So far we have distinguished three stages of uroboric autarchy: the first is the pleromatic stage of paradisal perfection in the unborn, the embryonic stage of the ego, which a later consciousness will contrast with the sufferings of the nonautarchic ego in the world. The second stage is that of the alimentary uroboros, a closed circuit whose “own waste provides its own food.” The third, genital-masturbatory phase is that of Atum “copulating in his own hand.” All these images, like the self-incubation of one made pregnant through tapas—a later spiritual form of autarchy—are images of the
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