TRANSFORMATION
MYTHOLOGY OF SELF
The appearance of a white hart
A fool, a cup and a wounded fisher king
WINTER 2009
THE PHOENIX
The phoenix cycle of rebirth: transforming in the flames. The Aberdeen Bestiary. 13th Century. Aberdeen University Library. Aberdeen, Scotland.
The phoenix cycle of rebirth: resurrected form. The Aberdeen Bestiary. 13th Century. Aberdeen University Library. Aberdeen, Scotland.
THE PHOENIX
The phoenix lives for 500 years or more. When it sees that it has grown old it builds a pyre for itself from spices and twigs, and facing the rays of the rising sun ignites a fire and fans it with its wings, and rises again from its own ashes.
Saint Isidore of Seville (560-636) Archbishop of Seville, scholarThe mythological roots of the phoenix may be found in its Egyptian counterpart, the Bennu, a crane-like bird believed to be the soul of the sun-god Ra. Egyptian myth says that the Bennu burst into being from the heart of Osiris, god of life, death and fertility. This explains its association with the transformation of the self.
