much, particularly about spirituality, you begin to see how different systems and forms of relationship impact each other. I’ve been grinding one particular axe within Paganism for a good decade or so at this point. The axe in question is transactional spirituality.
Capitalism as a system touches everything. I think of it like an invisible gas that we’re all breathing whether we realize it or not. And, as with many invisible gasses, this substance we’re ingesting impacts our thoughts. Capitalist thinking turns situations, relationships, events, and more into commodities that have a monetary value and can be consumed or used indiscriminately. Spirituality is not protected from this mindset – while we’re all trying to grow as people and find ways to mature spiritually, we’re also still breathing the invisible gas of capitalism.
I’d say the metaphysical world is unusually prone to some of the worst of this. Practitioners of metaphysics – often Pagans but not always – purchase beautiful crystals we intend to use for healing that were harvested in ecologically harmful ways many thousands of miles from where we live, frequently by mine workers trying to survive working conditions that include terrible human rights violations. We burn incense that includes over-harvested or unsustainably sourced ingredients like frankincense, white sage, palo santo, and agarwood. Books and blogs within the last few years still sometimes encourage people to bury the remains of a spell – the spent candles, incense, and assorted ingredients – without a thought for the microbiome in the soil or what introducing those foreign substances might do to the surrounding fauna and flora.
The metaphysical world is a good example because it can be extreme in its use of natural resources. However, transactional spirituality is not limited to those of Pagan or other alternative faith paths. The commodification of spirituality is everywhere, and it is deeply reckless. Capitalist thinking goes further than the items we purchase. The word “religion” means observances we are careful to practice. Capitalist thinking poisons the heart of religious structures, and in too many places religion is just another thing Western culture consumes. The mainstream form of religious practice in this country is that people sit and expect another person to give them their religion. The cocreative relationship between spiritual leaders and the communities they serve has metastasized into yet another consumer relationship – yet more transactional spirituality. One party provides, one party pays to receive. The flow of connection passes from a person in power to those they have influence over, and there is generally precious little thought given to what the structure of transactional religion is doing to the faith in question. This form of hierarchical, consumptive religion is the worm in the apple of Western religious structures.
A robust, balanced, healthy spiritual life is not consumption based. It is relational. And, like every good relationship, the flow of focus and energy is shared. Spirituality is not top-down or hierarchical. Healthy spirituality is a double helixed spiral like our very DNA. It is a system that spirals inward and outward simultaneously. As it expands to connect while taking us deeper, it also extends upward like a spiral staircase. Spirituality, at its best, is a three dimensional, moving, ascending shared journey inwards, outwards, and upwards.
To develop cocreative, relationship-based spirituality, the next horizon is true lived animism: the understanding that the living beings we share our world with, the sacred structures of the earth itself like mountains and oceans, and the natural phenomena around us are also enspirited. They are beings just as much as we are, and deserve the same considerations and respect we demand for ourselves. Humans are not the most important beings on this beautiful blue planet. We are one part of a spiritual polyculture. Religious pluralism is only the beginning of finding our place in this tapestry of existence. Like the double helix spiral of spirituality we must reach outward while reaching inward and growing as just one of the threads of an infinite and infinitely beautiful universe.
True animism changes everything. It is the antidote to transactional and hierarchical spirituality. When we focus on building respectful relationships with the beings and structures around us, our behavior transforms. Just as we plan for the allergies of dinner guests when we host our friends for a meal, we start to think of the needs and preferences of the beings we live near and work with. We begin thinking of the other species around us as potential friends and acting accordingly. We are less destructive, more considerate, more interested in finding a balance for our own lives in context with the world around us.
Animism also changes spirituality on both surface and deep levels. One of the largest personal challenges adults in the United States face is loneliness. That challenge is so profound that in 2023 the Surgeon General released an advisory that described the amount of loneliness in our country as an epidemic. Like many multifaceted problems, spirituality does have a role to play in addressing this crisis. If we’re only experiencing spiritual connection in limited settings through an intermediary authority figure, we’re missing out on so very much.
One way I live my animism is in how I perceive my own spiritual connection to the world around me. I was raised without much in the way of religious guidance, which meant I was able to develop a way of relating to the world that arose naturally. One technique that I teach my own students of Paganism is a visualization for the web of life and our place in it. Let’s give it a try.
I invite you to get comfortable in your chair. Notice if there are any places in your body where you are holding tension. Take a few deep breaths and relax those areas. You can close your eyes or bring them to a half-gaze – whatever feels more comfortable. As you continue to breathe deeply, draw your awareness to your heart center. You may even be able to feel or sense your heart beating.
Become aware of a soft glow radiating from your heart; a warm light that may pulse in time to your heartbeat or flicker like the flame of a candle. This glow is your life force, sometimes called prana, chi, or ki in other cultures. Become aware of the bright glow of life within you.
