Neo-Animistic Modes of Belonging to a More-than-Human World in European Pagan and Ecospiritual Groups

This paper reassesses neo-animism as a contemporary Western spiritual current linking British animist Paganism and Francophone ecospirituality. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that both milieus reconstruct animist ontologies to cultivate belonging with the more-than-human world. Neo-animism reinterprets “ancestral” traditions in modern contexts, drawing on Indigenous imaginaries, anthropology, and environmental thought. In this paper, I analyse how Francophone ecospiritual interlocutors articulate relational ontologies aligned with new animism to forge a spiritual grammar through which identity, care, and responsibility are grounded in reciprocal relationships with other-than-human persons.