NATURE WORSHIP

system of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomenafor example, celestial objects such as the sun and moon and terrestrial objects such as water and fire. In the history of religions and cultures, nature worship as a definite and complex system of belief or as a predominant form of religion has not been well documented. Among the indigenous peoples of many countries the concept of nature as a totality is unknown; only individual natural phenomenae.g., stars, rain, and animalsare comprehended as natural objects or forces that influence them and are thus in some way worthy of being venerated or placated. Nature as an entity in itself, in contrast with man, human society and culture, or even God, is a philosophical or poetic conception that has been developed among advanced civilizations. This concept of nature worship, therefore, is limited primarily to scholars involved in or influenced by the modern (especially Western) study of religion. Additional reading Apart from some older works about particular forms of nature worship, the most important discussions of this form of religion and the related nature mythology appear in journals. James G. Frazer, The Worship of Nature (1926), is a classic work mainly concerned with the worship of the heavens, the sun, and the earth; and The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. rev., 12 vol. (190715; abridged ed., 1922 and 1959), contains an important discussion of nature gods, especially vegetation gods, and their cults. Important references to the worship of nature may be found under various headings in The Mythology of All Races, ed. by Louis H. Gray, 13 vol. (191632); and The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by James Hastings, 13 vol. (190826, reprinted 1955).