As we all know, Florida has been the State which the whole country has been focused on since November 7th. It is undeniably in the southeast section of the United States. This is interesting from a Feng Shui perspective because the direction of Southeast this year has been an unlucky direction. Each year there is a direction which is considered unlucky and it is to be avoided for a number of activities. It coincides with the direction associated with the Chinese Zodiac sign for the year. This has been the Year of the Dragon, which is linked to East/Southeast.
In a Feng Shui consultation, this has been one of two areas which I have advised clients to avoid doing any remodeling in (the southeast portion of your house inside or the southeast sector of your backyard or front yard.) If someone goes ahead and does any significant remodeling or demolition in the accident-prone area, it can cause a variety of problems, complications or delays.
The other negative area this year was North. Over the years, I have received quite a bit of feedback from clients who had remodels or additions in the wrong areas and heard their aggravating experiences. On a large scale, certain parts of the country associated with those same directions can have problems which range from natural disasters, severe weather, political upheaval, or social unrest. As an example, back in 1992 the direction of southwest had the annual negative influences associates with fire, pain, arguments, and disaster. We here in Southern California the southwest part of the nation) experienced the L.A. riots.
These annual influences repeat themselves every nine years (solar) and every twelve years (lunar). The two negative areas to avoid construction in for 2001 will be southwest once again (last time was 1992) and South/South-east since it is linked with the Year of the Snake.
To further clarify: remodeling does not mean you have to be afraid of putting up a shelf or painting a wall in one of these two areas. But substantial changes, like moving walls, pulling up flooring, and outside digging--these are the activities which can stir up the negative vibrations. Even having a neighbor doing construction in alignment with your property can be a potential problem (above and beyond the obvious noise factor.)
If you want to learn more about the annual influences in every area of your house, contact me for a copy of Master Sang’s book: The Principles of Feng Shui. You can also take a class with me.
And if you have been a client of mine, seriously consider having me do an Annual Update Reading for you.
Feng Shui Related Holiday Stuff - Top
Check out my website for a variety of books and videos available that make great gifts. (www.fengshuisolutions.net) I can even put together a Feng Shui Gift Basket for you. I can also make Feng Shui Gift Certificates if you would like to gift a consultation to someone.
My friend Marjorie Rothstein is available for Instant Re-Design Make-Overs for your home or a single room, using the furnishings you already have! She is a designer and artist who works with me and helps clients follow through with my feng shui recommendations.Call her: (818)905-1999.
Another friend of mine, Edy Rose, is a color consultant. She can advise you on colors to add in your home, in conjunction with my feng shui recommendations. She is also a certified Aura-Soma Color Therapeutics specialist. (This system uses aromatherapy, color, and crystals to remove emotional and spiritual blocks.)
Feng Shui Principles That Annoy Architects - Top
It is often said that good design is also good Feng Shui. Generally speaking, I totally agree. However, Feng Shui principles of how ch'i moves in and around a building, and what kind of effect that has on people, will sometimes be in conflict with interesting architecture or landscape.
1. Does symmetry = balance? I have seen many floor plans where the architect deliberately placed doorways or windows directly opposite each other. Sometimes there is a whole succession of windows along a wall, and the opposite wall will be a mirror image. I have seen entrances or exterior facades where columns, hedges, and pathways create long straight lines toward a main door. In looking at these designs, the symmetry is obvious. But from a Feng Shui stand point, this is not necessarily harmonious or balanced. Think about nature, and winding meandering paths through gardens, and groupings in odd numbers. This is very different than the perfect pairing of windows, doors, or other architectural features. Two windows exactly opposite each other may feel like balance through symmetry from a designer's training. But this arrangement allows for ch'i (air currents) to either move too quickly through a room and/or the room leaks its vitality too soon.
