One of the most mysterious myths of ancient Egypt was the legend of the Phoenix. Rundle Clark in explains the relationship of the bennu bird to the phoenix and the symbolism it was intended to invoke.

Clark: “One has to envision a perch extending out of the waters of the Void. On it rests a grey heron, the herald of all things to come. It opens its mouth and breaks the silence of the ancient night with the call of light and purpose, which ‘determines what is and what is not to be’…

The Phoenix embodies the original Word of God (Logos) or declaration of fate which moderates between the God-mind and created things…In a sense, when the phoenix gave out the primeval call it put into motion the cycles of the calander. So it is the father of all divisions of time, and its temple at Heliopolis became the centre of calendrical regulation.”

The notion that the phoenix is closely connected to the Great Pyramid as the epoch and time keeper of pharaonic kingship as was suspected is confirmed. This is true in both a mystical and historical sense. The shafts in the kings chamber point toward specific stars and fixed their processional cycles and other cycles.

There is therefore a link between the phoenix and the pyramid as timekeepers of the stars of Orion and, by extension, the ’soul’ of the Osiris-kings. In the Book of the Dead (Chapter 17) the question is asked: ‘Who is he? . . . I am the great phoenix which is in Heliopolis . . .’

According to the interpretation of Rundle Clark, the phoenix was a great cosmic bird that came from a place called the Isle of fire. It was a a magical land and a place of everlasting light. It was from this place that gods were born and from this Isle of fire they were sent into this world.