Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 336

OUROBOROS: MY END IS MY BEGINNING

Excerpt from the book MORTALITY MECHANICS MANUAL by Lawrence R. Spencer

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“The Ouroboros Serpent

A variety of renderings of the Ouroboros Serpent from various cultures, religions and philosophical disciplines are featured as illustrative decoration on many pages of this book. (Mortality Mechanics Manual)

I have included this symbol, as it has been used almost universally on Earth throughout the ages, beginning in the Egyptian period, and possible as early as the Veda which dates back as far as 10,000 years. This symbol has been used to represent a variety of existential interpretations of the spiritual and physical condition of humankind and the universe.  

“The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language; (oura) meaning “tail” and (boros) meaning “eating”, thus “he who eats the tail”.

The Ouroboros represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life and infinity, the concept of eternity and the eternal return, and represents the cycle of life, death and rebirth, leading to immortality, as in the Phoenix. The current mathematical symbol for infinity – may be derived from a variant on the classic Ouroboros with the snake looped once before eating its own tail, and such depictions of the double loop as a snake eating its own tail are common today in fantasy art and fantasy literature, though other conjectures also exist.

It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting before any beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism and Hermeticism.

The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. It is contained in the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld. The Ouroboros was popular after the Amarna period. In the Book of the Dead, which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period,

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the self-begetting sun god Atun is said to have ascended from chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake, the animal renewing itself every morning, and the deceased wishes to turn into the shape of the snake Sato (“son of the earth”), the embodiment of Atun.

The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, “one is the all”. Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence. As such, the Ouroboros could be interpreted as the Western equivalent of the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol. The Chrysopoeia Ouroboros of Cleopatra is one of the oldest images of the Ouroboros to be linked with the legendary opus of the Alchemists, the Philosopher’s Stone.

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe – an immortal, mythologically constructed beast. The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him.

All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world. The universe was early divided into Earth below and Heaven above. These, two as one, gave the idea of opposites but forming a unity. Each opposite was assumed to be powerful and so was their final unity. For creation of the universe they projected reproduction to conceive creation. Now reproduction results in the union of two opposites as male and female.

Correspondingly, the Chinese believed Light and Darkness, as the ideal opposites, when united, yielded creative energy. The two opposites were further conceived as matter and energy which became dual-natured but as one. The two opposites were yin-yang and their unity was called Chhi. Yin-Yang was treated separately in Chinese cosmology which consisted of five cosmic elements.

Since Chinese alchemy did reach Alexandria probably the symbol Yin-Yang, as dual-natured, responsible for creation, was transformed into a symbol called Ouroboros. It is a snake and as such as symbol of soul. Its head and anterior portion is red, being the color of blood as soul; its tail and posterior half is dark, representing body.

Ouroboros here is depicted white and black, as soul and body, the two as “one which is all.” It is cosmic soul, the source of all creation. Ouroboros is normally depicted with its anterior half as black but it should be the reverse as shown here. With the name Chemeia taken to Kim-Iya, the last word would take Ouroboros to Yin-Yang.

In Mesoamerica the serpent god Quetzalcoatl is sometimes portrayed biting his tail on Aztec and Toltec ruins. A looping Quetzalcoatl is carved into the base of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, at Xochicalco, Mexico, 700-900 AD.

In Norse mythology, it appears as the serpent Jormungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona patter, the Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindworm as a gift to his daughter Pora Town-Hart after which it grows into a large serpent which encircles the girl’s bower and bites itself in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok who marries Pora. Ragnar later has a son with another woman named Kraka and this son is born with the image of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.

Christians adopted the Ouroboros as a symbol of the limited confines of this world (that there is an “outside” being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere this-worldly existence following in the footsteps of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes.

It could very well be used to symbolize the closed-system model of the universe of some physicists even today.’

In Freemasonry the Ouroboros is displayed on numerous Masonic seals, frontispieces and other imagery, especially during the 17th century.

The Ouroboros is featured in the seal of the Theosophical Society along with other traditional symbols.

Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph. Ouroboros was and is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the Earth.

Ouroboros represents the conflict of life as well in that life comes out of life and death. ‘My end is my beginning.’ In a sense life feeds off itself, thus there are good and bad connotations which can be drawn. It is a single image with the entire actions of a life cycle – it begets, weds, impregnates, and slays itself, but in a cyclical sense, rather than linear.

Thus, it fashions our lives to a totality more towards what it may really be – a series of movements which repeat. “As Above, So Below” – we are born from nature, and we mirror it, because it is what man wholly is a part of. It is this symbolic rendition of the eternal principles that are presented in the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, (cited earlier).”

