The book is described as an odyssey involving four islands of encounters. Hence, four successive journeys divide the book into four Parts. There is also a Prelude, Introduction, and Conclusion, creating the following:


Introduction: The Ancient Image-Language in our Modern Era

PART I. MYTHS

Ch. I: Time and Narrative in Myth
Ch. II: Time and Narrative in Judaeo-Christianity and Hindu-Buddhism
Ch. III: The Mythopoeic Understanding of Time in Ancient Myth
Ch. IV: Cosmogonic Myths as a Model of the Mind

PART II. ART

Ch. V: At the Threshold of the Image
Ch. VI: To Enter Through the Image
Ch. VII: Symbols of the Sacred
Ch. VIII: Symbols in Visionary Art
Ch. IX: The Mythologem of the Coniunctio
Ch. X: The Mythologem of Death and Rebirth

PART III. DREAMS

Ch. XI: The Interplay of Myths and Dreams
Ch. XII: The Interplay of Art and Dreams
Ch. XIII:To Enter Through the Dream

PART IV. ICONOLOGUES

Ch. XIV: The Logic of Iconologic
Ch. XV: Iconologues of Condensation
Ch. XVI: Iconologues of Displacement
Ch. XVII: Oneiro-Artistic Iconologues
Ch. XVIII: Oneiro-Mythic Iconologues

Conclusion: The Eternal Labyrinth

ARGUMENT

      During the first three parts of our journey, we seek out various arrangements of images in myth, art, and dreams, and the ancient image-language that lies behind them. Those image-clusters which reveal some kind of recognizable meaning and arrangement are called 'iconologues', and the ancient image-language behind them is called 'iconologic'. Iconologic exists unconsciously in our dreams, while ancient myths and works of art have gradually elevated its workings into consciousness over time. Hence, we begin with the iconologues of myth and art, and then compare these to the iconologues of dreams. By thinking through these arrangements of images, we learn to 'enter through the image' to its more ancient philosophy of life, wherein life itself becomes a gradual unfolding of the Sacred. As a result of this 'Ancient Philosophy', we are able to undertake a final journey through the iconologues themselves. We rediscover the logic of iconologic, and identify each specific iconologue which dreams, art, and myth share in common.

Part I. Myths

      The first of our four journeys begins with Myths. Basically, there are two types of myth: the Cosmogonic, involving the world's creation or destruction; and the Hero myth, involving the hero's departure, descent, and deed performed at the darkest nadir, followed by his subsequent ascent and return. All myths are an arrangement of images in time. But Hero myths also arrange their images through the hero's task, which creates a basic narrative structure. Hence, the images of myths are arranged through three fundamental iconologues: time, narrative, and the hero's task. These three iconologues are analyzed in the myths of Judaeo-Christianity, Hindu-Buddhism, and the ancient Near East.
      As a result, we understand that narratives in Judaeo-Christianity are U-shaped, and transpire in linear-historical time, while those of Hindu-Buddhism are O-shaped, and transpire in cyclic time. Meanwhile, Near Eastern myths demonstrate a more ancient understanding of time, called by Eliade 'the eternal Mythic Time'. And through these myths, we may momentarily return to 'the eternal Mythic Time'. The most important moment in sacred Hero myths occurs at their nadir, when the hero undergoes a momentary death, rebirth, and awakening.
      At the beginning or end of Cosmogonic myths, and at the nadir of a sacred Hero myth, a momentary epiphany transpires, as the Sacred is revealed through images of the world's beginning, its end, or the sacred hero's death, rebirth, and awakening. As well, the measures of linear or cyclic time are temporarily removed, resulting in a momentary experience of 'the eternal Mythic Time'. In short, during these moments, the eternally Sacred is briefly revealed. These images of epiphany are referred to as 'Threshold Images', as they constitute each myth's most important moment. As such, Threshold Images are preserved for all time in sacred works of art, where that moment of epiphany is 'frozen still'.

