January 2016 Leadership Reflection

January 2016 Leadership Reflection:

The Phoenix Bird: Victory over Adversity

This is an illustration of the legendary phoenix bird from the 12th-century Aberdeen Bestiary. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

          Perhaps no other bird is as celebrated in world mythology as the phoenix. From Japan and China to Egypt and Greece, tales of this fabulous creature have been spun for thousands of years. According to the most widespread tradition, there was only one phoenix alive in the world at any given time. This legendary bird was adorned with beautiful crimson, golden, and violet plumage, and it built its nest of spices in a remote corner of East Asia. It was also said that the phoenix had the most wonderful song of all birds and that its tears could heal even mortal wounds. Since the phoenix bird had originated on the Sun (where myriads of phoenixes were supposed to dwell), it needed no earthly food; instead, it was nourished by solar energy exclusively (which might lead us to wonder: Why wasn’t the phoenix green, since it was photosynthetic?). J

          Every 500 years, the elderly phoenix would burst into flames and die in its nest of rare spices – but from its ashes would hatch a rejuvenated young phoenix to live for another five centuries. The newborn phoenix, as soon as it could fly, would carry the bones and ashes of its former self to the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, Egypt, where the priests would note in their chronicles that a new “phoenix cycle” of 500 years had begun. Drawing on such legendary accounts of the phoenix bird, European Renaissance astronomers introduced a phoenix into the sky as a constellation. The celestial phoenix can be seen just above the southern horizon on early winter evenings – a starry witness to the changing seasons on the revolving wheel of the year.

This illustration of the constellation Phoenix appeared in Johann Doppelmayr’s Atlas Coelestis (plate 19), which was published at Nuremberg, Germany in 1742. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

          Peoples of the ancient world were quick to ascribe various meanings to the myth of the phoenix. From an astronomical perspective, the death, immolation, and rebirth of the phoenix could have symbolized the annual cycle of the seasons, in which the Sun “dies” of old age at the Winter Solstice, only to be “reborn” and ascend into the heavens once again with the approach of springtime. The phoenix can still hold many meanings for us today. For example, the phoenix might represent the power that we have to begin again after a personal tragedy or some other great loss. It may also remind us of Nature’s ability to recover and renew herself after disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes.

          The phoenix can also represent humankind’s journey through history. The Phoenix Cycle is a historical era that lasts for 500 years; it derives its name from the 500-year lifespan of the mythical firebird. Every 500 years, human civilization has to reinvent itself. Old ways die, and new ways are born. The early 21st century of the Common Era marks the start of another Phoenix Cycle. The last Phoenix Cycle began in the early 16th century, with the Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and the Age of Discovery. Before that, Phoenix Cycles began in the 11^th, 6^th, and 1^st centuries CE, etc. The advent of a new Phoenix Cycle is why we appear to have so much chaos – and progress – in the world right now. This is why we also have so many “rising stars” among our young people today. They are here for a reason – to light our way into a better future during the new Phoenix Cycle that is dawning right before our very eyes. What we do today will have repercussions for the next 500 years (and beyond) – what an opportunity we have to change the world for the better!

          In closing, I’d like to share with you the final stanza of one of my all-time favorite poems, “Ode” (1873) by Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881), which describes the passing of the torch from one generation of “dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers” to the next – as we prepare ourselves and our inheritors for all the challenges and opportunities that await humankind during the new Phoenix Cycle:

“Great hail!” we cry to the comers

From the dazzling unknown shore;

Bring us hither your Sun and your summers,

And renew our world as of yore;

You shall teach us your song’s new numbers,

And things that we dreamt not before;

Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,

And a singer who sings no more.

Webliography

          To learn more about the phoenix bird and its myriad meanings, readers may wish to consult the following resources.

·         http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Phoinix.html à This illustrated reference page includes brief articles and citations from ancient Greek and Roman authors about the phoenix.

·         http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/phoenix.html à Here is an overview of the phoenix myth from a multicultural perspective.

·         http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/phoenix-constellation/ à This page provides an excellent introduction to the constellation Phoenix, which was named in honor of the mythical firebird.

·         https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ode_%28O'Shaughnessy%29 à This page contains the complete text of the poem “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy.

Ave Aurora Consurgens! (Latin) = Hail to the rising dawn! J