The Woman's Dictionary
Of Symbols And Sacred Objects

Cover

Title The Woman's Dictionary Of Symbols and Sacred Objects

Author Barbara G. Walker

ISBN 0062509233

Publisher HarperCollins Publishers

Category Nonfiction: Ancient Cultures

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What It's About

Presented in dictionary format, this book contains entries describing the role that over 700 objects had as symbols and sacred objects in ancient myths. It covers body parts, nature, birds, plants, minerals, stones, shells, and more. For the most part, it covers the ancient role of these items in the legends of the Middle East, India, and Europe.

Here is a sample entry:

Turquoise

Turquoise means "Turkish stone". Turks greatly prized it as an amulet, calling it Fayruz, the lucky stone. It was perhaps identical with the Moslem sakhrat, a sacred stone from Mount Qaf, the residence of fairies and giants. This stone was "the color of an emerald reflecting the blue sky." Miracles could be worked with a single grain of it. This stone also had a tenuous connection with the ancient Goddess, for one of the ancient Egyptian titles of Isis was "Lady of Turquoise." However, the original reference may have been to lapis lazuli; mineral names in old writings are often inaccurate and arbitrary.

Buddhists claimed that Buddha once destroyed a monster with the help of a magic turquoise. In Arabia it was believed that the stone would warn of approaching danger by changing its color. The color of some varieties can in fact be changed by environmental factors such as heat, light, oil, perspiration, or dryness.

Turquoise was used as a horse amulet because it was believed to keep horses from foundering, and to protect both horses and their riders from falls. European writers insisted that turquoise would at least soften the effects of a fall: "Whoever owns the true turquoise set in gold will not injure any of his limbs when he falls, whether he be riding or walking, so long as he has the stone with him."

Its Good Points

This book is very comprehensive in its listing of ancient symbols. If you've ever heard of a symbol, charm, or icon that supposedly once had religious meaning or symbolism, there's a good chance it is covered in this book.

I find the format to be very readable--each entry is reasonably short, but packs a great deal of information into a small space. It's particularly nice to take along to read when you're planning to wait for something--doctor's office, airline departure lounge, seating in a restaurant that usually has long waits, etc.--because it's easy to pick up where you left off without losing the thread of a narrative.

There are many, many illustrations to show what many of the symbols look like. These come in the form of line drawings, and for the most part are done rather well.

I found it was very interesting to pick up this book, let it fall open wherever it would, and read the entries on those pages. It's very well suited to browsing, as well as to reference.

On The Negative Side....

A few topics didn't receive the coverage I was hoping to find. For example, one topic I wanted to learn about was the Islamic Hand Of Fatima, but this book mentions it only in passing in the entry under Hand. Fortunately, this wasn't typical.

Although this book includes extensive information from the mythical traditions of Europe, the Middle East, and India, it has almost no coverage of other parts of the world like eastern Asia or the Western Hemisphere. So readers looking for ancient traditions of those areas won't find what they're looking for in this book.

I found myself wishing that the author would have employed footnotes more extensively. Although she does include some footnotes indicating the source for certain information, many of her assertions are not footnoted at all. For example, the entry talking about the role of the shamrock as a sacred symbol in the pre-Islamic Middle East does not include a footnote indicating which of her sources that came from. I found it frustrating to want more information on certain topics with no guidance on where to go to find it. Admittedly, the book has an extensive bibliography, but it didn't seem very practical to go through all those books, one by one, in search of one particular piece of information.

The Woman's Dictionary Of Symbols And Sacred Objects

What It's About

Its Good Points

On The Negative Side....

The Woman's Dictionary
Of Symbols And Sacred Objects