Phoenix is an amazing bird that exists in the myths of different peoples, separated from each other by space and time: Egypt and China, Japan, Phenicia, Greece and Russia. Everywhere this bird is associated with the sun. Chinese feng shui master Lam Kam Chuen wrote: “This is a mythical bird that never dies. Phoenix flies far ahead and always inspects the entire landscape that opens in the distance. This represents our ability to see and collect visual information about the environment and events unfolding inside it. The great beauty of the Phoenix creates powerful excitement and immortal inspiration. ”
Where Phoenix appeared
An ancient man always thought about death and what will happen after it. The Egyptians built monumental stone pyramids for mummies, which were to go into eternity. Because it is quite natural that along the whole of Upper and Lower Egypt there were legends about the Bennu bird (as the Egyptians called the phoenix), which, having died, is reborn again. Phoenix is a bird full of secrets.
In Egypt, Bennu was represented as a large heron, which lived about five thousand years ago in the Persian Gulf and was a rare guest among the Egyptians. On his head they depicted two long feathers or a solar disk. The bird of Heliopolis, sacred with beautiful red and gold plumage, was represented as the soul of the sun god Ra. In addition, the cry of the Bennu bird marked the beginning of time. That is, the Phoenix is time and fire that cannot be held.
Classic arabic phoenix
The most famous was the Arabian Phoenix, known to us from Greek sources. This fabulous mythical bird had the size of an eagle. She had a brilliant scarlet and gold plumage and a melodious voice.
Settling down at the well at dawn every morning, she sang a song so charming that even the great Apollo stopped to listen.
The life of the Phoenix was very long. According to some, he lived five hundred, according to others - a thousand, or even almost thirteen thousand years. When his life was drawing to a close, he built himself a nest from the branches of fragrant myrrh and fragrant sandalwood, set it on fire and burned. Three days later, this bird, rising from the ashes, was reborn young. According to other legends, she appeared directly from the flame.
The young phoenix embalmed the ashes of its predecessor into an egg and transferred it to Heliopolis on the altar of the sun god.
Phoenix is a victory over death and a cyclical rebirth.
Chinese Phoenix (Fenghuang)
In Chinese mythology, the Phoenix is a symbol of high virtue and grace, power and prosperity. It is a union of yin and yang. It was believed that this gentle creature, descending so softly that it did not crush anything, and ate only dewdrops.
The phoenix represented a force sent from heaven only to the empress.
If the Phoenix (image) was used to decorate the house, it symbolized that loyalty and honesty were in the people who lived there. Jewelry depicting this bird showed that the owner was a man of high moral values, and therefore only a very important person could wear them.
It is assumed that the Chinese Phoenix had a beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the neck of a snake, the chest of a goose and the tail of a fish. Its feathers were of five primary colors: black, white, red, green, and yellow, and were said to represent Confucian virtues: fidelity, honesty, decency, and justice.
The traditional legend of the Phoenix bird
Only one Phoenix could live in our world at a time. His true home was Paradise, a land of unimaginable beauty, lying beyond the distant horizon to the rising sun.
It is time to die. To do this, the fiery bird Phoenix had to fly into the mortal world, flying west through the jungle of Burma and the hot plains of India, to reach the fragrant aromatic groves of Arabia. Here she gathered a bunch of aromatic herbs before heading for the coast of Phenicia in Syria. In the highest branches of the palm tree, Phoenix built a nest of grasses and was waiting for the arrival of a new dawn, which would announce his death.
When the sun soared over the horizon, Phoenix turned his face east, opened the count of time and sang such a bewitching song that even the sun god himself momentarily restored on his chariot. After listening to the sweet sounds, he set the horses in motion, and a spark from their hooves descended into the Phoenix nest and caused it to flare up. Thus, the thousand-year life of the Phoenix ended in fire. But in the ashes of the funeral pyre, a tiny worm stirred.
Three days later, the creature grew into a completely new bird, the Phoenix, which then spread its wings and flew east to the gates of Paradise with a retinue of birds. The Phoenix bird, risen from the ashes, is the sun itself, which dies at the end of each day, but is reborn the next dawn. Christianity took the legend of the bird, and the authors of the bestiars equated it with Christ, who was executed but resurrected.
From the Egyptian Book of the Dead
What is the significance of the phoenix bird in mythology? Generation after generation Phoenix creates itself. It is never easy. He waited for long nights, lost in himself, looking at the stars. The bird fights with darkness, against its own ignorance, with resistance to change, with its sentimental love for its own stupidity.
Perfection is a difficult task. Phoenix loses and finds his way again. One of the tasks performed generates others. There is no end to the work to be done. This is a harsh eternity. There is no end to becoming. The fiery bird lives forever, striving for perfection. She praises the moment when she dies in the fire, when the veils of illusion burn with her. Phoenix sees how much we strive for Truth. She is the fire that burns in people who know the truth.
