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THE PHOENIX BIRD
SYMBOLIZING A ROCKET LAUNCH
The Solar Wind… that soars
through the volcanic mountains…
like a fantastic phoenix… descending from
the sun…
Flowing with kinetic energy… of the shining
one,
Warm my soul and spirit… that has
become undone.
The Music of the Sun… laughs in my
face,
Her rays of color…. On my skin… like
lace…
Soft and Warm… spinning… and healing,
Spiraling through my body… like tiny spirits
searching…
For the central sun…. inside my heart,
Golden thoughts hover… and linger… and
divide apart,
At dusk… the cool wild winds come… mountain
winds…
Blowing small multi-colored clouds… of light…
Like multi-colored thoughts…to my mind…
Like tiny flocks of birds…. With their
bell-like voices…
Seeking to find the divine… inside me…
with all my infinite choices…
As they play… flying in the wind….
Like little spirit mates…
As the clouds… create pictures in my mind…
and open the dimensional gates.
"When the golden phoenix... has lived 500 years, it
builds itself... a nest ... in
the branches of an oak. In
this... it collects spices, and of
these materials.... builds a pile... on
which it deposits itself,
and dying, breathes out... its last breath.

From the body
of the parent bird, a young Phoenix...
issues forth. When this has
grown up, it lifts its nest....
from the tree....
and caries it... to
the city of Heliopolis...
in Egypt.... and deposits
it... in the
Temple of the Sun."
Ovid... in his Metamorphoses.

This fabled bird, which arose... from
its own ashes.... and
thus became... a symbol of regeneration,
first became known...
to Western culture... through the travels
of Herodotus, when the
famous Greek historian... visited Egypt...
about 455 BC.

At the ancient religious
center.... of Annu, known to the
Greeks...
as Heliopolis, Herodotus was told.... of
a sacred bird... which
came from the East.... bearing its
father.... embalmed in a
ball of myrrh, and buried him.... in
the Temple of the Sun....
at the city of Annu (On).
The Egyptians called it the "Benu"
bird, but it is better known by
its Greek name of Phoenix.

Additional details
of the Phoenix.... were supplied by
the
Roman writers.... Tacitus, Pliny, and
Ovid.... who also visited
Egypt...
and reported further.... that the
Phoenix... built its nest...
on the
Sun Stone... at the Temple, where it
perished in flames.
It
then.... rose out of the ashes... to
leave Egypt ... and not to
return... for 500 years.

Herodotus was told...
that the bird... resembled an eagle....
in size and shape, with golden and
red plumage.

Early
Egyptian depictions, as far back... as
the 25th
Century
BC,
show the "Benu" bird... as a magpie.
In later
dynasties.... it appears as a heron...
with two
long
feathers... growing from the back... of its
head.
Related to the
verb weben (wbn), meaning "to rise",
"rise in brilliance" or
"shine" as well as ben-ben, the
up thrust... sacred stone... of
Heliopolis, benu (bennu),
describes a bird... that was an
important avian deity.

Originally of solar associations, the Benu
bird... came
to be connected... with three important gods...
consisting of Atum,
Ra and Osiris.
As an aspect of Atum,
the Benu bird... was said to
have flown...
over the waters of Nun... before the original
creation.
According to this tradition, the bird came to
rest on a rock...
from which its cry... broke the primeval
silence... and this
determined... what was.... and what was
not to be... in the
unfolding of creation.






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