An Aberdeenshire Phoenix

Old Scotish gravestones and memorials are often carved with symbols representing our mortality and also our potential immortality. One of the rarest symbols is the Phoenix, the mythical bird said to arise from the ashes of its own funeral pyre. On a gravestone it is suggesting that death is only temporary and that in due course the soul will be resurrected.

Job 29:18. Then I said: 'I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix;
Jewish Publication Society Bible.

This particularly fine Phoenix is to be found in the kirkyard at Fyvie in Aberdeenshire. It forms part of the burial enclosure of General the honorable William Gordon, who died on the 2nd of May 1816. In reality the phoenix is carved from white marble - I have got a bit carried away and added a touch of red to indicate the heat of the situation!