We can even see the existence of the Ouroboros in the art world. Exhausted by his efforts at studying the elusive atomic structure, he fell asleep and reportedly dreamt of the atoms working in unison to form into the shape of the Ouroboros, which inspired Kekule to persevere until he finally proved his benzene theory. Chemist August Kekule saw connections to the snake symbol in his discovery of the compound benzene. Not to be limited to terra firma, the ouroboros is also connected to the celestial realms, with mythological connections to the Milky Way, with the serpent shape representing the heavenly stars, as well as in scientific realms. For the ancient Chinese and Japanese, duality represents opposites which form a divine unity, with each aspect being equal in such a creative and reproductive power, that a universe could emerge from the sacred union.
This connection to the feminine would also be mirrored in the Far Eastern interpretation of the Ouroboros with the concept of yin yang, the cosmological balance between light and dark, matter and energy, or the concept of duality. According to the Upanishads, “the divine power, Kundalini, shines like the stem of a young lotus like a snake, coiled round upon herself she holds her tail in her mouth and lies resting half asleep as the base of the body.” The Hindus are also among the religions that associates the Ouroboros with the divine feminine energy. In the Hindu religion, Ouroboros is equated with Kundalini or the essential energy that resides, coiled in the base of the spine. It can also be said that the snake, or ouroboros, can be attributed to what we now call “awareness,” in that after listening to the snake and eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness, or innate humanity. įor some it is the embodiment of evil for others the reflection of knowledge, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Ouroboros, which we know as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, represents the external or human-bound world, or one that resides outside of “God.”
In fact, Plato writes of the Ouroboros as being the first living creature in the universe, and that the self-swallowing being represents a completely self-contained system with no need for anything outside of itself.įrom Plato’s interpretation, the Gnostics expanded on the theory that the Ouroboros represents the soul of the world. Greek alchemists associated the ouroboros symbol with gold and the path of endless return, or the “ One in All. As described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Ouroboros is connected to the creator god Atum, often described as being in the form of a water serpent.įrom Egypt, the Ouroboros found its path to ancient Phoenicians and ancient Greece, where it is believed the symbol received its name as it is known today. Encrypted in the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld, the engraved stone book found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb, the ouroboros is part of the story of Ra’s mythical journey in the underworld, and is one of the first instances of the symbol being depicted swallowing its tail. The ouroboros’ origin dates back to ancient Egypt as a symbol of the sun and the sun disk’s travels. EGYPT to GREECE to the GARDEN OF EDEN: The Ouroboros Origins