ANIMISM

Novumists believe in animism: that objects around us are imbued with a soul. We use a non-Christian, roughly Aristotelian sense of the word “soul,” meaning, “the essence of an animal or thing.” The essence from rock to plant to animal to human becomes more complex as we progress up the chain and become more self-aware. Essence is the culmination of “being” including its memories.

These natural objects, animals, and things have personalities. A mountain, for example, may have the characteristics that make it “foreboding”, your computer “lazy”, or your car a “beast.” We instinctually imbue human traits to these objects either because we are linguistically challenged, or because these things have personalities unique to their nature.

A knife will always be a knife. It will never bark at you like a dog, but it can be heavy, sharp, shiny, or have history. Imagine the story Jack the Ripper’s knife would tell if it could, if it were ever found. Materialists will see a knife, those who see essence will see more.

When you start seeing and experiencing these objects, animals, and nature existing with essence, personality, and history, you begin to treat the world differently. This is more than belief. Anyone can believe anything but experiencing can only be done through physical proximity. A mountain in a picture book is a distant concept, but the people living at the base experience it. To your friends, your cat is just a cat, but your cat is family to you. If you drive a car, your car is an extension of you. As we are made of matter that was once inside a star, we are all an extension of one another.

All things have an essence, and some things contain spirits. Spirits are like souls that come simple to the complex and dependent on whether it was an object or animal. Spirits are transient souls lingering in the present. A mountain may not have a spirit, but an animal could. A rock may have spirit but a tree may not.

Spirits do not need to be dead to exist. Only the essence of the animal or object needs to be strong enough to manifest to its ethereal demi-god-like presence. This essence is determined by the object’s history and traits. Identifying what has an essence is often determined by its relationship with those people around it.