What if the antidote to evil has been living in the rivers, roots, and rituals of Earth-based spirituality all along?

We explore Evan Longin's theory of what makes widespread harm possible — binary thinking, controlled information, oversimplified answers, and unchecked power — and ask whether animism, one of humanity's oldest worldviews, naturally resists all four.

For anyone who talks to trees, grieves the animals they eat, or feels the river has something to say.

See us at https://pansociety.net

What does it mean to truly govern yourself in a world designed to fragment your attention and outsource your choices? In Episode 1 of this series, we explore sovereignty not as power or isolation — but as coherent self-governance in relationship. Through an animist lens, we look at why you can only genuinely connect with the living world (trees, rivers, ancestors, dreams) when you show up as genuinely yourself — and how consumer culture, social media, and algorithmic life quietly erode that self. We introduce the six-part arc of the series (Root → Perceive → Discern → Choose → Defend → Regenerate) and leave you with a simple but powerful field practice to try this week.

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An animist reframe on aging: your body isn't decaying — it's becoming. Using the wheel of life, the four seasons, and the wisdom of nature-based traditions, we answer a listener's heartfelt question about finding peace in a changing body.

This is also the perfect preview for our upcoming series on Sovereignty — how to step into your power at any age.

Got a question for the podcast? Drop it in the comments or send it to me directly. I read every one.

If this resonated, please like, share, and review — it helps others walking a nature-based path find their way here. Reciprocity keeps this community alive.

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📩 Submit a listener question: https://pansociety.net

You believe the world is alive. So why does it feel so far away? In the final episode of From Numb to Known, trauma therapist and lifelong animist [Host Name] offers a practical roadmap for returning to presence — one nervous system at a time.

This episode covers the correct sequence for healing dissociation (hint: safety before spirit), somatic grounding as genuine animist relationship, the practice of titration and pendulation, reciprocity as a way to interrupt freeze, finding community when your worldview doesn't fit mainstream culture, and how Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, and Internal Family Systems align with animist frameworks.

For anyone who feels cut off from a world they know is alive — this is the practice of coming back. Small, real, and possible.

Pan Society https://patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimism

Laura Giles https://linktr.ee/lauragiles

You named the ache (Part 1). You understood the trauma underneath it — the freeze, the protector, the structural split (Part 2). Now comes the turn: the bridge back.In Part 3 of From Numb to Known, we reframe disconnection itself. This isn't a story about something broken in you — it's a story about a torn thread in a living web, and torn threads don't carry shame, only the need for mending.In this episode, we explore:→ Why disconnection is relational, not personal — a repair story, not a self-improvement story→ What the land, the seasons, the animals, and the ancestors have been doing this whole time (hint: they never stopped reaching)→ Why the relationship is waiting, not gone — and why the fact that you're listening right now is proof something in you kept the thread→ How trauma lives in the body — and why the body is also the way back→ Sensation as the first language of reconnection, before meaning, before storyThis is for the deeply feeling people — the ones who've felt the glass between themselves and the living world, and who are ready to understand that the bridge across it was never missing. It's been there the whole time.Part 4 is coming soon, where we begin the actual practice: grounding, small presence, reciprocity, and finding your people.#FromNumbToKnown #Animism #SomaticHealing #NervousSystemHealing #TraumaRecovery #EcoSpirituality #NatureConnection #DissociationHealing #AncestralTrauma #Embodiment #PolyvagalTheory #SpiritualAwakening #HealingJourney #EarthBasedSpirituality #FeltSenseWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

What does it mean to listen to a gravestone? Jason Church has spent his life finding out. As Chief of Technical Services at the National Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, Jason is one of the country's leading experts in cemetery preservation and monument conservation — but his relationship with these sacred places began long before any credential. It started in fourth grade, in a cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina, with a caretaker who showed a curious kid things most people never get to see.

