Is the ouroboros a Christian symbol?

Not originally. It comes from late antique alchemy and Hermeticism. In the European Middle Ages it was at first regarded with suspicion (as pagan); from the Renaissance onwards it was reinterpreted in Christian terms - as a symbol of the eternity of God and of the resurrection. It is in this form that it enters the mourning jewellery of the early modern period.

Which jewellery forms use the motif?

Above all serpent rings and serpent bracelets - the serpent coils around the finger or the wrist, its head biting its tail or holding a small gemstone. Also mourning necklaces with a serpent clasp and pendants with an ouroboros relief. In 1840 Queen Victoria received a serpent engagement ring from Albert, which became an important signal of trend for Victorian jewellery fashion.

Why did the motif survive into the Victorian age?

Unlike the drastic skull, the serpent could be reinterpreted - from memento mori admonition into a sentimental gesture of eternity. In Victorian mourning jewellery it becomes a gesture of hope and constancy; the old admonition about mortality recedes and the idea of an eternal bond comes forward.

Is the symbol still alive today?

Barely as a principal motif in memorial jewellery, but very much alive in subcultures (esotericism, tattooing). In modern fashion jewellery the serpent appears regularly as an aesthetic form (at Bulgari with the Serpenti line, for instance), though usually without the ouroboros aspect. As a pure symbol of eternity it is still alive - as a symbol of mourning it has faded.

Serpent (Ouroboros)

The serpent biting its own tail - the ouroboros - is one of the few Baroque memento mori symbols to survive the passage into the Victorian age: an image of eternity that was reinterpreted in the nineteenth century from admonition into a gesture of hope.

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