--- mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com> wrote: > > --- Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > S > > P > > O > > I > > L > > E > > R > > > > F > > O > > R > > > > P > > o > > t > > D! > > > > > > I'm impressed by this list, but I wonder whether the > > first Phoenix > > incident was jumping off the cliff--"dying" to be > > reborn. > > It certainly is symbolic, but the symbols I'm > concerned with only happen within the Paths of the > Dead where the Lords of Judgement can apparently test > newcomers however they want. Presumably the same or > similar tests would be given to any Phoenix (and > modified tests for the other Houses) no matter how > they arrived. I think I see what you're saying, but passing the currently leafless tree doesn't seem like much of a test, even a symbolic one. > Of course, almost all Phoenixes who entered the > Paths were dead first. Quite true, but we don't know that they pass 18 tests rather than 17. Indeed, your quotation (I haven't read LoCB, and I'm grateful that you've been careful not to spoil it) doesn't say that there's an initial Phoenix test at all. Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools