The Symbolism and Science of Serpent and Ouroboros !

You might not have heard of the ancient Greek symbol called 'Ouroboros'. But you should, because it is one of the most fascinating symbol.

The Ouroboros is a Greek word meaning 'tail devourer,' and is one of the oldest mystical symbols in the world. It can be perceived as enveloping itself, where the past (the tail) appears to disappear but really moves into an inner domain or reality, vanishing from view but still existing.

 Alchemical Symbol of Ouroboros

Ouroboros is generally depicted as a Serpent or a Dragon biting its own tail. The first recorded history of such symbol is in Egypt at around 1600 BCE in the texts called  Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld. The symbol moved from Egyptians to Phoenicians and finally to Greeks. Where the symbol got its name OUROBOROS. 

The symbol and the myth regarding the symbol is famous all over the world. In the Norse mythology its called Jormungandr. And in the Hindu mythology its related to the Kundalini Jagaran. And also to the dragon that circles the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world.

This drawing illustrates a Hindu creation myth.

Its not secret that many of the world religions, culturs and philosophy have used the serpent as the key character in myths and ancient hystory.  From ancient Babylonia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Cachmere, China, Japan, Arabia, Syria, Colchis, and Asia Minor. Since the dawn of recorded human time, serpent is symbolized to have played the very important role. 

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky explains that serpent worship was spread across the globe by "the Masters of Wisdom, and that all Initiates into the Sacred Mysteries, are called Nagas, or Serpents of Wisdom.

Sean Kelly in the 'Evolutionary Panentheism For The Planetary Era' explains the Oroboros (the serpentine symbol) as the symbol of cosmos.

Cosmic Ouroboros By Adams and Primack

In the Cosmic Ouroboros. The overlapping area where the snake bites its tail represents the approach toward a Grand Unified Theory of the microphysical (quantum mechanics, at 10-30 centimeters) with the large-scale structure of the universe (relativity, at 1030). Opposite the tail/mouth is the mid-range scale of the human, which, along with this particular moment in our evolutionary unfolding, constitutes the view from the center of the universe.

One of the most enlightening words about the Serpentine Symbolism and world history comes from Manly P Hall. In his book Initiates of Flame, he explains-

Many ages have elapsed since the Egyptian Priest King passed through the pillars of Thebes. Ages before the sinking of Atlantis, thousands of years before the Christian Era, Egypt was a land of great truths. The hand of the Great White Brotherhood was held out to the Empire of the Nile, and the ancient pyramid passages resounded with the chants of the Initiates. It was then that the Pharaoh, now called half-human, half-divine, reigned in ancient Egypt. Pharaoh is the Egyptian word for king. Many of the later Pharaohs were degenerate and of little account. It is only the early Pharaohs we now list among the Priest Kings. 

Try to picture for a moment the great Hall of Luxor —its inscriptive columns holding up domes of solid granite, each column carved with the histories of the gods. There at the upper end of the chamber sat the Pharaoh of the Nile in his robes of state; around him his counsellors, chief among them the priest of the temple. An imposing spectacle it was: the gigantic frame of the later Atlantean, robed in gold and priceless jewels; on his head the crown of the North and South, the double empire of the ancient; on his forehead the coiled serpent of the Initiate, the serpent which was raised in the wilderness that all who looked upon it might live; that sleeping serpent power in man, which coiled head downward around the tree of life, drove him from the garden of the Lord, but which raised upon the Cross, became the symbol of the Christ. 

The Pharaoh was an Initiate of Scorpio, and the serpent is the transmuted Scorpio energy, which working upward in the regenerated individual is called the Kundalini. This serpent was the sign of Initiation. It meant that within him the serpent had been raised, for the true Pharaoh was a priest of God, as well as a master of men. There he sat upon the cube altar throne, indicating his mastery over the four elements of his physical body-a judge of the living and of the dead, who in spite of all his power and glory, having about him the grandeur of the world's greatest empire, still bowed in humble supplication to the will of the gods. In his hands he carries the triple sceptre of the Nile, the Shepherd's Crook, the Anubis-headed Staff and the Flail or Whip.

The great Psychologist Carl Jung explains the Ouroboros as,

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 Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The Ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros 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 Ouroboros 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 Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes 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.

The Universal Ouroboros 

One of the most prominent Chemist an the founder of the Chemical Stucture, August Kekule described his Eureka Moment with the reference to Ouroboros, when he realized the structure of Benzene. Benzene is an Organic Chemical Compound with the chemical formula C6H6. Its molecule is composed of 6 carbon atoms joined in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom. Because its molecules contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms, benzene is classed as a Hydrocarbon.

I was sitting, writing at my text-book; but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together; all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.

Kekulé's proposal for the structure of benzene (1872)