SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS

 Cosmic Address Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

OUROBOROS HISTORY
The age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the snake [or dragon, lizard] eating its own tail is called the ouroboros. From ancient Egypt to the present day, across not only time, but cultures and religions, the image of a snake consuming its own tail, constantly renewing itself, has symbolised life and the Universe. With each era and culture, ouroboros stories and visual representations have 'spoken' meaningfully to people in the context of their social, religious, scientific and cultural milieus...their cosmology.

CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGICAL OUROBOROS
Contemporary signification of the ourobors as a meaningful symbol of the Universe actually comes from cosmologists, those scientists who study the Universe, its past, present and future history; its quantum and cosmic extremes.  Nobel Prize for Physics winner 1979, Prof. Sheldon Glashow first suggested the ouroborus as a visual descriptor for the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Lord Astronomer, Prof Martin Rees has also used the ouroboros for the same purpose. Plus, Prof. Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams [philosopher and lawyer], also use the symbol to describe Universal scales and humanity's place within them. This article by Prof Primack explains Glashow's ouroboros and more. I highly recommend Primack and Abrams book The new Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could Transform The World

This article gives you a good overview of ouroboros history.

UNCANNY
What interests me is the recurring signification of the ouroboros as a visual representation of the Universe. Art historian Aby Warburg and psychologist Carl Yung, amongst others, explored the recurring nature of symbols across time and cultures. I understand why. The uncanniness excites me, and embraces me in a sense of companionship with time and all humanity. Relationship through symbolic references, which strike resonances at a core level, promise more than we can imagine. These relationships are with ourselves, others, nations...our histories and our futures...the Universe!

 Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

TREE-OF-LIFE AND THE OUROBOROS
Regular readers will know of my abiding interest in another age-old transcultural/religious symbol, the tree-of-life. I have been painting images, with trees-of-life, for many many years. I know the tree has a power that reaches beyond me. I know this because of the conversations I have shared with people of many religions and cultures...the tree needs no explanation, it just resonates at a seemingly core visceral level. Well...it does mirror our internal body systems!

The tree and the ouroboros have universal voices which can be heard... if we listen. Neither symbol, nor indeed other age-old symbols, succumb to fashion's insidious seduction into short term transience. Rather, they call to us from the depths of history, revealing their potency when asked...when we realise our imaginations are tired of transience. They extend their potent reach into the future as they trigger our imaginations for what might be. Their agelessness urges us to seek horizons beyond the short term, beyond the tenticles of fashion... and politics.

THE THREE PAINTINGS HERE
In all three paintings in this post I have combined the ouroboros with the tree-of-life. Yes, the snakes' bodies are trees-of-life. The snakes eat life to replenish life...symbolic of all life... 'speaking' about past, present and future...creating all dimensions...promising new horizons.

My newest painting Cosmic Address [top] suggests that an 'address' is both a place and a time. But, words such as 'place' and 'time' seem inadequate when thinking on cosmic scales. I suspect that the potency within symbols, such as the tree-of-life and the ouroboros, promises more. Are we game to expand our horizons to embrace our 'cosmic address'? Our future may depend on it!

 

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153

 

 

In 2009 Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD, B.A, B.A Honours [Art History] University of Queensland], wrote about my work. It must first be understood that Brimblecombe–Fox is not so much concerned with landscape painting per se, but in a Warburgian sense, searches for the universal connections, or common ground between people, races and religions. Thus, she uses the “tree of life” or “tree of knowledge” as a repetitive motif and in so doing, deploys its spiritual associations as a global referent.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMIC OUROBOROS

 

  

Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

 

Regular readers will know that I have previously written about the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the ouroboros when I wrote about my painting Ouroboros  [bottom]. The ouroboros symbol is a snake eating its own tail, representing the continuance of life. My new painting [above] Cosmic Ouroboros delves into similar interests, by again combining the ouroboros with the age-old transcultural/religious symbol, the tree-of-life. The tree forms the snake's body, which is the fertile ground for more trees...and life. As I have previously written, I 'see' the tree-of-life as a symbolic template for all of life's systems, pre-human and post-human, nano and vast.

 

I am particularly interested in the appropriation of the ouroboros by modern cosmologists as a visual descriptor of the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Its age-old symbolic meaning refers to the constant, but simultaneous, consumption and replenishment of life. The cosmic ouroboros extrapolates this to the relationship between the vast and intimate realms of the universe. Nobel Prize winner [1979] , physicist Sheldon Glashow was the first to suggest the ouroboros as a visual descriptor of the connection with, and unification of, the extremes of size and scale.

 

Below is an image from 'Just Six Numbers', by Lord Martin Reese, astrophysicist and Royal Astronomer. This is an image of the ouroboros with its cosmological descriptors and numbers. On the left the numbers and small diagrams represent the microworld, subatomic or quatum world. On the right they represent the various aspects of the Universe 'out there', from humanity to scales beyond the cosmic horizon.

 

In my new painting Cosmic Ouroboros I have included the numbers and small diagrams, with humanity situated at the bottom centre. The ouroboros seems to float in an indeterminable space/place. Is it outer space? Is it an intimate crease in time? Is it everything, anytime, anywhere?

 

 

 

 

Phycisist Prof. Joel Primack and his wifw, lawyer/philosophe Nancy Abrams, also use the ouroboros to visually describe quantum and cosmic realtionships. Primack and Abrams often work and publish together. A good start for you is to visit their site The New Universe And The Human Future: How A Shared Cosmology Could Transform The World

 

What I really like about the work of Primack and Abrams is their desire to help people understand humanity's place within the Universe, from its smallest to largest scales. They comment, quite rightly, that when asked about the Universe most people will think of it at its most enormous scale rather than envisioning it as something small, as well as large. Regular readers will know why I am fascinated by this...it ties in with my belief that seeing multiple perspectives, even simultaneously, is important in a globalised world in which we live locally...and in a world where cosmological research reveals new horizons.

 

Here is a quote from Primack/Abrams

 

Why is this symbol useful? People asked to visualize "the universe" will far more often think of the largest thing they know of than the smallest. Few realize that the universe exists on all scales, everywhere, all the time. This is a truly extravagant thought. Largeness is by no means the most important characteristic of the universe. Focusing on it makes people feel small, not because they are, but because they are simply ignoring all scales smaller than themselves in thinking about the universe. On the Cosmic Uroboros, as I call it, if the mouth swallowing the tail is drawn at the top, humans (at one meter or so) fall more or less at the bottom -- i.e., at the center of all the size scales in the visible universe. Many students are so stunned by this apparently special place that they refuse to believe it and insist it must be a result of some tricky choice of units. I don't know if the center of the Cosmic Uroboros is in fact special, but finding themselves there certainly strikes a chord with most people. Perhaps it hearkens back to the soul-satisfying cosmology of the Middle Ages, where earth was truly the center of the universe. ...

Nancy Abrams is a great advocate for the arts [all of them], as a way of communicating how new cosmological horizons can be meaningfully understood and thus integrated into sustainable and enjoyable living. Symbolism is an integral part of arts catalytic agency and age-old symbols hold truths that can potentially speak to each millenia. By virtue of being age-old their potency burns, otherwise they'd be, what I call, transient symbols. We just have to search for contemporary relevance, meaning and resonnance. I believe the appropriation of the ouroboros by cosmologists is an excellent example of age-old potency being recognised and released. For me, the tree-of-life has the same potential.

 

 

Auroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

 

  

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com