Fn 1 reads, omitting its rendering in Greek letters, which is then translated, "Ps 92,12—'like a palm tree' (A.V.). We have here a characteristic way of Tertullian's quoting a scripture which has even the least bearing on his subject."

The above-quoted 5 ABD 363 article, at p. 365, after quoting several Egyptian texts on the phoenix, then says:

Several Christian texts contain copious references to the phoenix. Two invite discussion, for they demonstrate how Christians adopted and utilized a pagan symbol as a vehicle for expressing new religious content. The first is the 3d-century C.E. poem of Lactantius, De ave phoenice.

After giving a one sentence summary and a brief comment upon the above, it then cites "A coptic Christian text dating to the first half of the 6th century C.E., the Sermon on Maria." The Lactantius text, summarized in one sentence, is actually three pages long. And while the ABD summary clearly supports my above interpretation of the phoenix as being in spiritland during its five-hundred-plus-year "life," the longer text (entitled "The Phoenix" in 7 NICENE-1, pp. 324-326) makes that clear beyond any shadow of a doubt. Not only so, but it contains the informative statement, "Then she [the phoenix] chooses a lofty palm, with top reaching to the heavens, which has the pleasing name of phoenix from the bird. . . ." It is from this that she begins to build her nest.

The picture I gather from this is that the high palm tree reaching to heaven is the beginning of the descent into birth, the archetypal heavenly tree that has its roots in the womb, for the text goes on, "Afterwards she builds for herself either a nest or a tomb, for she perishes that she may live; yet she produces herself." The point here is the light Lactantius sheds on the meaning of the "palm tree" in Ps 92,12, which Tertullian was interpreting (above) as the phoenix. While ABD attributes "The Phoenix" to Lactantius, and it is placed with the latter's works in 7 NICENE-1, ABD subcaptions the writing, "By an Uncertain Author. Attributed to Lactantius." While the account may have been reduced to writing by Lactantius (A.D. 260-330), the substance of the legend must have been much earlier, for it is more likely to have influenced Tertullian (A.D. 145-220) than the reverse.

So what, if anything, are we to make of the one biblical usage of "Phoenix," in Acts 27,12, "And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to put to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, looking northeast and southeast [fn—or "southwest and northwest"], and winter there"? Here again we encounter the palm tree. In 5 ABD 365, "Phoenix (Place)," we are told that the harbor of Phoenix is near the west end of Crete's south shore (in accord, see Oxford Bible Atlas, NY, Oxford University Press, 1962). Consistent with Luke's handling of the entirety of Acts, this passage utilizes actual geographic locations, and presumably gives something of an accurate description of the event. But this does not mean that the factual elements were not selected in order to tell a deeper spiritual story, namely, a pattern of events tracking the character of the soul's journey in spiritland as given by Steiner [see I-33, especially as it is discussed in the essay, "As Above, So Below"]. Significantly, the 5 ABD 365 discussion says, "The Greek designates both the date palm (from which the harbor name probably arose) and the mythical bird of Egypt [citation omitted] for the common origin of these."

Given the clear meaning of the ancient phoenix myth, and the mythical connection between the phoenix and the palm tree, it would seem wise to keep this connection in mind when the Bible speaks of the "palm tree."⁸⁴

The plausibility of the suggestion that Luke, in designating specifically the Cretan harbor of Phoenix, intended the deeper meaning of the spiritual harbor mythically symbolized by the ancient phoenix is greatly enhanced by another consideration. Recall, review and reflect upon what has been said elsewhere in this work with regard to Luke's treatment of the parable on the levirate law in Lk 20,27-40. There (see the essay "Bush" and Point #5 under the essay "Karma and Reincarnation," both in The Burning Bush) Luke chose "The Burning Bush," to illustrate that "the dead are raised," while distinguishing that state from the state of "resurrection" on the ground that only those who have reached the state of perfection such that "they cannot die anymore" have attained to the latter. Fire is the passageway back and forth between earthly and heavenly life for those who are merely "raised from the dead." They are so "raised" that they may dwell in the state of the phoenix until returning again as it does. It is significant that of the Evangelists, only Luke makes this point crystal clear and that he and Clement were both with Paul.

