Phoenix - A Guide for Embracing Change Cycles (Part 1)

During a recent Solstice reading for a client I pulled card #34 from the Sacred Witness Oracle - Rebirth and Creation - and wow did it speak to the client and myself at the same time!  

Take a look and feel into what this image and title is bringing forward for you...

The card represents what I call the 6th stage of grief and loss.  

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross pioneered giving words to the main five stages of grief mapped out by the groundbreaking—denial, anger, bartering, sadness or depression, and acceptance. However, I have found it extremely helpful to recognize that there are really six stages to every ending cycle. As we spiral through the first stages, an organic choice point begins to come to the forefront inviting us to embrace the hidden gift held within all experiences of loss. 

Within every ending there is the gift held within the mystical law of constant motion and with every death there is a new rebirth. When we consciously agree to let go of what was, we allow ourselves to begin letting the old cycle complete itself and creating room for our field to open to the sixth stage of loss - the new beginning, a rebirth. 

Cycle of the Phoenix 

As I started to share the different healing invitations held within this card, I found myself being pulled into a particular aspect of the pattern that I often don’t highlight in readings. As I shared, the channeled message began to focus on how Phoenix energy asks us to radically embrace starting anew, and to do that we need to be willing to let go of any ego-based ideas that the new creation cycle is simply going to be trying to rebuild what was.  

The myth of Phoenix is that they live lifetime after lifetime, never dying. At the end of each life cycle they burst into flames and regenerate themselves back from the dead into the beginning of the next life cycle, never truly dying, only transmuting and transforming themselves time after time. 

Often, our mind takes this myth and tries to make it into the idea that because the phoenix is rising from the ashes and lives once more, that means that even if we feel like our world or an aspect of it is dying, that we will rise again but in a very specific way. Our mind holds tight to the idea that we will simply have an opportunity to rebuild the life that we loved and knew and add in even more great stuff to what we rebuild. This lets our protective system see the death that we are experiencing as a momentary, something that we have to endure in order to reestablish ourselves back into the life while it did have things we didn’t like, was overall just fine before this momentary blip and it will magically go back to the glory days of our life before the ordeal and chain of events that led to the “death” that we are experiencing. 

However, this isn’t Phoenix’s real message at all. Phoenix reminds us that with each ending cycle we need to let fire help us fully let go of the whole “life-time” and different forms that were associated with that creation cycle. When we can meet the reality that our world isn’t supposed to be rebuilding itself back to the way it was, we give ourselves permission to move forward into a new life. 

Bringing wisdom with us and letting go of our fixed beliefs, habits, and ways of being.

The phoenix, like ourselves, isn’t a complete blank slate wisdom-wise. We can carry the lessons, wisdom, and knowledge that we gathered from the other cycles into the new ones. Each transformation cycle the phoenix grows its own inner wisdom. However, to truly embrace the new life, the phoenix must be willing to let its current life be an experience all unto itself. If the phoenix is going to be loyal to and fully live in the new life cycle, it must allow itself to expand and be free from the weight and confines of the past. It needs to give itself the freedom to be different, to experience life differently, and to live from a literally new point of view. If it doesn’t embrace this invitation to start anew, it will live its new life in the shadow of the past. 

The caution the Phoenix gives us is to remember that if we hold to our old rhythms and don’t allow ourselves to shift we will end up feeling like a ghost in our current cycle, a remnant of what was and never able to experience what wants to come forward for us now.  

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog, where I share more about my most recent Phoenix experience and how this principle helped hold me in completely letting go of a rhythm and identity that has held me for almost my entire life and how it can help you too. 

But for now, let's explore a short reflection practice centered on what channeled through in this past reading and see what it brings forward for you.

Reflection Practice

Take a moment and feel into the invitation and caution from Phoenix:

• What different aspects of your current life—even the most subtle ones—are wanting to be witnessed because they feel burdened by the weight of a past creation cycle, restraining the new cycle that is present or wanting to come forward?

• What does this aspect of you need in order to let go of that identity or way of being just a little bit more? 

• What new creation do you feel beginning to build within you that is wanting to be given permission to take flight?  

Offering you light, love, and JOY on your journey! 

Michelle