"Think of the crystal, resolving itself, it knows not how, but in accordance with its own immutable laws, from the formless , to a definite ordered shape. May it not be even so in the world of the spirit? Who shall say? Just as, in thundery weather, the electric tension in the atmosphere will increase to a point past endurance,

and eventually give birth to lightning, may it not be that the whole mass of stagnant thought [...] needs clearing from time to time by some kind of mysterious explosion, something potent in its workings. Something forces the dreams of the subconscicous up into the light of day -- like a lightening stroke -- giving rise to an object that, could we but read its riddle, symbolises, both in ways and appearance, the mass-soul, could we but understand and interpret the secret language of forms?"
from The Golem, Gustav Meyrink