Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism (Bollingen Series Book 684)

Mircea Eliade—one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic—shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development. Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. The author describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of people of the East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development