Wild Muse Notes

Serpent devours tail, lion devours sun, and the phoenix rises. It has been an exciting week here in the crow’s nest studio as you can see. Three new action, adventure, and symbolism packed works on a timely theme have emerged from the debris of spring cleaning. I’ve been having this wave of nostalgia about Lebanon, Palestine, and my father lately. I kept thinking I would write something up about it to go with work. My father was something of a phoenix as well and his spirit still rises in the lives of everyone he ever touched. The personal writing never came together. I did manage a description of the piece that ties it all together. I guess this isn’t the time for a personal exploration so here are the pictures, worth a thousand words that are apparently not forthcoming at this time. Perhaps I need a “ghost” writer.

Full description of One is the All on arianadii.com

Full description of The Green Lion on arianadii.com

The phoenix is an eagle-like bird that is said to be nearly immortal. Some variant of the phoenix appears in the mythologies of many of the world’s ancient cultures. In classical Greek myth the phoenix undergoes a death-and-rebirth cycle approximately every 1,000 years, by building itself a pyre of myrrh branches in which it is burned to ashes. From the ashes a new phoenix is born.

In modern times the phoenix is a symbol of the Lebanese people, who are descended from the Phoenicians, and of Beirut in particular, a city eternally reborn from its own ashes. In alchemy the phoenix represents the element of fire and the fiery aspect of sulphur. It also symbolizes the perfection of unified opposites, in that it reproduces from itself without need of an “other.”