Uroboros
The
Zodiac was thought of as a huge snake, a kind of Uroboros biting its own tail,
and was represented as being covered with stars. In a Gnostic
treatise, the oldest representation of the Uroboros is that of a snake eating
its own tail, the head part speckled with stars and the rest black, thus
illustrating the double nature of the unconscious totality with a dark nefarious
aspect and a light aspect characterized by the stars. Exactly
the same representation is to be found in the alchemical treatise of the
so-called Codex Marcianus, in which there are drawings that characterize the
“whole in one.”
The
tail of the Uroboros is the material and dangerous end and is very often the
seat of the poison (quite in contrast to a real snake). The
head part is the light, spiritual aspect. That was projected
onto the sky because the Uroboros always appeared at the borders of human
knowledge. In antiquity, for instance, it was believed that
the ball of the sky was this huge Uroboros snake; on it constellated the signs
of the Zodiac. In the flat form of the world the ocean
circled the earth in the form of a round snake biting its own tail.
In old maps the Uroboros stood for the outermost circle, and whenever man
reached the end of his field of consciousness, he projected that type of snake.
Whenever he came to the point where he could say that he did not know
what was beyond, there would be the picture of the snake with the stars on it.
You see how much the star motif has to do with unconsciousness,
especially with the collective unconscious.
In
a Gnostic treatise, the oldest representation of the Uroboros is that of a snake
eating its own tail, the head part speckled with stars and the rest black, thus
illustrating the double nature of the unconscious totality with a dark,
nefarious aspect and a light aspect characterized by the stars.
Exactly the same representation is to be found in the alchemical treatise
of the so-called Codex Marcianus, in which there are drawings that characterize
the “whole in one.”
The
tail of the Uroboros is the material and dangerous end and is very often the
seat of the poison (quite in contrast to a real snake). The
head part is the light, spiritual aspect. That was projected
onto the sky because the Uroboros always appeared at the borders of human
knowledge. In antiquity, for instance, it was believed that
the ball of the sky was this huge Uroboros snake; on it constellated the signs
of the Zodiac. In the flat form of the world the ocean
circled the earth in the form of a round snake biting its own tail.
In old maps the Uroboros stood for the outermost circle, and whenever man
reached the end of his field of consciousness, he projected that type of snake.
Whenever he came to the point where he could say that he did not know
what was beyond, there would be the picture of the snake with the stars on it.
You see how much the star motif has to do with unconsciousness,
especially with the collective unconscious. TAoPA 141