Leviathan and Oroboros The giant sea snake monster upon the Waters that guards the threshold That ring which does not allow any escape, the prison of the ego
The great sea serpent that guards the borders of this reality. It is the gate you must pass through, the dragon one must slay in order to transcend reincarnation, transcend this world.
In the Hymn of the Pearl, the soul is sent down from her heavenly home to fetch the pearl guarded by the serpent Why guarded by the serpent? The ego, time, the base reptilian nature, the “evil” reptilian nature
the ouroboros the serpent as a symbol of the earthly nature, the base reptilian nature… It wraps around something and keeps it confined
2 types/meanings of the Ouroboros Serpent?
Ouroboros: A serpent or dragon eating its own tail, symbolizing eternity, cyclicality, and the unity of all things.
Ouroboros: A serpent or dragon eating its own tail, symbolizing the bounds and prison of time, form, incarnation. The outermost limit of the celestial spheres, beyond which one is free of the body, this world, reincarnation,…..
In alchemy, the ouroboros is a symbol of circulation, continuity, and self-generation. It represents a substance that dissolves and coagulates itself, turning one state into another in a closed process. Texts often place it at the beginning of the work because the prima materia contains within itself the capacity to generate and destroy its own form. The same emblem appears at the end of the work because the completed Stone exists as a unified “one thing,” self-sufficient and whole. This level is concerned with internal transformation, not cosmology.
In ancient cosmology, the ouroboros marks the circular boundary of the created world. This includes Greek, Egyptian, Near Eastern, and early hermetic conceptions. A serpent encircling the world appears in Orphic fragments, Manichaean cosmology, late antique Hermetica, and medieval cosmological diagrams. It designates the division between the manifested cosmos and what lies beyond it. Its “tail in the mouth” signifies the closure of the cosmic cycle and the maintenance of cosmic order. Time is also described as circular in many of these traditions, which aligns the serpent with temporal limitation.
In gnostic sources, the ouroboros becomes the outermost limit of the archontic spheres. The “dragon-form” often guards the boundary between the lower aeons and the Pleroma. Texts such as the Pistis Sophia and certain Sethian writings describe the soul’s ascent through planetary rulers and the final gate. The serpent or coiling dragon at the edge functions as the final constraint upon the soul. In this context it appears as the cosmic boundary one must pass to return to the unconditioned realm. This reading makes the ouroboros a symbol of confinement rather than completion. It corresponds to the idea that the cosmos is a closed cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
Ancient Cosmology: The Ouroboros as Circular Boundary of the Created World
Many ancient cosmologies imagine the cosmos as a closed circle, encircled or bounded by a serpent or dragon. This serpent is the outer edge separating the ordered world from the unconditioned beyond.
Egypt
The ouroboros is attested on the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld (Tomb of Tutankhamun, 14th c. BCE). Two ouroboros-serpents encircle the god Ra and the body of Osiris, forming a self-contained cosmic sphere.
The text describes:
“This god is in the coils of the serpent Mehen. Everything which exists is enclosed within him.”
(KV62, Book of the Netherworld; translation after Hornung)
Mehen is not always eating its tail, but its meaning is similar: the serpent is the encircling limit of creation and the protection-barrier around the sun god.
Greek Orphic Tradition
In Orphic cosmology, the primordial god Phanes is described as emerging within a cosmic egg encircled by a serpent.
An Orphic fragment preserved by the writer Athenagoras says:
“Time (Chronos) fashioned a silver egg in the Aether. And from the egg sprang Phanes, the first-born, encircled with the coils of a serpent.”
(Orphic Fragment 54, from Athenagoras, Legatio 18)
Later Orphic commentators describe the coiled serpent as the cosmic boundary that encloses the egg, signifying the totality of the cosmos.
Greek Hermeticism
The Hermetic treatise Poimandres (1st–3rd c. CE) uses serpent imagery for the boundary between the world of generation and the higher aeons. Though not explicitly describing a tail-eating serpent, it depicts a shining, circular limit:
“A certain fire, round and great, leapt out, and circled around the air… It was a serpent of fire.”
(Corpus Hermeticum I.4, Copenhaver translation)
Hermetic commentators (e.g., Zosimos, 3rd–4th c.) interpret this fiery ring as the cosmic boundary.
