The Legend of the Phoenix

Across centuries and across civilizations flies the Phoenix – a legendary bird symbolizing rebirth and renewal as it rises from its own ashes. The ancient Egyptians knew the Phoenix as the Bennu bird, and according to priestly tradition, the newly reborn Bennu would gather the bones of its forebear from the ashes with its talons, fashion them together with myrrh into an egg, and fly with the egg in its feet to lay it at the sacred altar at the temple of the sun god Ra, in Heliopolis.

In Asia the sacred bird is known as Garuda, who first burst forth from his egg in a raging inferno, and later went on to rescue a divine elixir of immortality guarded by snakes and fire. And across Europe, in Russia, is told the legend of the Firebird, which grants it captor a blessing and a curse.

What lies behind the ubiquity of such a myth? Do all human societies recognize the wheel of time, how history repeats itself? Do we all yearn for renewal and new beginnings? What connects us to the past may provide a key to our future.