The Phoenix

About this book

The phoenix survives by burning. Manly P. Hall follows the bird through a history of symbolic meanings, turning its return from ashes into an image of the soul's renewal.

The Phoenix belongs to Hall's broad approach to esoteric philosophy, where mythic creatures and religious emblems are interpreted as parts of a shared spiritual inheritance. Historical connections and later occult readings sometimes intermingle. The bird's appeal is simple and persistent: destruction is made to hold the promise of another beginning. Hall uses that single image to think on a much wider scale about death, change and continuity.