Your heart center is part of a web of life extending in all directions. Become aware of the lines of energy connecting you to other life. They stretch out everywhere – above, below, out to either side… These pathways hum with creation energy – the force of life itself. Allow some of the energy from the web to flow toward you. Let that life-energy replenish your heart center, then expand to heal and recharge any areas of your body that need it.
Draw your hands to your heart, resting them on your chest. Feel your body incorporating that energy and returning to itself. Whenever you are ready, you can gently open your eyes.
This way of feeling spiritual connection may be why I didn’t resonate with hierarchical religious settings when I was younger. I don’t know when I started experiencing spiritual connection in this way, but as far back as I can remember, I’ve felt my place within the web of life deep in my heart. If we are all points of light in a vast constellation that extends endlessly, the top-down forms of religion just don’t fit very well. In the form of Pagan practice I teach, I encourage my students to do the visualization we just did together every day as part of their spiritual practice.
One of the things this way of approaching spiritual connection does is directly address loneliness. We can feel all the other life around us pulsing in time and sending information back and forth through the interconnected web of life. We are truly not alone. All we have to do is remember to spiral in to our hearts as we spiral out to the web of life.
However, animism is not simply a matter of yet another visualization or contemplation practice. That puts us once again into a place of passive receiving – a consumer approach to spirituality. An animistic spirituality is active. Just as we cultivate relationships with our friends through a cycle of giving and receiving time, attention, and even physical gifts, we must begin to approach spiritual connection with the same considerations. This can feel overwhelming given the vast number of potential beings we interact with regularly. A good entry point to animism is to choose one being to start with. Maybe there’s a beautiful tree where you live, or a stream you pass every day while you’re out walking. Maybe you can see the mountains or a river from your window. Maybe you like to feed the local songbirds and already interact with them regularly. Choose a being, or small group of beings, that you live near and see frequently. Then, begin to open your spiritual connection to them.
When you visualize the web of life, become aware of their point in the web as well as your own. Imagine sending them love and gratitude through the web. Then, follow up on that sending in the physical world. If you’ve chosen a tree, sit with it and offer it some water. If you’ve chosen a stream, grab a blanket and spend some time sitting on the bank and watching the water flow. Offer your attention and any gifts that might be helpful to the being you’re building a connection to. Pick up trash if you see any lying around. Over time, allow these moments of connection with the being you’ve selected to include deep listening. Do your best to settle your mind, tune in to the sense of spiritual connection you’ve been cultivating, and observe. It’s amazing what we can learn when we simply sit and listen for a while.
The double helix spiral of spirituality extends endlessly. There is no finish line or point at which one is “done.” Similar to walking a labyrinth, spirituality when approached as a path takes us closer to center and further toward our edges in turn. One of the things I love the most about Unitarian Universalism is our focus on learning. This is another technique to bring into deconstructing capitalist religious structures. When we choose a path of learning, we are moving from a transactional approach to religion and spirituality into a cocreative one. We are taking responsibility for and ownership of our own spiritual connection and the anchors that support it. We are choosing to climb that double helix spiral upward while cultivating connections that draw us closer to center and outward toward the world.
Within wider Pagan culture, there is an area of focus referred to as “Winter Work.” This is a course of study we select for the cooler and darker months. That course of study generally runs from the end of the Pagan year on October 31st to the vernal equinox. As we round the bend toward autumn, think about what you’d like to learn or develop within your own spiritual practice. Maybe you’re interested in meditation, or comparative theology. Maybe you’re curious about religious history or the spiritual roots of the land you live on. My own current area of study is pre-medieval and medieval era Icelandic folk magic. You can get really niche with your spiritual studies.
Making the transition from approaching religion and spirituality as something we receive to something we do is one of the most powerful anti-capitalist actions we can take on a deep level. We can shift our experience of the numinous away from a theism that places spiritual connection into narrow times and situations that center on a hierarchical power structure. We can begin to connect to the very real spirituality flowing all around us at all times by cultivating an animistic approach to the world. As we live that connection, we learn to make better choices when it comes to finding a sustainable way to be in this world with all the other species and beings that call it home. We can choose a path of learning, taking our spiritual growth into our own hands by challenging ourselves to try on a new perspective, explore theological roots, or develop skills related to spiritual growth.
Progressive religion truly has the capacity to change the world in meaningful and better ways. I’m one of those annoying true believers, which is why I’ve dedicated my life to the exploration and teaching of spirituality. I truly believe that progressive religious ideologies are fundamental in slowing the destruction of the anthropocene, bringing sustainable peace to human cultures, and building societies that center justice, balance, and pluralism.
And it all begins with us. It is time to get off the sidelines. Connect. Learn. Do. Spirituality is not a spectator sport.
This sermon was offered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hagerstown on Sunday, September 15th, 2024.
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