Domination & submission _ the BDSM relationship handbook ( PDFDrive )

My Two Cents on Collars
Ever since she was a little girl, Jade had always been fascinated with dragons. In
college, she studied ancient mythology and as an adult she decorated the shelves
at home with dragon figurines. A painting of a dragon hung on the wall above
her bed, and a pewter dragon wrapped itself around the hilt of a large steel sword
propped in a corner behind the bedroom door. Jade didn’t particularly care for
tattoos, but if she was ever going to get one, it would most assuredly depict a
dragon.
Jade not only loved dragons, but she had always identified with them. That
became less certain, however, after she experienced an odd dream. Jade always
took her dreams seriously, particularly in light of the fact that the women in her
family have always had a long history of prescient gifts bordering on
clairvoyance, manifested mostly in visions and dreams. But this dream confused
her. It had come at a turning point in her life. She and I had met and grown
close while playing an online game, and we progressed over the following
months to phone calls, video chats and planning a future together. As we were
planning our first real-life meeting, she had this dream. Her dream was of a
phoenix, the mythical bird of ancient Greek legend that was consumed by flame
and reborn from the ashes to start life anew. She had always loved and
identified with dragons, yet this dream seemed to imply that she was the
phoenix, reborn out of the ashes of a former life, which had disappointed in so
many ways. If that were the case, then perhaps her dream was trying to tell her
that the dragon represented her new Master.
Interestingly enough, the symbolism of the dragon and phoenix had some
significance to me, as well. When Jade told me of her dream, I was immediately
reminded of the Asian depictions of these mythical creatures that I’d grown up
with in Japan and Hawaii, where Asian traditions are commonplace. Asian
folklore involving dragons comes primarily from China, where the dragon
represents the highest-ranking animal in the Chinese hierarchy of animals.
Historically, the dragon was revered the symbol of the Chinese emperor, while
the empress was represented by the mythical fenghuang, more commonly known
to westerners as the Chinese phoenix.
I researched the symbolism of the dragon and phoenix together. I learned that in
both ancient and modern Chinese culture, the dragon and phoenix together are