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Nature worship

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This article is about religions which worship nature. For other uses, see Naturism (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Naturalism (disambiguation) or Naturism.

Nature worship, also called naturism[1] or physiolatry,[2] is any of a variety of religious, spiritual and devotional practices that focus on the worship of the nature spirits considered to be behind the natural phenomena visible throughout nature.[3] A nature deity can be in charge of nature, a place, a biotope, the biosphere, the cosmos, or the universe. Nature worship is often considered the primitive source of modern religious beliefs[4][5] and can be found in pantheism, panentheism, deism, polytheism, animism, Taoism,[6] totemism, Hinduism, shamanism, some theism and paganism including Wicca.[7] Common to most forms of nature worship is a spiritual focus on the individual's connection and influence on some aspects of the natural world and reverence towards it.[8] Due to their admiration of nature, the works of Edmund Spenser, Anthony Ashley-Cooper and Carl Linnaeus were viewed as nature worship.[9][10][11][12]

In the Western World

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Paganism in Europe

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In ancient European paganism, the deification of natural forces was central to religious life.[13] The Celts and Germanic tribes believed that gods and spirits resided in natural elements such as trees, rivers, and mountains. For example, Thor was associated with thunder, and his hammer, Mjolnir, was believed to control storms and lightning. Similarly, the goddess Nerthus was linked to fertility and the earth, with rituals involving plowing sacred fields to ensure a bountiful harvest.

Manannán mac Lir, the Celtic sea god, sculpture by John Sutton at Gortmore

The reverence for these deified natural forces was expressed through various rituals, including food offerings, sacrifices, and festivals. Sacred groves were considered the dwelling places of these deities, and entering such spaces was often restricted to priests or those performing rituals.

Ancient Greece

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In ancient Greece, many natural forces were personified and worshipped as gods and goddesses.[14] For example, Poseidon was the god of the sea, controlling storms, earthquakes, and horses. Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was believed to be responsible for the fertility of the earth and the changing seasons. Rituals dedicated to these deities often included offerings, sacrifices, and festivals like the Eleusinian Mysteries, which celebrated the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth in alignment with the agricultural calendar.

The deification of natural forces in Greek religion reflects the deep connection between humans and the environment, where natural phenomena were seen as manifestations of divine power that needed to be respected and honored through ritual practices.

Sun god Helios in Altes Museum, an example of Heliolatry

Native American Traditions

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Among Native American tribes, natural forces were often deified and revered as powerful spiritual beings. The Great Spirit, a central figure in many Native American belief systems, was considered the creator and sustainer of all life, with control over the natural world. Specific tribes also worshipped particular natural forces, such as the Iroquois' reverence for Thunder Beings, who were believed to bring rain and fertility to the land.

Rituals to honor these deities included dances, songs, and offerings. The Sun Dance, practiced by several Plains tribes, was a key ritual that involved fasting, dancing, and other ceremonies to seek the favor of the sun, considered a powerful life-giving force.

In the Eastern World

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Hinduism

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In Hinduism, the deification of natural forces is evident in the worship of gods and goddesses associated with various elements of nature. Agni, the god of fire, is one of the most ancient and revered deities, representing the vital force of life and the medium through which offerings are made to other gods. Indra, the god of rain and thunderstorms, is another example of a natural force personified as a deity, with rituals performed to invoke his blessings for rainfall and agricultural prosperity.

Agni, Hindu God of Fire, Stone statue from Pratihara,10th Century, A.D., Uttar Pradesh. Presently kept at the National Museum of India, India

The concept of Prakriti, or nature, in Hindu philosophy further emphasizes the divine nature of the natural world. Rituals often involve offerings to rivers, trees, and mountains, which are seen as embodiments of the divine feminine energy, or Shakti.

Shintoism in Japan

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Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, is fundamentally a form of nature worship where natural forces are deified as kami (spirits). The sun goddess Amaterasu is the most revered kami in Shinto, symbolizing life, growth, and the continuity of the Japanese nation. Mountains like Mount Fuji are also considered sacred, believed to be the dwelling places of powerful kami.

Shinto rituals often involve purification rites, offerings of food and sake, and festivals like Matsuri that celebrate the natural forces and ensure their continued favor.

Buddhism and Taoism

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In Mahayana Buddhism, nature worship is reflected in the reverence for sacred mountains and trees, such as the Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. Taoism, with its focus on harmony with the Tao (the natural way), venerates natural landscapes and elements as expressions of the divine. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, taught that the natural world and its forces should be revered as manifestations of the Tao, leading to the deification of mountains, rivers, and other natural elements.

