Brilliant ancient knowledge

Do you know what it is?!! Have you ever seen it before in your life?!! It is an ancient symbol called Ouroboros which gives us an image of a snake or a dragon swallowing its own tail. It represents the very original power and creature of the universe. As you can see, it's a circle, that is to say, it serves itself, feeds itself, recreates itself, and it is an endless and eternal symbol that plays a big role in religion,culture and sicence and that represents some principles of the universe.

This symbol has been discovered in many different ancient cultures and religions. It has had a very long history. For example, from Plato's description, "The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside hin to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digeated, since there was nothing which went from him or came into hin: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and , as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatue of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet." (Plato, Timaeus, 33;translated by Benjamin jowett)

The description above was quite detailed, and it implied to the original ideal model of the everything; thus, later the alchemists regarded this archetype as the power or the root of the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life. The snake was self-comsuming, self-creating and living in a unknown space, so it didn't need any other supplies because of the obvious immotality and uniqueness of itself. It was 100% recycling utility which is a dream of any technology. Sometimes, I was thinking that what gave the energy to the singularity that led to the big bang, and the Ouroborous gave me a comfort. That is why through millions of years scientists are still attempting to discover a nearly permanent source of energy. They have the dreams of the possibility of everthing. I even wondered if the Ouroboros does exist in some ways that we cannot easily tell.

There are still countless symbols in the world, and in Dan Brown's books , I got to know some excellent ideas of symbols. Thus, here I recommend Dan Brown's novels ,such as Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol.

Other bunches of mysticism are Kabbalah (The Tree of Life),Gnosticism, Hermeticism,etc..However, those are beyong my ability to explain clearly.

Here is a video of Kabbalah's tree of life, and I really like the backgroung music...

this is the tree of life.

Kabbalah actually was a modern type of explanatory and practical theory on the Tree of Life. The concept of the Tree of Life is from the Hebrew Bible previously. The tree itself was a system and the branches of the tree implied the different parts of the universe or a single being, and then it showed the connections among those various parts and the ways to being sublime and radiant.

P.S. Any other field derived advantages from those abstract concepts is psychology, especially in Carl Jung's analyses of one's development of personality. I had read about his "Four Archetypes" roughly and he was the one who absorbed the essence of alchemy and applied it to his academic rearches of psychological analyses.