The many sources of Phoenix Information

Legends of the mythological Phoenix are far-reaching: Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Arabic and Native American cultures all carry the tale of the great Phoenix.

The Native American bird symbol has been found across Canada and the U.S., and similar figures have been found throughout Africa, Asia and Europe.

The phoenix was depicted on the first Great Seal of the United States in 1782. (It was changed to the eagle around 1902.)

Throughout the many cultures the Phoenix represents high virtue, grace, power, prosperity, strength, peace, purity and life.

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Name: Phoenix

Etymology: Middle English fenix, from Old English, from Latin phoenix, from Greek phoinix

Date: Before 12th century : a legendary bird which according to one account lived 500

years, burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another period;

also : a person or thing likened to the phoenix : phoenix like : adjective

WWWebster Dictionary

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Phoenix (Mythology)

A legendary bird that lived in Arabia. The Phoenix consumed itself by fire every 500 years, and a new Phoenix sprang from it's ashes. In ancient Egypt, the Phoenix represented the sun. Early Christian tradition adopted the phoenix as a symbol of immortality and resurrection.

MSN Encarta Encyclopedia

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Phoenix's Wisdom (Shamanism)

Keeper of the Fires of Creation

Protector of all Fire

Death and Rebirth Regeneration

Connection to Raven

Phoenix/Firebird

*The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

Afabulous Egyptian bird, the only on of its kind, according to Greek legend said to live a certain number of years, at the close of which it makes (in Egypt or Arabia, etc.) a nest of spices, sings a melodious dirge, flaps its wings to set fire to the pile, burns itself to ashes, and comes forth with new life. It is to this bird that Shakespear refers in Cymbeline (I, vi): "If she be furnished with a mind so rare, she alone the Arabian bird."

The Phoenix and the Turtle (attributed to Shakespeare) is based on the legendary love and death of this bird and the turtle-dove. The Phoenix was adopted as a sign over chemists' shops through the association of this fabulous bird with alchemy. Paraclsus wrote about it, and several of the alchemists employed it to symbolize their vocation. The phoenix is also a symbol of the resurrection. Phoenix, the son of Amyntor king of Argos, was tutor to Achilles.

*Barbara G. Walker/The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

Egyptians identified the Phoenician god Phoenix with thier bennu bird, a spirit of the benben or phallic obelisk. He rose to heaven in the form of the Morning Star, like Lucifer, after his fire-immolation of death and rebirth. In Phoenicia as in Egypt he embodied the sacred king cremated and reborn. Symbolic burning of the king continued up to the present century in Upper Egypt, on the first day of each solar year by Coptic reckoning. The king's soul released above the pyre, assumed bird form, as ancient pharaohs at their cremation took the form of the Horus-hawk.

*Mary Summer Rain/On Dreams:

Phoenix (Egyptian mythology) stands for the quintessential example of a characteristic, ability, or attainment; may also emphasize a powerfully determined personality who bounces back and refuses to be defeated or blocked.

*D.J. Conway/Animal Magick:

The phoenix is known in various forms, and by various names around the world, as a symbol of resurrection. Although it was sometimes said to be about the size of an eagle, it had certain characteristics of the pheasant. It was said to live most of its life in a secret, sacred garden and fed on air. When it reached a thousand years old, legend says the phoenix flew to a special place and built a funeral nest of sweet-smelling woods and resins in a tall palm tree. In fact, the Greek word for phoenix and palm tree are the same. When the nest was set ablaze by the force of the Sun, the phoenix stayed in the nest and was destroyed. After nine days, a new phoenix rose from the ashes.

The Egyptian phoenix was often identified with the bennu bird, a heron sacred to Osiris and Ra, and a symbol of the Sun and resurrection. In Mesopotamian art, the phoenix may have originally been the horned and winged solar disk. The Greek workd Kerkes (falcon) was applied to the phoenix and connects it with the goddess Circe.

Traditions from Turkey call this creature the Kerkes; the Persians knew it as the Simurgh. The Simurgh, written about in the Shah-Nameh, had lion claws, peacock plumes, snake tails, and a griffin head.

Such Greek and Roman writers as Tacitus, Ovid, Pliny, Herodotus, and Hesoid all referred to the phoenix either as the Arabian Bird or the Egyptian Bird. An extremely gentle creature, it was said to weep tears of incense, while its blood was balsam.

It was the emperor of birds in China and a lunar-solar symbol. The phoenix represented the empress, while the dragon represented the emperor. As one of the Chinese Sacred Creatures, the phoenix had five colors, symbolizing the five Chinese virtues. It was called the Feng-huang, or fire-bird. To the Japanese, the phoenix was the Ho-Ho, which reappeared on Earth to open each new era, then returned to heaven. It was a solar symbol in Japan.

Alchemists used the phoenix to symbolize the color red and the successful completion of a process.

Magickal attributes: Rebirth, renewal, spiritual growth. Call upon the phoenix for strength and renewed energy when facing or undergoing trials of life.

*Patricia Telesco/The Language of Dreams:

The phoenix represents reincarnation, rebirth, and new beginnings. Known by the Egyptians as the bennu, this fire bird renews itself by making a nest in a raging conflagration from which it is born anew. Longevity. Several ancient texts, including the Talmud, intimate this creature can live as long as one thousand years.