DIY Animism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Spirits

by Lupa

From the author of the groundbreaking Fang and Fur, Blood and A Primal Guide to Animal Magic comes the new edition of a work that redefined the concept of neopagan animal spirit work. First published in 2008, this 2020 release keeps her original material while improving it with updates and annotations.Join Lupa as she explores animal spirits beyond the Big, Impressive North American Birds and Mammals! You'll learn how to create connections with animals you may never have thought of, work with these spirits in your everyday life for your benefit and theirs alike, and even learn how to make the Last Animal Card Deck You'll Ever Need!Free from formulaic dictionary entries, streamlined without tons of prefabricated spells, and full of material based on Lupa's decades of experience, DIY Animism is the ultimate guide to deeper, more personal relationships with the animal spirits in your life.

Genres: Spirituality, Witchcraft, Occult

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2020

About the author

"I am an author, artist, and wannabe polymath living in Portland, OR. I've been a pagan of various sorts since the mid-1990s. My primary focus has always been on totemism and animal magics, though in recent years I've been expanding into the general totemic ecosystem, working with plant, fungus, mineral and other totems. I've written several books based on my practices, and you can read my blog at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/blog as well.

Also since the mid-1990s, I've created ritual tools, sacred costumery, and other meaningful art out of hides, bones, beads, and other organics. It's been a strong part of my spirituality, and I even wrote a book about it, Skin Spirits: The Spiritual and Magical Use of Animal Parts. You can see what's currently available for purchase on my Etsy shop: http;//thegreenwolf.etsy.com

I am very involved in environmental and sustainable efforts. I volunteer with local environmental groups with tree planting and litter cleanup efforts, and I even adopted a small stretch of the Columbia River to clean litter, monitor flora and fauna, and do water testing. At home I do my best to follow Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in that order), and many of my art supplies are secondhand or otherwise reclaimed, and everything gets used one way or another.

When I'm not creatively working or volunteering, I love to hike, go out dancing, read voraciously when I have the time, and hit the gym a few times a week.

Reviews

[Mycelial Alchemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realize that for this book (and it's time of creation), this book is talking about Animism, but specifically animism on belief of animal spirits, and with its main focus on animal spirits.

This is not a bad thing but I wanted to clarify for readers that if you are SPECIFICALLY looking for PLANT ANIMISM, you actually want
Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up: Connect With Nature Spirits In Your Ecosystem,
or
Plant and Fungus Spirits: Connect With Spirits of Field, Forest and Garden!

I would say 1/2 (half) of this book talks specifically about/around Animal/Creature spirits (non-plants, non-terra/land spirits) (which they include extinct animals/creatures such as dinosaurs and other paleolithic animals like dodos),
A small section talks about Microscopic Spirits (such as Amoebas) (Which I can count as non-animal spirits, (as amoebas are unicellular and not an animal) this specifically would be a microscopic animism).
A single chapter covers pairing communicating with animal spirits with Chemognosis, aka magic/spirituality through/with drugs, legal and/or not (So I suppose I can count this towards plant spirits of animism).
A chapter (or 2) of this book talks about Shapeshifting, as well as discussing Therianthropy and using it as a method of approaching spiritually/magically towards animism. Which some may connect this with their belief of Animism, and how they can learn from and emulate the spirits they are learning from to see the world through their lens.

Some of the last chunks of the book nicely round things out with creating your own spiritual system, and questioning what can you do for the creatures you are reaching out for support/wisdom!

Chapter List for this Book:

Not including the 2 Introductions (one from 2008, first publishing, + the second from 2020, of the newest publishing)
1. Rant On! Some of the Problems with Neopagan Animal Spirit Work
2. Starting at the Source
3. Some Animal Spirits You May Not Have Considered
4. The Last Animal Card Deck You'll Ever Need
5. Everyday Animal Spirit Work
6. Animal Spirits and Chemognosis
7. Magical Shapeshifting with Animal Spirits
8. Using Spiritual Techniques in Therianthropy
9. Ask Not What Your Spirit Guides Can Do For You...
10. Creating Your Own Spiritual System
Afterword
+
Appendix A: Animal-Based Nonprofits
Appendix B: All-Purpose Generic Guided Meditation for Spiritual Work
Appendix C: Are We Just Splitting Hairs? On Therianthropy and Animal Spirit Work
Appendix D: Deep Ancestral Animism
Appendix E: My Frank Appraisals of Animal Spirit Literature
+
Bibliography

I honestly say that if you have interest in ANY of the topics that Title Lupa's books, then pick it up and give it a shot, and if you find yourself wanting more info, either more of their books can be found, or in nearly every book, there is a Recommended Reading section near the back (and even within the book itself or in the footnotes!)
Lupa is ALWAYS giving out sources/websites/books/content to reach out to that isn't theirs, and I love someone who is open and willing to share their inspirations or content/info that they know can be best delivered by someone who did the work themselves!

[MoonMoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and good read, covering the reasons there isn't an animal dictionary present in the book (aka, go make your own, from your experiences), and filled with exercises (and formats!) to practice as well. And by this, I mean that Lupa's style from what I have noticed is encouraging in finding what things work for you, while sharing their personal experiences and knowledge on topics.

It's a good book to be able to follow and to formulate your own practices. Even if it's entirely impromptu in format, it's still progress.

Also comes with recommendations of other books for further reading on the topics covered within. Of course, sources are all cited and documented, and the current edition includes several footnotes on anything that has changed while retaining the original material from the initial printings.

[Hal Lowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as my 'intro' to animism on the reccomendations of a few friends and found it incredibly approachable and easy to digest. Each chapter is ended with some journalling prompts (that I didn't expect but welcomed) as a way to deepen and better process the info in the chapters. They also serve as a jumping off point for actually using the methods in the book rather than just sitting on the given methods! It's quite casually written which lends itself to making animism accessable (some books tend to use overly-academic language which ends up intimidating people), and demystifies a lot of things.

Also - the meditation included in the appendix is available online as a youtube video!

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

This was a thoughtful, well-researched, and crucial text on animal spirit work. I would recommend this book to any pagan looking to develop deeper relations to animals. I also really enjoyed the second edition’s 2020 footnotes that provided extra nuance to the topic.
Im going to be using this as a reference for years to come.