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Tattoo designs - O >> Ouroboros

Ouroboros Tattoo Designs - The Serpent biting its own tail, is first seen as early as 1600 years BC in Egypt. From there it moved to the Phoenicians and then to the Greeks, who called it the Ouroboros, which means devouring its tail.

The serpent biting its tail is found in other cultural mythologies as well, including Norse myth, where the serpent's name is Jörmungandr, and in Hindu, where the dragon circles the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world.

Symbolically, Ouroboros has several meanings. The first, is the symbolism of the serpent devouring and consuming its own tail, literally eating itself. This symbolizes the cyclical Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, Life out of Death.

The Ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. This secondary symbolism is an echo of the concept of infinity, of cycles without end. A Universe without boundaries or limits.

Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.

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Tattoo designs - O >> Ouroboros

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