Well-known and much is written about  this magnificent symbol. The Firebird that alights on the fire, digest itself in the flames and ascends again rejuvenated from the ashes.

WE ARE this Phoenix and the process of burning and ascending continues perpetually.

During a period of countless incarnations a human being creates a vehicle, that he is able to use very reasonably for his/her own good in the three worlds of action, feeling and thought. Then, in a certain lifetime a moment of saturation appears and the individual starts searching for the Goal. When the search is genuine, sincere and in total surrender, he will receive  a vision of  the final Purpose. The Great Combat begins, which will develop the faculty of discrimination. Then the individual learns to fulfill the Law, which is Sacrifice!

 

 

Firstly he sacrifices his/her physical world, all material and physical pleasures. Now he is the Phoenix as a representative of his/her "physical heaven".

The fire appears. This is also  yourself. It is the fire of the Divine Will in its destructive aspect. The Phoenix  burns to ashes and ascends from the ashes reborn.  The "physical heaven" has been burnt; from now on, the individual is free from this forever. Nothing in the physical world has any attraction for him/her any more. This results in  a great reverence and compassion for all life. No longer is it possible to take life deliberately. Vegetarianism is a natural course of this behavior. When this experience has become an intrinsic part of the consciousness, the next great sacrifice emerges. One of the most difficult ones on the Path of Attainment. The surrender of his/her feeling world, the "heaven" of all the emotions, lusts, desires, cosiness and the infinite nuances of ever changing circumstances. Now the Phoenix appears as the totality of the individual's purest feelings. When this is also consumed by the Spiritual Will, the human being is eternally free of the temptations of the emotions and the delusions of the astral or emotional plane. One of the results is, that he is no longer capable to deliberately hurt somebody. 

To be free of the emotional plane also includes that you are invincible for negative feelings. The disciple is now polarized on the mental plane and is creating his own private  heaven of ideas and ideals. Finally this heaven must be sacrificed as well and when the Phoenix has been burnt and risen for the third time, a human being is standing here through whom divinity already begins to glow. He is free now from the mental plane, the world of thoughts. The result is that the individual now realizes and knows that the Great Religions, the Philosophies and the "Secret" Societies, like the Rosicrucians and Freemasons are no more then rungs in the ladder  to the Great Attainment. The ladder which beginning is stuck deep in the mud of human ignorance and which end withdraws from his/her penetrating gaze.

Never again will he endeavor to convince somebody else to his point of view, because he has none. The conviction has become life itself, and an idea or ideal is merely a temporary limitation. A thoughtform chosen by the individual by his own freewill and which will never be imposed by him to any being.

The Initiate is now a radiating presence, setting life free merely by his presence.

Again the Phoenix emerges; presently as the purified and perfected personality. The surrender of the personality is the experience of the 4th of the Great Initiations, us all well-known as the crucifixion. It contains the total sacrifice of all that the neophyte wants for himself. Status, power, good standard, and if necessary life itself. It is one of the most difficult embodiments on the spiritual path.

The ascended Phoenix is now free for always from the three form worlds, the worlds of  acting, feeling and thinking. He is now more than human, a sacred human. The oriental  calls him then the Arhan or Arhat, the Reverend One. Many powers are being given in his care. All this has to be sacrificed in the Fire of the Spiritual Will as well. When this happens for the fifth time, the Phoenix ascends out of the ashes as the Fire Bird. Now He is Fire Himself. The personal will has become one with the Divine Will. 'Not my will, but Thyne be done."  Before us  now we behold an Ascended Master of Wisdom and Compassion.

Concluding we can say, that the Phoenix is the eternal symbol of Life, that enfolds Itself in matter, perfect it and sacrifices Itself to the greater Glory of the Whole, Whom (S)he is Him/Herself as well.