A mythical serpent or dragon, ouroboros appears in literature and illustration from ancient Greece. Tales of ouroboros spread east, and other cultures pick up the mythology. It's of special interest to alchemy, Gnosticism and Hermeticism.
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The ouroboros symbol originates in ancient Egypt, China or Mesopotamia although the image of a serpent consuming its own tail is cross-cultural. The earliest example of its use is Egyptian. It's found myths of Greece, Rome, India, Scandinavia, Africa and South America.
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The current name comes from ancient Greek οὐροβόρος, from οὐρά oura 'tail' plus -βορός -boros '-eating'. The ouroboros is interpreted as a symbol for eternal cyclic renewal or a cycle of life, death and rebirth.
Imagery of the snake biting its tail appears in the Germanic Lindwyrm, a type of dragon or serpent with small arms or no limbs. The two kinds of Lindwyrm are benevolent and wise, or flesh-eating monster. The second puts its tail in its mouth and rolls to catch its human prey.
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Rarely, snakes are found consuming their own bodies tail first. It occurs among both captive and wild snakes, most commonly rat snakes. Scientists are perplexed.
Earliest known use of the glyph comes from the tomb of Tutankhamun in the 14th century BCE. The coiled snake is a manifestation of the deity Mehen ('coiled one'), who protects Ra on his underworld travels. He's often attacked by Chaos Snake Apep.
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In Egypt the symbol represents formless disorder surrounding the orderly world. The Earth continually renews herself, following rhythms and cycles. In nature, animal spirituality and mythology snakes are closely connected to the rhythms of the earth.
Use of the ouroboros persists from Egyptian into Roman times. It's often found on magical talismans. The ouroboros becomes a symbol of alchemy in Greco-Egyptian Alexandria, a hotspot for science and enlightenment, and elsewhere.
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4th-century Latin commentator Servius sees the image of a snake biting its tail to represent the cyclical nature of the year. In this way it relates to the circle, cycles and seasons. In animal spirituality the snake also attunes to healing, wisdom, renewal and prosperity.
The German Lindwyrm has a special talent. Everything it lies upon increases in value, which is why these dragons are often found dozing on vast treasure piles. Thus the ouroboros relates to the creation of gold, a primary goal of alchemists.
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The ouroboros represents eternal life, another alchemic goal, through the energy of the circle, as well as the snake's trait of shedding skin. Besides longevity and wealth creation the ouroboros relates to the medical arts in that alchemy seeks a panacea for all disease.
In Gnosticism, a serpent biting its tail relates to eternity and the soul of the world. The Gnostic Pistis Sophia (c. 400 CE) describes the ouroboros as a twelve-part dragon surrounding the world with its tail in its mouth:
And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "The outer darkness is a great dragon, whose tail is in his mouth, outside the whole world and surrounding the whole world. And there are many regions of chastisement within it. There are twelve mighty chastisement-dungeons and a ruler is in every dungeon and the face of the rulers is different one from another.
In mythology of the Norse, ouroboros appears as the serpent Jörmungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda. The serpent grows so large it can encircle the earth while holding its tail in its teeth.
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The Biblical Leviathan has qualities similar to ouroboros. The Leviathan is a singular creature with no mate, its tail in its mouth, while described as "twisting around and encompassing the entire world".
In some beliefs ouroboros represents circle as metal mercury the "female" aspect, whereby sulfur is the male. In the Middle Ages mercury is used to treat syphilis. In his first medical publication, renegade physician Paracelsus writes a pamphlet about the disease.
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He maintains syphilis can be treated with carefully measured doses of mercury. Similarly, he is the first to discover the disease can only be contracted by contact. He also invents gnomes and introduces chemistry to medicine.
The ouroboros shape makes the symbol for mercury, but the mercury symbol is a stylization of two snakes on a rod. The crosshatch, creating a familiar type of feminine symbolism, is added later.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung sees the ouroboros as an archetype and basic mandala of alchemy. He writes about the relationship of the ouroboros to alchemy:
"The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of individuation than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the ouroboros, the snake who eats its own tail.
The ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the ouroboros 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 ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feedback' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality since it is said of the ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself, and gives birth to himself.
He symbolizes 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."
*prima materia: a formless primeval substance thought to be the original material of the universe. The concept is invented by Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE).