Ourobouros
This article refers to the symbol of the Ouroboros. For other meanings, see Ouroboros (disambiguation).
The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon swallowing its tail and forming a circle. It is associated with alchemy, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism. It represents the cyclical nature of things, eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. In some representations the serpent is shown as half light and half dark, echoing the dichotomy of other similar symbols such as the Yin Yang. The ouroboros is an example of tail recursion and self-reference, though not in a programming context.
In alchemy, the ouroboros symbolises the circular nature of Greek philosophers who used it as a symbol of their understanding of the nature of time as cyclic. It could very well be used to symbolize the closed-system model of the universe of some physicists today.
Christians early adopted the Ouroboros as a symbol of the limited confines of this world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere this-worldly existence (following in the footsteps of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes).
In Norse mythology, the serpent Jormungand grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth.
Seventeenth century
The ouroboros, as a symbol of the eternal unity of all things, the cycle of birth and death from which the alchemist sought release and liberation, was familiar to the alchemist/physician Sir Thomas Browne. In his The Garden of Cyrus (1658) as a symbol of the Circular nature and Unity of the two Discourses.
- "All things began in order so shall they end, so shall they begin again according to the Ordainer of Order and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven".
Jungian analysis
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the ourobouros as the basic mandala of alchemy whose antiquity he traced back to Egyptian mythology. In relation to Christianity, he said:
- "Christianity borrowed a great deal from Egyptian religion so it is not surprising that the allegory of the snake found its way into the world of Christian ideas". (Collected Works, Vol. 14 para.483)
The serpent appears in both the Old and the New Testament. In Genesis, the deceiving serpent is characterised as the "most subtle" of creatures, and even Christ instructed his disciples, "Be ye as wise as serpents" (Matthew 10:16).
Jung also defined the relationship of the ouruboros to alchemy:
- "The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the uroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In the age-old image of the uroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The uroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the uroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilises himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolises the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which [...] unquestionably stems from man's unconscious'. (Collected Works, Vol. 14 para.513)
Modernity
The organic chemist August Kekulé claimed that a ring in the shape of Ouroboros inspired him in his discovery of the structure of benzene.
The symbol also forms part of the Television series Millennium.
