Signs, and especially symbols, are representations often of the abstract rather than the literal, which allows for a much broader interpretation of their meaning. A look at any dictionary will tell you what they are, but here we ask why and how they came to exist. Here we look for reasons why so many of us are visually illiterate, and why we no longer understand the symbolism which communicated stories and information to our forebears. We also see how symbols have changed with time, and how they have been manipulated to make them encapsulate new meanings.