I think totemic/symbolic correspondences are a default reduction and breaking because they are a defined and understood end to the becoming process. This is where alchemy comes into it, where alchemy looks on the surface like a description of the becoming !thing but in fact becomes a prescription for the things you will see when you attempt becoming !thing. Once you know the processes of alchemy, they're the way you're most likely to experience gnosis, but if you weren't trained as an alchemist your experience is not limited by alchemy.

Which is why alchemy in this essay is under theology is under entrapment.

Which is why one of my favorite Tarot theorists has been known to recommend cutting the cards into tiny pieces and pasting them back together as hexagons.