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The ouroboros has several meanings interwoven into it. Foremost is the symbolism of the serpent biting its own tail.
This symbolizes the cyclic Nature of the Universe: Creation out of Destruction, Life out of Death. The ouroboros eats its
own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. It embodies both the dark: Night, Earth, and the destructive
force of nature, (yin). and the light: Day, Heaven, the generative, creative force, (yang).
Alchemically, the ouroboros is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the Earth. The Ouroboros connects to the returning cyclical nature of the seasons; the oscillations of the night sky; disintegration and re-integration; truth and cognition complete; the primeval waters; the potential before the spark of creation; the Totality; primordial unity; self-sufficiency, and the idea of the beginning and the end as being a continuous unending principle. Ouroboros represents the seeming contradiction 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. Ouroboros is a symbolic rendition of eternal principles. |
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