Humans, it’s said, are symbolising animals. At every stage of civilisation, people have relied on symbolic expression, and advances in science and technology have only increased our dependence on symbols. The language of symbols is considered a science, and this informative volume offers an indispensable tool in the study of symbology. (Cirlot, 2002)
A wonderful reference book for my project, I found this book accidentally (Brook Shaden introduced this book in her video of symbolism), and it became my time reference. My project is based on symbolism and surrealism, and this book saves me a major amount of time looking for the elements of each image and their meaning. The references in the book are not limited to a particular region, and they are almost everywhere in the world; however, most of the symbols have the same meaning all across the world.
Cirlot, Juan Eduardo. 2002. “A Dictionary of Symbols” Newyork: Dover; 2nd edition.