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The Mystery of the ­­Ouroboros: What Attitude Will You Choose to Begin Again?

When I was nineteen years old, I had an intuitive calling to go to Ireland and figured out a way to get there by doing a study abroad program. I was there for just a few seasons, yet it felt like lifetimes unfolded within me. I changed my clothes, my hair, my thoughts, and my attitude. I went on adventures within adventures, like I was dreaming awake.

I had a deep affection for the elements and knew the day would come when I would miss the wind tossing my hair, the rain playing tag with me, and the raucous river telling me stories from under the bridge. I’d miss my wild best friend who was an integral part of the changes I went through, and my partner on our adventures outside of time. Maybe most of all, I’d miss the vividness of me that shone in those mystical lands.

As the time came closer to leaving, however, I didn’t feel sadness but rather a sense of being ready. While part of me romanticized staying in those blissful moments forever, I had a deeper kinship with the call to go. I looked around my tiny bedroom at all the things I’d collected. There wasn’t much but a handful of great books, some interesting finds from the market, and some clothes and jewelry.

I began naturally pairing my things with my housemates and friends in my mind. Before it was time to go, I made a makeshift boutique in my room and invited everyone to stop by. I noticed a sort of seamless rhythm to their coming and going and that these “leaving visits” were imbued with serendipity and sewn with the power of remembrances, laughter, and well-wishes.

The giving away of my things took on a special meaning, too. I was delighted to see the excitement on my friends’ faces when I told them to take whatever they wanted and to see what they chose. It gave me a thrill when it was what I’d envisioned for them.

The whole experience had a ceremonial energy to it including the parting rites of shedding my skin. I would come to know this pattern well as it would eventually happen over and over again, seemingly to mark the end of a significant life phase.

Thirty years later, I’ve come to realize that this mysterious phenomenon was venerated by our ancestors, edified by great civilizations, and even found on Tutankhamun’s tomb! It was given a special symbol from ancient Egyptian iconography and from the Greek magical tradition. It was later adopted by Gnostic and Hermetic thinkers, most notably in alchemy, and came to be recognized as The Ouroboros: the snake eating its own tail. This primordial emblem signifies eternal cyclical renewal: life, death, and rebirth and conveys the mystical occurrence of the snake shedding its skin.

The Egyptians loved complex and esoteric symbolism that both revealed hidden knowledge and helped veil it from outsiders.

~Dr. Joanna Kujawa, The Other Goddess

My mother noticed this pattern in me when I was young. “Your life seems to move in chapters,” she said one day, “but it’s more than that. It’s like you go through some kind of metamorphosis. Not like a butterfly but more like a snake shedding its skin.” Her words aligned with me at the time, but I couldn’t have known its meaning until I embarked on my greater journey.

The ouroboros showed me, and shows us, the magic of transfiguration. It also brings our attention to coalescence, the point at which the snake eats its own tail. It’s at this point, if you listen reverently, that you can hear not only the call to go but the call to choose. It is here, that you are given an opportunity to choose your attitude in responding to the call and your choice will determine whether or not you’re granted passage and how you experience it.

I have felt myself standing on the threshold of passage many times, sometimes with a feeling of resistance and sometimes with a feeling of “allowing” that precedes my decision (or destiny) to accept. I’ve learned to lean into it rather than to try and rush it or avoid it. Rather, I choose to notice what’s being asked of me at those ethereal gates and to act courageously.

In my most recent experience of ouroboros, everything in preparation for leaving (no matter how big or small) had a consummate weaving to it. Flights, finances, communications, encounters, weather…everything seemed to be orchestrated from the magical hands of the divine seamstress.

Nature moved into the foreground and the material world faded into the background. My days leading up to leaving were filled with the melodious sounds of conversant energy all around me. I relaxed in the unconditional love of the landscape feeling the warmth of the trees swaddling me and the care of the wind shepherding me.

One morning, in the midst of this wonderous feeling, I had a momentary vision of the seas parting in front of me with great walls of roaring waves towering on either side. There was a clear, tunnel-like passage that conveyed total protection from a higher realm. The vision didn’t last long but it was enough for me to marvel at it and to know I’d been given a sign that I was doing the right thing.

