The Phoenix

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The Phoenix
The legend of the phoenix
The interpretation of the phoenix
The phoenix tells only half the story

The Phoenix is a mythical bird that consciously consumes itself in flames to be reborn new from its ashes. It is important to our creative endeavors in that it is one of the myths which probably best describes the transformation that our ego must undergo in a creative endeavor. The phoenix is the symbol of the transformation of human consciousness and our creative spirit that each of us must undergo to one degree or another to create what we desire. The method that is used is our choice but the process is inescapable.

The legend of the phoenix (Top)

The are several versions of the legend of the phoenix. They all seemed to place the origins of the
phoenix in Egyptian mythology. It is seen as a mythical bird that lived in the Arabian Desert. What is interesting about the Phoenix is that when it saw death draw near, or when it choose, it would consciously consume itself in flames to be reborn and rising new from its ashes young and beautiful to live another cycle. To do so, it would make a nest of sweet-smelling wood and resins. It would then expose itself and its nest to the full force of the sun’s rays until it burnt itself and the nest to ashes in the flames only to rise rejuvenated from the ashes.

Legends vary. Some say the Phoenix consumed itself every hundred years or so. Some say every 400 to 600 hundred years. Some legends say it rose rejuvenated from the ashes in three days. Some say it just rose from the ashes others say that it would arise from the marrow of its bones. In any case its essence was seen as very old and indestructible. Only its form would change. One version of the legend says the Phoenix was about the size of an eagle graced with the features of a pheasant. Others say the Phoenix was half eagle, half pheasant.

The pheasant is symbolically seen as representing family, fertility and sexuality. It is a bird of the earth. It lives in the grasslands, grain fields hedges and brush to survive in the wild. The eagle is symbolic of the illumination of spirit, healing and creation. It is seen as having an amazing ability to soar and hunt. It has an ability that has amazed people for centuries. With its strong talons to grasp and hold, it is able to utilize things of earth yet soar to unimaginable heights. It is a bird of the sky that needs to remain attached to the things of the earth to survive on the earth.

The interpretation of the phoenix (Top)

The interpretation of this legend has been that the Phoenix symbolizes the resurrection, immortality and mankind’s indestructible spirit. But to look at this myth as the spirit as normally defined and described in religious and/or spiritual traditions is to miss the myth’s full meaning, especially its meaning relative to our inherent creative power and creative ability. Rather, the myth refers to our creative spirit and the free will and choice we each possess to recreate ourselves. It is the story of our creative life energy being made manifest in physical form only to die to that form and be reborn in some new form

The phoenix as a symbol of our creative transformation. The Phoenix Myth is an ancient myth that describes the overall process that is encountered before, during and after a creative transformation. It describes the transformation that each human has the option to choose to take and/or be forced into by death at some point in time. It is said each human has the option to choose for the mythical bird does consciously consumes itself in flames to be reborn new from its ashes. Our problem is that we are not sufficiently awake and aware to see that death is near so we do not adequately prepare for what we need to face. But it needs to be understood, the death to which we refer is not always physical death. There are many deaths we face at many different levels of our being and many different times of our life.

As long as we see ourselves as a human being who is born, lives and dies, we will miss the power of the phoenix myth. However, if we see ourselves as our conscious awareness and begin to observe that awareness, we will see that our awareness never changes. What changes in the form or filter that we use to experience Creation. We will see there are many levels and dimensions to this filter of which viewing Creation through the interpretation of a human brain is only one such filter. If we observe carefully, we will see there are an infinite number of such filters, some more important than others in any given moment. Yet, our awareness is capable of choosing any filter it desires if it is aware and awake to the existence of the filter. In the end, the phoenix myth is a description of the process of changing the filter we use to experience Creation.

The phoenix myth is in many ways the door way to our freedom as beings of unlimited creativity to create the reality we choose. It provides a key understanding of the creative process. Something old must be destroyed and transformed to make room for the new. So there always will be a sacrifice of something. The question is whether or not we hold onto what needs to be sacrificed.

The fire that destroys the nest we created and consumes us can be experienced as a Dark Night of the Soul that literally and figuratively burns up your ego. However in this same process there is a tremendous heat energy released in the fire that is available to transform any existing structure. That energy being made available is what we feel both as the Kundalini rising and as a huge rush of energy and unfathomable bliss and joy that accompanies the rush of energy. The rush of energy may also be accompanied by a sexual awakening.

