Oroboros picture of the month
2024
An Ouroboros artwork at "First Fruits of the Earth Offered to Saturn" at the Palazzo Vecchio
2023
An Ouroboros tattoo observed during an O2k-Workshop, made by the tattoo artist @vicky.ink
Photo from the outside of St Mary's Basilica in Krakau, Poland.
The picture shows one of the ends of the ceiling in the Galleria Riccardiana (opposite to the entrance) reproduce the Cave of Eternity. Giordano presents a gathering of mythological figures associated with time and mortality. They are encircled by an Ouroboros, which symbolises Eternity.
The image depicts the city of Innsbruck, Austria, with a stunning Ouroboros at its center. The use of AI in creating the image adds an element of surrealism and depth, making for a truly captivating piece of art.
Check out the lovely view from our office. Oh, and what's that? An Oroboros attached to the window and took in the scenery.
An Ouroboros in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, discovered at the occasion of ESCI 2016 Paris FR - the Oroboros picture of the month, May 2016 (2016-04-30; photo by Andrea Gnaiger)).
Powerplant. Odra Noel combines scientific work with scientific art creation. Her main subjects are healthy human organs and tissues, cell structure and mitochondria. (Odra_Noel)
Oduduwa Myth - Story of Creation 1963. This beautiful cassava starch batik of an Ouroboros was spotted in the Mumok museum in Vienna. The artist of this piece is the Austrian-Nigerian artist, Susanne Wenger. (Susanne Wenger Fondation, 1915 Graz, Austria - 2009 Oshogbo, Nigeria)
2022
HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Please note that our office and technical support will be closed for the Christmas period from December 24th, 2022 until January 8th, 2023. For orders that need to be shipped before our holiday break, please send us your request and the corresponding information by December 13th, 2022. The Oroboros Team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Ouroboros in Innsbruck. During a recent walk through Innsbruck, Carolina spotted an Ouroboros sticker. Have you ever seen an Ouroboros in your town? We would love to see your photos. Please feel free to share them with us.
Czech Ouroboros beer. During the EMC2022 in Prague Erich was given a beautiful gift - An Uroboros beer! The Ouroboros symbolizes the concept of eternity and endless return.
MitoDesign. Mouse liver, osmium mixture by Richard Altmann on top. Live rat liver cells, stained with a deep-red-flurescent dye; laser scanning microscope. By Jamile Paier-Pourani at the bottom. Presented at MiP2010
Oroboros eating tail. An interesting illustration of an oroboros from the 15th century, depicted in a French manuscript. © Dragons: A Natural History by Karl P. N. Shuker
Oroboros Art. Odra Noel's stunning artwork was on display at the recent Bioblast 2022: BEC Inaugural Conference. Odra Noel combines scientific work with scientific art creation
Serpent Eating Tail. The Ouroboros spotted in the city of Grove, OK. The name Ouroboros comes from the Greek language, where (oura) means "tail" and (boros) means "eating," resulting in "one who eats the tail." (Source: https://www.cityofgroveok.gov/building/page/serpent-eating-tail-ouroboros)
The Oroboros in Applied Chemistry.An ouroborand is presented in the publication by Durola and Rebek (2010), which in its cavity coordinates an internal side chain and looks to swallow its own tail. The form is caused by the presence or absence of zinc(II) in solution, which flips the cavity between open and closed states (see https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200906753).
Johann Conrad Barchusen, towards the tail end of alchemy's golden period, attempted to elucidate alchemy's allegorical imagery by detailing the procedures as plainly as he could. He paired the enigmatic photos with the chemical equipment utilized in the technique. (Plate 504, Figures 10-13 from Johann Conrad Barchusen's Elementa chemiae)
Alien A snapshot of HeLa cells done by Sladkova Jana(Jana Sládková. MiP2010)
Aurora Consurgens, a 15th-Century alchemical manuscript, features the ouroboros, linked with the symbols of the sun, moon, and mercury (Credit: Zentralbibliothek Zürich)
2021
Happy Holidays! The Oroboros office is enjoying a break from December 23rd to January 6th.
Human skin fibroblast Three confocal sections (bottom to top; red, green blue) of a living cell stained with rhodamine 123. Presented by Koopman Werner JH.
Oroboros in Copenhagen Before departing for the Greenland 2004 expedition, Erich Gnaiger strolled through the Kierkegaard graveyard in Copenhagen, observing a suprising variety of Ouroboros emblems - symbols of transformation and eternal recycling (2004-02-22; photo by Erich Gnaiger).
Science and Art - The Beauty of Mitochondria Richard Altmann (1894) coined the term Bioblasts to describe the 'elementary particles' observed by osmium staining in metazoan cells, endosymbiotic and free-living bacteria (Tafel VII 1 Pankreas der Maus VII 2 Wurzelknöllchen von Coronilla glauca).
