All right. Accepted, provided we all understand that I am proposing a one-size fits all approach to feng shui. The philosophical core of my fengshui practice states that does not work for all.
This is something I hear a lot. It’s still too early to tell. If it doesn’t involve a complete overhaul of my space I’m open to implementing some tips and tricks here and there. So. So. You should also be aware of your expenses as I am not wealthy. Keep it short because I don’t have the time.
All right. Accepted, provided we all understand that I am proposing a one-size fits all approach to feng shui. The philosophical core of my fengshui practice states that does not work for all.
Focus on the Kitchen
A large kitchen is not necessary. Your kitchen’s direction is not important. Your kitchen should be somewhere you enjoy spending time in. You will want to stay longer in your kitchen. It should also be well lit. Your kitchen should have lots of natural light. If this is not possible, install overhead lighting and keep your decor bright and colorful.
You want to avoid fire-water opposition in your kitchen. A fire-water opposition is when your stove and sink face each other directly. This could cause more conflict, tensions and arguments among the homeowners. Consider a buffer for your kitchen if you have a firewater opposition. This could be a floor mat, rug, or prismatic crystal suspended from the ceiling between them. These can help disperse the intense energies.
If you have one room in your home that you are willing to clean, it should be the kitchen. The kitchen should be the most comfortable, clean, well-maintained, functional, welcoming, and loved. There are many feng-shui tips for the kitchen. But the main point is that you must love your kitchen. Find out what you can do in the kitchen to make it a place you love.
De-Clutter
Although it is desirable to have large, open spaces, this is not practical for modern homes. Nonetheless, de-clutter. De-clutter as much as possible and get rid your junk. If it doesn’t spark joy… blah blah, you’ve heard it before. Listen to this.
Even if all your stuff sparks joy, it still creates a fortress of towers full of stuff. But, we will work with it. Let’s meet halfway. Make sure you have your stuff in neat piles. It doesn’t matter if it looks a bit messy, but don’t let that stop you from trying. Still try. Push your stuff against the wall if you can. This will allow for the free flow of Qi energy.
Pssst… out of sight is out of mind! You’re not in the clear if your room is clean and tidy, but your closets, cabinets, drawers, and other storage areas are messy. According to Feng Shui, clutter that attracts stale or atrophic Qi energys to your closets, cabinets and drawers will still have an adverse effect on your life path. Don’t clutter your closet with all the junk you don’t need! Doh. I just busted you wide open, amiright? Yeah…. Yes, you should also clean out your closets.
A Prosperity Cup
A prosperity bowl is a good idea if you have a bathroom that’s located in the southeast, north, or south of your home. Your prosperity bowl would then be placed in the bathroom. If you don’t have a bathroom, it would be best to place your prosperity bowl in the southeast corner of the house.
A prosperity bowl is a concentrated energy source that produces Qi energy in the way you desire and then fills it with the intended Qi energy. Qi is for luck in the areas of money, success and fortunes. Prosperity is what you know.
These are the fundamental rules of feng shui: Refer back to the Lo Shu feng shui grid or Wu Xing correspondences for information on whether Water (north), Fire (south) or Wood (southeast). Learn numerology, gemstone correspondences, and even metaphysical correspondences for herbs or flowers. Don’t forget the magic of happiness. You can also add charms, trinkets and symbolic objects to your prosperity bowl that will bring you joy and happiness.
This is how it should look. You don’t even have to use a bowl. It must be bowl-like so it can retain and maintain energy. It is the bowl shape that gives the “battery’ some longevity and efficacy. Mine is a gold-toned money branch that grows out of a money bag. The figurine’s money bag is bowl-shaped.
You can incorporate sigils and fu talismans into your prosperity bowl. You can use a thoughtfully designed sigil to bring good luck and fortune.
The most important thing is that the prosperity bowl must evoke prosperity for you. Citrine, Chinese gold coins, and Chinese gold ingots are my favorites. I like prisms. My sister finds all that Chinese-y stuff a little too overwhelming so she chooses crystal. She found a gorgeous prismatic crystal bowl, filled it with Swarovski crystals and placed some loose pieces inside. It is stunning to behold. You can also bury a talisman to bring luck and prosperity into the loose gems. This talisman is not visible.
Feng Shui – Wind and Water
Standing just outside your front door, imagine a river of water. Imagine a river of water flowing from where you are to your front door. Follow the river of water. Your furniture in your home is like a rock boulder that blocks the flow of the river. You can also imagine bright, well-lit rooms being warm and dark, dimly lit rooms being cold. Brightly lit rooms can heat the river. While warmth is great, you don’t want the river to bubble. If it’s too bright, it needs to be balanced with something cooler and more yin. It should not be too dark or too yin. Water will become immobile if it freezes to ice if it is too dark. (Atrophic Qi Energy. These rooms will need to be warmed up with more yang. You will want to balance the yin/yang in every room to make it feel balanced.
Consider your river visualization findings and make changes to your decor. You want to ensure that your home has a balanced, even flow of energy.
Similar visualization technique but now it is wind and not water. Wind is the essence of breath. All of us need to breathe. Air is essential for our survival. Now imagine the wind blowing through your home. Wind will be weakened by sharp corners, furniture, or obstructions. Is the wind strong enough to reach certain areas in the home by the time it reaches them? If so, then something needs to be done in the area to reenergize the wind (or Qi Energy).
You should also pay attention to areas where energy could become stagnant, atrophic or stagnant, or flow too fast, which can cause anxious, restless and frenetic energy. Empty vases are not recommended for decor. It is believed that they can store energy which can lead to staleness. You should fill the vase with something to keep the energy flowing if you love it as decor. Gemstone correspondences are often used in this area. This entire reference list of gemstone correspondences is available on my website. It can be helpful to stuff the vase with crystal quartz, carnelian, and selenite.
