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.

* 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
* 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
* Essay-length entries on 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