THE OUROBOROS
The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent, worm, or dragon eating its own tail. In any of these forms or incarnations, it is reminiscent of the earliest nature, of the original form. The name originates from within the Greek language; (oura) means "tail" and (boros) means "eating", thus "he who eats the tail". The Ouroboros is first seen as early as 1600 years BCE in Egypt as a symbol of the sun and represented the travels of the sun disk. From there it moved to the Phonecians and then to the Greeks, who called it the Ouroboros. It symbolizes the cyclic Nature of the Universe: Creation out of Destruction, Life out of Death. It feeds itself, impregnates itself, destroys itself, and is reborn. It is also the assimilation of the self, eating its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. It represents the perpetual cyclic regeneration of eternal life and infinity, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, leading to reincarnation and immortality. Often it represents the totality and completion, the result of the collision of opposites, of two halves that otherwise form a whole. It can be perceived as enveloping itself, where the past (the tail) it seems to disappear but really moves into an inner domain or reality, vanishing from view but still existing.
In the purity of the continuous cycle depicted by Ouroboros we can see the process of our essential nature as we form, disintegrate, we re-assemble as something else. In the constant renewal process of our soul, our innate sense of self, showing that the basic elements of matter that comprise us have witnessed the origin of the Universe and will continue to live on for nearly eternity in an astounding variety of forms. Death and rebirth are inevitable, and so we are truly eternal.
The symbol of Ouroboros represents the continuity of life as a persistent process in the universe. The perpetuation of Life necessitates three characteristics: the biological processes that sustain it, the instinctual drive to satisfy those processes, and the physical ability to actualize that drive.
The Ouroboros lead us to the idea of primordial unity related to our existence and persisting before any beginning with such force it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's Opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism and Hermeticism, symbolizing the transcendence of duality related to the solar God Abraxas, and signified eternity and the soul of the world. Plato described Ouroboros as the ultimate expression of self-sufficiency and integrity, mirroring the universe as a whole.
He described the Ouroboros as the first living thing in the universe. He said that it had no need for eyes because there was nothing to see, it did not have ears because there was nothing to be heard, and because there was not an atmosphere to breathe, it did not have any organs. It had no hands because it had no reason to take anything or defend itself against anyone. Nor did he have feet for he had no reason to move beyond his revolving circle. Just an immortal, perfectly constructed being.
A modern psychological interpretation of the unity found in the Ouroboros is that of the archetype of the original, undifferentiated personality. Here we can recognize the serpent as the Self that exists before and beyond the machinations of the Ego. It is the true spiritual identity, uncluttered by the influence of external, worldly corruption. It is what we were at the start, the origin of the personality, and the identity.
In alchemy, it represents the spirit of Mercury, the substance that permeates all matter, and symbolizes continuous renewal as a snake is often a symbol of resurrection, as it appears to be continually reborn as it sheds its skin, the cycle of life and death, and harmony of opposites. As a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth and death from which the alchemist sought release and liberation. It unites opposites: the conscious and the unconscious mind. Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph.
The Ouroboros was adopted by Christianity to symbolize the limited confines of the material world. It was also used to symbolize the self-consuming, self-defeating, and circular nature of this world’s existence.
The serpent biting its tail is found in other mythoi as well, including Norse myth, where the serpent's name is Jörmungandr, a child of the god Loki, circling the entire world to grasp its tail in its jaws. In the story, Odin kidnaps him and throws him into the ocean. He stayed here where he slept and ate so much that he encircled the world until he could bite his own tail. He became known as the World Serpent or the Midgard Serpent.
In Hinduism, the dragon circles the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world. It is also a symbol representing the Milky Way galaxy. Myth refers to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Milky Way is this serpent, and viewed at a galactic central point near Sagittarius, this serpent eats its own tail. Many ancients used the galaxy to calculate cosmic and earth cycles. A universalist interpretation presents Ouroboros as an avatar of the universe as a whole, with its vast distances and empty space. A vast symbol that spans and encompasses everything, yet at the same time it is one thing in itself—it is everything and one-thing.
It is every detail, every atom, every particle of energy, and yet it is still the one-thing, the every-thing, the serpent. In its one-thing-ness, the serpent integrates and assimilates all opposites, all differences, and all distinctions that exist, into one single, harmonious whole. That is the beauty of Ouroboros. It is a stunningly simple, poetic, and wonderfully true image of reality.
The Crysopoeia of Cleopatra is an alchemical textbook from about 2000 years ago, originating in Egypt and written in Greek. The book is clearly Hellenistic, so the image is sometimes referred to as the Greco-Egyptian ouroboros or the Alexandrian ouroboros. The use of the name "Cleopatra" here does not refer to the famous female pharaoh Cleopatra VII known as Queen of Egypt but a pseudonym for an author whose real name has been lost. Cleopatra the Alchemist who was likely alive during the 3rd century was an Egyptian alchemist, author, and philosopher. She experimented with practical alchemy but is also rumored to be one of the four female alchemists that could produce a Philosopher's stone.
She is credited with the invention of the Alembic, an early tool for analytic chemistry. In the book the image of the Ouroboros is half black and half white, echoing Yin and Yang which illustrates the dual nature of all things, but more importantly, that these opposites are not in conflict. The book is mainly centered around the idea of 'one is all,' a concept that is related to hermetic wisdom.
We truly are an integral element of this amazing celebration of existence. It could not be different. We are all connected to the distant stars just as much as we are linked to each other, in this life or any other. We are brothers and sisters more truly than we can imagine, joined inextricably by the spirit of the primordial unity that pervades all. This ancient serpent is a magnificent symbol of that union. It is the whole of the universe, the light in the sky, and the blood in our veins.
Paola Luciani Fulbright
Copyright - Paola Luciani Fulbright. No reprint without permission. All Rights Reserved.
