What do you see here?
I will tell you what my brain said when I looked at this. Why is there a frowny face with a band around it? Wait, is that a cracked bowl and not a face? There is no real dimension to it so I had a hard time sussing it out. I looked on Wikipedia and found another picture which I had seen before. Then I got it.
The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol showing a snake or a dragon eating its own tail. It represents cyclic renewal and the unity of all things. It’s a Greek word, oura meaning “tail” and boros means “devouring”. Early Greek alchemists used it to show the ultimate symbol of the cyclical process of transformation. They saw creation as a self-restoring energy system.
In Mysterium Coniunctionis, Carl Jung says: “The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e., of the shadow... It is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself, brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself.”
I got a great book years ago called the HUNAB KU, 77 Sacred Symbols for Balancing Body and Spirit. I had it stored in the garage as I was making the move to my now house. Then the garage flooded ruining a bunch of my things, including that book. I just recently bought it again and it was three times the original price. I lost it to the flood and found it on eBay, a similar cycle.
I took a moment today to sit down and stare outside at the falling leaves. The wind blew, the leaves fell, it happens all the time. No big deal right? The leaves don’t hang onto the branches and say, no stop, don’t let me fall! No resistance, they just fall.
On my calendar this time of year I have three important dates within three weeks of each other: October 30, November 3 and November 21. My wedding anniversary, my husband’s birthday and my husband’s death day. This year marks 10 years since he died of stupid cancer. Every fall the leaves come down, and every fall these dates come back around.
I have a small postage stamp size yard but the amount of leaves I do not rake up could bury my house.
Resistance is what creates suffering. I had my resistance after he died and I also did my best to allow all the emotions to pass through me as much as I could. All those feelings piled up just like those leaves. I never raked them. Even though some of the people around me would have preferred if I had. Rake them up and throw them in a bag and into the garbage.
But if I had done that, I would never have seen the beauty of their return into the earth from which they came. They would be in a landfill amongst the grief trash of other people’s lives. And when it comes time to reckon with those feelings, I definitely don’t want to sort through that to find mine.
We all eat our own tails. I just prefer to eat mine with a little salt of the earth on it.