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.