The Importance of Animism in Swabian Paganism

By Sean Jobst

23 February 2023

A beautiful painting by the Japanese-American artist Kinuko Craft, to 
me a perfect illustration of Animism with Nature's interactive powers.

   It’s been over a year since I last posted on this blog, continuing my series about the Wild Hunt. Among my endeavors since this time has been developing a deeper, spiritual grounding in Animism and Natural Law. These are not specific to Swabian Paganism, but a worldview shared in common by all tribal peoples – including the Suebi and Alemanni. We are not reclaiming a “lost” tradition but a dynamic, living tradition centered around the Divinity imbued throughout all Nature – that everything has a spirit and consciousness. This led to a series on my general focus blog called “Animism and Lessons of Earth’s Power”, my philosophical (making sense of my experience) Manifesto on Animism:

Part 1: Animism Defined and Discerned from Biophobic Doomsday Narratives

Part 2: Roots of Disconnect and the Need to Reclaim Indigeny

Part 3: A Broad Overview of Cosmology. Towards a Gnosis of Earth-Cosmos

Part 4: Emergence, Emanation, True Meaning of Matrix, and Debunking the Simulation Inversion

   Early observers of the Suebi-Alemanni – and the Germanic tribes in general – made a point of writing about our Animism. In the first century, the Roman historian and statesman Tacitus observed how, in contrast to his own Roman people (who had long ago lost their own ancestral Animism with the rise of elevated temples that served more their urban lifestyle), the Germanic tribes worshipped outdoors and not in temples:

   "The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship." (Germania, Chapter 9)

   Their view of Divinity was so transcendent yet all-pervasive that our Ancestors being Animists connected most with the Divine outside. Even the words for altar, Old High German harug “pile of stones” -> Proto-Germanic *harugaz “stoneheap, pile of stone, altar”, indicate altars of outside piles and circles of stones (perhaps recalling the ancient megalithic past) and not the type of Christianized indoor table altars. (I do personally keep an indoor altar specific to my Ancestors, filled with their pictures and items.). We connected more to the Spirit of the Deities, so didn’t make idols. Later representations do exist though, such as bracteates and other artifacts, mostly of Wodan – so it would be a mistake to presume from our lack of idols that we were “iconoclasts”. 

   Groves are specific sanctuaries of trees with minimal or no undergrowth. I theorize these were sacred as they were to Germanic and Celtic peoples because there was a direct communion of the person with spirit of the tree without sharing with the other undergrowth; perhaps a greater sense of Grounding into the Earth, conduit of energies and feeling Her natural frequencies in an immersive, interactive experience. Even sanctuary has a direct linguistic link to "sacred" and "sacral", just as the Roman name for Divinity numen (as in the numinous) also has its root within their own Animistic origins.

   Six hundred years later (after the Empire had already been converted to Christianity), the Greek/Eastern Roman poet and historian Agathias of Myrina observed the still-Pagan Alemanni fighting alongside the Christianized Goths and Franks against Byzantium. He noted how the Alemanni were like those other Germanic tribes in all aspects except religion, since “they worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honor they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby.” (The Histories, Vol. 2, Part 1).* 

   Notice he didn’t say they merely worshipped in those places, but “in whose honor” meaning they knew those were sacred places imbued with Spirit. Even our name for the Deities, Proto-Germanic *ansuz (related to the Norse Aesir, we didn’t have a concept of the Vanir), means “god(s)” – the Indo-European terms for Deities had no difference between singular and plural forms as its all Spirit and Consciousness – unity through multiplicity: Proto-Indo-European root *ansu- “Spirit”, which is also related to the root *h2ensus/*h2ens- “to engender, beget” – It was all Spirit, with the Divinities being inseparable from the Ancestors. All were imbued with Spirit and Consciousness as per Animism. So as with Animistic peoples worldwide even to this day, our Suebi and Alemanni people saw the Spirit throughout all Nature.

A monk/missionary horrified at the Wasserhexen, water spirits
or witches. Interesting image I found from the Iwobrands Blog.

