Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology

David Abram's profound sequel to The Spell of the Sensuous—a transformative exploration of our embodied, animal nature and our elemental kinship with the breathing Earth, inviting readers to awaken their wild senses and rediscover the human body as fully participant in the more-than-human world, creating one of the most important works of contemporary earth-based philosophy and ecological consciousness.

David Abram, cultural ecologist and philosopher, published Becoming Animal in 2010 as a continuation and deepening of the themes in his groundbreaking first book, The Spell of the Sensuous. While the earlier work explored how alphabetic writing distanced us from direct sensory engagement with nature, Becoming Animal offers a path back—inviting us to remember that we are animals, that our bodies are made of earth, air, water, and fire, and that we belong to the living world as fully as ravens, rivers, and mountains. Through lyrical prose and phenomenological insight, Abram guides readers toward a more intimate, embodied relationship with the Earth.

What you'll discover:

• The wild intelligence of the human body and our animal senses
• Our elemental kinship with earth, air, water, and fire
• How to awaken sensory awareness and direct perception of the living world
• The shape-shifting of ravens and what it reveals about consciousness
• The erotic nature of gravity and our bodily relationship with the Earth
• The eloquence of thunder, wind, and other-than-human voices
• What it means to be edible—our participation in the food web
• A metamorphosis in our relation to the living land

Abram writes from within the body, inviting readers to feel their animal nature—the breath moving through lungs, feet touching ground, skin sensing air. He explores how we've distanced ourselves from the living world through technology and abstraction, taking our truths from screens and concepts rather than from direct sensory experience. Yet our bodies remain wild, still speaking the language of wind, water, and earth. By awakening our senses, we can remember our place within the more-than-human community and discover a more reciprocal, participatory relationship with nature.

What makes this book essential for your contemplative library is its vision of ecological consciousness rooted in embodied experience rather than abstract ethics. Abram doesn't argue that we should care for nature from a distance but invites us to recognize that we are nature—that the boundary between human and wild is an illusion. He draws on phenomenology (particularly Merleau-Ponty), indigenous animism, and his own experiences as a sleight-of-hand magician and ecologist to create a philosophy that is both intellectually rigorous and sensuously alive.

The book explores profound themes with poetic precision: gravity as the Earth's embrace, the intelligence of storms, the reciprocity between predator and prey, the way landscapes think through the creatures that inhabit them. Abram shows how every breath connects us to trees and oceans, how our eyes evolved in relationship with light and color, how our bodies are literally made from the Earth and will return to it. This isn't metaphor but biological and phenomenological truth.

Becoming Animal has become essential reading for anyone interested in ecological philosophy, earth-based spirituality, and the relationship between consciousness and the living world. It offers a vision of what it means to be human that is both ancient and urgently needed—a remembering of our animal nature and our belonging to the breathing Earth.

Perfect for: Readers of David Abram and The Spell of the Sensuous, students of ecological philosophy and environmental ethics, those interested in phenomenology and embodied consciousness, readers of earth-based mysticism and animism, anyone seeking to deepen their sensory relationship with nature, students of indigenous wisdom and ecological consciousness, contemplative readers drawn to embodied spirituality, and seekers interested in the intersection of philosophy, ecology, and direct sensory experience.

This paperback edition presents David Abram's profound exploration of our animal nature—a transformative invitation to awaken our wild senses and rediscover our elemental kinship with the living Earth.