Firebird energy is healing. While it hurts to burn, what remains on the other side is a new Phoenix, whole and hale, unscarred and ready for a new path. While the old self is the building-block of the new, the deeper one goes into the Phoenix, the more you leave behind each time.
Just don't look back.
I spent a lot of time with the firebird while I was dealing with my brain tumor in late 2010. It was the first time I worked closely with with the firebird and water-dragon in tandem. The idea was to combine fire to burn away what doesn't belong and water to carry it away and maintain the systems in my body. I survived, and I suppose that's as close as you can come to saying something worked.
The phoenix can heal others as well. The fire that cracks and chars skin can be controlled to a healing warmth. Like reiki and other energy healing techniques, phoenix energy can spread through the body, finding areas that need to regrow and helping them to recover.
I called on firebird tonight, on behalf of my cousin who's ill. I asked that everything that stands her in way be burned up. I asked her to comfort my cousin, if she wanted it. I'm a long way from my family, and I don't know a lot of the details. Given how recent the diagnosis is, I'm not sure anyone knows the details yet. I go back to what I know, what helped me. Fire to turn foreign bodies to ash. Water to flush out impurities. It's all I can do.
In the face of things beyond my control, I think of feng huang and the imperial dragon, yin and yang, and the way which cannot be known. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that people can be reborn after suffering, and I know that ends are beginnings too.