Ouroboros

: For other uses: see Oroborus (disambiguation).

Alchemy

In alchemy, the ouroboros is a purifying sigil.

Related Topics:
Alchemy - Sigil

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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, the all", i.e. "All is One". Its black-and-white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence.

Related Topics:
The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra - 2nd century - Alexandria - Gnostic - Duality

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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:

Related Topics:
Thomas Browne - A letter to a friend

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:" 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,"

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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.

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:"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".

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Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the ourobouros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy.

Related Topics:
Swiss - Psychologist - Carl Jung - Archetype - Mandala

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Jung also defined the relationship of the ouruboros to alchemy:

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:"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)

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