The New Animism: Exploring A Relational Worldview with Graham Harvey

It has been a great personal pleasure to welcome Graham Harvey to Embodied Pathways. I first met Graham in 1994, when I was one of the organisers of a Magical Conference in London—a fundraising event for the eco-pagan group, Dragon. That magical encounter ultimately led to Graham inviting me to speak at the first-ever academic conference on Paganism later that year. He would go on to become my PhD supervisor and has continued to support my research ever since.

Graham has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of animism—not as a primitive belief system, but as a sophisticated, relational worldview. His groundbreaking 2005 book Animism: Respecting the Living World challenged colonial frameworks and reframed animism as an ethical practice of engaging respectfully with other-than-human persons—rivers, stones, forests, and much more.

In our conversation, Graham shares the fascinating journey that led him to this work. His PhD research on ancient texts and self-identities eventually guided him toward exploring the vibrant world of paganism. Transformative experiences at the Stonehenge Festival and an indigenous powwow in Newfoundland sparked his deeper interest in relationships between humans and the larger-than-human world, laying the groundwork for his revolutionary approach to animism.

As Graham emphasised throughout our discussion, his work reveals that animism isn't about what people believe, but about how they act, speak, and relate within communities that include more than just humans. We explored the concept of "other-than-human persons"—a phrase that highlights the agency and personhood of non-human entities, challenging conventional views and encouraging us to reconsider how we engage with the world around us.

Graham's framing of what is often called New Animism entails "provocative re-evaluations of all ways of being, acting, thinking and relating" (The Handbook of Contemporary Animism, 2015). This raises urgent questions: What changes when we recognise a river or a mountain as a person deserving our respect? How do we live ethically within such a larger-than-human world? And perhaps most pressing in the midst of an ecological crisis, what might we learn from cultures that never forgot that the world is alive and animate?

We delved into how animism can inform our understanding of kinship and responsibility in a world that often prioritises consumerism and individualism, exploring the significance of ceremony, gratitude, and the active engagement required to foster meaningful relationships with the environment. This conversation serves as a powerful reminder that we have the capacity to cultivate respectful relationships with the world around us, drawing inspiration from both indigenous practices and our own lived experiences. I hope you find it as inspiring and thought-provoking as I did.