The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images

by Ami Ronnberg (Editor), Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS)

An exploration of symbols and their meanings throughout history.

The Book of Symbols combines original and incisive essays about particular symbols with representative images from all parts of the world and all eras of history. The highly readable texts and over 800 beautiful full-color images come together in a unique way to convey hidden dimensions of meaning. Each of the ca. 350 essays examines a given symbol’s psychic background, and how it evokes psychic processes and dynamics. Etymological roots, the play of opposites, paradox and shadow, the ways in which diverse cultures have engaged a symbolic image—all these factors are taken into consideration.

Authored by writers from the fields of psychology, religion, art, literature, and comparative myth, the essays flow into each other in ways that mirror the psyche’s unexpected convergences. There are no pat definitions of the kind that tend to collapse a symbol; a still vital symbol remains partially unknown, compels our attention and unfolds in new meanings and manifestations over time. Rather than merely categorize, The Book of Symbols illuminates how to move from the visual experience of a symbolic image in art, religion, life, or dreams to directly experiencing its personal and psychological resonance.

The Book of Symbols sets new standards for thoughtful exploration of symbols and their meanings, and will appeal to a wide range of readers: artists, designers, dreamers and dream interpreters, psychotherapists, self-helpers, gamers, comic book readers, religious and spiritual searchers, writers, students, and anyone curious about the power of archetypal images.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Psychology, Reference, History, Mythology, Philosophy

807 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2010

About the author

Curator of ARAS (Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism) New York.

Reviews

[Bill Tucker]

This isn't the kind of book you just dive into on page one, and plow through in a sequential manner. It is, though, a supurb reference book of all things Jungian, Freudian, archtypal, tantric, and post-modern. For those of you who appreciate and respect the power of the symbols that surround us in our daily lives, this is the tome for you. Drawing from a variety of traditions, it is nearly exhaustive in scope, yet oddly refreshing in its occasional irreverence towards its own chosen subject matter.

BT

[Yanko Tsvetkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that examines how our environment interacts with our psyche and how we make sense of the world. It starts with the most fundamental and ancient symbols like the Universal egg and expands further towards modernity passing through the symbolism of the plant world, the animal kingdom, and ultimately, our own artificial creations. It's a fascinating collection of illustrated essays that would be of interest to anybody. It's beautifully designed, incredibly well researched and a pleasure to read.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I haven't actually read the book cover to cover, but I have used it as a reference book a number of times, and have absolutely loved this book. It's a great reference for philosophy, literature, art, art history, mythology, etc.

One of my professors recommended this book. So I bought a copy. It was about $20 on Amazon, and let me tell you, after getting this book, I can't believe it was only $20. It's a beautiful, hardback book. It has tabs that make it easy to navigate through the different categories of entries. It has lots of pictures and of course a ton of info. Just for a small sampling, for my first assignment using this book, I looked up several colors [red, black, etc], astrological/astronomical signs [sun, moon, stars, etc] and alchemy symbols. It's been interesting to just pick a random topic and read about it.

This is a cool just-for-fun book, as well as an awesome reference book.

[Magnus Gjerde · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not gonna say there is nothing interesting in the book, but the vast majority seems very superficial. You can find most of it in a short google search or by thinking yourself for two minutes. Also, if your looking for some reflection on the triangle for example, you'll have a hard time finding it. However, you will find two pages dedicated to a bicycle! A bicycle! In a book on archetypes?!

[Damien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not a "reading" book. More like a "sit and peruse" book. Phenomenal reference book on the archetypal and historical symbolism of a huge variety of objects that, while seemingly mundane, reach deep into the origin myths and the deep spiritual aspects of human psychology and symbolic meaning. I originally picked this up as a christmas present for a friend and never mailed it, as I simply found it too fascinating to give up. Guess I just have to get another copy for this christmas. Just open it up to any page and start reading. Furthermore, the visual illustrations for the enormous volume of entries is as varied and profoundly researched as the information itself–a huge collection of regional, historical and contemporary examples of these symbols make this book a must have for anyone interested in Jungian concepts of collective symbolism, as well as anyone working in the visual arts. Taschen produces another fantastic work–this is what books are for.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to browse through at leisure, if you are interested in myth, art and literature - though you will never finish reading this!

See my whimsical blog post, inspired by this book.

[Ed Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chipped away at this tome for fourteen months and finally finished today. If you wish to delve into the symbolism of the fourteen months, the beginning of such a reading endeavor, the text itself, what it means to finish a text, etc., etc., I would recommend this book to you.

