Ouroboros was and is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the earth. The word 'Ouroboros' is really a term that describes a similar symbol which has been cross-pollinated from many different cultures. From "Ouroboros," there is the serpent or dragon gnawing at its own tail. The symbolic connotation from this owes to the returning cyclical nature of the seasons; the oscillations of the night sky; self-fecundation; disintegration and re-integration; truth and cognition complete; the Androgyne (see below); the primaeval waters; the potential before the spark of creation; the undifferentiated; the Totality; primordial unity; self-sufficiency, and the idea of the beginning and the end as being a continuous unending principle. It represents the conflict of life as well in that life comes out of life and death. 'My end is my beginning.' In a sense life feeds off itself, thus there are good and bad connotations which can be drawn. It is a single image with the entire actions of a life cycle - it begets, weds, impregnates, and slays itself, but in a cyclical sense, rather than linear. Thus, it fashions our lives to a totality more towards what it may REALLY be - a series of movements which repeat. "As Above, So Below" - we are born from nature, and we mirror it, because it is what man wholly is a part of.
Born from this symbolic notion, there are many different cultures which share this great dragon-serpent symbol (the serpent Jormungandr, from the myth of Yggdrasil, is just one). There are some cultures that see the image as not being beneficial, but evil - like Satan. These more specific re-interpretations will be spoken of later.
It is of interest to mention that a symbol such as that of the Ouroboros is something which Carl Jung refers to as an archetype; it seems to makes its way into our conscious mind time and time again in varying forms. The 19th century German chemist named Kekule dreamed of a snake with its tail in its mouth one day after dosing off. He had been researching the molecular structure of benzene, and was at a stop point in his work until after waking up he interpreted the dream to mean that the structure was a closed carbon ring. This was the breakthrough he needed.
There is another mention of the Ouroboros laying at the edge of "the sea which surrounds the world," called Pontus. The Ouroboros encircles the Universe; everything known and unknown is encompassed in its embracing coils, supporting and maintaining the earthly balance. It injects life into death and death into budding life. Its form suggests immobility with its locked jaws upon itself, yet at the same time it pushes the insistent message of perpetual movement through its twined coils. The first clues to this symbol go back as far as 1600-1700 BC in Egypt. Through the years the serpent moved on to the Phoenicians and the Greeks-who were what gave it the name "Ouroboros." The Greek translation means, "tail eater."
It has a strong relation to what is known as the Androgyne. The androgyne is the united male and female principles together. This is the prime primordial end to human endeavor, the reunion which births totality and creation. It is not unlike the idea of androgyny, which is a duality complete. "A return to wholeness."
"A return to wholeness."
A Return To Whole
Re: A Return To Whole
The third is apparently an Aztec Ouroboros (with proportions that even Hermes would have found pleasing) originally from: Project Ouroboros at the University of Minnesota, which has a large and diverse selection of these impressive archtypes. The following commentary from this source links with what has already been said and also adds further points of interest:
This symbol appears principally among the Gnostics and is depicted as a dragon, snake or serpent biting its own tail. In the broadest sense, it is symbolic of time and the continuity of life. It sometimes bears the caption Hen to pan - 'The One, the All', as in the Codex Marcianus, for instance, of the 2nd century A.D. It has also been explained as the union between the chthonian principle as represented by the serpent and the celestial principal as signified by the bird (a synthesis which can also be applied to the dragon). Ruland contends this proves that it is a variant of the symbol for Mercury - the duplex god. In some versions of the Ouroboros, the body is half light and half dark, alluding in this way to the successive counterbalancing of opposing principls as illustrated in the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol for instance. Evola asserts that it represents the dissolution of the body, or the universal serpent which (to quote the Gnostic saying) 'passes through all things'. Poison, the viper and the universal solvent are all symbols of the undifferentiated-of the 'unchanging law' which moves through all things, linking them by a common bond. Both the dragon and the bull are symbolic antagonists of the solar hero. The Ouroboros biting its own tail is symbolic of self-fecundation, or the primitive idea of a self-sufficient Nature - a Nature, that is which, à la Nietzsche, continually returns, within a cyclic pattern, to its own beginning. There is a Venetian manuscript on alchemy which depicts the Ouroboros with its body half-black (symbolizing earth and night) and half-white (denoting heaven and light).
