The Ouroboros

Alternate spellings: Oroborus, Uroboros, Uroborus

The Ouroboros is an ancient A symbol or (in many senses) token is a representation of something — an idea, object, concept, quality, etc.. Nature of symbols A symbol can be a material object whose shape or origin is related, by nature or convention, to the thing it represents: for instance, the crucifix is the... symbol depicting a Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. There are also several species of legless lizard which superficially resemble snakes, but are not... snake or Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c. 1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern. In European mythology, a dragon is a serpent-like legendary creature. The Latin word draco, as in the constellation Draco, comes directly from Greek δράκω... dragon swallowing its This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page. The word tail in the English language... tail, constantly creating itself and forming a See The Circle for the distributed file storage system, and see Ring (diacritic) for the diacritic mark. In Euclidean geometry, a circle is the set of all points in a plane at a fixed distance, called the radius, from a fixed point, called the centre. Circles are simple closed curves... circle. It is associated with The Alchemist. By Leon Brunin, 19th century Alchemy is an early protoscientific practice combining elements of chemistry, physics, astrology, art, semiotics, metallurgy, medicine, mysticism, and religion. There were three main goals many alchemists sought for. The most renowned goal of alchemy is the transmutation of any metal into either gold... alchemy, Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge... Gnosticism, and Hermeticism can refer to one of two things: The study and practice of occult philosophy and magic, of a type associated with writings attributed to the god Hermes Trismegistus, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, a syncretistic deity who combines aspects of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Hermeticism is... Hermeticism. It represents the A cycle is anything round, in the physical sense (e.g. a bicycle) or in a temporal sense (e.g. the cycle of the seasons). Cyclic is the adjective. Pages for cycle lovers include Cycle studies for interdisciplinary cycle research. See also Foundation for the Study of Cycles and list... cyclical nature of things, Eternal return or sometimes eternal recurrence is an esoteric concept originating from ancient Egypt and developed by the teachings of Pythagoras. The basic theory is that time is infinite, but there are a finite amount of actions in the universe, so all events will recur again and again infinitely. A... eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. In some representations the Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is normally substituted for snake in a specifically mythic context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology. For other meanings of the word serpent, see Serpent (disambiguation). Serpent: mythology The serpent is an Ancient Near Eastern... serpent is shown as half light and half dark, echoing the A dichotomy is a division into two non-overlapping or mutually exclusive, jointly exhaustive, parts. They are often contrasting and spoken of as opposites. The term comes from dichotomos (divided): dich- ([in] two) temnein (to cut). In biology, a dichotomy is a distribution of genera into two species. Such dichotomies... dichotomy of other similar symbols such as the Taoists Taijitu The concept of Yin Yang originates in ancient Chinese philosophy, most likely from the observations of day turning into night and night into day. The characters for yin (陰 or 阴, pinyin: yīn) and yang (陽 or 阳 y ng) can be broken down and roughly... Yin Yang. The ouroboros is an example of In computer science, tail recursion is a special case of recursion that can be transformed into an iteration. It is used in functional programming languages where the declarative approach and explicit handling of state emphasize recursive functions that rapidly fill the stack. Replacing recursion with iteration drastically decreases the amount... tail recursion and A self-reference occurs when an object refers to itself. Reference is possible when there are two logical levels, a level and a meta-level. It is most commonly used in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, and linguistics. Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes (but see antinomy for limits on... self-reference, though not in a programming context.

In alchemy, the ouroboros symbolises the circular nature of the alchemist's opus which unites the opposites: the conscious and unconscious mind.

It is believed to have been inspired by the This article is about the galaxy called the Milky Way. For the candy bar of the same name, see Milky Way (candy). The Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Galaxia Kuklos (meaning milky way)) is a hazy band of white light... Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens.

Throughout history

The name ouroboros (or, in Latinized form, uroborus) is Greek and means "tail-devourer".

The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be traced back to Map of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was the civilization of the Nile Valley between about 3000 BC and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. As a civilization based on irrigation it is the quintessential example of an hydraulic empire. History History of Ancient Egypt List... Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. From there it passed to Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries fluctuated, the southern... Phoenicia and then to the Classical (or early) Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. In many ways it paved the way both to modern science and to modern philosophy. Clear unbroken lines of influence lead from early Greek philosophers, through early Muslim philosophy to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the secular... Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros ("the tail-devourer").

