Unicorn & dragon, griffon & sea serpent, & all relations, take refuge in folklore, until the fantastic & surrealistic release them into literary discourse from older prisons of rational inquiry.
Grim saraband of skeletons, coming to take you away...remember: you must die. Skeletal reaper sweeps away archbishop, servant, judge, doctor, mother, child.
Monstrosity, once experienced as prodigious, held in awe, fell sway to biomedical experimentation's rational labeling of the freak, but failed to kill off dread, age of anxiety's theme.
Self...lost, overtaken, evil-driven, powerless. 1900s, Age of Anxiety, discovers the Doppelgänger, Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves, endowed with potent psychological & sexual connotations, bring insanity & hysteria into focus.
Magic, alchemy and the occult are thus keys that allow entry into certain zones of the Fantastic. More important, they drive the intellectual engine of the Fantastic; even as they wane, they preside over the gestation of science fiction.
Religious supernatural recognized a self torn between transcendent forces that fought for its possession; search for salvation is expressed as war, conflict & terror.