Criticism of "Nature Worship"

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English historian, Ronald Hutton, has been critical of the antiquity of Nature Worship since at least 1998 until the present. He has argued that the gods of Ancient Mediterranean were not Nature Deities of any sort; rather, they were gods of "civilization and human activity," meanwhile the "Earth-Mother goddesses" are characterized by him as mere literary figures as opposed to deities, because he believes they lack any temples dedicated to them or a priesthood to serve them. He strongly juxtaposes this view by differentiating ancient pagans from Neopagans and Wiccans who profess to be nature worshippers as an essential component of their faith, which he believes is unlike any other in recorded history.[15] Despite having been charged by New Zealand Wiccan, Ben Whitmore, with having disenfranchised those Neopagans "who feel kinship and connection" with the gods and pagans of the Ancient World,[16] Prof. Hutton has reprised these views, virtually verbatim, in the second edition of his book, Triumph of the Moon.[17]

Forms and aspects of nature worship

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  • Animal worship – Glorification of animal deities
  • Fire worship – Worship or deification of fire
  • Gaia philosophy – Broadly inclusive term
  • Gavari – 40-day long festival held in the Mewar region of Rajasthan, India
  • Green Man – Architectural motif
  • Heliolatry – Sky deity who represents the Sun
  • Holy well – Well or spring revered in a religious context
  • Megalith – Large stone used to build a structure or monument
  • Mountain worship – Faiths which regard mountains as objects of worship
  • Naturalistic pantheism – Form of pantheism
  • Naturalistic spirituality – Combined philosophy of spirituality and naturalism
  • Sacred groves – Grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture
  • Sacred herbs
  • Sacred mountains – Mountains central to certain religions
  • Selenolatry – Deity that represents the Moon
  • Sky deity – Deity associated with the sky
  • Standing stone – Large upright standing stone
  • Star worship – Worship of stars and other heavenly bodies as deities
  • Stone circle – Ring of standing stones
  • Thunder god
  • Totem – Emblem of a group of people
  • Tree worship – Significance of trees in religion and folklore
  • Water deity

See also

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See also: List of nature deities
  • Ecospirituality – Spirituality expressed through ecology and environmental activism
  • Earth religion – Religion venerating the Earth and nature
  • Hinduism – Indian polytheistic religion
  • Faunus – Roman deity of the countryside
  • Folk religion – Expressions of religion distinct from the official doctrines of organized religion
  • Goddess worship (disambiguation)
  • Natural religion – Concept in religious anthropology
  • Neopaganism – Religions shaped by historical paganism
  • Pan (god) – Ancient Greek god of the wilds, shepherds, and flocks
  • Pantheism – Belief that God and reality are identical
  • Panentheism – Belief that the divine pervades all of space and time and extends beyond it
  • Shamanism – Religious practice
  • Taoism – Religious and philosophical tradition
  • White magic – Magic used for selfless purposes
  • Wildlife totemization – Emblem of a group of people

References

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  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
  2. ^ "Definition of PHYSIOLATRY". Merriam-Webster. 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  3. ^ A Dictionary of Religion and Ethics edited by Shailer Mathews, Gerald Birney Smith, p 305
  4. ^ Uversa Press (2003). The Urantia Book. New York: Fifth Epochal Fellowship. pp. 805–810. ISBN 0965197220.
  5. ^ Weir, James (16 July 2008). "Lust and Religion" (eBook).
  6. ^ Tzu, Chuang Tzu (2010). The Tao of Nature (1st ed.). United kingdom: Penguin UK. pp. 25–100. ISBN 9780141192741.
  7. ^ Sanders, C. (2009). Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality. Crown Publishing Group. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-307-55109-2. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  8. ^ The New International Encyclopædia, Volume 14 edited by Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby, pp 288–289
  9. ^ Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine: Being a Continuation of the Arminian Or Methodist Magazine First Publ. by John Wesley. 1778. p. 914. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  10. ^ Gill, S. (2006). William Wordsworth's The Prelude: A Casebook. Casebooks in Criticism. OUP USA. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-19-518091-6. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  11. ^ Glickman, S. (2000). The Picturesque and the Sublime: A Poetics of the Canadian Landscape. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-7735-2135-3. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  12. ^ Test, E.M.L. (2019). Sacred Seeds: New World Plants in Early Modern English Literature. Early Modern Cultural Studies. University of Nebraska Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4962-1289-4. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  13. ^ M, York (2003). Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion. New York University Press.
  14. ^ Burkert, W (1985). Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Harvard University Press.
  15. ^ Hutton, Ronald. "The Discovery of the Modern Goddess." Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World. Eds. Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts and Geoffrey Samuel. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998: p.89.
  16. ^ Whitmore, Ben. Trials of the Moon: Reopening the Case for Historical Witchcraft. Aukland: Briar Books, 2010: p. 2-3.
  17. ^ Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019: p. 33.
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