1st
Edition "Rising Phoenix"
Frankoma
Plate
This
beautiful 1985 - 1st Edition plate titled "The Phoenix" was designed
and produced by the family founder of Frankoma Pottery, Janice Frank.
She signed her name on the back and describes the legendary Phoenix!
The
old mythological legend of the Phoenix is a familiar one. The bird was
described as of the size of an eagle, with a head finely crested, a body
covered with beautiful plumage, and eyes sparkling like stars. She was said to
live six hundred years in the wilderness, when she built for herself a funeral
pile of aromatic woods, which she ignited with the fanning of her wings, and
emerged from the flames with a new life. Hence the phoenix has been adopted
universally as a symbol of immortality. Higgins (Anacalypsis, ii., 441) says
that the phoenix is the symbol of an ever-revolving solar cycle of six hundred
and eight years, and refers to the Phoenician word phen, which signifies a
cycle. Aumont, the first Grand Master of the Templars after the martyrdom of
DeMolay, and called the "Restorer of the Order," took, it is said,
for his seal, a phoenix brooding on the flames, with the motto, "Ardet ut
vivat" - She burns that she may live. The phoenix was adopted at a very
early period as a Christian symbol, and several representations of it have
been found in the catacombs. Its ancient legend, doubtless, caused it to be
accepted as a symbol of Jesus Christ's resurrection and immortality.
Here at Phoenixmasonry, we believe that each of us has had the feeling of
being consumed by fire. That the problems of our lives have left us in the pit
of despair, the ashes of destruction, although it may not have been the fire
that creates those ashes. Adversity and the overcoming of it makes us
stronger. Just as the beautiful Temple of King Solomon rose from the rubbish
and ashes of barbarous forces to become an even more magnificent and
resplendent structure, our belief and faith that Jesus died for our sins
allows us to rise up from the ashes to become stronger and better
Phoenixmasons.
