“The gods show themselves all over the earth in the form of animals. Therefore the animal is also an imago dei (image of god), a face of our eternal nature. It could also be that, in recognizing the animal of man, we perceive rudiments of divinities, archetypal modes of consciousness, essential modes: leonine, porcine, hawk-like, rat-like; essential natures present in the psyche".
A. Guerriero