The Blackwell Dictionary Of Symbols - Hardcover

CHEVALIER

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9780631192657: The Blackwell Dictionary Of Symbols

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631192654 ISBN 13: 9780631192657

Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell, 1995

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This is an inventory of symbols and the symbolic imagination. The editors and their fifteen contributors are drawn from a variety of scholarly backgrounds, from anthropology and ethnology to psychotherapy and art history. This diversity of approach is responsible for the book's character, a reflection of the multiplicity of symbols and signs and the phenomenal range of possible interpretations they offer. The book draws together folklore, literary and artistic sources, and focuses on the symbolic dimension of every colour, number, sound, gesture, expression or character trait that has benefitted from symbolic interpretation. The conscious and unconscious minds are explored, desire and dreams are treated alongside the known and the chronicled. Its 1600 entries are indexed to a comprehensive bibliography.

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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.

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