Be warned, however: If you were one of those students who thought that your English teacher read too deeply into symbols, you will be beside yourself with this one. Furthermore, one is left wondering why symbolic meaning matters at all given the fact that the authors go to great lengths to illustrate that every symbol symbolizes the very opposite of the thing it symbolizes.

Quite the piece of scholarship, I will say that. Only for the most enthusiastic Jungian disciple.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is super surface level, it acts as a basic introduction to symbology. I understand the rose is a symbol of love and that an egg is a symbol of creation, this book didn't go into more detail about the symbology throughout history, cultures, religion etc. Thankfully I took it out of the library instead of buying it and returned it the next day.

[Paola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semplicemente perfetto, una vera mappa per meglio comprendere quanto l'inconscio cerca di comunicarci. Apparato iconografico magnifico, curato nell'edizione, e faccenda che ha il suo peso il costo è di soli 30 euro.
La pubblicazione la si deve anche al sito
http://aras.org
The Archive for Research in Archetypal Simbolism.
Sito bellissimo, unico problema il costo annuale di 100$ per poter consultare il suo ricchissimo archivio di immagini e schede di commento ai simboli. E poi è only English...

Gli ho comprato anche il leggio apposta. Così é pronto per la consultazione mattutina (mia e del marito).
Stanotte nel sogno vi era una leonessa, nel libro trovo:
Leone
come oro, sole e regalità p. 268
femmina, come cacciatrice e madre, p. 268
leoni come Oriente e Occidente, p. 54-55
simbolo alchemico del, p. 270
ricchissimo ampliamento di senso, di che nutrirsi bene.

[Flor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo tengo y lo vengo leyendo hace un año, pero se merecía una pequeña reseña.

Es un libro que recorre la mayoría de los arquetipos reconocibles, desde colores, animales, objetos mitológicos y nos da una amplia significación de cada uno de ellos, abordándolo desde diferentes miradas, culturas, épocas. Es muy completo, MUY.

Es un libro hermoso, que más puedo decir.

No lo terminé claramente, porque es enorme pero vuelvo a él siempre que necesito alguna referencia de algo, se convirtió en mi biblia, en mi manual de consulta de cabecera.

♥

[Étienne-Sacha Garnier · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is rich in images, symbols, art and their significance, it also lacks some elementary parts in the world of symbols, rendering it practically useless in some fields. Numbers, fruits, animals and holidays are lacking in their coverage, references that are often made in literature. It is a fun book to delve into and find interesting new facts about symbols, but functionally, it is more like a coffee table book, and less like an encyclopedia or dictionary that has practical use.

[Mark Krebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for any household that regularly participates in psychedelic drugs

[. ݁⋆ ꫂ᭪ ݁˖ . ݁ · Rating 3 out of 5]

So how do I explain that a fictional crown prince with magic tattoos made me crave a deeper understanding of archetypal meaning and led me to this book?😭

Regardless, I’m here and I’m thriving. I’ve always been drawn to the hidden meanings behind dreams, symbols, rituals, dreams etc and this book felt like a natural extension of that curiosity.

This isn’t a book you read cover to cover, but it’s the perfect reference text. I went down a rabbit hole with it, and had so much fun with it. I enjoyed learning the basic origins and meanings of symbols and cultures around the world, though I do wish it dug deeper into both for a more rewarding learning experience. This was pretty unsatisfying in that sense, but it was a great starting point. I also understand why it is as concise as it is, as it covers a wide range of symbols and images.

Read with highlighters!

[Niana Vinci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scritto con grande competenza e sensibilità, contiene immagini a corredo dei testi veramente belle.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly gorgeous book that discusses and illustrates the symbolic meaning of a host of concepts from the egg to "ancestor," the final entry. In between, the book covers creation and cosmos, the plant world, the animal world, the human world, and finally the spirit world. This is your go-to source for all things symbolic. Useful for both readers and writers, and of course Jungians on holiday.

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched, well designed and with a idiosyncratic point of view that doesn’t adhere to mainstream discourses.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not really a book you sit and read but rather an intense resource to refer back to. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I plan on buying a copy. Very comprehensive.

[Mykola H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that allows you to see the world and all its images more broadly and profoundly.