Dalí's Ouroboros. "Dalí's Ouroboros is more naturalistic than his other prints in Alchimie des Philosophes, and its features are similar to an eel or sea serpent. It is cut in many pieces, though the head biting the tail remains one piece. The Ouroboros maintains its circular shape, though the oozing pieces of the serpent interrupt its sense of eternity. The decaying pieces also represent the alchemical stage of putrefaction, when the alchemical matter decomposes. The pieces are arranged around a large, circular gem. Each facet of the jewel contains a different symbol, including keys and ants. Dalí frequently used ants as symbols of decay and temporality. In this sense, the ants are fitting in their placements around the dead Ouroboros, a symbol of eternity now subjected to the effects of time. The center features an interlocking Yin and Yang. However, the shapes seem intentionally ambiguous, and also resemble slabs of meat similar to the pieces of the serpent." (Source: [libmedia.willamette.edu https://libmedia.willamette.edu/hfma/omeka/exhibits/show/salvador-dali--alchimie-des-ph/the-ouroboros]
Oroboros in Italy. During his vacation in Soave, Italy, our Team member Maximilian discovered an Oroboros on a stone plaque placed on the garden wall of Casa Scrinzi.
Scientific Art. Mitochondria as boxes of secrets: of the past, of the future, of life itself. If information is power, mitochondria have the power and the information, in their own genes. Watch this space. Odra Noel (2008) Barcode mitochondria. MiPArt Gallery.
Ouroboros was and is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the earth. The word 'Ouroboros' is really a term that describes a similar symbol that has been cross-pollinated from many different cultures. From "Ouroboros," there is the serpent or dragon gnawing at its own tail. The symbolic connotation from this owes to the returning cyclical nature of the seasons; the oscillations of the night sky; self-fecundation; truth and cognition complete; the potential before the spark of creation; the undifferentiated; the Totality; and the idea of the beginning and the end as being a continuous unending principle. It 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 that 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 that repeat. "As Above, So Below" - we are born from nature, and we mirror it because it is what man wholly is a part of. (Copyright © 1997. John N. Harris, M.A.(CMNS))
The ‘Sigillum Sapientum’ (Seal of the Wise) of the alchemist. The inner union (hexagram and ouroboros) takes place as a result of the inner working of the divine Sophia (woman with sword and scales). Source: JM Faust, Philalethes Illustratus, 1706
Oroboros is popular in African art - This clay molding is from the walls of King Ghezo's palace of Dahomey. (African Mythology, Geoffrey Parrinder)
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.
2020
The sun god and the Ouroboros, image on a golden shrine in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The Ouroboros first appeared in its classical, circular form on a golden shrine in the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pharaoh who, at the end of the revolutionary Amarna Period, returned to Thebes and the traditional religion. (Articles, Aegyptiaca. Journal of the History of Reception of Ancient Egypt, 2019)
Oroboros in the world of music. While going through some new music, our customer and colleague Prof. Joseph Vincent spotted an Oroboros on a album cover of the band "WookieFoot" and send it to us. Thank you for that!
Full Circle. This image was created for the cover of an issue of Angewandte Chemie that featured an article on the geometric and electronic connections between different types of pericyclic reactions. The background is a page from Woodward and Hoffmann's classic Conservation of Orbital Symmetry. The circle is an orobouros - a mythical serpent eating its own tail - that I created in response to a suggestion by Roald Hoffmann; it is meant to emphasize both the cyclic nature of pericyclic transition structures as well as the fact that the article accompanying this illustration marked Roald's return to the topic of simple pericyclic reactions of hydrocarbons, nearly three decades after he first described many of their key electronic features. (Dean J Tantillo -link)
The Ouroboros symbol. In this personal Symbology by Adam Sass, he writes about his discovery of the ouroboros symbol and its meaning here. (Sass A, 2003)
Oroboros Sgrafitto. Another snapshot taken at Trogerhof in Tyrol, Austria. Symbolizing the ouroboros, an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.
The 'Sphinga' is from an artist who exhibited in Krumau (CZ). The Sphinga's tail ends in a snake head and is wrapped around her neck. The snake head touches her lips and results in a kiss which represents a closed circle, just as the Oroboros.
Oroboros spans the world - Carolina Doerrier visited the library in Admont (June 2017), https://www.stiftadmont.at/en/library. She spotted two different Oroboros there. More pictures here
Oroboros spans the world - An excursion at the FLAWOPIRYNIA conference in Lodz to Krakow (2012-10-25 to 26) revealed a Ouroboros emblem in a crypt beneath the Wawel Cathedral (photo by Prof. Cezary Watala).
Oroboros spans the world - Before departing for the Greenland 2004 expedition, Erich Gnaiger strolled through the Kierkegaard graveyard in Copenhagen, observing a suprising variety of Ouroboros emblems - symbols of transformation and eternal recycling
Ouroboros by Lucas Jennis, in the 1625 alchemical tract De Lapide Philosophico. Ouroboros, a mythical dragon-snake that eats up itself, speaks to the cyclic nature of all things. Image of reflection and attentive reasoning, the Ouroboros can be related with each one of those things that, after having reached their end, start again, in an endless return.
2019
Our office will be closed for the Christmas holidays from 23rd December 2019 to 6th January 2020. We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year 2020! Your Oroboros team.
