“The Phoenix became popular in early Christian art, literature and Christian symbolism, as a symbol of Christ, and further, represented the resurrection, immortality, and the life-after-death of Jesus Christ. Resurrection; Christ consumed in the fires of Passion and rising again on the third day; triumph over death; faith; constancy; Christ’s divine nature (as the Pelican was of his human nature). In early Christian tradition the phoenix was adopted as being resurrection and immortality. Through Christian eyes, we are taught to believe in the resurrection, as Christ himself exhibited the character of the phoenix: ‘I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up again.’ Using Christ’s life as an example, one can live a similar learning life of rejuvenation. The phoenix makes a coffin and fills it with fine smelling spices, then dies where the stink of corruption is (effaced) by (agreeable) smells. Man may make a coffin of faith, faith being Christ, who sheathes and protects you in days of trouble. Your good spices are your virtues-chastity, compassion, and justice, being odors of noble deeds, sweet in life (as Christian doctrine dictates). Depart from life with the clothing of this faith, and as St. Paul states, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, the crown of justice is restored to me.’ Thus, as with all other symbols, there is a cycle, a returning to something, as in many things of life. A symbol occurs because of its reflective association (the return) with the one viewing the symbol. It is lived through the interpretation of the viewer. The phoenix also represented rebirth and the perpetual existence of the Roman Empire; imperial apotheosis”