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The Legend of the Phoenix

PTI | ByMohan Deep, Mumbai
Jul 30, 2005 06:49 PM IST

Mumbaikars are made of sterner stuff, something like legendary Phoenix. The city has risen again, writes Mohan Deep.

Mumbai was marooned due to a record breaking rainfall - the highest in a hundred years - but Mumbaikar (as Bombayites were renamed when the city of Bombay was rechristened Mumbai) is made of sterner stuff, something like our legendary Phoenix. The city has risen again.

HT Image
HT Image

Women will again commute for as much as two hours in extremely overcrowded trains to reach their places of work and make the same journey back to their homes. (All due to the social reformists who suggested that they should be financially independent so that they could be considered equal to men! Poor things are carrying double the burden on their heads and forsaken the style by which they ruled over men. But that is neither here nor there. It is here that Feng Shui can be useful to them, making them sit in the Power corner - in their offices, in their homes.)


Children will return to schools, more difficult to teach even as the water threat and the dark, powerless night remain in their sub-conscience, haunting them for years….(This is where Feng Shui will be useful for them.)


Men too have returned to work. The same problems of office politics, favoritism, lack of recognition, bad relationship, lack of opportunities, no patronage and backing, fear of bankruptcy, losses….(This is where the Feng Shui can work for them.)


I often suggest Phoenix as one of the many Feng Shui cures but today I'm repeating the legend of the Phoenix. The legend has been around for centuries with some variations. Te basic theme is that Phoenix is a supernatural creature. As it dies, it is reborn anew, and rises from the ashes to live again.


Other legends say that it lays a huge egg in the burning coals of the fire, which hatches into a new Phoenix to resume the life cycle. Greek and Roman myths consider the Phoenix a symbol of immortality and resurrection, associated with the Sun god Phoebus (Apollo). Phoenix is the Greek word for "red", which links this magical bird to fire and the sun. It is said to resemble an eagle or a peacock.

The Greek legend is that the Phoenix lived in Arabia, in a cool well. At dawn, each morning, it sang a beautiful song, so beautiful that Phoebus (Sun God) would stop his chariot to listen. The Phoenix is a unique bird, there may only exist one at a time, which makes it a solitary bird.


It does not reproduce, which adds to its loneliness, as only its death will bring on another of its race. When it feels its end approaching (between 500 and 1461 years, depending on the legend), it builds a nest with the finest aromatic woods, sets it on fire, and is consumed by his own flames. From the pile of ashes, a new Phoenix arises, young and powerful. It then embalms the ashes of its predecessor in an egg of myrrh, and flies to the city of the Sun, Heliopolis, where he deposits the egg on the altar of the Sun god.


Phoenix has always been considered the symbol for resurrection, of rising again, of rising from the ashes…


Feng Shui belief is that placing Phoenix - always red (symbolic of fire) - in the Fame and Recognition sector enhances it further bringing glory to people. I have several instances of film stars and politicians benefiting by keeping Phoenix in the Fame corner. On my web site (Http://www.fengshuimiracle.com) I have a different, very unusual version of the Phoenix. This is the first Phoenix painted on the first generation silk and was discovered from a tomb near Changsha and the archeological studies trace it to be over 2500 years old. The head belongs to golden pheasant (a long tailed game bird from Greece), the beak of the parrot, the body of the mandarin duck, wings of the gigantic bird of east called roc, the feathers of the peacock and the legs of the crane.


Exclusive to the King, this Phoenix was considered a sacred and mysterious symbol that always led the emperor to victory. The common Chinese was strictly prohibited from using this pattern and especially on a yellow robe. Yellow, on any fabric, was reserved only for the royals.


There is a story about Indian Emperor Asoka, the Great asking for the powerful, mysterious and sacred Phoenix from a contemporary Chinese King before embarking on Kalinga war (265 BC or 263 BC). The Chinese (Jin Dynasty) obliged with a replica of Phoenix and the Indian King went on to win the war.

It is ironic that, this same King, because of remorse over the killings of thousands of people, embraced Buddhism and later propagated it in his empire. (To avoid plagiarism, I do not display that Phoenix on my website. That version is exclusive for my clients.)

(Feng Shui Master Mohan Deep, one of the top Feng Shui consultants in the world, is based in Mumbai, India. For more information you may visithttp://www.fengshuimiracle.comor write to him atmd@mohandeep.com. Office: 91-22-56997992. Fax: 91-22-26350503 Cell: 9820199378. Address: 222 Shantivan, New Link Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai 400053.)

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