Continuing in the same locale and context, Solar Architect Dennis Holloway more than twenty years ago defined the Ouroboros as: ".. the ancient Greek mythical serpent that survived by devouring itself." He also linked the Ouroboros with the following quotation from Plato's Timæus:
"It had no need of eyes, for there was nothing outside it to be seen; nor of ears, for there was nothing outside to be heard. There was no surrounding air to be breathed, nor was it in need of any organ by which to supply itself with food or to get rid of it when digested. Nothing went out from or came into it anywhere, for there was nothing. Of design it was made thus, its own waste providing its own food, acting and being acted upon entirely with and by itself, because its designer considered that a being which was sufficient unto itself would be far more excellent than one which depended upon anything." from Timaeus, (33 -The Construction of the World)
The fourth ouroboros is from Alciato's Book of Emblems and the Memorial Web Library at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The latter source also provided the fifth example (Emblem 2.40) and the following amplification:
Emblem 2.40 from George Wither's A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (London, 1635), page 102. A demanding poem to read on a screen. The plate was engraved by Crispin de Passe and son, and was first used in Gabriel Rollenhagen's Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum, quae Itali vulgo impresas vocant ... (Arnhem and Utrecht, 1611-13). The Greek running around the picture (aionion kai proskairon) means something like "timeless, and timely." In a later emblem (3.23) Wither explains further the snake swallowing its tail (ouroboros):
Old Sages by the Figure of the Snake
Encircled thus) did oft expression make
Of Annual-Revolutions; and of things,
Which wheele about in everlasting-rings;
There ending, where they first of all begun ..
... These Roundells, help to shew the Mystery
of that immense and blest Eternitie,
From whence the CREATURE sprung, and into whom
It shall again, with full perfection come ...
The sixth, a more ornate dragon-like example, is one of twelve emblems discussed in detail by Adam Mclean in terms of psychological and alchemical symbolism. (A Threefold Alchemical Journey Through the Book of Lambspring). As Mclean leads up to the latter example, he explains that:
The first layer of five emblems deal with the different facets of polarities in our inner world.
The second emblem shows a different aspect to polarities in the fight between the inner dragon and an armed knight (a St George figure) in the Forest of the Soul. In this emblem there is a sense that the polarities must struggle to overcome each other.
Next in Emblem 3 we have the beautiful picture of the meeting in a clearing in the forest of a magnificent Stag and a graceful Unicorn. The Stag as a symbol is often associated with the Sun and the Unicorn is usually linked with the Moon. These polarities are to be coupled together through the alchemist's work.
Next, in Emblem 4, the polarities are seen in their manifestation as masculine and feminine, pictured here in the meeting of Lion and Lioness. We note how they raise their opposite paws (Lion - right, Lioness - left) mirroring the posture of the Stag and Unicorn in the previous emblem.
The fifth emblem, which completes this part of the sequence shows the wild Wolf and the tamed Dog fighting for supremacy. These polarities are further linked in the verse with the directions West (Dog) and East (Wolf). Thus we can see that the first five emblems show us different ways in which the polarities appear in our inner world. The dynamically opposed though balanced way of the two fishes, the battling of the Dragon and Knight elements, or Wolf and Dog, and the meeting and relationship indicated in the Stag-Unicorn and Lion-Lioness emblems.
The next five emblems seem to indicate different ways in which we must inwardly work to unite these polarities in our beings.
Emblem 6 is a clear statement of the Ouroborus, the serpent dragon that siezes its own tail and unites these polarities in forming its circle in the Soul.
