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.

Or she might be a kind of African Ceres, a goddess of the corn and harvest which were symbolised in the beauteous bloom she tended.