Note 154 — Chapter IV · THE SONG OF THE MOTH

Not only was the light- or fire-substance ascribed to the divinity but also to the soul; as for example in the system of Mâni, as well as among the Greeks, where it was characterized as a fiery breath of air. The Holy Ghost of the New Testament appears in the form of flames around the heads of the Apostles, because the πνεῦμα was understood to mean “fiery” (Dieterich: Ibid., p. 116). Very similar is the Iranian conception of Hvarenô, by which is meant the “Grace of Heaven” through which a monarch rules. By “Grace” is understood a sort of fire or shining glory, something very substantial (Cumont: Ibid., p. 70). We come across conceptions allied in character in Kerner’s “Seherin von Prevorst,” and in the case published by me, “Psychologie und Pathologie sogenannter occulter Phänomene.” Here not only the souls consist of a spiritual light-substance, but the entire world is constructed according to the white-black system of the Manichæans—and this by a fifteen-year-old girl! The intellectual over-accomplishment which I observed earlier in this creation, is now revealed as a consequence of energetic introversion, which again roots up deep historical strata of the soul and in which I perceive a regression to the memories of humanity condensed in the unconscious.