Water Beings: From Nature Worship to the Environmental Crisis

Looking to the vast human history of water worship, a crucial study of our broken relationship with all things aquatic—and how we might mend it.

Early human relationships with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities: rainbow-colored, feathered or horned serpents, giant anacondas, and dragons. Representing the powers of water, these beings were bringers of life and sustenance, world creators, ancestors, guardian spirits, and lawmakers. Worshipped and appeased, the...