What's in a Name ?

Phoenix

The Phoenix is a symbol of transformation for many cultures - transformation from within, transformation at a profound level, which flows through to all areas of life. My favourite Phoenix story is "The Phoenix Bird" written in 1872 by Hans Christian Anderson:

"In the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest, there flutterered aloft a new one - the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one inthe world, rises up from the red egg."

Rose

Rosa Damascena - Queen of Flowers, Queen of Scents - the Heart of Phoenix Rose Scentsorium

"She loved flowers on the alter. Roses especially reminded her of who she was and of what she must become. They were so tight in the beginning, and then slowly, imperceptibly they opened up and surrendered themselves to whatever lay about them. Even in dying they dropped their petals gracefully; and if you listened quietly enough, you could hear the silence of their falling. All that was left was the centre, naked and free of all the pampering satin petals it held so closely at the start. And the centre held in perfect poverty."

from "A Light in the Garden" by : Murray Bodo - The story of St Clare of Assisi

Herborium