You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In the dream and phantasy life of individuals we can observe forms of a symbolic nature that are either of limited or widespread distribution. Symbols of limited distribution may be the result of climatic conditions and belong, more or less, exclusively to certain geographical areas, as for example, the dog-drawn sledge of the Eskimos. Symbols of limited distribution may also result from new inventions or a particular culture complex such as the skyscraper and the jet-propelled plane and appear only in the dreams and phantasy life of individuals who are part of the culture complex or who are acquainted with these forms.
There are a large group of symbols that are universal, or practically so, because of their widespread distribution both in time and space. It is the meaning of these universal symbols that an analyst can sometimes safely interpret without complete associations. A few of these universal symbols that appear in the art, myths and dreams of people in all parts of the world and during all ages are the foot, sun, tree, hand, eye, and the earth. A few others that are only slightly less universal are the house, snake, shoe, arrow, lance, dagger, and the ship.
My interest in the meaning of the ship as a symbol in art was first aroused while studying the bronze-age rock-engravings of Scandinavia. These engravings consist of small and large groups of drawings engraved on the flat smooth surfaces of rocks along the coast of Sweden and Norway as far north as Trondjheimfjord (6). The dating of these engravings or pictographs, as established by archeologists, is between 900 to 750 B.C.
In spite of their schematic, highly stylized forms, these rock-pictures have an extraordinary content running through a whole gamut of forms. Animals appear in great numbers and in a wide variety of species. In addition to the animals there is a second group of pictures which are of a more apparent symbolic nature. They are representations of weapons and implements such as swords, spear