Ouroboros

Drawing by Theodoros Pelecanos, in alchemical tract titled Synosius (1478).

Engraving by Lucas Jennis, in alchemical tract titled De Lapide Philisophico.

The Ouroboros or Uroborus^[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities 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.

Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.^[2]

Historical representations

Antiquity

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe—an immortal, perfectly constructed animal.

The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.

^[3]

"Coiled dragon" forms have been attributed to the Hongshan culture (4700 BC to 2900 BC). One in particular, in the shape of a complete circle, was found on the chest of the deceased.^[4]

The notion of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia where it was used as a symbol for Janus, ^[5] before it passed to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros ("tail-devourer").^{[citation needed]} Yet, In the Pyramid of Unas dated between 2375 BC and 2345 BC, in the Sarcophagus chamber, on the west wall gable hieroglyphs it states "A serpent is entwined by a serpent" and "the male serpent is bitten by the female serpent, the female serpent is bitten by the male serpent, Heaven is enchanted, earth is enchanted, the male behind mankind is enchanted" ^[6]

In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world.

Christianity adopted the Ouroboros as symbols of the limited confines of the material world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere "worldly existence" of this world, following in the footsteps of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 3:9-14. G. K. Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, uses it as a symbol of the circular and self-defeating nature of pantheistic mysticism and of most modern philosophy.

Middle Ages

In Norse mythology, it appears as the serpent Jörmungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona þáttr, the Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindworm as a gift to his daughter Þóra Town-Hart after which it grows into a large serpent which encircles the girl's bower and bites itself in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok who marries Þóra. Ragnar later has a son with another woman named Kráka and this son is born with the image of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.

Alchemy

In alchemy, the Ouroboros is a purifying sigil. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the Ouroboros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy. Jung also defined the relationship of the Ouroboros to alchemy:^[7]

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 Ouroboros, the snake that 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 'feed-back' 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.

The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, "one is the all". Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence.

The Chrysopoeia Ouroboros of Cleopatra is one of the oldest images of the Ouroboros to be linked with the legendary opus of the Alchemists, the Philosopher’s Stone.

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 was familiar to the alchemist/physician Sir Thomas Browne. In his A letter to a friend, a medical treatise full of case-histories and witty speculations upon the human condition, he wrote of it:

[...] that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence,

It is also alluded to at the conclusion of Browne's 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.

Freemasonry

The ouroboros is displayed on numerous Masonic seals, frontispieces and other imagery, especially during the 18th century.

Theosophy

The ouroboros is featured in the seal of Theosophy, along with other traditional symbols.

Non-western traditions

Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl portrayed as Ouroboros.

Some Hindu folk-myths^{[citation needed]} have a snake (Adisesha) circling the tortoise Kurma that supports the eight elephants which support the world on their backs.^{[citation needed]} However, the snake does not bite its own tail, but instead is calling itself into being through what some literary theorists have called a performative speech act.^{[citation needed]}

Snakes are sacred animals in many West African religions. The demi-god Aidophedo uses the image of a serpent biting its own tail. The Ouroboros is also seen in Fon or dahomean iconography as well as in Yoruba imagery as Oshunmare.

The god Quetzalcoatl is sometimes portrayed biting its tail on Aztec and Toltec ruins.

Modern

The organic chemist August Kekulé claimed that a ring in the shape of Ouroboros that he saw in a dream inspired him in his discovery of the structure of benzene. As noted by Carl Jung, this might be an instance of cryptomnesia.^{[clarification needed]}

The flag of the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro featured the Ouroboros on it. The Ouroboros has been incorporated into the crests of the Hungarian and Romanian Unitarian churches.

Crane untitled (1986) is a sculpture by Henck van Dijck, in which the ends of a tube are connected to the input and output of a spigot, intended to promote recycling.

In modern popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2009)

Movie

• In the movie Adaptation. it is alluded to by Charlie Kaufman - a reference to the fact that the film is documenting its own creation.
• Darkness (2002 film), references the symbol in an explanation regarding the grim history surrounding the main character's house.

Television

Dana Scully's tattoo

• Red Dwarf, episode "Ouroboros": Dave Lister explains that he was abandoned at six months, underneath the pool table at the Aigburth Arms pub, in a cardboard box on which OUROBOROS is written; this was read as "our Rob or Ross" and taken to mean that the unknown parents could not decide on the baby's name — but in fact is a clue that, through time travel, Dave is his own father.
• Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, episode "Ouroboros": a rift in space-time allows Trance Gemini to take the place of her younger self, to correct a future gone wrong.
• Chris Carter's Millennium had the Ouroboros on the logo of the series.
• In an episode of Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, the host gets a custom tribal version of the Ouroboros tattoo on his shoulder.
• The eponymous character of The Invisible Man has an ouroboros tattoo on his wrist that changes color to warn him he is close to 'quicksilver madness', a condition brought on as a side effect to his invisibility.
• The X-Files, episode "Never Again": Dana Scully gets an Ouroboros tattooed on her lower back.
• Warehouse 13 season 1, episode 9 "Regrets": Pete and Myka investigate a prison where nightmares becomes real; the Ouroboros appears on a book cover.
• In the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, each of the homunculus own an Ouroboros tattoo. However, this is just a symbol of a homunculus, as the real power of the homunculus comes from the Philosopher's Stone.

