What Is the Ouroboros?

The image is one of the most reproduced in the alchemical visual tradition, and the image is of a snake or dragon with its tail in its own mouth, the body forming a closed circle. The Greek name ouroboros (οὐροβόρος) means “tail-devourer,” and the image is the most economical possible symbol for the unity of all things, the cyclical nature of transformation, and the self-sufficiency of nature (Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy, 2013, pp. 60-65; Martelli, The Fourteen Books of the Secrets of the Sky, the Earth, and the Sea, 2013; Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes, 1986; Kahn, L’Alchimie et la Tradition, 2014). The ouroboros has been found on a Gnostic gem from the second or third century, in the alchemical codices of the early medieval period, on the title pages of the most important alchemical treatises of the early modern period, and on the bodies of contemporary tattooed alchemists. The continuity is one of the more striking features of the alchemical visual tradition.

The origins

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol, with roots that go back to the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek worlds (Fowden, 1986), and the antiquity is part of what gives the symbol its authority. The earliest surviving depiction of the ouroboros is on a Gnostic gem from the second or third century CE, where a snake is shown devouring its own tail. The symbol appears in a number of other late antique contexts, including a magical papyrus from the fourth century and a series of alchemical manuscripts from the Byzantine period. The Greek name ouroboros means “tail-devourer,” and the symbol is sometimes called the “tail-eater” in the modern literature. The Latin tradition translated the name as serpens qui se mordet caudam (“the snake that bites its own tail”) or draco caudam suam devorans (“the dragon devouring its own tail”). The Arabic and Hebrew traditions preserved the symbol under different names, and the symbol entered the Western alchemical tradition through the Arabic intermediaries.

The earliest alchemical use of the ouroboros is in the Codex Marcianus (Marcianus graecus 299), held in the Biblioteca Marciana (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) in Venice, a Greek manuscript of the tenth or eleventh century that contains many of the texts of the earlier alchemical tradition, and the Codex is the most important single document for the early history of the alchemical ouroboros. The Codex shows a large ouroboros surrounding the text, and the snake is often interpreted as a symbol of the unity of the alchemical tradition, the self-sufficiency of nature, and the cyclical nature of the alchemical work. The interpretation is one of the more useful pieces of alchemical visual analysis.

The meanings

The ouroboros has been interpreted in many ways in the alchemical and esoteric traditions, and the multiplicity is part of what makes the symbol useful. The most important of the interpretations:

The unity of all things. The ouroboros represents the unity of all things, the idea that all things are connected and that the whole is present in each part. The snake that devours its own tail is a single, self-contained, and self-sufficient whole, and the image is a powerful symbol of the unity of the cosmos.
The cyclical nature of transformation. The ouroboros represents the cyclical nature of the alchemical process, the idea that the work of the magnum opus is a cycle of dissolution and recombination, death and rebirth, that returns to its starting point but at a higher level. The snake that devours its own tail is a circle, and the circle is the most fundamental symbol of the cyclical.
The self-sufficiency of nature. The ouroboros represents the self-sufficiency of nature, the idea that nature provides the materials for its own transformation. The alchemist does not add anything to nature that nature does not already contain; the alchemist only assists the natural process. The alchemists often appealed to this reading when defending the alchemical art against charges of fraud or charlatanry, and the appeal is one of the more useful pieces of alchemical rhetoric.
The eternity of the cosmos. The ouroboros represents the eternity of the cosmos, the idea that the cosmos has no beginning and no end. The snake that devours its own tail is a closed loop, and the closed loop is a symbol of eternity.
The integration of the opposites. The ouroboros represents the integration of the opposites, the idea that the alchemical work is the union of the volatile and the fixed, the active and the passive, the masculine and the feminine. The snake that devours its own tail is a single creature that contains both the head and the tail, the beginning and the end, the active and the passive.

The interpretations are not mutually exclusive, and the most useful reading, in my view, is the one that holds all of them in view. The ouroboros is a multivalent symbol, and the different interpretations can be combined and integrated to give a richer understanding of the symbol and its meaning (Martelli, 2013; Fowden, 1986). The alchemists were not confused about the multiplicity. They were using the multiplicity to do a piece of conceptual work, and the work is one of the more impressive features of the alchemical symbolic vocabulary.

