Animism, part two

Week #2 - the letter "A" continued

After reading my week #1 blog post on Animism, my friend L. was wondering if spirit and soul were the same thing.  Honestly, I hadn't thought about it prior to writing the blog and even up until the moment L. posed the question.  But it got me thinking: are they the same thing or not?

My first thought is yes, they are the same thing.  Your soul and your spirit are the essence of your being.  They encompass your emotions, your thoughts, your memories.  It is the part of a person or object that is energy. 

After more thought, and a bit of research, I'm not as sure of my initial definition of spirit and soul being one in the same.

Dictonary.com provides the following definitions:

Spirit: noun
1. the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul.
2. the incorporeal part of humans: present in spirit though absent in body.
3. the soul regarded as separating from the body at death.
4. conscious, incorporeal being, as opposed to matter: the world of spirit.
5. a supernatural, incorporeal being, especially one inhabiting a place, object, etc., or having a particular character: evil spirits.

Soul: noun
1. the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.
2. the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul.
3. the disembodied spirit of a deceased person: He feared the soul of the deceased would haunt him.
4. the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments.
5. a human being; person.

Based on the above definitions, the following statements are true:

• a soul is something that is unique to human beings
• a spirit is a soul, but only when it is no longer encased in a body or physical object

Hmmm.

If we reflect on the two definitions of Animism, (1) the belief in souls/spirits and (2) the belief that non-human entities have souls/spirits, and combine it with the definitions of soul and spirit, the first definition still holds as 100% true and accurate to me and in my beliefs.  The second definition of Animism, however, doesn't jive when you include the definitions of soul and spirit, especially the one for soul.

More Hmmm.

My thought process now leads me to considering if I agree with the definitions of spirit and soul as provided by my source.  I do, but I don't.

To me, a soul is your energy and this energy can be in humans, objects, animals, etc.  It is not unique to human beings.  When you soul leaves your body, or whatever it was contained within, it becomes a spirit.  The energy is the same but the location is different. 

Utilizing my own definitions for soul and spirit, I still fully believe in Animism as it is explained in the two-part definition I've used here and in my first post on Animism.

I recently found the picture below.  I think it is a good, but not complete, view of what a soul is and is not.  It does cover what many people feel is an accurate definition of a soul, but doesn't accurately represent my full view on a soul and how I relate it to Animism.