Andreas Walsh
For Thousands of Years
the firebird has been a symbol of man's search for enlightenment and rebirth from the ashes of delusion. In a family of ancient stories that have their origin in the old shaman lands of the Eurasian steppes, the tale is told of a traveller who catches sight of a bird as bright as the sun. Dazzled, he gives chase but only succeeds in grasping a single feather.The feather of fire symbolizes the moment when the traveller gets his first glimpse of worlds that exist outside his accustomed way of viewing. From this point the Firebird tales follow the classical scheme of fairy tale, with the feather serving as a premonition of a hard journey, with magical helpers met on the way who help in travel and capture of the Bird, and returning from the faraway land with the prize.
While Kashchei is bewitched, the Firebird tells Ivan the secret to Kashchei's immortality -- his soul is contained inside an enormous, magical egg. Ivan destroys the egg, killing Kashchei. With Kashchei gone and his spell broken, the magical creatures and the palace all disappear. All of the "real" beings, including the princesses, awaken and with one final hint of the Firebird's music (though in Fokine's choreography she makes no appearance in that final scene on-stage), celebrate their victory.
The Firebird, like the Garuda in Tibet, is a sky spirit and symbol of inspiration. Ancient people saw the sky as pure, clear, vast, formless, ungraspable, and constant... all the qualities of a field of deep existance beyond the transitory. The sky is a conduit and symbol of Sunyata - Emptiness. It has no center, has no circumference. It has no "there." You can't pretend to grasp the sky and divide it into individual yours and mine. The transitory phenomena of mist and clouds and storms pass by without changing its fundamental nature.
In Tibet that spiritual sky is seen as home to the Khandro - sky-goers, the female wisdom spirits. As a sky spirit, the Firebird's function in Slavic folklore is to give to the earth her revelation of blazing light, often initiating spiritual quests, and in the material world she is seen as the inspiration for the transendental beauties of art and music.
"Wherever a feather of the Firebird falls to earth, a new artistic tradition will spring up," goes the Russian saying. Tradition says that such a feather fell upon an area known as Khokhloma, inspiring the creation of lacquered and painted wooden-ware. The Firebird, it is believed, was directly responsible for giving local craftsmen the idea of decorating wooden platters and cups with stylized designs in black, red and gold, and then lacquering them over to produce a durable finish.
The Firebird, once caught by Ivan, begs for its life and ultimately agrees to assist Ivan in exchange for eventual freedom.
