Ouroboros

From Ancient Greek oura = “tail” and -boros = “eating.” A circular representation of a snake (sometimes a dragon) biting or eating its own tail. In Book One, Masks of God, a large symbolic painting of an Ouroboros covers the walls of the sanctuary inside the Orphean cave, prompting Kayin to explain, “What had looked like the parting lips of a mouth turned out to be the body of a snake, a representation of the Ouroboros, the ringed serpent that eats its own tail, symbolizing “eternal return” or the “re-creation of the Self” (p. 220). The symbol was known to many world cultures and religions, representing the life cycle, rebirth, transmigration, the transcendental oneness or unity of two separate or opposing principles, the alchemist’s All is One, fertility, the repetition of the seasonal year, world boundary, cyclic transitions, unending cycles or processes, the Great Chain of Being, etc. The Ouroboros symbol has also been appropriated by modern and computational sciences, such as cybernetics, machine learning, self-referencing/loops, autopoiesis, metabolic closure, and predictive modeling, among others.