Weaker Regions: Locate the Bathrooms
Use a compass, a diagram or bird’s eye of your home and the nine-sector feng Shui reference chart to locate all the bathrooms.
Feng Shui theory states that bathrooms and other areas where water is drained or flushed (essential to circulation of qi), are more likely to have lower luck than those that are located in the home.
Bathrooms located in the west section of a home can, for example, hinder fertility, virility and/or other matters related to pregnancy and children. If a full bath is located in the north section of your home, where it corresponds to career matters, it can lead to a glass ceiling effect regarding professional prospects. Bad feng shui can lead to poor health and wellbeing if the bathroom is located in the center of your living space.
Don’t worry! According to feng shui theory we also have feng shui remedies. =)
This is more detailed and nuanced. A lengthy discussion on how to approach Feng Shui cures will overburden this write-up. I hope to keep it concise.
The Wu Xing alchemical phase is what amplifies the good qiin the area of the home. One might seek advice from a Taoist priest or master of feng-shui in East Asia about how to cure feng-shui problems. However, this area is also prone to fraud. You can also make yourFu talismans. To learn more about talisman making, check out my book The Tao of Craft (North Atlantic Books 2016, 2016). These talismans are perfect for feng-shui remedies and you can make them yourself.
Feng Shui Helps You Manifest What You Want
The feng shui grid is applicable to the entire property you are assessing , and it applies to every room. The north sector of your parcel corresponds to career. The career corresponds to the north sector of your home’s interior. For your bedroom, the north section of your bedroom corresponds to your career. This theory states that every microcosm is a perfect representation for the macrocosm and vice versa.
This grid shows which areas of Qi in a specific compass directionality have an effect on. All caps indicate the Ba Gua Trigram for that sector. The Lo Shu magic square gives the corresponding number. Below, you can see which sector of the grid indicates which Wu Xing is stronger than the Qi for that compass directionality. It also shows the Wu Xing which is supportive (think elemental dignities), and the one that weakens Qi in the area.
For example, too much Earth in the northern sector can hinder and weaken career success. This philosophy is interesting. Earth is associated with family, home, love, and life. This is a commentary on work-life balance. Focusing too much on the domestic can lead to a negative impact on your professional success. People who are focused on career success are more likely to live a less fulfilling domestic life.
You can examine each sector of the grid to see what Qi energy strengths or weaknesses there. This gives you a complete philosophy about life that is compatible with a Truth all people know. This is why I call feng-shui philosophy.
You can use feng shui to manifest a specific goal. Simply look at the grid and decide which areas of your home and living spaces need to be improved. The below reference chart will help you to remember the correspondences of the Wu Xing.
An oval-shaped wall mirror with lead crystal lotus decor on the north could increase professional wealth. Or, you might want to create an aquarium for fish with seashells and other decorations. You can also hang a painting that depicts the ocean in a blue-dominated color palette.
You might consider placing candles in the south of your house (or in your bedroom) to improve your social standing. Are you single, lonely and in search of love? You could try some symbolism, such as a pair mandarin ducks in the southwest corner. This is a Chinese symbol for true love that will last a lifetime. The difference in the elements of love between the East and the West is something I find fascinating. When I speak of love and romance in the West, most people think of fire. It’s like a glowing flame. The East is a place where love and romance are associated with earth. This element is more closely related to stability, security, and endurance.
Feng shui remedies are not limited to Wu Xing correspondences. However, this is the foundation of how to craft a feng shui remedy. Feng shui also emphasizes symbolism.
According to oral tradition, if a couple has trouble with fertility and wants to conceive a child, they place ornaments that look like chili peppers, in the west part of the house, west wall and master bedroom and west wall and the baby room. My mother once said, “Why peppers?” I nodded and she agreed. Take a look at it. Take a second look at it. What is the shape that reminds you? Oh. Huh.
Unfortunately, because of the tradition in Eastern cultures that “we-just want-sons”, I don’t know if there is any oral tradition about how to conceive a girl.
Consider the directionality of your compass when creating your Fu talismans per The Tao of Craft . You can create a talisman you will activate by placing it somewhere in your home or office. Then, place it in a direction that corresponds to your intentions per the grid.
Be True to Yourself
Trust your intuition. This is the best piece of advice I can offer. Sometimes, strong intuition can be the key to understanding what science and analytic methods will say.
You can take a few moments to just be there and listen to Mother Nature. What does it make you feel in that area? Do you feel like it’s one of those “I don’t know why but I love this area” feelings? Or is it “I can’t understand why but this place gives my the creeps” feelings? That feeling is normal. This space may be for. Your body-mind-spirit wants to tell you that this space may not be right for you.
Brightly lit areas that let in lots of sunlight are considered good feng-shui. However, darkened spaces with curtains drawn and stale qi is considered bad. My husband J is averse to brightly lit areas with too much sunlight. He prefers his private space to be dark and with low artificial lighting. Basically, cave-like.
He is an example of an exception to the general principles of feng-shui. He considers , specifically, a person who finds brightly lit areas with too much sunlight overwhelming. If you are like him, you don’t need to follow feng shui rules. You have to listen to your intuition. Your mind-body spirit will tell you what it needs.
Feng shui is a two-step process. It consists of two components.
Finding a piece of land that best suits your values and who you are is the first step. Feng shui is a way to do this.
The second is how to enhance the land so that your goals, dreams, and aspirations are manifested. Consider your feng-shui considerations in two pieces. It is what it is. You decide how to make it your own.