Symbols are central to literature, religion and national identity, but they are also at the heart of our inner dream-worlds, a potent source of insight into our unconscious minds. This remarkable dictionary explores the huge variety of interpretations - sexual and spiritual, official and subversive, analytical and emotional - different cultures have given to the fundamental symbols of mankind.

This book was compiled by an international team of 15 experts, bringing together the insights of theologians and travel writers, philosophers and psychotherapists, classicists, astrologers and art critics. An extensive number os subjects are analysed: Acacias, Bats, Centaurs and Dolphins: the rich symbolism of animals, birds, fish, plants - and legendary creatures; The meanings which have become attached, all over the world, to colours, instruments, numbers, precious stones and parts of the body; Seminal symbols such as the Cavern, the Cross and the Crossroads, the Serpent, the Soul and the Sphere; Central figures from the Bible, antiquity and the mythologies of East and West.