The ouroboros in the alchemical manuscripts

The ouroboros is a common feature of the alchemical manuscripts of the medieval and early modern periods, and the manuscripts are the most tangible evidence of the symbol’s working life. The most famous of the alchemical ouroboros illustrations is in the Theatrum Chemicum (1602-1661), the six-volume compilation of alchemical texts edited by Lazarus Zetzner, where a large ouroboros appears on the title page. The ouroboros in the Theatrum is surrounded by the words “One is the All” (Unum est Omnia), and the image has been reproduced more than almost any other alchemical symbol. The “One is the All” inscription is a Chaldaean Oracles reference, and the reference is one of the more interesting pieces of the alchemical reception of the Neoplatonic tradition.

The ouroboros also appears in the Musaum Hermeticum (1625), another major compilation of alchemical texts, and in the Atalanta Fugiens of Michael Maier (1617), the famous alchemical emblem book. In all of these texts, the ouroboros serves as a symbol of the unity of the alchemical tradition, the self-sufficiency of nature, and the cyclical nature of the alchemical work.

The alchemical ouroboros is often combined with other symbols, and the combinations are the most interesting pieces of alchemical visual work. The most common combination is the ouroboros surrounding the words “AZOTH” or “EN TO PAN” (“the All”), or the ouroboros surrounding a central image of the sun, the moon, or the philosopher’s stone. The combinations create a richer and more complex symbolism, and the complexity is part of what makes the ouroboros such a useful alchemical sign.

The ouroboros in the Gnostic and Hermetic traditions

The ouroboros has deep roots in the Gnostic and Hermetic traditions, and the symbol is one of the most important links between the alchemical tradition and the broader Western esoteric tradition (Fowden, 1986; Copenhaver, Hermetica, 1992). The roots are part of why the symbol has lasted.

In the Gnostic tradition, the ouroboros represents the self-contained nature of the divine pleroma, the fullness of the divine that contains all things. The Gnostic ouroboros is often shown as a snake or a dragon surrounding the divine name, and the image is a symbol of the self-sufficiency of the divine.

In the Hermetic tradition, the ouroboros represents the unity of the cosmos, the integration of the higher and the lower, the correspondence of the macrocosm and the microcosm. The Emerald Tablet’s central maxim — “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above” — is the principle of correspondence that the ouroboros embodies.

The alchemical tradition inherited the Gnostic and Hermetic uses of the ouroboros and developed them in new ways, and the development is one of the more interesting features of the alchemical visual tradition. The alchemical ouroboros is a synthesis of the Gnostic symbol of the divine pleroma, the Hermetic symbol of the correspondence of the higher and the lower, and the alchemical symbol of the cyclical nature of the alchemical work. The synthesis is part of what makes the alchemical ouroboros a particularly rich piece of visual work.

The ouroboros in the modern esoteric tradition

The ouroboros remains a central symbol in the modern esoteric tradition, and the persistence is one of the more striking features of the symbol’s working life. The Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Anthroposophical Society, and the various modern Rosicrucian orders all use the ouroboros as a central symbol in their alchemical vocabulary. The ouroboros is, in these traditions, a symbol of the unity of the human being with the cosmos, the integration of the conscious and the unconscious, the cyclical nature of the spiritual life.

The Jungian reading of the ouroboros, developed by Carl Gustav Jung in the twentieth century (most fully in Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1956), treats the symbol as a representation of the self, the totality of the personality. On the Jungian reading, the ouroboros is the symbol of the integrated psyche, the self that contains all the opposites and that is in continual process of transformation. The Jungian reading has been influential in the modern reception of the ouroboros, and the reading is one of the reasons the ouroboros has been taken up by depth psychology and by the wider contemporary culture.

The ouroboros in modern popular culture

The ouroboros has passed from the esoteric tradition into modern popular culture, and the migration is part of the symbol’s contemporary life. The image appears in the literature of science fiction and fantasy, in the popular science writing on recursion and self-reference, in the visual art of the contemporary esotericism, and in the popular culture of the modern world.

The ouroboros is also a popular image in modern tattooing, where it is used as a symbol of eternity, of the cyclical nature of life, of the integration of the opposites, and of the unity of all things. The popularity of the ouroboros as a tattoo image is a testament to the enduring power of the symbol and its continuing relevance in the modern world.

The ouroboros is, finally, a symbol that has transcended its alchemical origins to become a part of the broader cultural vocabulary of the modern world. The symbol captures something genuine about the human condition — the cyclical nature of life, the integration of the opposites, the self-sufficiency of nature — and the symbol continues to resonate with the modern reader. The ouroboros is one of the most durable images in the alchemical tradition, and the durability is part of why the symbol is worth taking seriously. The alchemists were working with a powerful piece of visual vocabulary, and the vocabulary is still doing its work.