I couldn’t help but to wonder about the biblical story of Moses and the parting of the Red Seas. That may be the story was trying to convey what I’d just experienced and, if so, it was telling us that passage is a divine manifestation available to us all depending on our faith and our attitude. If we choose to meet it with trust, reverence, and courage then we will be granted divine guidance and protection.

I was fortunate to receive another momentary vision one day. A sturdy white rope appeared suspended in the air, parallel to the ground, about knee-level in front of me. Then, a bit of thick red yarn appeared just above it. ‘Was a raft being woven to transport me?’ I wondered. “Or maybe a magic carpet?” I heard a voice say and I started to giggle. I had come to know the whimsical nature of the divine artist.

A few days before I left, a group of my friends invited me over for a dinner party and I was in the middle of making some food to bring when suddenly I felt compelled to stop what I was doing and go through my closet. I thought it was odd (and inconvenient timing!), so I resisted but eventually gave in to my intuition.

I started sorting through my wardrobe, naturally pairing things with my friends who would be at the party. I gathered up a bag of my things and when I got there, I left it the entrance and headed into the dining room to enjoy a lovely evening.

As the night wound down, I realized I’d almost forgotten about my bag and hurried to get it but instead of returning to the dining room, I slipped into the dimly lit room to my left and noticed that the furniture was arranged in a circular shape. I took a seat on the couch at the top of the circle and when my friends started filing in around me, they commented that they hadn’t noticed that room or the arrangement of furniture before.

“I don’t know,” our gracious host said with a shrug and a smile. “The idea occurred to me just before you all got here so I thought, ‘Why not?! Maybe I should keep it this way and confuse my husband.” We all laughed.

I looked out at my friends who had gathered around me and was moved by their excitement and camaraderie. We’d shared so many good times over the years in that city, and they’d all been a part of my journey of transformation. I smiled at each of them as their hands shot up and shouts of “Me, please!” filled the room when I pulled items from my bag.

Just then, something very surreal happened. The circle of friends in front of me became transparent and behind them, all the other scenes like this one appeared but in different rooms, in different cities, in different countries and with different friends.

Breathless, I stared into the kaleidoscope of living memories seeing all the leaving ceremonies back through time. My heart filled with profound gratitude as I witnessed the gift of these cycles and the beautiful souls who had journeyed with me. I realized the ouroboros had revealed an even deeper meaning, the magic ability to encapsulate these precious times to remain in my heart forever.

As the vision faded and I came back to the present, I continued the ceremony of shedding my skin once more.

I was ready with joy and honor to take to the road again.

Allison Kenny
Allison Kennyhttps://bellydance-meditation.teachable.com/
Allison Kenny is the Founder of Activate Your Divine Feminine LLC dba Bellydance Meditation®, Renew Goddess Flows®, and The Shimmy Cure!®. She is also a Subject Matter Expert for The Yoga Alliance, the largest association representing the yoga community, with more than 100,000 Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT). Having taught and performed Bellydance for over 15 years, Allison created, Bellydance Meditation Simplified: A Yoga Teacher's Guide to Mastering Goddess Flows. The accredited course is 100% automated, providing 20 CEUs, and offers Yoga teachers a way to deepen their knowledge of balancing the 7 major chakras through divine feminine energy integration. Allison has seen the power of this ancient dance medicine (Belly Dance) heal women from the inside out. Allison's mission is to certify 1000 yoga teachers and 1000 belly dance teachers around the world so that they can collectively recover this knowledge and teach it in their unique style. In addition, Allison is a part of 360° Nation and writes for their publication BizCatalyst 360° because she believes in "community as communion," preserving our humanity and helping others to reconnect to themselves and one another. Allison can be reached at [email protected], and on Instagram: bellydancemeditation. She's happy to serve as a guest speaker live or virtually, or through podcasts and IG take-overs to get this message to as many people as possible.

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3 CONVERSATIONS

  1. What was the reason that propelld you to travel to Ireland, Allison?

    As I lived for years in Egypt reading your great post brought so many memories back in my head.

