The other night I did a routine burn of lawn branches in my burn barrel. Once started, it didn’t need any attention, but I found myself hanging around anyway, meditating in the flames. Like most people, I can watch fire for hours. Mankind is rare in this respect: the vast majority of animals instinctively flee from fire.

Actually, people are attracted to more than just fire: we find power and energy of all kinds draw us in, inviting us to share in the experience. And so you’ll see people on nature walks to get in touch with streams and rivers, to bask in the sight of waterfalls and mountains. And there is a thriving “storm-hunter” culture, too, of people who truly lust after the idea of experiencing a hurricane or a nearby tornado.

I don’t think that “lust” is too strong a word for man’s desire for nature. Natural power is far more accessible, after all, than a deity who cannot be seen or touched. The Torah describes the desire toward paganism using the very same word as the word for a woman who sells herself to a man with power: zona.

While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by zona with the Moabite women, who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. The menfolk partook of them and worshipped that god. (Num 25:1-2)

I will cut off from among their people both that person and all who zona in going zona after Molech. And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes zona after them, I will set My face against that person, whom I will cut off from among the people. (Lev. 20:5-6) 

You must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for they will zona after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and invite you, and you will eat of their sacrifices. And when you take [wives into your households] from among their daughters for your sons, their daughters will zona after their gods and will cause your sons to zona after their gods. (Ex. 34:15-16)

The Torah describes zona as not merely physical lust, but also the desire to worship external gods, the gods of nature.

The Torah is providing a cynical commentary on just how desperate people are to associate with power. And we can see it all around us: look at the way in which the political left submits itself to Islamic fanatics – to people who have real convictions, and will kill to elevate those convictions. And the left remains obeisant, silent, and often even supportive when Islamic fundamentalists throw homosexuals off buildings, beat their wives, and rape and mutilate girls. Hamas has no greater friends than American liberals!

Why? Because most of mankind is entirely powerless to resist the allure of power. There are no principles left in the face of that kind of conviction – it is why liberal women convert to Islam, in opposition to everything they used to claim they believed. Those very same women, in different circumstances, were groupies, also in thrall to masculine power and authority. And even “normal” women always seek to marry “up” by finding more powerful (or at least tall!) men. Power and energy are incredibly attractive.

This is why nature has always been the fallback for man’s worship. Everything in nature is accessible – we can see, touch and hear the sea or the storm. And so mankind instinctively acts very much like the woman in thrall to the rock star or Islam: we want to get close to the mountain or the tornado. And we instinctively seek to please Mother Nature or any number of powerful natural forces as per the popular mythology of the day.

The Torah deals with this by telling us that we must reject pantheism, by never offering sacrifices to the wild goat that represents it: And they shall no more offer their sacrifices to the demons, after whom they have gone astray. (Lev. 17:7) The goat-god Pan stood for reckless abandonment of mature responsibilities in favor of emulating an animal pursuing his pleasures in nature.

Note the connection between sexual energy (the goat is famous for it) and the slippery slope into paganism. It sounds awfully familiar to us today: the sexual liberation of America was followed by growing pagan earth-worship. Once we fall into the idea that it is our nature, not our conscious morality, that is in charge of our lives, then we end up honoring and worshipping nature. Hedonism and paganism go hand in hand.

Similarly, the Torah keeps reminding us that the source of our creativity and blessings is not ultimately found in the obvious and present power of nature. This is why we are commanded to bring the firstborns and the first-fruits to the tabernacle, to both acknowledge that there is a power behind what we can see, and to calibrate our understanding with everyone else, lest we slip into casual pantheism.

We are instinctively attracted to energy in all its forms. But if we mindlessly surrender to that desire, then we are neither wise nor good.