Ouroboros, from allegory to science

[Demonic Tech]

After the wonderful post about Tartarus, moving along on the topic of understanding our allegories, I'd like to talk about Ouroboros.

In the very much thought inspiring 2nd issue of the Donations PDF, one of the topics discussed was indeed Ouroboros.
If, somehow, you don't know what it is, Ouroboros is the figure of the Serpent (or sometimes Dragon) eating its tail, usually in a circle, but I've seen what I guess are modern versions that depict the Serpent forming the ∞ infinite symbol.

The symbol was originally Egyptian, but then appeared in ancient Greece, and it has been extensively used in alchemy.
We are indeed going to talk about alchemy.

Ouroboros represents eternal creation, it's the Serpent that while it devours itself, it also regenerates, in an infinite cycle.
Its ultimate meaning is the goal every alchemist, the goal at the end of the Magnum Opus: immortality.

(Other meanings too were given to Ouroboros, but they are off-topic, one of them would be "what goes around comes around", as in there are consequences to actions)

The allegory is explained more thoroughly in the 2nd issue of the Donations PDF, along with other points around it.
As HPHC told me, these articles' purpose is to dwell in the mind, to get you thinking and realizing.
It did indeed dwell long enough in mine, enough that I developed a connection between the allegory of the Serpent destroying and recreating itself, and the actual science of how I understand immortality works.

This post is to discuss my conclusion, hopefully help someone in their Satanic studies, and stimulate clever conversation that might even benefit myself if anyone found any errors in my reasoning so that I could fix them and let everyone who reads this be a little more knowledgeable.
I suspect that for many advanced members this won't exactly be breaking news, but I was still happy when I made my realization.

Anyway, here we go.

We know that the act of the Serpent eating itself stands for the destruction (death) of itself.
In a more scientific POV, a snake, like us, like dogs and cats, is made of cells.
To destroy a snake boils down to destroying its cells.
Cells do actually die. While you're reading this, countless of cells that make up your body are dying.
Particularly, every cell that has touched the keyboard and mouse you're using right now, is already dead, as our most outer layer of skin and our nails are entirely composed of old dead cells.
But we are not crumbling away, not we are dying by the minute, because of course, while many cell die, many others are born.

The Serpent destroys itself (cells die) and at the same time, it regenerates (cells are born).

This is all very beautiful, as we can gladly already find similarities between our bodies and Ouroboros. We already go through some kind of physical rebirth in many (if not all, but I can't vow for it) parts of our body through the replacement of dead cells with new ones.

There is one issue though. Ouroboros is a circle, a loop, and a perfect one too.
We, right now, are not a circle. We are probably more like a finite spiral. The line that draws it, thinning away, until it's gone.
Our loop of cell rebirth decays with time.
At a certain age, we can't create as many cells as they die.
And even when we do birth new cells, they become more and more unreliable as time goes, they could be born with damaged DNA, and the chances of them becoming tumors, then cancer, grows.

My, probably over-hyped, conclusion, thus is: to be successful alchemists, to have completed the Magnum Opus, to have reached the state of Ouroboros, means to have reached a physical and medical point in which perfect and auto-sustainable cell rebirth is happening at all times and never decays.
Pretty much like in one's twenties. It's said that the twenties are the pinnacle of one's body.

Of course, I can't claim to know how to halt the decay of the cell rebirth progress, nor to exactly know why it decays in the first place, but it's not an unexplored topic by science and there have been studies, I remember someone here quoting a book titled something in the lines of "Why we age and why we shouldn't".
So, if it's to someone's interest to delve into why our rebirth cycle isn't perfect, they should be able to do it pretty easily.

This is one random article I've just found through a quick research which sheds some light on the topic. Mainstream science has a lot of different theories on aging, and not all of them revolve around the cell rebirth cycle I've talked about, but cells and DNA are always present.

To everyone, thanks for reading this, and don't hesitate to let me know if you think I said something wrong in your opinion, or if you agree with everything. Either way, clever discussion will happen, and everyone will benefit.

Always Hail Father Satan, our fantastic Gods and these beautiful and powerful symbols like Ouroboros, that help us in our eternal journey.

