Animism  is the belief that all objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, and perhaps even the fabrications of humans —as animated and alive, i.e. individual expressions of the Spirit of Nature. Animism is perhaps the world's oldest religion, because its practice seems to predate any form of organized religion. It is believed to date back to the Paleolithic Age and is at the root of shamanistic practice.

    Some modern Pagans practice a form of Anmism when relationships are cultivated with specific trees, who are said to bestow knowledge or physical gifts, such as flowers, sap, or wood that can be used as firewood or to fashion into a wand. In return, these Pagans give offerings to the tree itself, which can come in the form of offerings of mead or ale, or a drop of blood from a finger

.Although each culture has its own mythology and ritual, "animism" is  used in anthropology to describe the most common world view of indigenous peoples. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they seldom have a word in their language that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion"). The term is applied by anthropology.

The idea of animism was developed by the anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general". According to Tylor, animism often includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature", a belief that natural objects other than humans have souls.

Animism should be regarded as distinct from  pantheism, although the two are sometimes confused. Some religions are both pantheistic and animistic. One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), and put more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul.