Ficciones: 16. The Sect of the Phoenix Summary & Analysis

Borges discusses the scholarly commentary around a group called “the Sect of the Phoenix,” which is shrouded in mystery. Though the origins of the group are mysterious, it is safe to say that the group is tens of centuries old at least.

The narrator references a commentator who compares the Sect to Roma-Sinti people. However, the narrator disagrees with this categorization, as the members of the Sect are not a part of one single ethnic group. Furthermore, the narrator argues that the group has not faced persecution. However, he later goes back on that argument—instead, because members of the Sect are part of every “human group,” they have experienced every persecution. The Sect, Borges says, are not united by cultural aspects: they do not have a common language or creation myth.

Borges explains that, as many Sect myths differ, the only commonality between Sect members is the performance of a mysterious “rite,” which the narrator does not describe aside from the fact that it is “momentary” and only needs “cork, wax, or gum Arabic” to occur. The rite, or Secret, is universal, though it is practiced in private and not spoken about publicly. The Secret still occurs today, though some sect members refuse to practice it.