Ariadne's Book of Dreams by Ariadne Green
A Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary Symbols
Warner Books - September 2001
ISBN: 0446677523 - Paperback
Nonfiction /Reference

Reviewed by Carisa Weeaks, MyShelf.Com
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Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, keeper of the Minotaur. When Theseus offered to slay the Minotaur, Ariadne, who fell madly in love with him, offered to help him find his way to the center of the Labyrinth in exchange for marriage. Theseus agreed. After she threw a ball of thread into the labyrinth that would roll all the way to the center, Theseus followed the thread and slayed the Minotaur. As promised, they were married and headed back to Athens. They ended up stopping at Naxos, a small island, to rest. When Ariadne fell asleep on the beach, Theseus saw his chance to abandon her, and he did just that. When Ariadne woke up and realized that he had left her, she cried and mourned it as one of her greatest losses, believing that she would be alone forever. But Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and intoxicated love, had always loved her from afar and went to the island to rescue her. They were married, and he gave her a crown of flowers, which became the Aurora Borealis after he threw it into the sky. Ariadne then became the Goddess of the Labyrinth - the one who shows everyone the way to the center of the maze that is their spirit so they may fight their inner demons successfully.

Ariadne is also a kind of reminder about all of the mystical and magical aspects of a person's mind and intuition. That's what this book deals with. It has every kind of symbol that you could possibly have in your dreams -- both ancient and contemporary. The thing I love about this the most is that there are explanations for everything that you could possibly think of in the front of this book. There are details about each "world" of dreaming and what kind of dream means what. I'm really impressed by the amount of symbols that she has listed in this book as well as the explanations of all the different kinds of dreams - from simple nightmares to psychic dreams - and why someone would be having that kind of a dream.

This is definitely a book for the light-hearted. Although the explanations are very articulate and precise, I wouldn't take them so seriously as to run your life by them. Everyone has different beliefs in what their dreams mean, and in some cases the symbols in here have helped me with understanding some of mine, but not everyone thinks the same way about them. It is a good book to read for the curious readers at heart.

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