Ouroboros
A serpent or dragon eating its own tail, an emblem of cycles, return and wholeness.
Also: serpent eating its tail, uroboros, Jormungandr, alchemical circle
The ouroboros, Greek for tail-eater, is a snake or dragon in a circle, biting its tail. It appears in an Egyptian funerary text on a shrine of Tutankhamun, from about 1323 BCE, where a serpent encircles a figure. In the Greek and Egyptian alchemy of the early centuries CE it carried the words all is one, and later European alchemists used it as a sign of the unity of matter. The Norse Midgard serpent, Jormungandr, surrounds the world and bites its tail in some tellings. Carl Jung read it as an image of the psyche. The symbol is a favourite in jewellery and tattoos, and it was borrowed by games, films and logos. Its meaning varies with context.