You’ve no doubt heard the turn of phrase “the snake eating its own tail.” Well, that particular iconography comes straight from ancient mythology. That snake consuming its own tail is actually called ...

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent consuming its own tail, seen across multiple cultures and time periods. Its circularity represents eternity and the cycle of birth, life, and death, ...

The Ouroboros—which symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and death and the divine essence that lives on forever—was first recorded in the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld. Alchemists then adopted ...