It seems quite notable that near the end of Acts Luke writes (in Acts 28,11) that "after three months" of "wintering" they set out in a ship described as "a ship of Alexandria, with the Twin Brothers as figurehead." Twins are a zodiacal sign (Gemini). Considering the close philosophical and theological relationship between Paul and Philo, in speaking of Alexandria (Philo's home) is Luke not saying that the "Twin Brothers," in a spiritual sense, are Paul and Philo? In "Egypt" (in The Burning Bush) we saw the relationship of Philo not only to Paul but to all the Evangelists—and even the otherwise enigmatic statement by Photius "that Philo became a Christian" (quoted in a footnote to Eusebius in 1 NICENE-3, p. 117).

The One Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand

This intriguing number (Rev 7,4; 14,1,3; 6,11; 7,9) has fascinated Christendom from the first, and I have found no other commentary or theological writing that plumbs its meaning to any depth. Only in connection with fire does it seem to have much depth. In the Creation essay⁸⁵ we saw this relationship as the point in the creative phi spiral where the sevens of creation first meet the twelves of the spiritual world (and only on each subsequent twelfth Fibonacci number thereafter).

But we could not yet, in the Creation essay, adequately appreciate its significance. We had first to reflect more deeply upon a few facets of the many-splendored phi. It is an unutterable principle, a divine law no less. The gnomon of the golden mean seems to be one with the Word that both creates and destroys (cf. Jn 17,10-11; Eph 1,9-10). Look back at the figures portraying it. Moving in one direction it enhances, giving the growth of creation; in the other it shrinks or reduces into eventual immateriality. It is the "two-edged sword" (Rev 1,16; 2,12; Heb 4,12), the "law" that must be fulfilled (Mt 5,17-18). It is the image of the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. It is not a human device. Humans have only observed that part of it revealed to them. None has yet encompassed or fathomed it fully. It is not the "golden calf" (Taurus; Ps 50,9; Ex 32), but the "sign" (Aries) of the higher Lamb.

Lazarus/John's vision on Patmos did not give him a number to be understood by human reckoning. The one hundred forty-four thousand is not there a number but a symbol. Neither the sevens of creation (Prov 9,1) nor the twelves of the zodiacal heavens (Gen 15,5) can alone give birth to it. The leaven of phi (cf. Mt 13,33) must enter and work its way through both. Only when twelve has reached its own square (when the twelve tribes have become the "twelve apostles of the Lamb"; Rev 21) in the one hundred forty-four (Rev 21,17) do phi and twelve meet at the gates of the Holy City, the end of Earth evolution and the opening of the Jupiter Condition of Consciousness (see I-1). And the twain only meet again with every succeeding twelfth phi number (see the Creation essay) picturing, it would seem, the conclusion of succeeding Conditions of Consciousness (Venus, Vulcan, etc.). With this insight countless Old Testament passages can be seen as prophetic signs of precisely this meaning that comes to fruition as the Bible ends in the Apocalypse of St. John. (See "The Whirlwind" on the next page.)

Now that we have studied the principle of gnomonic growth and the nature of the logarithmic spiral that appears over and over in the phenomena of matter, we begin to see that all creation came from fire (phi). But with the number one hundred forty-four we also begin to see that creation ends with fire, the point where the Earth moves from the Mineral-Physical Condition of Form to the More Perfect Astral Condition (see I-1), following the blast from the seventh trumpet (Rev 11,15 and 14,1; 1 Cor 15,52; 1 Th 4,16; see also the essay "Trumpet[s]" in The Burning Bush). This previously mysterious number is then said to be also the "man's measure" in the Holy City who has attained the status previously held only by an "angel" (Rev 21,17; Lk 20,36). And it is there stated in "cubits," a term that has itself baffled theologians and Egyptologists alike (6 ABD 899-890, "Weights and Measures"). Rather than a measure objectively defined, it seems better to comprehend it as a measure innately unique to every human being,⁸⁶ generally considered to be the length of the forearm. Only thus does it fit with the "I Am," the "name … which no one knows but himself" (Rev 19,12-13; 2,17 and 3,12), for the "I AM" only applies to the one who speaks or thinks it. No one else can know it.