Near Eastern and Early Christian Cosmological Diagrams
Late antique diagrams from the Greek, Syriac, and Byzantine worlds depict a serpent encircling the cosmos. One important example is the Codex Marcianus (6th–7th c.), which shows a coiling serpent forming the outer ring of the seven planetary spheres.
These diagrams do not always include explanatory text, but the iconography is consistent: the serpent is the outer wall of the world.
Dual Meaning of Ouroboros
When these strands are compared, a dual meaning emerges that depends on perspective.
From within the cycle, the ouroboros is experienced as a limit. It is the enclosure of time, form, and repeated incarnation. It marks the end of ascent through the spheres and the edge of the psychic cosmos. It is the “ring” that must be overcome.
From the standpoint of the completed work, the ouroboros is the unified one. It is the whole integrated into itself, the self-sufficient totality of the Stone. It is no longer a prison but an emblem of achieved wholeness.
A similar dual polarity is seen in other symbols. Saturn is both the limiter of form and the keeper of perfected unity.
The ouroboros surrounding an hourglass fits the temporal interpretation. It depicts the closed loop of time. The wings suggest the possibility of escape or ascent. Alchemical manuscripts sometimes attach wings to the ouroboros to indicate sublimation or transcendence.
From Symbol of Limitation to Symbol of Union
The ouroboros has both meanings. In alchemy it is the unity of the work and the continuity of transformation. In gnostic cosmology it is the limit of the created world and the constraint of time and form. The two interpretations refer to different positions in the same structure. As long as the soul is within the cycle, the ouroboros is a boundary. When the soul has completed the work, the same symbol marks the unified state.
This convergence makes it suitable as a symbol for both the prison of repetitive existence and the perfected unity beyond that prison.
The Ouroboros as Guardian and Limit of the Reality
One must break the Ouroboros to escape.
Transcend the infinite loop of karma, reincarnation, and time itself
the gatekeeper at the cosmic boundary.
The Chaos of the Deep
The collective human ego is the devil, satan, lucifer The impulse to be separate and individual and to try to supplant and replace God The Creator with one’s own self, reality, world,…..
A biblical fire-breathing, multi-headed sea serpent, created by God among other sea monsters. Leviathan possessed incredible strength and size, and was destined to be destroyed by God at the end of time. Leviathan appears in the Ugaritic epic, the "Baal Cycle," under the name of the seven-headed sea serpent Lotan, who acts as the enemy of the storm god Baal and the war goddess Anat, who defeats Lotan. The myth likely originated from older tales of the struggle between the god Hadad and the serpent Temtum, as well as from the myth of the battle between the Mesopotamian war god Ninurta and a seven-headed dragon, dating to the third millennium BCE.
Rahab
Rahab (Biblical Hebrew: רַהַב, romanized: Rahaḇ, lit. 'blusterer') is used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to a mystical sea monster, as well as an emblematic or poetic name for Egypt,[1] for the sea,[2] and for arrogance.
Raḥab or Rachav (Hebrew: רָחָב, romanized: raḥaḇ, lit. 'spacious place') is a term for the Abyss.
Rahab appears in Psalm 89:10, Isaiah 51:9–10, and Job 26:12. Rahab, in these passages, takes the meaning of primeval, chaotic, multi-headed sea-dragon or Leviathan.
"Thou didst crush Rahab, as one that is slain; Thou didst scatter Thine enemies with the arm of Thy strength." - Psalm 89:10
"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Art thou not it that hewed Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon?" - Isaiah 51:9–10
"He stirreth up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He smiteth through Rahab." - Job 26:12
The Babylonians told of a sky-god, Marduk, and a sea-goddess, Tiamat, battling for supreme power over the other gods, in the Enūma Eliš. It has been speculated these two characters in the Babylonian myth are parallel to the creation stories found in the biblical passages containing the name Rahab.[3] There is a possible connection between the monster Rahab and the fragmentary attested Akkadian chaos-dragon Labbu.[4]
Rahab is a poetical name for Egypt.[6] It might have Egyptian origins that were accommodated to the Hebrew language, although there is no relevant term in Coptic language.[2] I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among them that know Me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this one was born there. — Psalms 87:4
In medieval Jewish folklore, Rahab is a mythical sea monster, a dragon of the waters, the "demonic angel of the sea". Rahab represents the primordial abyss, the water dragon of darkness and chaos, comparable to Leviathan and Tiamat. Rahab later became a particular demon, inhabitant of the sea, especially associated with the Red Sea.
