Ouroboros represents the eternity of life and the totality of the universe, it is the absolute symbol of Time in the eternal perfection of its cycles. It highlights the fact that everything is subject to the Infinite God and Eternal Lord of the times, center, and circumference of the whole creation.
Everything on earth and beyond has its cycles and times. The seasons, the revolutions of the planets and stars around the sun or other systems. Chemical and physical phenomena, mathematical ones, and intellectual processes. As well as the psychic aspects, which accompany the growth and development of man and his faculties.
And finally, the cycle of the human soul, which from the infinite skies, through numerous reincarnation cycles, returns to the Infinite, sharing in the greatness of the Father. In fact, just as everything in creation respects and follows certain laws, man too, being a part of them, does not go beyond this harmonious movement. The substances of which it is composed, once the soul has abandoned matter, return to their primary state of elements. To then reform itself, when a soul returns to reincarnate to become a body again.
The god Saturn or Chronos was depicted as an old man, holding a scythe in his right hand, and the Ouroboros in his left. Everything has a sunrise and a sunset, just as the last month of the year reaches the first, and then starts again without detachment.
Sowing and harvesting are aspects without interruption of continuity since the seeds are generated from the plant that will again mark the new regeneration. The fact that the snake is an animal that continually rejuvenates, thanks to the shedding of its skin, makes it more of a symbol of renewal and change.
Ouroboros in alchemical symbolism
it is also and above all, the image of a process that, once concluded, is repeated, through the 4 phases – heating, evaporation, cooling, and condensation. This is why the symbol is often, in alchemy books, represented by two emblems – an upper one, the winged dragon, a sign of volatility, and a lower one, a sign of the terrestrial phase. They are also sometimes represented, half black and half white, synonyms of the harmony between opposites, as well as the sun and the moon, the masculine and the feminine.
Nature, teacher, as the alchemists define it, is a perennial example of these phenomena of cyclicality. That attentive observer cannot escape or leave without a sense of amazement and admiration. As in the Sioux tale, where the old sage, on the placid shores of the lake, discovers that the water evaporates thanks to the sun, and then descends again in the form of rain and brings new life. Just like the soul of man in the great cycle of his experiences.
And that is why, even in the culture of Native Americans, the circle is a sacred symbol of the Infinite and of God, just think of the Medicine Wheel, the pivot of the immense spiritual potential of this noble people. Even the sun, with all its values, appears as a circle in the sky.
The ancient Egyptian mysteries depict the link between the four cosmic deities – Sithis, Isis, Osiris, and Horus. The fact of devouring the tail means that continuity is a necessary consequence of the movement.
The Ouroboros was, in ancient times, represented divided into twelve parts, like the months of the year, to better impress the sense of Time, present in the matter. It is no coincidence that even the clocks have a circular shape and are divided into twelve quadrants as if to show once again the continuity and cyclicality that the powerful symbol indicates.
In its cyclical nature, the Ouroboros reminds us of how the Law of Cause and Effect is always present, and each action has a consequence of another. Positive actions will be followed by positive reactions and effects and negative causes will have negative consequences.
Every human being in his evolutionary scale is subject to the Law of Karma. And in this sense, he is the architect of his own future destiny. It is up to us to work for the good of others and for the community, only in this way will we adequately use the time made available to us by the Eternal.