[Barbara K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read the entire book yet. It's 790 pages, and intended as a reference work. What I have read is impressive, illustrated with the quality of artwork one might find in a comprehensive art history course. This is a book on symbols, and edited from a Jungian perspective, published by the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (aras.org). The text is revealing and yet open-ended enough to make it a remarkably valuable resource, not as a dream interpretation book, but one that offers hints as to what one might have meant when one dreamed or imagined that. I can still think of symbols I wish were included, but this is a book I know I'll turn to again and again for that extra nudge of insight. The book is hardbound, with five ribbon markers as well as thumb-indentations at major sections. It's divided into five main sections: Creation & Cosmos, Plant World, Animal World, Human World, and Spirit World.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een bijzonder mooi uitgevoerd boek - je verwacht niets anders van Taschen. Meer een blader dan een leesboek, ook gebruikelijk bij deze uitgeverij. Wat ik waardeer aan dit boek, is dat het team "beeld" als uitgangspunt heeft genomen, en niet het "symbool". Er is daardoor ook ruimte voor wat je in eerste instantie niet als een symbool zou zien, zoals "auto". De indeling in grote delen en hoofdstukken is prettig, de gevonden afbeeldingen spreken aan. Ze putten zowel uit archaïsche bronnen als moderne kunst. De meeste beelden krijgen twee pagina's, maar er is ook ruimte voor verdieping bij centrale, menselijke beelden.

Ik gebruik het werk als referentie, bijvoorbeeld bij het lezen van tekeningen, (Tarot)kaarten en ter inspiratie bij beeldvorming in groepen.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had this on my to read shelf for quite a few years (Since 2017). I could not muster up the effort to buy the book nor pop down to my library as it was only available as a reference material.

I finally got down to doing it and wow it was a tome of a book. The book is split into various sections like human body, nature, animals, the earth and more and each section is divided by an indented portion so u can easily flip to it. Each item has a 1 - 2 page essay on one of the art work featured and I am glad I did not purchase this as it was not what I wanted.

I think it is interesting as it shows art and photos from different cultures and let's the reader think about what the symbol means to them.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best ever encyclopedia of animals, patterns, things, places, plants and flowers, mythological creatures, landscapes and more, with very interesting text alongside each one exploring their symbolic meanings. It covers the cosmos, the natural world, the human body and just pretty much anything you could ever hope for; it's fantastic to dip in and out of and the editing is brilliant with a really beautiful selection of images. I've found it helpful in designing tattoos and writing essays, understanding different levels of symbolism and just feeding my own interest. So yeah, basically, I love it! A very worthwhile investment that won't run dry.

[N Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for quick reference and inspiration, especially since it has information about different interpretation in different cultures (sometimes I just flip through when I need certain subject matters to work on). But you'll need to find more on your own if you're expecting some in-depth information.

There needs to be more books like these! Makes research life so much easier.

[John Kulm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've studied this book and explored it and leaped back and forth around it. It's a reference book that's helped me make sense of dreams and ideas and encounters with images in my psyche. It's one of the most helpful books I turn to as I try to understand myself and my world.

[N… · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read the book cover to cover, but I have used it as a reference book many times in my studies of psychoanalysis, philosophy, literature and mythology. Beautiful. Absolute perfection to me. One of my favourite books of all time.

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been studying this book as part of my spirituality and I am amazed. I love this book it has opened my mind wide and aware.

[Jaime Bayona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro de consulta increíble, con hermosas e intrigantes ilustraciones que hacen de la lectura una experiencia aún más maravillosa.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Book of Symbols' is a reference work which might overwhelm if you tried to read every word from the beginning of its near 800 pages, although half of these are excellent illustrations (as excellent as we have come to expect from the publishers Taschen).

Nevertheless, you may find it difficult not to peer into every page as the compilers explore the symbolism of word-concepts in multiple cultures, including nods to science, Jungian psychology and alchemy and not forgetting First World indigenous cultures.

Instead of the painfully useless A-Z model of so many attempts at the encyclopedic, the compilers divide the subject matter by categories we can all relate to. The five principle ones are Creation and Cosmos, the Plant World, the Animal World, the Human World and the Spirit World.

You can thus move forwards from concepts like Ocean or Darkness through Tree or Mandrake, Fish or Peacock, Ascent, Stranger, Castle or Gray (one of several explorations of colour as symbol) through to Dot/Bindu and Dismemberment. Nothing is ignored including symbols of sex and death.

Beautifully produced, accessing a variety of myths and ideas with perhaps only the obscurities of Jungian psychology as a contemporary form of magical thought sometimes going over the top, the book serves as trigger for both further research and independent thought.

As a pot-pourri, this is not the place to go for a narrative about any particular cultural system but rather a way of understanding the huge variation in the ways that we humans take 'things' or states of being or non-being and give them often-contradictory meanings.

Indeed, if there is an overwhelming impression it is that contradiction is central to the human condition as we follow the logic of one cultural model over and against another but also that there are some primordial human reactions to the world beneath the contradictions for the reader to consider.