2. High ceilings: A room may feel dramatic and larger (intended effect) when the ceilings are high. Most people initially feel good in this kind of room. But the function of the room will determine the appropriateness of high ceilings in Feng Shui theory. It may be hard to concentrate in a room with high ceilings, and it may be difficult to get good sleep as well. Sometimes the good energies which need to be cozy and contained in a small room, will get dissipated in a room with high ceilings.
3. Beams: The look of exposed beams can also bring personality to a room from a design point. But open beams in a bedroom are known to cause health and relationship problems in Feng Shui theory (in all schools of Feng Shui.)
4.Views from front to back: A major selling feature in many homes is to create a spectacular view from the entrance, all the way through to the back (showing a garden, or views of a valley or ocean.) But this is not the home you will sell to an adherent of Feng Shui. Once again, the premise is that incoming energy will make a bee-line for the back, escaping too quickly. The mundane result of a house losing its energy is that the occupants will have a hard time saving their money.
5. Angles and odd shapes: When a building or a single room has an odd shape, (not a square or rectangle) this can make the ch'i boomerang around the room, causing lack of focus, ill health, or arguments. I have often been in very odd-shaped buildings or houses, where the real orientation (of what is the front and what is the back) is also very confusing.
Just because a building looks striking from afar doesn't mean it is a comfortable place to work in. I once saw the design for a new building by some famous architect and it honestly looked like a crumpled piece of paper! This can't possibly be good Feng Shui.
**Keep in mind: there are some buildings which get classified as being good for money, but not good for health and relationships. The ideal is to create a building that is good for both, but given a choice, the priority should be more in favor of people over money.
6. Staircases: Sometimes the design of a grand, swirling staircase can make a huge statement for the room or entrance. But energetically, a staircase is a conduit for energy. It will swirl and activate whatever it is around. If the stairs are located in a positive section of a building, they can make it even more positive. If they happen to be in a bad location, then the movement they stir up will only further irritate the area. This can only be understood by Feng Shui practitioners who can calculate the "unseen" influences.
7.Aesthetics: Sometimes a home or commercial property just looks and feels great, and all the visual features are in sync with good Feng Shui principles as well. But every structure has been built facing a particular compass degree, and within a certain time frame, and those two coordinates may produce a house-type that can attract tremendous misfortune, even though it "looks" good. This is the level of Feng Shui that architects find most startling. How could it be that their gorgeous new home can create lawsuits? Or miscarriage? Or accidents? Or divorce?
The good news is that more and more architects are considering working with Feng Shui practitioners, so that the blending of their talents can truly create a superior space-- visually, functionally and energetically.
The Art of Feng Shui and the Feng Shui of Art - Top
A question that comes up often during a feng shui consultation, is how to interpret the effects of art in our home or work place. Here are my thoughts:
1. Art is subjective: if you like looking at a particular piece of art and it makes you feel good, then that is good feng shui in one sense. 2. When an art object or painting or photograph is boldly one color, then it will emanate the element associated with that color. Example: a giant red canvas on the wall is the fire element.
(That color may or may not be good for that particular area, but if you have good reason to believe that a certain element is appropriate for that area, then a large display of it via color will enforce the effects.)
3. A picture which has several or many colors will NOT be strong enough to represent one or all of those colors--the energy gets dissipated.
4. Art should not conflict with the function of the room. Example: I once had a client who had a large painting over her bed. It was brash and modern with the actual words "LISTEN TO ME NOW!" sprawled across it. Perhaps a joke, but not exactly the kind of message you would normally want to display for the new boyfriend!
5. Placing a series of pictures along the wall or walls of a room with frames all at the same level will create a subtle second ceiling to the room. Air currents travel along walls, ceilings and floors. This could be good for rooms with ceilings that are too high.