    The snake biting its nail- oh that was the dream of Kekulae to suggest the ring structure of benzene. Figuring out the structure ended a dilemma of chemists that lasted for years.

    Maybe this was too what explained many of your imaginations.
    You give away your things and enjoy making others happy. I am glad my first name is the first three letters of your first name.

    Great reading.

    • Thank you so much, Ali, for your sincere questions. I always enjoy connecting with you.

      I traveled to Ireland because I felt called their by my spirit. I came from a wonderful family who had humble beginnings and a strong work ethic. Even though every one in my family seemed to work very hard, traveling was an expense that they could not meet or prioritize. So, I had no idea how I would get Ireland but my spirit kept calling me there. So, finally, before I embarked on my second year of college, I spoke with the professors to try and find a way that I might do an exchange program. That allowed me to get there and the rest is history! It was a tremendous spiritual experience and I wound up learning from the land and the elements. I created a way to stay in the U.K. and finish my University degrees and begin my apprentice work. I grew so much in those years, especially spiritually, that when my mind goes there, it is the most treasured experience!

      I learned about the Ouroboros only recently, after I had a “felt experience” of it while sitting at the “top” of a circle of my good friends. I wrote about it in this story. It had happened many times throughout my journey here on earth and I hadn’t noticed the pattern of it. This awakening of awareness in the most recent “circling” was like a kaleidoscope effect. Something in my Being and awareness looked down through the kaleidoscope and saw the recurring patterns of these moments of “passage” and the symbol of the Ouroboros came into my mind.

      From this experience, I learned that Ouroboros embodies this sense of eternity, the cyclical nature of it, the ability to experience the death and renewal of chapters of our lives and have a new beginnings. It gives the felt experience of “passage” and it has sacred and alchemical energy imbued in it. It carries the mystery and glory of sacred patterns in our lives. It was so clear to me when it happened this last time, that there is a “choice” at the top of the circle, before the snake gets ready to integrate itself through what looks like the “biting of the tail”, and that “choice” is your “attitude” and your “approach” in how you will proceed with this new beginning. It is indeed a choice. Many people choose to resist it and stay safe. Many don’t have an awareness of it. However, in my experience, if you experience it with gratitude, wonder, and letting go to it and then accepting the choice, really declaring it, the material world parts like the Red Sea for Moses to grant you passage to that new beginning. In my most recent experience, it was uprooting where I lived and all the people, places and things most familiar to me to go an help my mother who was in great need, more than I realized or my sisters or anyone for that matter.

      When I made the choice to go, it wasn’t about trying to be a hero or anything, it was that I felt the spirit world giving me a choice and I chose to trust, have gratitude and see through the eyes of God/Goddess. I had no idea how to logically do anything or arrange anything within such a short amount of time, but I had a vision of yarn being woven as if the Divine Seamstress Herself was weaving a boat or vessel to carry me to my mother. I even wondered if this is where the idea of the Magic Carpet came from. I don’t know, but in the framework of alchemy and the philosopher’s stone, when I made the choice and also chose to have an appropriate attitude and approach, it was as if I could fly to her on a carpet ride, or boat made of yarn, because it was that seamless. It did happen that way.
      I mean, I drove a car 1000 miles to get to her, but all of the logistics (even the weather and road conditions!) and everything that people worry about or stress about in a move or uprooting their lives seemed inconsequential. It all just flowed like magic.

      I’m proud and happy to say that after that passage, choice, occurrence and relocation, I’ve been here over a year now and my mother is back to almost 100% health with a condition that never actually goes away. So, it’s been a life-saver, literally, and miracles on top of miracles!

      I can only thank God/Goddess and the divine ancient wisdom of our ancestors who have preserved this symbol in our transitory worlds and experiences.

      Thank you so very much, dear Ali, for asking and for listening. You are a great man.

  2. Very interesting article I quite enjoyed the read. Gives one a little to think about. I don’t know if I shed my skin. I tend to collect things rather than give them away. It’s like the material things are related to memories that I always want to keep. I admire you. You seem to be a free Spirit. And travel light with the wind.

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