Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind (Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology)

Good explanations of symbols.Gets boring at times because it is a dictionary like format.Alot of this info is hard to find elsewhere.

I Haven't Read This Book Within Its Entirety; However, The Reviews From Black Scholars Are Solid!!!

I was seduced by the cool title and a positive review, but now I find myself questioning the wisdom of this purchase. The entries and content seem to be little more than a distillation of the more thorough Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. The bibliography has a smattering of Jungian and evolutionary psychology and other assorted pop science books, but only a few relevant sources on symbols (notably the aforementioned Penguin). Now, I'm not opposed to the idea of a more interdisciplinary approach or a sort unique spin on things, but I just found that it wasn't adding much value in this case. It is trying to be both a dictionary and an overarching discussion of symbols, but falls short on both counts. This is simply inferior as a dictionary and the discussion is too fluffy to leave any lasting impression (if you're into Jungian psychology and dream interpretation, your mileage may vary).If you want an accessible book on symbols that reads like a pop science book, this may a good choice (I do sort of like the way it categorizes entries rather than just listing everything alphabetically). However, this book is too fluffy, subjective, and oversimplified for my taste.

Great condition, I'm very pleased

I have worked with over a dozen symbol dictionaries. This one holds promise. If I am reading through the pages with no particular goal in mind it is intriguing, fun and sometimes has a unique perspective compared to my other texts. It is fairly rich in content for many of the symbols. Unfortunately when intentionally searching for a specific symbol through the index, the page numbers listed were often frankly wrong -- by more than a page or two. Very frustrating. Unfortunate. Now I find myself reaching less and less often to even try this resource. I would suspect that this is more a publisher/editor technical problem, than it is the the fault of the author. If the indexing is fixed in future editions, my rating would likely improve substantially.Perhaps I should keep my book for pleasure and they should (thoughtfully not haphazardly) turn it into a Kindle product to solve the indexing problem.

This book was interesting. It was about myths and everything. The only thing is the author assumes you know everything he's talking about. So, you'll have to constantly look things up to understand fully what he is talking about. I recommend this book if you don't mind doing that.

This is an excellent ultra-Darwinian analysis of archetypal material. The best book written on the subject. I have always wondered the origins of the social taboos and customs, and found answers in this book. Strongly recommended.

Steven's has presented another landmark book in his continuing endeavor to forge Jungian psychology into a comprehensive field that incorporates evolutionary psychology and places it on a firm empirical basis. This is a must for any psychology buff and represents part of a revolutionary frontier in the study of the human mind. I highly recommend Stevens and Price's "Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning".

great

I stumbled across this book by chance, but glad I did. Stevens' work combines evolutionary psychology with Jungina analysis - he makes a very convincing argument, and his writing style is clear and straightforward.