This is a companion to the hugely successful Symbolism: A Comprehensive Dictionary. The earlier dictionary was arranged by symbol and told what the meanings were. The present work goes the other way (but it is not simply a refiguring of the data). It presents ideas, situations or objects (ancient to modern), and gives the appropriate symbols (allusions, associations, attributes, or emblems). Some examples: one of the symbols for "hell" is descending stairs; an attribute of Saint Benedict is a raven; joy after sorrow is symbolized by the gemstone, amber. Literary, artistic, religious, heraldic, numerological, folkloric, occult, psychological, and biblical usages are included.
My Creative Writing teacher suggested I pick up this book, and it really helped me. It is much simpler, when writing a story, to use symbols rather than description. However, I had no idea what symbols to use for God, love, and other broad subject. That's where this book came in. Look up any subject and it has the symbol for it. A must have for English majors.
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