Animism is the belief that personalized supernatural beings (or souls) inhabit all objects and govern their existence.
Animism (from animus, or anima, mind or soul), originally means the doctrine of spiritual beings, including human souls. It is often extended to include the belief that personalized, supernatural beings (or souls) endowed with reason, intelligence and volition inhabit ordinary objects as well as animate beings, and govern their existence (pantheism or animatism). This can be stated simply as "everything is alive" 'everything is conscious" or "everything has a soul".
Modern Neopagans sometimes describe their belief system as animist. One example of this is the idea that the Mother goddess and Horned god consist of everything that exists. Pantheists equate God with existence, a similar concept.