I wanted to share the Oroboros I found while hiking in the Swedish countryside at Sylarna’s fjällstation in the middle of nowhere. - Schober Florian (Chair GRS 2020)
Jade Ouroboros, Shang Dynasty, by Mountain at Shanghai Museum - Mahdihassan 1989 Am J Chin Med
Ouroboros and Alexander von Humboldt - From: Olaf Breidbach (2006) "Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel". Prestel, Munich, Berlin, London, New York, page 52. Alexander von Humboldt thought an approach to science was needed that could account for the harmony of nature among the diversity of the physical world. For Humboldt, "the unity of nature" meant that it was the interrelation of all physical sciences—such as the conjoining between biology, meteorology and geology—that determined where specific plants grew. He found these relationships by unravelling myriad, painstakingly collected data
As on the cover of Ken Follett's historical novel "World without End", describing the struggle of mankind to find the balance between old structures and progressive minds.
"QVOD SVPERIVS EST EST EST SICVT ID QVOD INFERIVS" ("As above so below")
2018
OUROBOROS, 1597. The Basilisk monster as an Ouroboros. Woodcut from an edition of Horapollo's 'Hieroglyphica,' printed in Rome, 1597. - [1]
Native American Ouroboros. It is a common belief among indigenous people of the tropical lowlands of South America that waters at the edge of the world-disc are encircled by a snake, often an anaconda, biting its own tail. [2]
Ouroboros — An Ancient Symbol that Survived Through Millennia;The ouroboros appears in the classic alchemical study, Atalanta Fugiens (1617), by the physician to Emperor Rudolf II, Michael Maier (Credit: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) - By Percy Ramsey
M. C. Escher: Dragon (wood-engraving, 1952). 'However much this dragon tries to be spatial, he remains completely flat. Two incisions are made in the paper on which he is printed. Then it is folded in such a way as to leave two square openings. But this dragon is an obstinate beast, and in spite of his two dimensions he persists in assuming that he has three; so he sticks his head through one of the holes and his tail through the other.
2017
Eat art. Exhibit in the Ludwig museum in Budapest Ludwig museum Artist
Cosmic Ouroboros By Adams and Primack Scalometer. Phycisist Prof. Joel Primack and his wife, lawyer/philosophe Nancy Abrams, also use the ouroboros to visually describe quantum and cosmic realtionships.
A leggy Ouroboros decorating the flour of rural tavern gem Forellenhof in Haggen, Tyrol.
The Ouroboros and the Tree of Life - The ouroboro was believed to be the protector of the Tree of Life in some europe and norse mythology stories.
A copy of a 1478 drawing by Theodoros Pelecanos, of an alchemical tract attributed to Synesius - Wikipedia
Codex Marcianus - offers one of the best Ouroboros representations.It is the most ancient and complete among greek manuscripts examinated by Marcelin Berthelot in his “ Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs” Paris 1887, Collection of Ancient Greek Alchemists. In the treatise on Chrysopeia, namely by Cleopatra, Berthelot found an entire page with symbols together with the Ouroboros we are examining. Find out more here.
The Book of Kells, Thames & Hudson with the Ouroboros as a frame. Discovered at the 1. TRACT Marie Curie Meeting at the Trinity College in Dublin - Museum
The snake eating its own tail simply represents the recreation of life through death by the Universe. It is interpreted as some kind of a rebirth of the dead reaching an immortality of sorts. Therefore, it is assumed that the infinity symbol was derived from the original symbol of ouroboros. - mythologian.net
Ouroboros represents many things, including totality, the cycle of life, and the union of opposites. "Cum patientia" sums up the struggle between self-knowledge and self-deception.
The REAL ouroboros: This is an Armadillo Lizard, which, if frightened, will grab its tail in its mouth and roll into a ball. (from pets blogspot)
2016
We wish you a relaxing holiday, with best wishes for a bioenergetic, communicative and productive New Year 2017 in the spirit of Gentle Science
Oroboros' own Christina Plattner reveals the global dispersion of the Ouroboros in the Moroccan desert while feeding on its tail.
An Ouroboros in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, discovered at the occasion of ESCI 2016 Paris FR.
Jules Devaux, PhD student at the O2k-Network Lab of Prof. Hickey in Auckland, NZ did some garnishing on the O2k.
2015
Nicole Bezuidenhout, visiting scientist from Cape Town (South Africa) at the Oroboros O2k-Laboratory, is proudly showing her new Ouroboros tattoo. Nov 2015.
The mitochondrial Oroboros (by Odra Noel, London, 2012) was a centre piece of MiPArt at Bioblast 2012 illustrating the cycle of fission and fusion, with quality control as an essential mechanism to stay MitoFit. Sept 2015.
An Ouroboros (made by Anna Stepanova, New York, 2015) helping with DatLab analysis - the picture was sent by Anna Stepanova during her participation in the O2k-Workshop in Greenville, August 2015.
An Ouroboros tattoo from Sao Paulo walking in Manaus - observed during the O2k-Workshop July 2015.
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