The Phoenix is landing

Scottish Commonwealth relay route

 Yesterday saw the annual ritual Trooping of the Colour in London.

Yesterday also saw the Commonwealth baton relay reach Scotland, the baton carried over the bridge at Coldstream by Daley Thompson, then handed to Eilidh Child. From there it made remarkable progress to Edinburgh, where it was paraded down the Royal Mile around lunchtime. It rested it's head later in the evening at Princes Street Gardens, in the shadow of Stone of Destiny holding Edinburgh Castle.

A young Coldstream guard

We recall the Queen's observations at the D Day banquet :

"Everything we do, we do for the young"

The baton tarried  at Meadowbank, where Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, posed with it in the company of two young "Burns" children, Craig and Marilee.

On day 33 of the Olympic torch relay, the procession  returned to Scotland, allowing a start from the "lion's pawed" Robert Burns statue in Dumfries for a 121 mile (11x11) journey back to into England. Burns was a freemason, some might consider he is more  iconic for that, rather than for his "poetry".

The image below is the front cover of top-Scottish rite freemason, Albert Pike's, lodge essential - Morals and Dogmas. The "pyramid", 33, and solar rays are most revealing, as is the translated phrase Ordo ab Chao - Order from Chaos. Some consider the crowned, double headed bird to be the mythical phoenix, which reincarnates, every so often.

cheers