   Although Alemanni is usually ascribed to “all men” since we were a Confederation of different tribes, some English scholars have proposed derivation from Proto-Germanic *alah/*alhs “sanctuary”: “The name is possibly Alahmannen, 'men of the sanctuary.'" (Inglis Palgrave, ed., The Collected Historical Works of Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H., 1919, p. 443; citing Bury's ed. of Gibbon (Methuen), vol. I, 1902, p. 278 note; H. M. Chadwick, Origin of the English Nation, 1907.). The word sanctuary here is another indicator of our Animism. (See also my esoteric meditation on the Othala Rune and relation to the concept of sacred space). In the course of my seeking a distinctively Suebi/Alemanni Paganism, I came across a Brazilian effort called Alþeis Sidus: Suebo-Visigothic Heathenry to reconstruct based on the Suebi heritage of Galicia and Northern Portugal. I generally endorse their research, including this passage about Animism, as an accurate expression of Swabian Paganism:

   “We assume animism as the basic and initial premise of our worship. At the basis of our worldview is the idea that every single material being (stones, trees, natural events, clouds, etc.) is inhabited by a waíhts (wight), which gives it life and personality. This idea causes the need to respect all the things around us and relate with them in their terms, through offerings (do ut des), in order to keep the *freiþs (from Old Norse friðr) of our environment. Alþeis Sidus, however, is a non-dualistic religion, what we call ‘spirit’ through this text is not what Western society commonly understand as a spirit, but, more properly, a principle of animation, that is common to every single being, not only what Westerns recognize as living.” ("Sidus and Worldview of Sáuilaþiudōs Haírþō”).

   Even before I had fully awakened to Animism, I found myself drawn towards the mysterious Swabian Goddess Zisa, and even later to Holle as another Nature Goddess. Tacitus also had much to say about the Germanic veneration of an Earth Mother Goddess, giving Her the mysterious name Nerthus (which has baffled many scholars since who tried to identify Her in relation to evolving Germanic Heathenry). I found this useful section about Nerthus on the “Alþeis Sidus” source which also explains perfectly why there are regional variations such as Zisa, Holle, Perchta, and Frija (each of whom personify a different spirit and aspect of Nature):

"The Procession of the Goddess Nerthus" illustration by the
German artist Carl Emil Doppler for Wilhelm Ranisch's book
Walhall: Die Götterwelt der Germanen (1905). Tacitus' account
of an idol for Nerthus is an apparent contradiction with his
earlier account. Perhaps Her idol was the exception?

   “We assume Nerthus as a West Germanic Earth goddess, who was possibly adopted by the Suevi. We assumed the theory that Earth was always worshipped as a local deity, thus, we can make a syncretism of all the Germanic Earth goddesses and understand her in her multiple sides…

   “Tacitus calls her 'Mother Earth'. Certainly she is the allmother, the earthly womb from which everything had its birth. She is known by many names, each one of them being the face each tribe saw her. The land is not the same everywhere, although it cannot be said from the Sky. Maybe this is why all sky fathers or chief male deities look for marrying the Earth. As the womb of choice, as the potential mother of all and everything, she was then both the void, the black hole that can be impregnated with the desire, and one of the most sacred known and worshiped beings due to her power of keep the act of birth of all beings, their nourishment, as well as for being the place where life have its counterpart: the death. The dead ones live in the Earth, within the Earth and their life there also make the Earth sacred. The land supports everything, makes everything alive, conscious and connected; the land keep the lives of the living, over her, and of the dead, under her. The dead and the living are exchanging mahts through Nerthus every single moment. The soil is the blood of the Ancestors, their flesh and bones, the ground has many layers, the deeper, the older. Those layers are in some way like our waúrþans and *uslag, being both ground over which we live in, as well as the hidden past that brought us here. The human being and the Earth are one, they are not unrelated beings. Nerthus was then worshiped in a respectful manner, enclosing all weapons when the time of her feasts had place. A chariot guided by cows borne her idol, where the spirit of the goddess itself inhabited for a while."

* Incidentally, this is another account giving the lie to the simplistic narrative that "Europe has been Christian for 2,000 years." Even as late as the 500s our Suebi/Alemanni people were still Pagan/Heathen. Christianization was a gradual process that took two centuries, involving much syncretism and the Frankish occupiers changing our Laws, imposing Church prohibitions, and massacring the elites of our tribe.

Various pictures from my visit to the Birkenkopf (9 July 2016), an
incredible place atop Stuttgart expressing rebuilding after devastation
and suffering, blending with Nature. I felt a mystical energy here.