Among the few groups of symbols we have just presented that
belong to the aquatic realm, this last is by far the most vast and
complex. We have tried to elucidate its structure in a previous
work, to which we refer the reader-- Patterns in Comparative
Religion, pp. 188 ff.--where he will find the essential data from a
dossier on the aquatic hierophanies, and with these an analysis
evaluating their symbolism. Here we will limit ourselves to a few
of its most important features.

The Waters symbolise the entire universe of the virtual; they
are the fons et origo, the reservoir of all the potentialities of
existence; they precede every form and sustain every creation. The
exemplary image of the whole creation is the Island that suddenly
"manifests" itself amidst the waves. Conversely, immersion in the
waters symbolises a regression into the pre-formal, reintegration
into the undifferentiated mode of pre-existence. Emergence re-
peats the cosmogonic act of formal manifestation; while im-
mersion is equivalent to a dissolution of forms. That is why the
symbolism of the Waters includes Death as well as Re-Birth.
Contact with water always goes with a regeneration, on the one
hand because dissolution is followed by a "new birth", and on the
other hand because immersion fertilises and multiplies the
potentialities of life. To the aquatic cosmogony correspond--at
the anthropological level--the hylogenies, the beliefs according
to which mankind is born of the Waters. To the deluge, or to the

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