 

[Demonic Tech]

I've re-read this before posting it many times, yet I am baffled by the typos I still ended up making :lol:

I wanted to add this: the notion that immortality comes through a perfect cycle of cell rebirth, isn't exactly news to me either, my happiness in the realization lies more in having figured out what Ouroboros means, and having traced the connection, rather than discovering the science which I too already have heard of in the past around here.

 

[Sakra]

We know that the act of the Serpent eating itself stands for the destruction (death) of itself.
In a more scientific POV, a snake, like us, like dogs and cats, is made of cells.
To destroy a snake boils down to destroying its cells.
Cells do actually die. While you're reading this, countless of cells that make up your body are dying.
Particularly, every cell that has touched the keyboard and mouse you're using right now, is already dead, as our most outer layer of skin and our nails are entirely composed of old dead cells.
But we are not crumbling away, not we are dying by the minute, because of course, while many cell die, many others are born.

The Serpent destroys itself (cells die) and at the same time, it regenerates (cells are born).

A similar pattern is found in many plant species, such as the tree, and it's been used as a very significant symbol throughout history.

The fresh leaves grow, the dead leaves fall. Then the dead leaves fertilise the soil and nutrients are reabsorbed by its roots and repeat the process over and over again.

And before anything thinks humans and trees aren't related, essentially every living thing is rearranged matter and nutrients that originally came from the soil.

 

[Demonic Tech]

We know that the act of the Serpent eating itself stands for the destruction (death) of itself.
In a more scientific POV, a snake, like us, like dogs and cats, is made of cells.
To destroy a snake boils down to destroying its cells.
Cells do actually die. While you're reading this, countless of cells that make up your body are dying.
Particularly, every cell that has touched the keyboard and mouse you're using right now, is already dead, as our most outer layer of skin and our nails are entirely composed of old dead cells.
But we are not crumbling away, not we are dying by the minute, because of course, while many cell die, many others are born.

The Serpent destroys itself (cells die) and at the same time, it regenerates (cells are born).

A similar pattern is found in many plant species, such as the tree, and it's been used as a very significant symbol throughout history.

The fresh leaves grow, the dead leaves fall. Then the dead leaves fertilise the soil and nutrients are reabsorbed by its roots and repeat the process over and over again.

And before anything thinks humans and trees aren't related, essentially every living thing is rearranged matter and nutrients that originally came from the soil.

Oh, that's true, somehow I never realized it. Thanks for the insights. This explains why I've seen a tree (most likely based of Yggdrasil) drawn inside Ouroboros. Great!

 

[AsraArdwulfLeberecht]

to have reached the state of Ouroboros, means to have reached a physical and medical point in which perfect and auto-sustainable cell rebirth is happening at all times and never decays.

Don't take my words for law, but the way I understand it, is that the Ouroboros represents the cycle of reincarnations, a perfect loop, and that we should aim to escape it (aka, complete the Magnum Opus), not reach it, as we are already in it. Reincarnation is useful and better than a permanent death of the soul, but it is not the goal, because by reincarnating we forget. When one is immortal and their cells work in the ideal way you described, then one does not destroy and regenerate themselves anymore through death and incarnation. I know my answer is one year later, but it happened now that I found your post

 

[Demonic Tech]

Don't take my words for law, but the way I understand it, is that the Ouroboros represents the cycle of reincarnations, a perfect loop, and that we should aim to escape it (aka, complete the Magnum Opus), not reach it, as we are already in it. Reincarnation is useful and better than a permanent death of the soul, but it is not the goal, because by reincarnating we forget. When one is immortal and their cells work in the ideal way you described, then one does not destroy and regenerate themselves anymore through death and incarnation. I know my answer is one year later, but it happened now that I found your post

The Ouroboros, at its extreme core, it's a symbol representing a perfect cycle.
There are a tons of interpretation that could derive from it, like I said in the original post, one of them would even be as off-topic as "fuck around and find out", or generally a symbol about karma.
Your interpretation definitely makes sense, although I like mine better because I think it's the most accurate when you try to bring Ouroboros and his "power" to real life.
If you had an actual serpent that can go on eating itself without dying, the explanation would be something about what I explained, about cells regenerating at the same rate at which they die.
As what happens in your 20s, and eternally if you're immortal.

 

[Magmapoolsweet]

Ouroboros sign or symbol
Means learning from the past to making great in the future