In this conversation, Jason talks about what cemeteries hold — not just names and dates, but stories, artistry, spiritual presence, and the living pulse of community memory. We explore the craftsmanship of anonymous stone carvers whose finest work sits in forgotten corners of the country, the oral histories that disappear when a marker crumbles, and what it actually felt like to raise his family inside Laurel Grove South Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia — one of the most historically and spiritually significant African American burial grounds in the South.

For animists, cemetery preservation isn't maintenance. It's reciprocity. It's relationship. And Jason Church has been living that truth since he was nine years old.

Chapters00:00 The Seeds of Curiosity: A Childhood Fascination07:17 Living Among the Dead: Caretaking in a Cemetery11:31 The Art and Science of Preservation16:39 Community and Connection: The People Behind the Graves26:12 Legacy and Storytelling: Keeping Memories Alive#CemeteryPreservation #Animism #AnimistPodcast #SacredLand #CemeteryConservation #HonoringAncestors #GravestoneRestoration #HistoricPreservation #DeathPositive #FolkArt #OralHistory #BurialGrounds #AncestorVeneration #LaurelGroveCemetery #NationalParkService #SpiritInTheGround #CemeteryHistory #SacredSites #GraveyardCulture #TendingTheDead🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode👇 Tell us in the comments — what cemetery has stayed with you?Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

You know the world is alive. You feel it in flashes — in the forest, in a quiet moment, in a flicker of connection that feels like coming home. And then it's gone, and you're back behind the glass, watching your own life from a distance.

This isn't a failure of your spirituality. It's not that you're "not doing it right."In Part 2 of this series, we go deep into what trauma actually does to the nervous system — and why the same sensitivity that draws you toward animism, toward feeling the aliveness of the world, is also the thing standing between you and actually landing inside it.

We explore:

* Why dissociation is a protector, not a flaw

* The three layers of wounding: personal, ancestral, and collective

* Why hypervigilance often underlies spiritual sensitivity

* Structural dissociation — the biology of why you can know connection is real and still not feel it

* How to begin honoring the parts of you that learned to protect you

This is for the deeply feeling people. The ones who light the candles, sit with the trees, do the practice — and still feel that pane of glass. You are not alone in this, and you are not failing.

Part 3 is coming soon, where we start talking about what healing this actually looks like.If this resonated, I'd love to hear which part hit hardest — drop it in the comments below.

Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragiles

Most films about religion play it safe. They make faith the light that saves everyone, or the darkness that corrupts everything. The Pilgrimage (2017) does something braver — and rarer.Through six characters, this quiet Irish film maps the full spectrum of what religion actually does to human beings. Raymond sees any rock as a potential relic and uses the Crusades as a machine for wealth and absolution. Geraldus is a true believer who turned in his own father as a heretic — not for power, but because the institution has replaced his conscience entirely. Brother Ciarán shares Geraldus's faith exactly, and yet dies forgiving his torturer with his last breath. The mute was set adrift without oars for something terrible he did, found by Diarmuid, and has been choosing smallness as penance ever since. And Diarmuid himself — young, quiet, the only one whose faith has never been used for anything — is the only one pure enough to touch the relic. And the only one who understands what must be done with it in the end.This video is a deep-dive psychological and spiritual reading of The Pilgrimage — one of the most honest films about faith ever made, and one almost nobody is talking about.Chapters00:00 The Dual Nature of Faith in Hollywood02:32 Exploring the Characters of 'Pilgrimage'04:51 Raymond: The Pragmatic User of Faith08:32 Geraldus: The True Believer's Tragedy12:06 Brother Ciaran: Faith in Action16:07 The Mute: Guilt and Redemption20:07 Jermud: Pure Spirituality24:10 The Pagans: The Old Sacred27:11 The Power Dynamics of Religion30:04 The Universal Need for Meaning32:41 The Final Sacrifice and Its Implications37:10 The Honest Exploration of Faith#Pilgrimage #spiritualityvsreligion#FilmAnalysis #ReligionAndFilm#FaithVsReligion #MovieExplainedWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.