Reverse Symbolism Dictionary
Reverse Symbolism Dictionary: Symbols Listed by Subject
By Steven Olderr
Published by McFarland, 1992. Copyright held by the author.
This is a small hardbound book of 181 pages that's made to go with Olderr's earlier book, Symbolism, a Comprehensive Dictionary, but could easily be used with another dictionary of symbols or used by itself.
Where a typical dictionary of symbols lets you look up symbols (e.g. pomegranite) and read about their meanings, this book lets you look up meanings to find what symbolizes them. For example, a sequence of entries in the middle of the book, fitting on one page, runs:
liberty broken chains; butterfly; oak; ocean; Phrygia; rod; sandals; shoes; stocks [for restraint] (loss of liberty); Sun [tarot] (liberation from physical limitations); sword; torch (revolution and ultimate liberty) * association: Aquarius (the loosening of bonds; the immanence of liberation); green * flower language live oak * heraldry cat *see also freedom
This is the kind of reference book that makes great browsing when you're in an expansive, creative, and poetically meditative kind of mood, and is useful for creative inspiration as much as for research.
By Steven Olderr
Published by McFarland, 1992. Copyright held by the author.
This is a small hardbound book of 181 pages that's made to go with Olderr's earlier book, Symbolism, a Comprehensive Dictionary, but could easily be used with another dictionary of symbols or used by itself.
Where a typical dictionary of symbols lets you look up symbols (e.g. pomegranite) and read about their meanings, this book lets you look up meanings to find what symbolizes them. For example, a sequence of entries in the middle of the book, fitting on one page, runs:
- I [letter]
- Icarus
- ice
- id
- the ideal
- ideals
- ideas
- identification
- identify
- idleness
- idolatry
- Idolatry, personafied
- Ignatius of Loyola, St.
- Ignominy
- ignorance
liberty broken chains; butterfly; oak; ocean; Phrygia; rod; sandals; shoes; stocks [for restraint] (loss of liberty); Sun [tarot] (liberation from physical limitations); sword; torch (revolution and ultimate liberty) * association: Aquarius (the loosening of bonds; the immanence of liberation); green * flower language live oak * heraldry cat *see also freedom
This is the kind of reference book that makes great browsing when you're in an expansive, creative, and poetically meditative kind of mood, and is useful for creative inspiration as much as for research.