Human Jörmungandr

I am sure it began as a meditation on the symbolic marks people place on their bodies - like the loving ambigram that will forever reflect and balance the names of mon frere and I on both the material dna & named heritage symbol of our father... or the Dark Crystal symbol of the universe that enshrowds the womb of an adored girl I used to know.

As I wondered about the meaning behind certain self-selected marks of personal identity... I starting looking up symbols... signs... visual cues... illustrations to perpetuate and feed the random stream of consciousness on which I happened to be floating.

I have a small scupture of an Atlasisyphus that was made for me years and years ago now that today crumbles under its planet burden into the dirt of a potted plant. Maybe that's what got me started-- at least in part--on symbols of earthly burden. Symbols of the foundation of the world. Symbols about the precarious stability of our spinning biosphere.

Somehow, however, I found myself drifting off into the direction of cyclical infinity; Alchemical self-reflexivity and eternal return; the Ouroboros circle snakedragon consuming itself, tail in mouth; serpent nursemaid of self-knowledge and the end of human time.

And via this strange tangent two things happened at once... I met the Nordic version of the World Serpent... and I found this gorgeous image from the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires taken by Robert Wright.

In Norse tradition the gods Thor & Jörmungandr (world serpent) will destroy each other during the end time known as Ragnarök. Jörmungandr is a seagod - one grown so large that he could wrap his body around the entire world . Thor rules the sky. Ragnarök tradition says that the sky lord will slay the serpent and then, after walking only a handful of feet, fall dead from the serpent's poison.

Combining the two (tale & image)... I find myself crafting an evolution for my poor Atlasisyphus & his burden. I wrap humanity-grown-too-large around the world and gift the poor beast with the prophesied poisoning of the sky... the rising of the seas... & the twilight of the gods.

Hmmm... I don't know how giddy a symbol that might be to place upon a life. It's implied longevity does seems more suitable to the realm of the sepulchre. However, tail in cheek, I'm sure the world in all its cyclical infinity & splendor will still be here when the Gumby bending around the nature of our burdens cease.