6. In general, placing pictures a little higher on the wall will make the room feel bigger.
7. Art pieces, such as bronze statues or sculptures are definitely feng shui metal remedies.
8. Having an attractive paining on an otherwise blank wall can be a feng shui remedy for a congestive entrance.
9. Having pictures of landscapes can be good for rooms with no windows.
***Recommended Reading: a new feng shui book by Master Gahle Atherton (Feng Shui: The Perfect Arrangement) has now joined the ranks of one of my favorite authentic feng shui books. (A grand total of six!) It is not in stores in America yet, but you can get signed copies from the author by contacting her at www.fengshui.com.au Don't forget the "au" part of the domain name or you won't get Gahle's site. I have a few copies, and I'm ordering more. $20.00
Question from a student: Are new houses better than older houses? Answer: A newer house may be in better structural condition. This contributes to good feng shui. A newer house will statistically have had fewer past occupants. The result is less lingering energy of past occupants, or even the potential for one of them to return as a ghost. These are just a couple of advantages of the newer house. But there are many older homes that still have good ch'i, even better than the new homes which were built against feng shui principles.
Second part of the answer: Houses go through cycles that last 180 years, broken down into 9 construction cycles that last for 20 years. Once a house reaches 180 years old, then its ch'i gets renewed, as if it were a new house again.
Question: What's the best color for the exterior of a house?
Answer: We have eight basic house types, each one associated with a direction. That direction is asociated with an element, and that element has a color. If you paint the house the same color as the element which defines its orientation, then you have an exterior color that supports the house instead of undermining it. You can also use a color which is "productive" to the element that matches your house.
As an example: Your house faces East, therefore it "sits" in the West. The real nature of the house is that it is a West type house. West is associated with Metal. Metal colors include grey and white. Those would be good colors for the exterior. Also, since Earth makes Metal stronger, then earth colors would also be strengthening to the house. Earth colors are beiges, oranges, and yellows.
What would be a bad color for the metal house? Well, fire melts metal--so a house that was reddish in tones, or salmon colored, would not be an ideal color for this orientation of house.
Good Feng Shui and Good Neighborhoods - Top
I have found an interesting coincidence with some of the better neighborhoods I have visited and the better feng shui houses that exist there. I am speaking of the 4 major house types which are determined by their precise compass orientation.
Here is one example: In the Pico/Robertson area of Los Angeles, there is a neighborhood south of Pico Blvd. called "Beverlywood Adjacent" and it includes many homes that were built between 1924-1943. Those which are on the east side of Robertson Blvd. and face east or west are often the house types that are called "Reversed." This implies a house type that is more prone to money and health struggles. (Right next to a lot of gang activity as well.) This neighborhood has never been considered as prestigous as the neighborhood on the West side of Robertson Blvd. Many of these houses have identical floor plans and were built in the same period, but the difference in street alignment on either side of Robertson, makes them dramatically different house types. If you measure the compass degree on the East side of Robertson, the homes are aligned pretty much exactly dead-on east (90 degrees) or West (270 degrees.)
Then you go a few blocks West of Robertson and the street alignment is a little different, where the east facing houses do so at about 75-80 degrees and West at about 255-260 degrees. These house types are considered inherently good for money and people. So this 15 degree shift may look almost imperceptible on the Thomas Map Guide, but it creates two very different house types, consistent with the general affluence of the neighborhoods they are in.
Another predictable area is the San Fernando Valley, which is mostly laid out on a North-South (345-165 degrees), East-West (70-250 degrees) grid. Many of these homes were built in the 1950's and are also classified as "Reversed."
But when you get up into the hilly areas, with winding roads, particularly south of Ventura Blvd., the same 50's homes will face any number of directions, and often end up being better feng shui homes than the ones in the flat lands. Again, this has nothing to do with the size of the homes. It is the compass alignment combined with their construction age.
Another subtle shift takes place between Culver City streets in a Northeast-Southwest alignment, verses the slightly different alignment on Santa Monica streets in better neighborhoods.
In the fall of 1999, I visited a new 80-home development near Claremont at the request of the concerned builder. The Asian buyers were only buying the South-facing houses. I knew that some of this had to do with cultural superstition that South is a lucky direction. In this case, there was some truth to the situation, because new homes which face south are some of the best feng shui houses being built in the current time frame.
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