An important point needs to be noted her in this myth. Is not only the individual which needs to be transformed but the environment, the nest which it created. There is both an inner and outer transformation. Often we try and transform ourselves (the inner) but do not understand how the nest we created (the outer) holds us in our current form. The physics of the pair production phenomenon and the paper cutout analogy for how we create our environment fully aligns with what this myth is attempting to communicate.

The phoenix myth is a description of the process of transformation that we each much under go as our consciousness evolves or acts manifest our dreams or desires. To evolve and/or manifest what we desire require transformation of our at least our enculturated ego and who we think we are. The myth provides a rough framework to guide one through their journey into the creative/creation process of creation/Creation.

The more areas and aspects of life we wish to transform/recreate and/or experience our unlimited creativity and freedom, the deeper and boarder the transformation that will be required. Similarly, the more expansive the creation you wish to manifest, the greater the transformation of our life. To free ourselves the cage of our own making to access our unlimited creativity and claim our birthright as the unlimited and infinite creative being that we are is the most significant change we will need to undergo. But, it needs to be noted, that, as a being of unlimited creativity, we can create a gentle phoenix at each and every level of our being.

The phoenix tells only half the story (Top)

There is another aspect to the transformation process of our indestructible consciousness and phoenix in that it tells only half the story. Alluded to in the myth is that there are cycles inherent in the nature of the universe. In some ways these cycles act as what can best be described as a default mechanism. Although it is not obvious to most individuals, the evidence abounds that transformation is an undeniable fact of human existence. We live with night and day, the cycle of the season and the birth and death of living things. Yet we do not see the ongoing cycles within our own mind. We “fall” in and out of love whether it be for a person, thing or place. Some of us go through life loving the same things. However, probably more often than not, we either cycle in and out of our love or we find new things, people and activities which old our attention.

In any case, there comes a time that our consciousness sufficiently matures that we recognize this process and can free let go as we move through our cycles. However, we can become so bound and blocked we are forced into transformation. We are force to experience a painful death. Some types and kinds of death can be so intense the we experience a dark night of the soul. But it is death that allows us to escape becoming trapped in any one given pattern. It is facing death that the phoenix myth does not address.

The phoenix myth talks about being aware of death approaching. It talks about choosing to destroy itself. In its conscious destruction it rises to be born again from its own ashes. What it doesn’t talk about is being aware and death arriving before the phoenix chooses to destroy itself. That is a whole new story not addressed by the phoenix myth. The easiest way to see the other story is to understand, choosing to let go and facing whatever death needs to be faced one will move into the proverbial heaven. To allow death to overtake oneself and not being aware to face it or refusing to face it, one is faced with the proverbial hell.

There is a paradox that governs our transformation which I believe it was the Persian Rumi who said, “If you jump into the fire, you will come out in the water. If you jump into the water, you will come out in the fire.” If we are willing to be aware and awake and sense the on coming death, we can jump into it freely letting go. In doing so, we release the past and become free to move into a new creation. If however, we remain unaware and death overtakes us and/or we are unwilling to let go for the pain we face in letting go, we are trying to jump into that water. That in turn, only causes us to become bound in the past and torn between where the future is trying to take us and the past is holding us bound. That in essence, is hell.

As an infinitely creative being, we have much greater control over that time and method of our transformation in any situation than what is currently believed and taught in most traditions. However, we can become so blocked we are forced into transformation. Addictive patterns and addictive behaviors are places where our consciousness and energy become so fixed we no longer have the freedom and ability to crate what we what or choose to create. Rather the pattern itself controls us. We have given our creative power away to the addictive pattern. But the pattern of the addiction is not as import as to what is it that gave rise to it in the first place. What were we trying to escape that lead us to the addictive pattern we have.

Many of us are bound in a thinking addiction without realizes it. Yet it is our thinking that keeps us from feeling and sensing when death, at whatever level, is approaching and needs to be faced. Recovery at any level will require transformation of our existing world, the existing nest we have created. Our nest is part of the transformation process. If we are not willing to recover and destroy our nest, no transformation is possible. There has to be a choice to change, a willingness to change. Then, in that choice, transformation can occur. Because of free will, we have to choose to recreate both the inner and outer form in which we find ourselves. Depending on how we set the intention, we can have more options available to us than first imagined. One of those options is the possibility of creating a gentle phoenix for any situation we face.

Related topics (Top)
Choosing to become the phoenix
Creating a phoenix experience
The possibility of creating a Gentle Phoenix

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