In Norse mythology, Viking mythology or Scandinavian mythology refer to the pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian people. It is the best-known version of the older common Germanic mythology, which also includes the closely related Anglo-Saxon mythology. Germanic mythology, in its turn, had evolved from an... Norse mythology it appears as the Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. There are also several species of legless lizard which superficially resemble snakes, but are not... serpent In Norse mythology, the sea serpent Jormungand was a child of Loki and the giantess Angerboda. In Thorsdrapa, Faðir lögseims, (trans. father of the sea thread), i.e. the father of Jormungand, is used as a direct kenning for Loki. The Aesir knew Jormungand would be dangerous for... Jormungand, one of the 3 children of This page is about the Norse god Loki. For other uses of the word see Loki (disambiguation). Loki tricks Hod into shooting Baldur Loki Laufeyiarson, in Norse mythology is the god of mischief, a son of Farbauti and Laufey, and is described as the contriver of all fraud. Loki is... Loki, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its Types of teeth Molars are used for grinding up foods Carnassials are used for slicing food. In carnivores only. Premolars are similar to molars but smaller and sometimes called bicuspids Canines are used for tearing apart foods and sometimes called cuspids Incisors are used for cutting foods Tooth, plural teeth... teeth. It is also present in This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). Aum, the most sacred syllable and quintessential symbol of Hinduism, represents the first manifestation of the unmanifest Brahman. Hinduism (सनातन धर्म; commonly called Sanātana Dharma... Hindu mythology, as the dragon circling the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world. The serpent or dragon also appears in The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. It was a tribe with a rich mythology and cultural heritage. Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore of Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City. ( The Aztecs is also a... Aztec, Chinese, and Native American mythology.

For other uses of the term Christian, see Christian (disambiguation). Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians are monotheistic, the one God is thought, by most Christians, to exist in... Christians adopted the Ouroboros as a symbol of the limited confines of this world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere this-worldly existence (following in the footsteps of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, Kohelet in Hebrew, is a book of the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament. The title derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title: קהלת (variously transliterated as Qoheleth, Qohelethh, Kohelet, Koheleth, or even Coheleth). The... Ecclesiastes).

It could very well be used to symbolize the closed-system model of the The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF team. In the first half of the 20th century, the word universe was used to mean the whole spacetime continuum in which we exist, together with all the... universe of some The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. Physicists are employed by universities as professors, lecturers, researchers, and by laboratories in industry. Employment as a professional physicist generally requires a doctoral degree. However, many people who have... physicists even today.

Alchemy

In The Alchemist. By Leon Brunin, 19th century Alchemy is an early protoscientific practice combining elements of chemistry, physics, astrology, art, semiotics, metallurgy, medicine, mysticism, and religion. There were three main goals many alchemists sought for. The most renowned goal of alchemy is the transmutation of any metal into either gold... alchemy, the ouroboros is a purifying The term sigil may refer to: A type of symbol used in magic. See sigil (magic) In some programming languages, a symbol that must be attached to a variable name. See sigil (computer programming). A city in the Dungeons & Dragons setting Planescape. This is a disambiguation page — a... sigil. 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 Sir Thomas Browne (October 19, 1605 - October 19, 1682) was an English author of varied works that disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. Brownes writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the Scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry... Thomas Browne. In his A Letter to a Friend, by the 17th century alchemist and physician Sir Thomas Browne is a medical treatise full of case-histories and witty speculations upon the human condition. External link Full text with comments Categories: 17th century books | Science books | Literature stubs ... 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 or The Quincuniall, or Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, naturally, artificially, mystically considered is a work written by Sir Thomas Browne. It was first published in 1658, along with its diptych companion of stoical moralising and funereal gloom, Urn-Burial. In modern times it... 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".

The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international co-operation, and is home to many international organisations. Confoederatio Helvetica (CH), the Latin version... Swiss A psychologist is a researcher and/or a practitioner of psychology. Psychology is now considered a separate field from psychiatry, and a psychologist is not ordinarily a medical doctor and hence is unable to prescribe psychiatric medications. They are specially trained to provide professional counseling on psychological and emotional issues... psychologist Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of a neopsychoanalytic school of psychology, which he named Analytical Psychology. Though not the first to analyze dreams, his contributions to dream analysis are perhaps the most influential and certainly the... Carl Jung saw the ourobouros as an Archetype is defined as the first original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated. The term is often used in literature, architecture, and the arts to refer to something that goes back to the fundamental origins of style, method, gold... archetype and the basic The term mandala may be applied to various tangible objects, depending upon the particular religious practice that uses the term, especially as seen in Hinduism and Buddhism. The term has Hindu origins but is also used in the Buddhist context. At its root it is the generic Sanskrit term for... mandala of alchemy.

Jung also defined the relationship of the ouruboros to alchemy:

"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 uroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In the age-old image of the uroboros 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 uroboros 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 uroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilises himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolises 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'. (Collected Works, Vol. 14 para.513)

Ouroborus in modern culture

The Organic chemistry is the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. History Organic chemistry as a science is generally agreed to have started in 1828 with Friedrich Woehlers synthesis of the organic, biologically significant compound urea by accidentally evaporating an aqueous solution of... organic chemist August Kekulé claimed that a See The Circle for the distributed file storage system, and see Ring (diacritic) for the diacritic mark. In Euclidean geometry, a circle is the set of all points in a plane at a fixed distance, called the radius, from a fixed point, called the centre. Circles are simple closed curves... ring in the shape of Ouroboros inspired him in his discovery of the structure of Benzene, C6H6, PhH, or benzol is a colorless and flammable liquid with a pleasant, sweet smell. Benzene is a known carcinogen. It is a part of the car gasoline mixture and of napalm, it is an important solvent, and it is a precursor in the production of drugs, plastics, gasoline... benzene.

