Feng shui is the Chinese art of creating balance and harmony in one’s surroundings by following the natural creative cycle of the elements – fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. The creative cycle goes like this: ashes from fire become earth. Earth creates the element metal. Metal captures water through condensation. Water feeds plants and creates wood. Wood burns fire.
Paying attention to the creative cycle above enhances chi, or energy. Chi can be thought of as a fresh summer breeze, or a breath of crisp and energized mountain air, wafting through your home, touching on every room, permeating and uplifting your space. A home with good feng shui is a home that has the creative cycle in balance.
If the creative cycle is disrupted, chi cannot flow properly and the energy in your home literally and metaphorically gets stale. A disruptive cycle would be one in which water douses fire, or metal chops wood, or earth dirties water.
For those of you who have ever practiced acupuncture, yoga or tai chi, you understand the benefits of getting blocked chi flowing. Energy flow is essential to a healthy body. Like the energy centers, or chakras, in the body, there are eight life areas in your home that require good chi in order to function properly. They are: fame, relationships, children, mentors, career, knowledge, health and wealth.
When chi is blocked and cannot flow freely into one of these areas in your home, such as your wealth area, problems can arise. These problems can manifest as lost business; unexpected expenses that keep arising; financial issues that never seem to get resolved; problems getting payment from clients; problems settling legal issues; and so forth.
To determine where the wealth area is in your home, you’ll need a ba-gua map. A ba-gua is an octagonal chart with its roots in the I Ching. Each side represents one of the life areas mentioned above. Standing at your front door and facing into your home, hold the ba-gua so that south is at the top. Now superimpose the chart over your home. Your wealth corner will be just to the left of the top of the chart.
How does the chi get blocked? There can be several ways, but the most common is when the creative cycle is disrupted. For example, you may have a bathroom in your wealth corner. This is a disruptive cycle, and water symbolically flushes finances down the drain.
How can balance be restored? Keep sink and tub drains closed. Fix leaky faucets. Keep toilet seat lids down. Then bring in aspects of wealth that enhance its properties, like the color purple. Purple is the color associated with wealth, so introduce it in the form of towels, soaps, picture frames, paint, or flowers (real or silk). Crystals help move chi by reflecting the energy, so hang a purple or clear crystal above your sink or toilet. Finally, if you have the room and natural light, bring in a jade plant because its leaves look like coins.
So if you find that your finances aren’t in order or if there’s another aspect of your life that seems disrupted, consider the balance of chi in your home, and then work to correct that balance through the practice of feng shui.