The next example (7 and
and following description:
"The symbol Ouroboros, a snake or dragon biting its own tail, engraved on a bronze receptacle from the Chou dynasty, China about 1200 B.C. The Ouroboros symbolizes the continuity of life, and intimates that each ending in a perpetual renewal corresponds to a new beginning. A suitable symbol for the life cycle philosophy"
were made available on the Internet by the Swedish Engineering concern ivf/ep (The Symbol Ouroboros.) while another representation of the ouroborus serves as the logo of the J.R. Ritman Library (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Site) in the Netherlands.
These are but a few representations of the Ouroboros; there are many others, some more ornate, some less, and many in more complex configurations, especially in the alchemical context.
This symbol appears principally among the Gnostics and is depicted as a dragon, snake or serpent biting its own tail. In the broadest sense, it is symbolic of time and the continuity of life. It sometimes bears the caption Hen to pan - 'The One, the All', as in the Codex Marcianus, for instance, of the 2nd century A.D. It has also been explained as the union between the chthonian principle as represented by the serpent and the celestial principal as signified by the bird (a synthesis which can also be applied to the dragon). Ruland contends this proves that it is a variant of the symbol for Mercury - the duplex god. In some versions of the Ouroboros, the body is half light and half dark, alluding in this way to the successive counterbalancing of opposing principls as illustrated in the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol for instance. Evola asserts that it represents the dissolution of the body, or the universal serpent which (to quote the Gnostic saying) 'passes through all things'. Poison, the viper and the universal solvent are all symbols of the undifferentiated-of the 'unchanging law' which moves through all things, linking them by a common bond. Both the dragon and the bull are symbolic antagonists of the solar hero. The Ouroboros biting its own tail is symbolic of self-fecundation, or the primitive idea of a self-sufficient Nature - a Nature, that is which, à la Nietzsche, continually returns, within a cyclic pattern, to its own beginning. There is a Venetian manuscript on alchemy which depicts the Ouroboros with its body half-black (symbolizing earth and night) and half-white (denoting heaven and light).
Continuing in the same locale and context, Solar Architect Dennis Holloway more than twenty years ago defined the Ouroboros as: ".. the ancient Greek mythical serpent that survived by devouring itself." He also linked the Ouroboros with the following quotation from Plato's Timæus:
"It had no need of eyes, for there was nothing outside it to be seen; nor of ears, for there was nothing outside to be heard. There was no surrounding air to be breathed, nor was it in need of any organ by which to supply itself with food or to get rid of it when digested. Nothing went out from or came into it anywhere, for there was nothing. Of design it was made thus, its own waste providing its own food, acting and being acted upon entirely with and by itself, because its designer considered that a being which was sufficient unto itself would be far more excellent than one which depended upon anything." from Timaeus, (33 -The Construction of the World)
The fourth ouroboros is from Alciato's Book of Emblems and the Memorial Web Library at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The latter source also provided the fifth example (Emblem 2.40) and the following amplification:
Emblem 2.40 from George Wither's A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (London, 1635), page 102. A demanding poem to read on a screen. The plate was engraved by Crispin de Passe and son, and was first used in Gabriel Rollenhagen's Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum, quae Itali vulgo impresas vocant ... (Arnhem and Utrecht, 1611-13). The Greek running around the picture (aionion kai proskairon) means something like "timeless, and timely." In a later emblem (3.23) Wither explains further the snake swallowing its tail (ouroboros):
Old Sages by the Figure of the Snake
Encircled thus) did oft expression make
Of Annual-Revolutions; and of things,
Which wheele about in everlasting-rings;
There ending, where they first of all begun ..
... These Roundells, help to shew the Mystery
of that immense and blest Eternitie,
From whence the CREATURE sprung, and into whom
It shall again, with full perfection come ...
The sixth, a more ornate dragon-like example, is one of twelve emblems discussed in detail by Adam Mclean in terms of psychological and alchemical symbolism. (A Threefold Alchemical Journey Through the Book of Lambspring). As Mclean leads up to the latter example, he explains that:
The first layer of five emblems deal with the different facets of polarities in our inner world.
