Rising From Ashes

What can be done with ash? As it turns out, a whole lot: it can be used to polish silver, fertilize tomatoes, hide paint stains on the driveway, and make soap. “You can also use it to make your bowling shoes stick better,” a friend of mine said. 

What can be done with the ash inside of me? This is the real question. That which is dead, burnt, sinful in me—can I place even these things under the aesthetic? Is everything really a sign? Even pain, suffering, brutality, betrayal, death? Are these part of a good universe made by a good God?

I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the Pheonix. (Job 29:18) The beautiful, ancient and artistic vision of the Pheonix, rising again from its own ashes after 500 years, conveys a different and unconventional way of interpreting our ashes. Job was a phoenix-like character who had faith in rebirth, even while he was sick, homeless, penniless, and without his family. According to the cause-and-effect thinking of Job’s friends, these were all signs of Job’s own failure as a person.  

The mythological bird spoken of by Job is a sign of something else, something very real and necessary: death and resurrection. If the first man came from dust, the reborn man must come from ash. 

Teach me about my suffering, my evil, and my sin, that I may rise again. Amen.

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Voltaire on the Phoenix:

It was the size of an eagle, but its eyes were as mild and tender as those of the eagle are fierce and threatening. Its beak was the color of rose...its neck resembled all the colors of the rainbow, but more brilliant and lively. A thousand shades of gold glistened on its plumage. Its feet seemed a mixture of purple and silver; and the tail of those [other] beautiful birds...did not come near to the beauty of its tail.

The Egyptian Phoenix: A White Heron

Aberdeen Bestiary

Persian mythology: the Simurgh

Himeji Castle, "Oshiru" (White Heron),

(Himeji is a sister city to Pheonix, Arizona!)

An honest prayer for resurrection.

One of Springsteen's best efforts, on rising from the ashes of 9-11.