Rahab is the official Hebrew name for the planet Neptune in a vote organised by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 2009
"In the deep mythology of the middle-east, Leviathan, the primordial dragon (serpent) with seven heads, or the seven corruptions within creation, was opposed by the Goddess Anat who was regarded as one of the highest deities of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. Her name means providence and suggests that providence will eventually restore the chaos and division of the disruptive forces in the world. In Kabbalah the Will of God to bring everything back to unity is called Providence. It is the work of the Kabbalist to live in conformity with the current of Anat." - Mike Bais
JOB 41
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. …. It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is its equal — a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
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“Leviathan: His name means “twisted” or “coiled” in the Hebrew language. He is mentioned five times in the Bible. Oddly, Psalm 104 implies that God made Leviathan to “sport with.” A description of this massive beast, given in chapter 41 of the Book of Job, suggests that it is a sea creature. Later Jewish myths directly identify Leviathan as a sea monster, a terrible being capable of devouring one whale a day. There is a legend tracing back to Rashi, a rabbi from eleventh-century France, who explains that God created both a male and a female leviathan, but killed the female shortly thereafter because, were these creatures to procreate, mankind could not stand against them. A further story in the Talmud suggests that on the Day of Judgment, God will slay the leviathan, using its meat to prepare a feast for the righteous and using its hide to create the tent wherein this feast will be laid out. In many stories, Leviathan is pitted against the great beast Behemoth. In the trial of Urbain Grandier, a pact was produced, which was purported to be Grandier’s contract with Satan for his immortal soul. Grandier, a Jesuit-trained priest, was Burned at the stake in 1634 in the French town of Loudun, after having allegedly orchestrated the possession of a number of nuns under his care. Leviathan was one of several distinguished devils who supposedly signed his name to Grandier’s pact. Leviathan is also mentioned in the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, in connection with a spell. There is a high likelihood that Leviathan is a holdover from early Babylonian influences and is in fact a Jewish version of the Babylonian and Sumerian monster Tiamat, also connected with water. In Mathers’s translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Leviathan is identified as one of the four principal spirits, ranked alongside Lucifer, Satan, and Belial.”
- The Dictionary of Demons: Expanded & Revised Michelle Belanger
Gnostic Sources: The Ouroboros as Outermost Limit of the Archontic Spheres
“A great dragon of the outer darkness… whose tail is in its mouth.” - (Pistis Sophia, Book 2, ch. 135; Schmidt-MacDermot translation)
The serpent’s tail in its mouth marks the enclosed, finite nature of the cosmic prison.
The same passage states:
“It encircles the whole world, and all souls in the world are within its coils.”
In the Apocryphon of John the Demiurge is surrounded by a serpentine power. The text states:
“And the archon has a face of a serpent.”
(BG 8502, NHC II, 12:10)
Later, describing the cosmic boundary:
“And there is a luminous fire encircling him.”
(NHC II, 12:30)
This fire-serpent demarcates the limit between the psychic cosmos and the aeons above.
Hypostasis of the Archons
This Sethian treatise describes the world as enclosed by a serpent-shaped ruler:
“The chief ruler has a great creation in his power… and he is like a serpent with a lion’s face.” - (NHC II, 86:19–25)
The serpent aspect places him at the boundary; the lion aspect reflects the Demiurgic claim to sovereignty.
In Manichaean texts, the cosmos is explicitly encircled by a tail-eating dragon.
The Kephalaia describes:
“A great dragon encircles the whole world, and its tail is in its mouth.” - (Kephalaia of the Teacher, 34)
Its function is to trap souls within the cosmic mixture of light and darkness.
Mandaean Tradition
The Ginza Rabba speaks of a serpent-like boundary around the created realms:
“The world is surrounded by a great boundless serpent.” - (Ginza Rabba, Right Ginza, 3)
This serpent represents the last barrier before ascent into the World of Light.