by LILLIAN TOO
bird is holding in one claw 13 arrows, and in the other, a laurel branch with 1 leave plus if you look more closely with 13 olives!
Lucky 13? Tis number is so strongly associated with bad luck that many tall buildings do away with a 13th floor. Hotels never have rooms ending with 13, and even 13 loaves of bread are never described, as 13 loaves are called a baker’s dozen instead. People shy away from this dreaded number. But the Chinese take a different viewpoint and indeed, children born on the 13th of any month are said to be born lucky in every way! Also, the phonetic meaning of 13 is victorious growth energy, so this is considered an auspicious number! Te Aztecs treated 13 as a mystical
number, so there are 13 steps up their sacred platforms, and the Mayans worshipped the 13 Gods of the Upper World. The number 13 also has a special place in the hearts of Americans – the US of A grew out of 13 states/ colonies, which is why the American flag has 13 stripes. Look at the Great Seal of the USA on the back of their dollar bill, and you can see an eagle with 13 stars above its head, a shield bearing 13 stripes and a motto (E Pluribus Unum) with 13 letters. Te
Power of the “Double” To the Taoists, anything doubled is always considered very lucky, hence the word Double Happiness, which literally means your happiness doubled. Indeed, the Chinese believe that things should always be given, received, placed and bought in pairs. Tis is what empowers whatever it is you bring into the home, and it applies particularly to things bought as ornaments – jewellery for instance – for the wife and children. Tus when you buy a jade bangle, the Chinese believe that if you can get two equally beautiful bangles from the same stone, then both bangles immediately are worth double their combined value. Few Chinese tai tais familiar with this particular superstition will ever pass up the chance of buying something so valuable, especially if they have daughters. Two bangles can be for two daughters, or for mother and daughter. Here, the auspicious power of the double cannot be over-emphasized. Te belief in the efficacy of the double digit extends into Chinese and Indian numerology, as both systems believe strongly in the strength of the “natural double”, as in double letters in a name or the power of the letters of K and V, which are described as natural doubles 11 and 22. Hence any name beginning with K or V brings good fortune to the bearer. Tus boys names such as Kevin and Keith are naturally lucky, in the same way that Kate,
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Kim and Katherine are also naturally auspicious. Likewise, names like Venus, Vanessa, Valerie and Victoria, Vincent and Vaughn.
Does FOUR
really bring death? The Chinese, especially those belonging to Cantonese and Hokkien dialect groups have a great aversion to the number 4, as the word “four” sounds like death in their language. Tis is a word that Chinese of the Old School avoid like the plague, as it is considered very bad luck to say the word. In recent times however, as feng shui has become increasingly popular amongst many modern Chinese, they have come to realize that the number 4 actually means good scholastic and academic luck; the number 4 is also the number of the Peach Blossom, which brings the luck of romance!
In any case, this is also the number associated with the four main cardinal directions and the four seasons of the year. So whenever
the number 4 is thought of, instantly it connotes luck from the four directions and good fortune in the four seasons.
Holy Trinity
Tis brings to mind the spirituality of the number 3 as in the trinity of the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost in the Christian Church, but also the holy trinity of the long life Buddhas, Amityus, White Tara and Namglyma, and the powerful trinity of the Buddhas of Compassion, Wisdom and Power – i.e. Kuan Yin, Manjushuri and Vajrapani. The number 3 is thus considered a spiritual number in many occasions, but in the feng shui of time dimension, the number 3 stands for the jade star, which brings court cases, quarrels,
NOVEMBER 2015 | FENGSHUIWORLD 43
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