Product Description

This is a remarkable dictionary, exploring the vast and various symbols which abound in literature, religion, national identity and are found at the very heart of our dreams and sub-conscious. Compiled by an international team of experts, each entry is given its complete range of interpretations - sexual and spiritual, official and subversive, cultural and religious - to bring meaning and insight to the symbol.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57024 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1184 pages

From the Publisher

Some sample entries:

RAY

At all cultural levels in works of art rays are drawn from the SUN, from HALOES or from other forms. These rays symbolize an emanation of light radiating from a centre, sun, saint, hero, genius or other individual. They express a fecundating influence, whether of the spiritual or material order. An individual emitting rays belongs to the element Fire, and is related to the Sun. The recipient of the rays determines whether they instil warmth, stimulus or fertility, or else burn, dry up or sterilize.

CHAIR

The chair is universally recognized as a symbol of authority. To remain seated while others stand is to demonstrate your superiority, while to offer somebody a chair is to recognize his or her authority or prestige, either as a person or a representative of that authority. In academic circles professional authority is dignified by the Chair in that particular branch of learning, while in the church the bishop's sphere of authority is known as his see, from the Latin sedes, meaning `chair'. Thus the Holy See is the symbol of the divine authority with which the Pope is invested as Sovereign Pontiff. A raised chair confirms superiority.

BUBBLE

Air- or soap-bubbles symbolize a created object which is lightweight, spontaneous and short-lived and which suddenly bursts to leave no other trace of its existence than the transient and arbitrary volume of a little air.

Similarly Buddhists make them emblems of anitya, the transience of the world of illusion. `Whoever', states the Dhammapada, `looks upon the world as upon and air-bubble, can look beyond the kingdom of death.' Another sutra affirms that `the occurrences of this life are no more than dreams, phantasies, air-bubbles, shadows, glittering dew, a lightning flash.' This is no doubt the source from which The Secret Garden Flower teaches `that in the sight of the Tao, Heaven and Earth are but an air-bubble and a shadow'.

About the Author
Jean Chevalier was a university lecturer in philosophy and theology before working for UNESCO. He subsequently devoted himself to writing and research, publishing many works on religion and spirituality. He died in 1993. Alain Gheerbrant is a well-known poet and travel-writer, living in Paris. John Buchanan-Brown is a long-established and gifted translator of French books.

Customer Reviews

A dictionary about sumbols without any pictures of...symbols
Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my research about this book, but I was nevertheless dumbfounded to find that this book has no pictures whatsoever about the symbols it sets out to describe.

If it was a word dictionary I would understand this reasoning, but because we are talking about a dictionary about something as visual as symbols, it must count as a criminal act to publish a book without images of them. And it wouldn't have mattered if the images had been kept tiny, the size of a thumb nail in a corner, or as a reference. They are simply essential to this book, and they are not there.

Haven gotten that out of the way, I can now turn to a more positively note and say that the word descriptions of the symbols are excellent. In most types of dictionaries you would appreciate concise writing, but here you welcome the lengthy examinations of each symbol's meaning, history and sometimes lost or hidden meanings.

So all in all it's an OK book. But still upset about the error of leaving the images out.

Save your money!
A tide of dissatisfaction enveloped me when i received and perused this book. It is outrageous to put a book into print on the subject of symbols with no illustration whatsoever.

The meanings given behind many symbols are far too long winded and combined with added 'waffle' make this book nothing short of a chore to study.
The company that publishes this book is Penguin. I suggest they get their 'international team of experts' together (see back cover) and produce a book aimed at the people who actually pay for it, namely me!! the customer. I'm sorry but in my honest opinion this book fails and disappoints at every level. I regret making the purchase.