Recommended Books for Dream Amplification

For the all-important dream-work strategy of "amplification" (pursuing the collective, social, and religious meanings of traditional symbolic images back through their various manifestations in history), a number of excellent archetypal symbol dictionaries (not to be confused with “drugstore dream dictionaries”) do exist:

J. E. Cirlot's A Dictionary of Symbols, (Philosophical Library, 1962) (and regularly reissued), is one of the oldest and still one of the most useful.

J. C. Cooper's An Illustrated Dictionary of Traditional Symbols, (Thames & Hudson, 1978,) is also quite serviceable.

Also good is the reasonably priced paperbound edition of the classic The Herder Symbol Dictionary, (Chiron, 1978.)

Important correctives, as well as interesting original insights into archetypal patterns, are offered by Barbara G. Walker in her two excellent books, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects and The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, both published by Harper & Row.

And finally, I’d highly recommend (naturally) my latest book The Living Labyrinth: Exploring Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams and the Symbolism of Waking Life (Paulist Press February 1998).