Illustrated Sourcebook of Signs & Symbols

This is a fascinating directory of more than 1200 visual images, with an expert analysis of their history and meaning. It offers a magnificent analysis of the way signs and symbols have been interpreted and represented through thousands of years, from earliest times to today. It is a pocket-size encyclopedia of all the different image that shape the world we live in, including the wheel, the cross, the gateway, the rainbow, the dragon and the sun. This title examines how signs and symbols developed as a means of non-verbal communication throughout history in art, religion, psychology, literature and everyday life. It shows how universal signs weave a continuous fabric throughout our cultures, and how modern systems still depend on ancient symbolism. It defines in words and pictures more than 1200 icons, graphic motifs, ideograms, signs and symbols. Signs and symbols are a fundamental part of the way we communicate. This book explores the iconography and symbolism that connect them all, including cave paintings of the circle and the square, the signs of the zodiac and modern computer iconography. It has an extensive directory of hundreds of individual graphics, from astrological signs to symbols from around the world, such as a pentagram, a dove and the Chinese sign of yin yang. An authoritative, accessible text make this a visual sourcebook and one-stop reference encyclopedia for scholars, dream-readers, scientists, psychologists, historians and astrologers of every kind.

Mark O'Connell is a process-orientated psychologist. He has direct experience of the social symbolism of the Maori, Aboriginal, Native American, Ghanaian and Amazonian Indian peoples. With Raje Airey, he is the author of Understanding Symbols (published by Southwater). Raje Airey is a well-known writer and editor, with a broad knowledge of many esoteric traditions. Raje is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and specializes in holistic healthcare.