Part II. Art

      During our next journey, through the iconologues of Art, we consider these Threshold Images in detail. First, they are considered as symbols of the Sacred, and secondly, as mythologems. As symbols, they take mundane objects, animals, or persons, and elevate them into momentary epiphanies. Mythologems do much the same thing, not with objects, animals, or persons, but with actions or events. Mythologems describe actions or events which first arise in myth, and recurr in art, ritual, and life, regardless of the particular hero who ennacts them. Hence, mythologems take mundane actions or events, such as our life-threshold crossings, and elevate these into momentary epiphanies.
      We consider specific symbols in detail, such as the Father God and Mother Goddess. And we consider specific mythologems, such as marriage (the coniunctio) and initiation (death and rebirth). As a result, we learn how Threshold Images are based on our own life-threshold crossings, such as marriage (confrontation with the mother), acquiring a profession (confrontation with the father), etc. But, myth and art elevate these figures and their life-threshold crossings into sacred events, so that they become momentary epiphanies.
      Using more traditional works of sacred art, we learn - for the first time - how to 'enter through the image'. In essence, we bring memories of these figures (mother, father), and our own life-threshold crossings (marriage, profession) to these works of art which, as sacred Threshold Images, elevate them into momentary epiphanies. We enter through the image to the 'eternally Sacred'.
      We also learn to 'enter through' modern works of Visionary Art. These tend to combine traditional images of the Sacred, from a variety of different cultural sources, into a singular work of modern art. We learn how, in Visionary art, different cultural myths cross with one another. And, we see how different cultural symbols reveal, at their shared source, the same eternal Sacramentum.

Part III. Dreams

      In our third journey, through the iconologues of Dreams, we learn to elucidate dreams in light of myth and art. We begin with the interplay of dreams and myth. As in myths, the images of dreams are arranged through three basic iconologues: time, narrative, and the hero's task. Dreams spontaneously create narratives which unfold over time. In them, the dreamer is given a task which he must complete by the dream's end. This usually involves the crossing of an anticipated life-threshold. In traditional societies, rites d'entrée were used to initiate the neophyte across certain life-thresholds. But, as Campbell noted, "there is something in these initiatory images so necessary to the psyche that, if they are not supplied from without by myths and ritual, they will have to be announced again, through dreams, from within." Since dreams announce our life-threshold crossings 'from within', they create Oneiric Threshold Images at their nadir.
      Using dreams from Baudelaire, Descartes, and Tolstoy, we demonstrate how dreams 'announce from within' the life-thresholds of acquiring a profession (Descartes), fathering children (Baudelaire), and approaching death (Tolstoy). We also note the Oneiric Threshold Images that arise by the end of these dreams.
      Through the interplay of dreams and art, we then examine these Oneiric Threshold Images in depth. Using Freud's technique of free association and Jung's technique of amplification, we learn how to 'enter through' the images of dreams. This is especially the case with their Oneiric Threshold Images. Dreams from Fuchs and Tarkovsky are used to elucidate the dreams' figures, actions, and events in light of sacred symbols and mythologems. We note how myths and works of art provide us with the 'sacred codes' for elucidating dreams. While dreams give us the images for our life-threshold crossings; myths and works of art elevate those life-threshold crossings into sacred events. As a result, we regain a more ancient view onto life as a series of sacred epiphanies. With each life-threshold crossing, life becomes a gradual unfolding of the Sacred.

Part IV. Iconologues

      With this ancient philosophy of life, we are able to undertake our final journey through the Iconologues themselves. We begin with the logic of iconologic, and rediscover in fragments from the Pre-Socratics (Empedocles) and the Neo-Platonists (Macrobius) a more ancient logic based on similarity and difference. Using images from an alchemical text and an egyptian coffin, we identify specific arrangements of images, their underlying iconologues, and the manner in which they arrange images through similarity and difference.
      Finally, we identify and name a specific number of iconologues. Some iconologues require condensation while others involve displacement. These two types are analyzed in detail. Some iconologues arrange their images spacially, and so, are shared by dreams and art; while others arrange their images temporally, and so, are shared by dreams and myth. The former are sorted through as Oneiro-Artistic Iconologues, and the latter as Oneiro-Mythic Iconologues. In each case, an arrangement of images from dreams is offered first, and then compared with similar such arrangments in art and myth. Each resulting iconologue not only unites an image-cluster into a singular arrangement of images, but allows us to think through it - indeed, to 'enter through' its image.
      While the writings of Sigmund Freud aid us in our analysis of certain iconologues (condensation, displacement), the neglected work of Saint-Denys aids us with many others (transformation, regression, etc.). In these final chapters, we gain a fundamentally new way of looking at dreams, as their underlying logic is finally identified and brought to light.
      In the conclusion, we review the series of journeys we have just completed through Myth, Art, Dreams, and their Iconologues. Once more, we emphasize the Ancient Philosophy that is revealed to us each time we enter through the image. That philosophy reveals life as a series of epiphanies. Hence, at each threshold-crossing, we behold the eternally Sacred - but only through the full ennactment and participation in life.