That answer indeed must be sought in the
horrible fears of the unenlightened human heart, which sees death and
terror and evil around it everywhere and, in this grotesque form or in
that, personifies them in gods, or rather in devils who must be
propitiated. For always the fetish or the beast, or whatever it may
be, is not the real object of worship. It is only the thing or
creature which is inhabited by the spirit of the god or devil, the
temple, as it were, that furnishes it with a home, which temple is
therefore holy. And these spirits are diverse, representing sundry
attributes or qualities.
Thus the great ape might be Satan, a prince of evil and blood. The
Holy Flower might symbolise fertility and the growth of the food of
man from the bosom of the earth. The Mother of the Flower might
represent mercy and goodness, for which reason it was necessary that
she should be white in colour, and dwell, not in the shadowed forest,
but on a soaring mountain, a figure of light, in short, as opposed to
darkness.
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