Meanings - Ouroboros

The Ouroboros, a word deriving from Greek and translating into English to mean ‘tail devourer’, is an ancient symbol that first appeared in the Book of the Netherworld, an Egyptian funerary text, represented as a serpent eating its own tail.
Having appeared through different branches of mythology, the ouroboros has many different meanings; In Greek Gnosticism, the serpent represented the eternity of the universe, and for the Alchemists, the ouroboros symbolized the eternal unity of all things. However, despite its varied definitions, its circular-shape often means it is associated with cyclical processes, such as the circle of life, and the cyclic nature of karma. The way that it consumes its own tail is an extension of this, and, for the Alchemists, meant that it carried qualities similar to that of the Ying Yang symbol; the joining of opposites, the ouroboros eats itself, but feeds at the same time, both killing and rejuvenating itself simultaneously, representing both life and death.