'Queen Phoenix'

The Chinese phoenix — the Fenghuang — is not the same as the Western phoenix. The Fenghuang does not die and rise. She is already immortal. She appears only in times of peace and good government, when virtue prevails. She is associated with the Empress. Her five-colored feathers represent the five Confucian virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, integrity. She carries yin energy — the feminine principle, receptive and generative both.

In the pairing of dragon and phoenix — the masculine and feminine forces of Chinese cosmology — the phoenix is never lesser. The dragon and the phoenix dance as equals. The Empress held the phoenix seal. The Emperor held the dragon seal. This was balance, encoded in symbol, for three thousand years.

This is for the woman who has stopped waiting for permission to take her rightful place.