The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol representing a snake eating its own tail. The first record of the Ouroboros was found in 1600 BC in ancient Egypt. The symbol was used to document the Egyptian understanding of the sun and was said to represent the journeys of the sun disk. It is also believed to represent many other ideas and theories.
Ouroboros
The Ouroboros is a symbol that can be found in the “Enigmatic Book of the Underworld.” This book was a funerary text found in the tomb of the young king Tut in the 14th century BC.
The book mainly describes Ra and his partnership with Osiris in the underworld. The two snakes that appear in the text have their tails in their mouths. It is possible that they are also somehow responsible for conveying the cyclical nature of life, with no clear beginning or end.
The word ‘Ouroboros’ itself, however, comes from the Greeks. It is a combination of ‘oura’, meaning tail, and ‘bora’, meaning food. Combined, they roughly translate to ‘tail-eater’.
The multiple uses of the Ouroboros
The Ouroboros has been interpreted in many ways and has been used by countless cultures to represent life’s most difficult questions. There are also connections between the Ouroboros and the universe itself, which highlights the significance of this strange image.
Gnosticism and the Ouroboros
Gnosticism is a system of ancient religious ideas dealing with knowledge and the real spirit, so it is no surprise that it took an interest in them. One of its main beliefs is that salvation can only be found by overcoming ignorance, and the Ouroboros is a step in the right direction.
For believers in Gnosticism, the cyclical nature of the serpent symbolizes the concept of eternity and the very essence of the world itself.
Alchemy
Alchemy also has several connections to the Ouroboros. One of the most famous is the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra. The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra is a famous alchemical text that was written by an Egyptian philosopher, author, and alchemist. The author’s real name has been lost to history, but it is known that she is not the same person as Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
Cleopatra the Alchemist was known for publishing Cleopatra’s Chrysopoeia and drawing the famous ouroboros associated with it. The drawing depicts a snake eating its tail. The snake is half white and half black. It also surrounds text that translates to “the whole is one.” This is symbolic of the interconnectedness that is evident in life. This representation also causes some to wonder if it is somehow connected to the yin-yang symbol.
The fact that the Ouroboros was used in this text is no coincidence, nor is its relevance fleeting. In alchemy, a Chrysopoeia is a word that indicates that a base metal has undergone a “transmutation” into a noble metal such as gold. This concept is directly related to the search for the philosopher’s stone, a substance associated with immortality and rejuvenation. The alchemist’s main quest was liberation from the limitations of the human body – a concept that was embodied by the Ouroboros.
Cleopatra was not the only alchemist to refer to the Ouroboros in her work. An alchemist and physician named Sir Thomas Browne also had a keen interest in the symbol. He wrote a medical treatise entitled “A Letter to a Friend.” In it, he reflected on the exhausting cycle of life and death and the connection of these principles to the Ouroboros.
The Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City on November 17, 1875. The group was founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, and William Quan Judge. It was founded to serve as “a non-sectarian body of seekers after Truth, striving to promote Brotherhood and to serve humanity.”
The society was known to take an alternative approach to spiritualism and studied many mystical and occult practices. Its seal included the Ankh within the Star of David, which was beneath a swastika. These three symbols were surrounded by an Ouroboros. This powerful combination served to symbolize the search for truth and the struggle to understand the interconnectedness of the universe.
The Ouroboros in Mythology
The Ouroboros is perhaps the most intriguing in its many connections to mythology. It seems that the symbol is used in many cultures throughout ancient history that looked to the figure of the serpent as a way to explain the immensity and interconnectedness of the universe. There are many legends that incorporate the Ouroboros into their oral traditions, either directly or figuratively.
Jormungandr
There are many different interpretations of the Ouroboros in mythology, but one of the most obvious is the tale of Jormungandr from Norse mythology.
Jormungandr was a serpent—also known as the Midgard Serpent—that grew so large and powerful that it could encircle all of Midgard and grasp its tail between its teeth. This was thought to hold the world together. In fact, prophecy says that the world will only end when Jormungandr finally releases its tail, which will usher in the beginning of Ragnarok.
Norse Mythology
In addition to Jormungandr, Norse mythology also tells the story of a king who gave his daughter a small worm (a monster snake) as a gift. Eventually, it grows so large that it surrounds the girl’s home. The king promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who can kill the beast. Finally, the feat is accomplished by Ragnar Lodbrok, who marries the princess.
Later, it is revealed that Ragnar had a son by another woman. This son was born with the image of a white snake in his eye, surrounding the iris and biting its tail. The son was named Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.
Shiva
There are also often references to the strange symbol in Indian culture. These often come in the form of an animal halo surrounding something. This was most often the god Shiva—an appropriate choice. Shiva was known for representing duality in life, like Ouroboros himself. Shiva is known to reflect the symbolism of the circle in which he often appears. They express death and rebirth, creation and destruction, and eternity in general.
The connection to the Milky Way
It is often thought that the Ouroboros was invented as a reference to the Milky Way and the connection it has with many of the answers to life that we seek. There are many references in mythology to the ‘serpent of light’ that supposedly lived in the heavens. This serpent resembles the Ouroboros and its location is an obvious reference to the galaxy. Some wonder if this symbol’s connection to space means that our ancestors were able to answer questions that are still a mystery to many today.
Plato’s description of the first being
In his work, Timaeus, Plato refers to the Ouroboros as the first living creature to exist. As the first, it was the most perfect because of its self-sufficiency. The Ouroboros had no eyes because there was nothing to see outside of itself. It had no ears because there was nothing outside of itself to hear. This creature was a self-eating, circular being.
Despite its self-eating nature, however, it had no organs that allowed it to digest because there was nothing that could enter its system that existed outside of itself. It also lacked the ability to breathe for similar reasons.
The only sense given to this creature was the ability to move and twist in its circular nature, which represented the essence of its being. This story is often referred to by those who reflect on the mysteries of the Ouroboros today.
The Ouroboros in Science
The structure of the compound benzene was supposedly discovered by a chemist named August Kekule while he was seriously studying the structure of the atom in an attempt to find an answer. Frustrated, he finally took a nap by his fireplace. While dreaming, he explored the image of atoms working together and eventually appearing to move and twist like snakes. Suddenly, one of the snakes grabbed its tail in its mouth, causing Kekule to wake up. This vision of the atom-shaped ouroboros inspired Kekule to continue working on his equations until he was able to prove the shape of benzene.
