*52 A Phoenix is a mystical symbol of ancient Egyptians. It appears every 500 years; once it felt that its life was coming to an end, it prepared a nest at the top of a palm tree, bestowing upon the nest a generative power in which it died. The young Phoenix born from this nest carried his father to the altar of the sun god and burned him there. A later legend abridged this complex story as the nest where the old Phoenix was burned by the sun's rays so that the new Phoenix could arise directly from the ashes. The Phoenix is therefore an image of all renewal. A similar symbol is the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl*39, who sacrificed himself on a funeral pyre. Quetzalcoatl's heart then flew out of the flames and transformed in the sky into the morning star – Venus. The god Quetzalcoatl then symbolized for everyone death and resurrection.
