The Ancient World · Western Esotericism
Symbol · The Ancient World · 1323 BCE
Ouroboros
The Serpent of Eternity
The end feeds the beginning: nothing is lost, only transformed — or nothing ever escapes the loop.
What it meansThe earliest drawing of it carries the legend hen to pan — the all is one — written inside the circle. The serpent eats itself and is not consumed, which is the alchemists' figure for a process that supplies its own material and therefore never has to stop.
Symbol · The Ancient World
Pentacle
The Star of Elements
A five-pointed star representing the four classical elements crowned by spirit, encircled by unity.
What it meansOne continuous line crossing itself five times, enclosing a pentagon that generates another star, forever. Four points for the elements and the fifth for spirit above them — the arrangement is the claim: spirit is not a fifth element but the one that orders the other four.