The second emblem shows a different aspect to polarities in the fight between the inner dragon and an armed knight (a St George figure) in the Forest of the Soul. In this emblem there is a sense that the polarities must struggle to overcome each other.
Next in Emblem 3 we have the beautiful picture of the meeting in a clearing in the forest of a magnificent Stag and a graceful Unicorn. The Stag as a symbol is often associated with the Sun and the Unicorn is usually linked with the Moon. These polarities are to be coupled together through the alchemist's work.
Next, in Emblem 4, the polarities are seen in their manifestation as masculine and feminine, pictured here in the meeting of Lion and Lioness. We note how they raise their opposite paws (Lion - right, Lioness - left) mirroring the posture of the Stag and Unicorn in the previous emblem.
The fifth emblem, which completes this part of the sequence shows the wild Wolf and the tamed Dog fighting for supremacy. These polarities are further linked in the verse with the directions West (Dog) and East (Wolf). Thus we can see that the first five emblems show us different ways in which the polarities appear in our inner world. The dynamically opposed though balanced way of the two fishes, the battling of the Dragon and Knight elements, or Wolf and Dog, and the meeting and relationship indicated in the Stag-Unicorn and Lion-Lioness emblems.
The next five emblems seem to indicate different ways in which we must inwardly work to unite these polarities in our beings.
Emblem 6 is a clear statement of the Ouroborus, the serpent dragon that siezes its own tail and unites these polarities in forming its circle in the Soul.
The next example (7 and
and following description: "The symbol Ouroboros, a snake or dragon biting its own tail, engraved on a bronze receptacle from the Chou dynasty, China about 1200 B.C. The Ouroboros symbolizes the continuity of life, and intimates that each ending in a perpetual renewal corresponds to a new beginning. A suitable symbol for the life cycle philosophy"
were made available on the Internet by the Swedish Engineering concern ivf/ep (The Symbol Ouroboros.) while another representation of the ouroborus serves as the logo of the J.R. Ritman Library (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Site) in the Netherlands.
These are but a few representations of the Ouroboros; there are many others, some more ornate, some less, and many in more complex configurations, especially in the alchemical context.
Re: A Return To Whole
VILLAIN OF MIÐGARDR
NEMESIS OF ÞORR
NEMESIS OF ÞORR
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packajos000
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packajos000
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Re: A Return To Whole
They Left Then, The Door Marked 444, And Continued They Journey Onwards Through The Hall. Came They, To The Door Marked 555:
In It, Wast People Too, And All They Weret Clothed In Dirt, And Starved... And All They Gathered Around, A Great House Of Metal. For Upon The House Stood High, Wast A Man Who Wore Beautiful Clothes, And Spake He This To The People:
Man Atop The House: “Stay Here, O People Of Mine! Build Up More, Mine House, Higher And Higher! Doeth Ye This, And Food And Fish Shall I Give Thee! And With Beautiful Garments Shall I Clothe Thee!”
And The Man Spake His Words, And The People Built Up His, And Long Didst They Do This, Yet None Of The People Became Fed, Nor Ever Clothed In Garments...
And What Saw The Rabbit And His Hare, Which The Others Couldst Seith Not, Wast Inside The House...
Inside The House, Wast It All The Colour Of Blood And Bile, And Saw They, A Group Which Appeared As Men, Encircled They To One Another... And Thirteen Of Them There Weret... Twas They Who Gave The Man Of The House His Garments And Food, And Knew They Everything Of The House, And They Knew All Of The People... And When Saw They Rabbit Looking Onwards At They, They All Looked At The Rabbit, And Rabbit Grew Scared, And Left The Door Marked 555, With He Hare Upon His Back...
