OUROBOROS | Heart

OUROBOROS | Heart - 8 x 12 x 4” - Sculpture: Carved Vermont Marble on Maine Slate Base - 2019

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent eating its own tail. Entering western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition, it was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most notably in alchemy. The ouroboros is often interpreted as a symbol for eternal cyclic renewal or a cycle of life, death, and rebirth: the snake’s skin-sloughing symbolizes the transmigration of souls. The snake biting its own tail is a fertility symbol in some religions: the tail is a phallic symbol and the mouth is a yonic or womb-like symbol.