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Underground > Temple >

Serpent eating tail

mikeh

03:58 / 17.12.02

i've read about this symbol tons but can't for the life of me remember it's meaning/history - i'm talking about the circular snake/serpent with it's tail in it's mouth....could someone refresh me? Also for those in Toronto, i found it on the north end of the University College Building downtown, which seems to be filled with other weirdness...
mikeh

gravitybitch

04:09 / 17.12.02

Google ouroboros, you'll get plenty of information.

(Also see a short story called All You Zombies by Rob't Heinlein.)

Rosslyntemplar

07:14 / 17.12.02

I presume you are refering to the Serpent at the bottom of the Yggdrasil tree or world tree, the Serpent constantly tries to undermine the roots of the tree,..
The finest example of this i have seen is in Rosslyn chapel Midlothian Scotland He lies at the bottom of the Apprentice pillar (Boaz) wonderful

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:09 / 17.12.02

Well, if *that* serpent had its tail in its mouth it wouldn't be able to gnaw the tree, surely, would it? The serpent with tail in mouth in Norse myth is Jormungandr, the world-serpent, who stretches around the world and holds the sea in. If the tail is taken from the mouth, the world ends and Ragnarok begins; there are at least two stories where Thor, the lovable booby, comes close to doing this.

The serpent at the base of the tree, btw, is called Nithog.

Rev. Wright

09:16 / 17.12.02

Some individuals have equated this serpent as the symbol for infinity.

Here is a version of the world-serpent that I painted some time ago for a friend's poster. I decided to make the tail swallowing more suggested than actual.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:47 / 17.12.02

But it's more likely to be Ouroboros, a standard symbol for eternity and used much in alchemy, where it is, IIRC, a purifying symbol. The first record of its usage is I think somewhere in early Egypt - mid 2nd Millennium BC or thereabouts. Then passes through Phoenician into Greek iconography - whether the use in Norse mythology is subsequent or parallel I don't know. Anyone?

illmatic

11:48 / 17.12.02

Can't say whereabouts the link with the Norse myths comes in. A Jungian could probably make much of the significance of it turning up in water (ie. suggestive of womb/umblical cord- I dunno).

I do know a similar myth turns up in Indian mythology where the gods tie a serpent round the divine Mount Meru and use it as a kind of pulley to turn to turn the mountain and churn the ocean, generating amrita, the divine nectar.

This is the same famous symbol that turned up in dreams of German (?) chemist Kekule, intuitively answering his question about the shape of a certain molecule - can't recall which one, sorry. Thomas Pynchon riffs on this in Gravity's Rainbow, about p. 413/8 in the Viking edition (I know this as it's one of my favourite passages for reading out loud - male autism go!)

grant

13:40 / 17.12.02

Benzene rings, I think.

FatherDog

13:46 / 17.12.02

Ouroborous, incidentally, is also used heavily in the stage show imagery for Tool's latest album.

Big into ritual magick, are Tool. Probably the most popular group with ties to the occult, actually.

cusm

18:46 / 17.12.02

This old boy turns up in nearly every culture somewhere. The Aztec ones are neat.

To me, the cyclic nature of the symbol applies to consciousness. Self awarenss is a form of devouring of the self, becomming self aware and then changing from the information gained in that awareness into something new one must become aware of again in a constant process of refinement and evolution. The head of the serpent is the ego. When the tail is removed, the cycle is broken, and death (ragnarock) is at hand.

Tis my use of it, anyways.

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