Music

Neil Peart's drumset featuring the ouroboros

• Irish metal band Primordial have Ouroboros artwork on the cover of their album 'Spirit the Earth Aflame'
• USA-based exotic guitar and bass making company Alembic, Inc., known for close relationships with The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, John Entwistle, Stanley Clarke and others, uses the Ouroboros as central part of their logo (invented in 1969 by Robert Thomas): a hand coming out of a shining cloud spreading rays, bearing the Ouroboros that encircles a prism with an alembic inside. The idea is that mankind (hand) takes everything in the universe (cloud) and, in an infinite (circle) search of wisdom (dragon in circle), focuses (prism) energy (rays) to purify (alembic) the main goal (also the alembic).[2] Note that the Ouroboros here represents wisdom, as in Oriental philosophy, rather the soul or the universe, as in the Western tradition.
• Japanese metal band Dir en grey released an album with the title Uroboros in 2008.
• American rock band The Mars Volta released the album The Bedlam in Goliath in 2008, featuring a track named "Ouroboros".
• The Alan Parsons Project album Vulture Culture features the Ouroboros on the cover.
• Norwegian deathpunk band Turbonegro features the Ouroboros on the cover of their album Scandinavian Leather
• Canadian melodic death metal band Aeternam released the album "Disciple of the Unseen" in 2009, featuring a track named "Ouroboros".
• French metal band Gojira has a track called "Ouroboros" in the album "The Way of All Flesh".
• New Jersey hardcore punk band Seasick released a 12" EP in 2008 entitled "Ouroboros".
• American progressive-rock band Astra features a song titled "Ouroboros" on their debut album The Weirding.
• American stoner/doom metal band Black Pyramid released a self-titled album in 2009, featuring a track called "The Worm Ouroboros".

Literature

• The satirical play Androboros is named after it.
• The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a heroic high fantasy novel by E. R. Eddison, which ends with the world restored to as it had been at the story's beginning.
• In Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, page 205: "What is time? It is a serpent which eats its tail..."
• In Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, the 'World-Worm' is a dormant world-circling snake god, whose body has turned to stone from lack of magic to sustain it.
• Is the main symbol of Robert Jordan's mammoth Wheel of Time fantasy series, where the serpent forms the figure of infinity through a wooden wheel.
• In Robert A. Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, page 300: ". . . and I am not a Companion of the Circle -- the Circle of Ouroboros that rules on all cosmic changes."
• Famed American poet Allen Ginsberg used the symbol often, with his signature, when autographing copies of his works.
• It appears on the cover of The Sanctuary by Raymond Khoury.
• The Ouroboros appears in the second installment of Piers Anthony's Sci-Fi-Fantasy Xanth series, The Source of Magic as a magical creature. The book's protagonist, Bink, is forced to traverse the back of a massive Ouroboros in a moat in order to gain entrance to the Good Magician Humfrey's castle.
• In Tim Lott's novel Fearless, a character called Oroborous (a supposed terrorist) has the Ouroboros symbol tattooed on his wrist. The image also appears on the back cover.
• In Robert Stone's novel Damascus Gate, the Ouroboros features prominently as a recurring symbol.

Theatre

• [title of show], an original Broadway musical that chronicles its own creation, is sometimes referred to as "the musical that eats its own tail."^[8] The show's cast and creators dedicated an episode of their video blog, the [title of show] show, to explaining the musical's "snakeeatstailness," using the concept of the ouroboros throughout the episode.^[9]

Other

A modern-day manifestation of the ancient symbol.

• The Ouroboros can be viewed as a symbol for the flow of energy and entropy in living beings.^[10] In this context it is used as logo and namesake by Oroboros Instruments.
• In computers the Ouroboros may represent a circular dependency, in particular a routing misconfiguration, where a tunnel traffic is trying to route over the tunnel itself.
• In the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 video game Resident Evil 5, the villain Albert Wesker plans to infect all humanity with a virus as part of "Project Uroboros", referring to it as the philosopher's stone of human evolution, believing the human race will be reborn after being reduced to a select few.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, the manga series, the Homunculus are tatooed with an Ouroborus, due to its affiliation with alchemy.
• In the computer game "World of Warcraft," the dungeon called The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj is home to an enormous sand worm called Ouro, which is likely a reference to Ouroboros.
• In .Hack//G.U., the Serpent of Lore is a reference to Ouroboros.
• In the popular Trading Card Game Yu-Gi-Oh!, there is a card named "Cyber Ouroboros".
• In the Playstation video game "Breath of Fire III", there is a weapon you can get called Ouroboros.
• The first boss of the arcade game Strider Is called Ouroboros. It is a robotic dragon/snake that can roll into a circle, resembling the classic creature of the same name.
• In the SNES video game Final Fantasy 5, six creatures named "Puroboros", Bomb-like monsters, appear in a circle in a boss battle. As you kill one, it automatically casts Life2 on a fallen Puroboros, reviving it and re-creating the circle. The name "Puroboros" and the constant reviving is most likely a reference to the "Ouroboros".
• In the video game "City of Heroes," Ouroboros is a zone involving time travel and has a symbol recognizable as a snake with it's tail in its mouth.
• In the video game series BlazBlue, the character Hazama's Nox Nyctores is called Ouroboros.
• In the videogame "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2" the Ouroboros can be seen on the ground where Undead Raziel and Living Serafan Raziel Fight, being Raziel a time traveler and perpetrator of his own death, the reference is obvious.
• In the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, the symbol of Clan Tzimsce is the ouroboros.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ouroboros

References

Solar Equinox

External links

• The Ouroboros Research and Education Trust
• OUROBOROS - Symbols
• OROBOROS and the Energy of Life