As to the latter, this is work to be undertaken by the reader and not the compiler so the book is a starting point and certainly not a conclusion. There is an interesting tension here between knowing a multiplicity of meanings (the role of the book) and establishing our own firm meaning in the world.

On the one hand, the former tends to 'tolerance' but also a form of stand-offishness about making choices and belonging whose extreme variant might be Chaos Magick yet the latter can weaken its 'healing' force for the individual by being 'too tolerant' of the variation in human symbolisation.

In a globalised world, the effort to ensure that all meanings are validly human (which is true enough) undermines social meaning ('religion') and the restrictive discipline of 'belonging' to a particular framework of meaning.

This is confusing for many personality types and, though this reviewer can happily detach himself from all or any contingent meanings, as many people are made anxious by loss of shared meaning as are liberated from not having someone else's meaning thrust upon them.

There is almost certainly no going back, which is why literature like 'The Handmaid's Tale' and Islamophobia, and all the other phobias of places where meaning still exists, can be classed amongst modern liberals as an iteration of the Gothick.

Our cultural framework into which we are born or, less often, which we choose may dictate how we square the contradictions so that we no longer have to think two or more impossible things before breakfast but our modern world has turned most of us into romantic generalists or the indifferent.

The sweet but sadly weak attempt to have 'faith' that respects all other faiths is either no faith at all or the sinister patronising of the 'other' to help neutralise their potential sting by equalising them in public whilst still insisting on the secret superiority of one's own symbolic model.

The psychotherapies of meaning have emerged to try and deal with the effects of contradiction but have increasingly become imposers of meaning (despite their avowed original intention) in their turn, probably because it is actually extremely difficult for any human to detach themselves from the need.

As a sceptic about our own condition interested in the deeper underlying drivers of what it is to be human and considering the forms of being human to be very contingent in time and space, this book confirms me in that stance ... which may not be what was intended.

Nevertheless, the study of the symbol is less the study of 'man' and more the study of the covering men give themselves to avoid or evade the deeper and sometimes disturbing process of thinking what underlays what it is to be human but, as such, it is a necessary preliminary to deeper thought.

[p4nsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Book of Symbols

I keep returning to this the way I return to very few books, not linearly but associatively, opening to a section on water or fire or the underworld and finding the images doing something before the text explains anything, the visual accumulation across cultures producing a recognition that feels older than the reading. That's what the ARAS understood when they assembled this, that certain symbols aren't cultural inventions but something more like discoveries, the same forms arriving independently across traditions because they're responding to the same depth in human experience.

The snake eating its own tail appears in Egyptian alchemy and Norse mythology and Gnostic cosmology and Jungian psychology and each iteration is genuinely different and genuinely the same, the symbol holding all of them simultaneously without the meaning collapsing into any single one. I find that genuinely philosophically serious in a way that's hard to defend to someone who hasn't sat with the images long enough, the ontological weight of the symbol only becoming legible through the kind of sustained attention this book demands and rewards.

What I wasn't prepared for was how the images themselves carry the argument rather than illustrating it, the photographs and paintings and ritual objects from across human history producing something that the text around them is trying to catch up with. Some philosophy arrives through argument. This one arrives through accumulation, the symbolic material building into something that feels less like a conclusion and more like a pressure.

It's a heavy book in the literal sense and the right sense.

4/5.

[Philippe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book - The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism - is a collective working in the spirit of C.G. Jung's legacy. It grew out of the Bollingen Foundation in New York. The Foundation was the recipient of a visual archive that sedimented from the long series of Eranos conferences, initiated by Olga Froebe Kapteyn on the Swiss shores of Lago Maggiore. Jungians approach symbols as dynamic and polysemic cultural entities. In her introduction editor Kathleen Martin writes: "A symbol mysteriously unites disparities. Thus, the reader will find that we have avoided pat definitions and equations since these tend to constrain a symbol. A still vital symbol remains partially unknown, compels our attention and unfolds in new meanings and manifestations over time." Symbols offer an invitation to develop a relationship of curiosity with them. They are sources of contemplation and individuation. James Hillman said that "the gift of an image is that it affords a place to watch your soul". The task is not to understand the image. Hermeneutics kill the image. It's about observing and understanding our position with respect to archetypal images - whether culturally transmitted or emerging from our own minds. That is the only thing we can do that is genuinely therapeutic. The reason for the four stars rather than five is that there never seems to be enough in this kind of book. The store of images is potentially endless. And I agree, it's odd that the bicycle is included but the anus is not.