Reflections On Archetypal Images - The Book of Symbols

Unfortunately, this book reflects how the institutional "Jungians" lack a real sense and knowledge of the spiritual dimension. Their understanding of symbols and archetypes has devolved to the secular psychological view of images and ideas. This book is one of many now which return Jung's rich multi-dimensional comprehension back to flatland. The pictures, however, are attractive.

The illustrations in this book are superior, not at all the too frequently used stereotyped prints one has come to expect in books of this type. The explanatory captions are less satisfactory. While they incorporate a respectable range of references, after reading a number of them, the Interpretations tend to meld into each other rather like the night in which all cats are black, that is, i

I expected lots of great pictures, but this is so much more: the book is huge, it is beautifully bound (really nice paper - matte, cream, the photos look great and it opens nearly flat), fabulously designed (interesting edge tabs and multiple, brightly-colored, bound-in bookmarks), massive amounts of well-written text, and, of course, excellent citations. As soon as I can drag myself out of it, I'm making a gift list. The price makes it impossible to resist as a gift for anyone who has any level of interest in the subject (I should give it with a subscription to ARAS!)

I agree with everyone that this is an exemplary physical book to display, hold and browse through.

Unfortunately, the content is not up to what's advertised.

The articles are short and have a scattershot, unscholarly feel. All entries receive two or four pages. As a result, the most basic, important symbols, e.g., sun, moon, rose, fountain, receive embarrassingly scant coverage. Egg gets two pages. Obviously you can't even scratch the surface of these major symbols in two or three paragraphs.

Other articles such as knee, coyote, bicycle, and kangaroo, get two pages each and are mixed in among the more important ones; so flipping through the book gives no sense of relative weight and hierarchy.

A number of key symbols and terms, such as Trinity, caduceus, tarot, sephiroth, crucible, receive no articles or references. There is no article or index entry for either hero or journey

Each article gets 1-3 illustrations, but few if any have references in the article text and many lack captions altogether.

A closer look at the book shows a complete lack of scholarly credentials. The "About the Authors" page lists only the archives from which the images were taken; no individuals are listed there as editors or authors. The "Contributors" page that follows gives only the contributors' names; there is no mention of anyone having so much as a college degree much less a publication or academic position.

The Bibliography contains fewer than fifteen items, nearly all of which are encyclopedias and archive catalogs. Carl Jung's collected works are mentioned as one citation, but Jung himself is hard to find -- there's no article on him and his name does not even appear in the index.

The book badly needed a critical introduction giving some background, better explaining the criteria for inclusion and presentation of entries, summarizing Jung's work, and much more The Index appears to be more useful to find what is missing from the book than it is to locate anything useful.

I would not recommend this book for any serious scholarly purpose.

This is an excellent collection of bitesized reflections on major symbols in world literature and mythology. Art to accompany the entries is very well chosen. Read an entry every day and make it your Bible for about a year.

A beautifully presented publication, a joy to hold & to read. This book provides an explanation of the many symbols which appear in our dreams with reference to the writings & wisdom of Carl Jung.It reflects not only well-founded explanations but is seated in life's experiences!

This book is not only comprehensive, it is also a beautiful beautiful book. I adore it! The best purchase I've made in some time. I would greatly encourage anyone with an interest in archetypal symbolism not to waste another minute - put this book in your shopping cart. You won't regret it.

At 800 pages, I thought the book would have broad and deep information about symbols, but it was a big disappointment--just a coffee table book. It is beautifully illustrated, but the information in it is very mundane. If you are looking for a great book on symbols, try An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper

A fascinating compendium of images by categories: Creation & Cosmos,Animal World, Human World, and Spirit World. The Interpretations are Jungian. 322 symbols each with bibliographies are discussed. As an art historian interested in iconography this is an invaluable book.

This is an unbelievably good reference book for anyone dealing with symbolic material. As such it belongs on the shelf along with Jobes' 2-volume "Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols." But because it's tied to explicit visual images, it has a power all of its own. A must for any depth psychologist, but fascinating for anyone interested in true symbols.

I think every artist, writer, psychologist & anyone interested in their dreams should own this book! It is beautiful, helpful, inspiring & entertaining and necessary for anyone that wants to understand their world in a deeper, more meaningful way!