,
In It, Wast People Too, And All They Weret Clothed In Dirt, And Starved... And All They Gathered Around, A Great House Of Metal. For Upon The House Stood High, Wast A Man Who Wore Beautiful Clothes, And Spake He This To The People:
Man Atop The House: “Stay Here, O People Of Mine! Build Up More, Mine House, Higher And Higher! Doeth Ye This, And Food And Fish Shall I Give Thee! And With Beautiful Garments Shall I Clothe Thee!”
And The Man Spake His Words, And The People Built Up His, And Long Didst They Do This, Yet None Of The People Became Fed, Nor Ever Clothed In Garments...
And What Saw The Rabbit And His Hare, Which The Others Couldst Seith Not, Wast Inside The House...
Inside The House, Wast It All The Colour Of Blood And Bile, And Saw They, A Group Which Appeared As Men, Encircled They To One Another... And Thirteen Of Them There Weret... Twas They Who Gave The Man Of The House His Garments And Food, And Knew They Everything Of The House, And They Knew All Of The People... And When Saw They Rabbit Looking Onwards At They, They All Looked At The Rabbit, And Rabbit Grew Scared, And Left The Door Marked 555, With He Hare Upon His Back...
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packajos000
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Re: A Return To Whole
The Rabbit And His Hare Continued Down The Infinite White Hall Of KIMN, And When Approached They, The Door Marked 666, This In It They Saw:
It Wast A Room Of All White, And White Wast All There Dwelt, Except For A Rabbit Who Laythed On The Floor.
The Rabbit Wast A Rabbit, Yet In The Shape Of A Man... Laythed He There, Crying, And A Crown Of Gold Laythed Beside His Head, As Though It Fell...
And The Beautiful Crown Wast Broken: Split, Down Part Of It...
And Rabbit, Who Went Through The Door, Gazed At The Being Curiously, And Looked He Up, And A Saw Behind The Laying Rabbit-Figure, A Mirror Upon The Wall. And Rabbit Saw Heself In The Mirror...
Below The Mirror, And Upon The Wall, Wast Written This, In The Language Of Man:
“...Without Fire, Gold Cannst Be Molded;
Without Air, The Fire Cannst Burn;
Without Water, Gold Becometh Not Smooth;
And Without Earth, Gold Cannst Be Found...
...And Even Gold, Can Break...”
Rabbit: “Doth Thou Need Mine Aid?... Me And Mine Hare, Mayth Help Thee...”
And Without Even An Action, But When Rabbit Spake That Unto The Figure, Got He Up On To His Knees, Ceased Crying, And Hugged The Small Rabbit And The Hare...
The Figure Then Stood, And Jumped Into The Mirror Upon The Wall...
As Rabbit Watched Him Doeth This Act, He Saw Again Himself In The Mirror; Yet This Time, He Wore A Crown Of Strawberry And Olive Leaves, And The Golden Crown Couldst Beeth Seen Mended Upon The Ground...
And The Rabbit And His Hair, Then Left The Room Marked 666...
...
Re: A Return To Whole
The Earth, the Air, the Fire, the Water, return return return
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Re: A Return To Whole
My friend theone, welcome back, and what an outstanding series of contributions from you and those who have gathered to your themes. So much so that David Denison site founder, creator and content architect, thought you might appreciate the following information. Redbeck
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchemy/PYTHAGORAS.htm
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 20950.html
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... %20798.htm
THE
OURABORUS PYTHAGORAS OURABORUS
THAT
SERPENT I PRESENT
JUST SIX NUMBERS
THE DEEP FORCES THAT SHAPE THE UNIVERSE
Martin Rees 1999
Page 7
"Lengths spanning sixty powers of ten are depicted in the ouraborus,"
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchemy/PYTHAGORAS.htm
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 20950.html
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... %20798.htm
THE
OURABORUS PYTHAGORAS OURABORUS
THAT
SERPENT I PRESENT
JUST SIX NUMBERS
THE DEEP FORCES THAT SHAPE THE UNIVERSE
Martin Rees 1999
Page 7
"Lengths spanning sixty powers of ten are depicted in the ouraborus,"
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