The Complete Encyclopedia of Signs and Symbols : Identification and analysis of the visual vocabulary that formulates our thoughts and dictates our reactions to the world around Us

This title deals with identification and analysis of the visual vocabulary that formulates our thoughts and dictates our reactions to the world around us. It is a fascinating guide to hundreds of symbols, signs and ideographs, illustrated with photographs, artworks, diagrams and drawings, and presented with authoritative text, commentary and definitions. Lavish illustration shows how signs and symbols have been interpreted and represented through thousands of years of art, myth and religion: from the Babylonians to the Egyptians; Leonardo da Vinci to Michaelangelo; from the Knights Templar to Freud and Jung, and from Aleister Crowley to the code-breakers of World War II. Accessible text explains, decodes and categorizes the signs and provides an indispensable reference. It contains a directory of over 1000 symbols, in addition to hundreds of images featuring these primal metaphors. Symbols can be as graphic as a cross, square or circle, or they can be conceptual representations of themes such as the soul, resurrection, love or desire. The meaning of these signs and symbols is complex and diverse, and depends on many variables. Over 1600 symbols and signs are covered in this comprehensive volume, analysing the definitions and interpretations that have been made across the boundaries of time, culture and tradition. Lavishly illustrated, this book contains a vast source of images and an erudite and informative text that will inform any scholar, dream-reader, magician, psychological historian, astrologer or pyschotherapist.