Eric Rucker Eddison (November 24, 1882 - August 18, 1945) was an English civil servant and author. He is best known for his romance books: E. R. Eddison (1922). The Worm Ouroboros. London: Jonathan Cape and his three volumes set in the imaginary world Zimiamvia: E. R. Eddison (1935). Mistress of... E. R. Eddison wrote a fantasy novel titled The Worm Ouroboros (1922) is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rucker Eddison. There has been a recent UK paperback edition in the Fantasy Masterworks series. A paperback edition was reissued in Bridgewater, New Jersey, by Replica Books in 1999 with ISBN 073510171X. The book describes the protracted war... The Worm Ouroboros, though the concept plays only a minor role in the story.

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential authors in the science fiction genre. He developed new themes, new techniques and approaches. He became the first science fiction writer to break into major general magazines in the late 1940s... Robert A. Heinlein's time travel story "—All You Zombies—" makes reference to the Ouroborus, as does his later book Book cover The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1985. It is one of the Lazarus Long set of books. A writer seated at the best restaurant on the space station is approached by a man who desperately but cryptically... The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

In Alternative meanings: Robert Jordan (lawyer) for the former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Robert Jordan (character) for the character in Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls. Robert Jordan Robert Jordan is a pen name for James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (1948-). He is best known as the author of... Robert Jordan's " The Wheel of Time (abbreviated tWoT, WOT, or WoT) is a fantasy book series written by Robert Jordan, notable for the extreme density of its plotting, the intricate detail of its imaginary world, its generally pessimistic tone in which almost anything that can go wrong eventually does, and the lifelike... The Wheel of Time" book series, the Ouroborus is an ancient symbol representing the cyclic nature of time, and the Aes Sedai (female magic users) all wear a ring in the shape of an Ouroborus.

The Ouroborus has been used in a number of television shows. On the Sci-Fi show "The Invisible Man", Darien Fawkes has an Ouroboros on his wrist to indicate his level of Quicksilver madness. Ouroboros is the name of the 39th episode of the British Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. There are exceptions (or, at least, some unusual examples) to this general definition. Scope In defining the scope of the science fiction genre, we... science fiction Comedy is the use of humour in the performing arts. It also means a performance that relies heavily on humor. The term originally comes from theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. The humor, once an incidental device used to... comedy television series This article is about red dwarfs, the type of star. Red Dwarf is also the name of a British television series. According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type. They... Red Dwarf (first aired January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 334 days remaining, (335 in leap years). Also, this is the final day of January. Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and... January 31, 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Reef. Events January January 3 - NBCs Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 - Mister Rogers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame... 1997) and of the 24th episode the American science fiction series The featured ship of the Andromeda television show, the Andromeda Ascendant Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda is a science fiction television series, a posthumous creation of Gene Roddenberry. It stars Kevin Sorbo as High Guard Captain Dylan Hunt. The series premiered in the fall of 2000 and as of December 2004... Andromeda (first aired February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 332 days remaining (333 in leap years). Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years. 1032 - Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor... February 2, 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom Autism Awareness Year in the United Kingdom Events January Euro banknotes in circulation throughout the twelve countries of the European Union that... 2002). The symbol forms part of the A television program is the content of television broadcasting. The content of an individual broadcast may be referred to as a television program (US English), television programme (UK English) or television show. A program may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically returning television series... television series The Ouroboros, the symbol of the Millennium Group. Millennium was a grim, suspenseful television series, produced by the creators of The X-Files and set during the run-up to the new millennium (it premiered in 1996). It was cancelled in 1999, with a final episode wrapping up the storyline... Millennium. In the A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful images depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a variety of different audiences. Anime is influenced by the drawing style of manga, or Japanese comics. Terminology... anime series Fullmetal Alchemist DVD cover by FUNimation Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi in the original Japanese) is a 51-episode anime TV series which ran in Japan from October 4, 2003 to October 2, 2004. The TV series is based on the manga created by... Fullmetal Alchemist, the Homunculi each have an ouroboros tatooed somewhere on their body.

The Ouroboros is featured prominently in the movie Darkness.

This article is about the Unix software. For the cyclic self-devouring and self-begetting symbol, see Ouroboros. In Unix computing, Oroborus is a minimalist window manager for the X Window System. The project also provides some tools which can be useful with other window managers too. Categories: Software stubs... Oroborus is a brand of window manager software named after the symbol.

The Ouroborus figures prominently on the crest for The Book and Snake Society, one of the elite secret societies at Yale University.

The expansion symbol for Magic: The Gathering (colloq. Magic or MTG), is a collectible card game created by Richard Garfield, Ph.D. and introduced by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. Magic inspired an entirely new game genre, and continues to endure with an estimated six million players in over seventy countries worldwide and... Magic: The Gathering's Torment set is an Ouroborus.

External links

• Autofellatio and Ontology: Ancient Egyptian Religion and the Problem of Closure (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1326/ontology.html) by David Lorton
• References to the ouroboros (http://abacus.best.vwh.net/oro/ouroboros.html)
• The Ourobouros Tribe Of Sol (http://www.ourobouros.com/index-4old.html) is a word-of-mouth humanitarian organization in alliance with charities worldwide.