Originally posted 2013-08-29 23:22:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

PERCEIVE HAIKU

Originally posted 2014-03-13 23:19:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

REGULAR REALITY

 

My Reality is more interesting than regular reality

Originally posted 2015-01-06 20:45:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

ANIMATE MAGICAL POSSIBILITY

“Quantum physics tells us we animate into our lives whatever we place our attention upon. When we view “reality” through the lens of possibility… something new and magical can happen.” – Pam Grout

Animate– adjective:   possessing or characterized by life ( from from Latin, to give life to, from anima breath, soul)

Magic — noun:   any art that invokes supernatural powers (from Old Persian maguš or sorcerer)

Possibility — noun:   a tentative theory about the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena

Originally posted 2014-10-24 16:03:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

RUMI

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی‎), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, “our master”), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, “my master”), and more popularly simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufimystic originally from Greater Khorasan. Rumi’s influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central Asian Muslims, and the Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the “most popular poet” and the “best selling poet” in the United States. — Wikipedia.org

POSSIBILITIES

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.  The term Indian Independence Movement encompasses activities and ideas aiming to end first the company rule (East India Company), and then the rule of the British.

Mohandas Gandhi’s storied history of resistance included many stints in jail, starting with a two-month imprisonment in 1907 in South Africa, where he was working to end discrimination against Indians living there. He was arrested for urging them to ignore a law requiring Indians to be registered and fingerprinted. While in jail, Gandhi read Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”, which would become a major part of his philosophy upon his return to India. Back in his home country, Gandhi was put behind bars several times for his movement to end British rule. In 1922 he was tried for the last time by the British government for “bringing or attempting to excite disaffection towards His Majesty’s Government established by law in British India.” He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to six years, of which he served two before being released for an emergency appendectomy. India achieved independence on Aug. 15, 1947, five months before Gandhi was assassinated.

Gandhi preached rebellion, launched mass civil disobedience and was repeatedly jailed. When arrested, he pleaded guilty and asked for the severest punishment. In South Africa, the charge against him and his co-workers was proved by witnesses furnished by him. The horror, shame and hardship of jail life, originally a punishment allotted to criminals, scared the Indians. Gandhi removed this fear from their hearts. He was jailed eleven times. Once he was arrested three times within four days. If he had to complete all his jail terms, he would have spent 11 years and 19 days in jail. Occasionally his punishment was reduced and and he altogether spent 6 years and 10 months in prison. At the age of 39, he first entered a jail. He came out of the prison gates for the last time when he was 75.

On 14 and 15 August 1947 the Indian Independence Act was invoked.

Originally posted 2014-12-07 16:42:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

REMEMBER

REMEMBER

Reversed Time Spiral Syndrome

Minith-Nur-Voth, of the Order of Omega Chapter on the 2nd Moon of the planet Amin-Amath-Arma in the 12th Galaxy of the Thrall-TumaTura sector in the Earth year 12,756, 345 BCE, will be the guest lecturer at the weekly meeting of the Tulsa, OK Chapter. The lecture is hosted by the Ladies Intergalactic Auxilliary.

The topic Ms. Miniths' talk will the "Reversed Time Spiral Syndrome and Their Effect Upon Personal Memory Recall".

Admission is Free for Members. (Non-Members will not be able attend as the meeting will be held on February 29th, 1836 C.E. at the main auditorium of the Veterans Memorial Civic Center.)

Refreshments will be served. RSVP to Miss Natalie Forsythe, Chapter Secretary.

Originally posted 2011-12-13 22:20:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

DOORWAYS INTO ALTERNATIVE REALITIES

“…all the black holes found so far in our universe—from the microscopic to the supermassive—may be doorways into alternate realities.  According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn’t collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a “white hole” at the other end of the black one, the theory goes.”   —  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100409-black-holes-alternate-universe-multiverse-einstein-wormholes/#

Originally posted 2014-11-04 21:43:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

THE MILKY WAY GALAXY

Here’s a photo of the Milky Way Galaxy.  If you look carefully, you may be able to locate the star you came from before being dumped on Earth.  Or, perhaps you didn’t come from the Milky Way Galaxy?  If you came to Earth from another galaxy, or universe, you’ll have to find your own photo.  Good Luck!
CLICK THE IMAGE TO ZOOM IN

 

This  striking view of the central parts of the Milky Way was obtained with  the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This  huge picture is 108 500 by 81 500 pixels and contains nearly nine billion  pixels. It was created by combining thousands of individual images from  VISTA, taken through three different infrared filters, into a single  monumental mosaic. These data form part of the VVV public survey and  have been used to study a much larger number of individual stars in the  central parts of the Milky Way than ever before. Because VISTA has a  camera sensitive to infrared light it can see through much of the dust  blocking the view for optical telescopes, although many more opaque dust  filaments still show up well in this picture. This image is too large to be easily displayed at full resolution and is best appreciated using the zoom tool.

Originally posted 2012-10-27 16:57:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter