Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life

by Karen Rauch Carter

  Creative Cycle.

  FIGURE 3

  As well as merely placing the associated element in the appropriate spot in the home, there are two additional ways to use elements. These two ways are the Creative Cycle and the Destructive Cycle. In the Creative Cycle order, one particular element creates another—water feeds, or creates, wood. In the Destructive Cycle order, one element overpowers another—water douses, or destroys, fire.

  Now let’s begin to apply this. In the Creative Cycle, water feeds wood, wood fuels fire, fire makes earth, earth creates metal, and finally, metal holds water (Figure 3).

  Therefore (to give one example), if you want to work on getting a better reputation, having a fireplace in the Fame and Reputation gua would be a great cure, because fire is the element for Fame and Reputation. Other fire cures would be red items, objects such as candles, triangular items, and those many boxes of wooden matches you may have lifted from restaurants.

  Life Situation (Bagua Area)

  Element

  Colors

  Shape

  Creative Cycle Items

  Destructive Cycle Items

  Body Part

  Associated Number

  Prosperity/Abundance

  Purple, Green, Gold, and Red

  Hip

  8

  Fame/Reputation

  Fire

  Red

  Triangular Pointed

  Wood Green Columnar

  Water Black Undulating

  Eye

  1

  Relationship/Marriage/Love

  Pink Red and White

  All Major Organs of the Body

  2

  Creativity/Children

  Metal

  White

  Round Mounded

  Earth Yellow Flat or Square

  Fire Red Pointed

  Mouth

  3

  Helpful People/Travel

  Gray Black White

  Head

  5

  Career/Life Path

  Water

  Black

  Undulating Free-form

  Metal White Round

  Earth Yellow Flat or Square

  Ear

  6

  Skills and Knowledge/ Wisdom

  Blue Black and Green

  Hand

  7

  Family

  Wood

  Green

  Rectangular Columnar, Vertical

  Water Black Undulating

  Metal White Round

  Foot

  4

  Health and All Other Situations (Center)

  Earth

  Yellow and Earth Tones

  Square Horizontal Flat

  Fire Red Pointed

  Wood Green Columnar

  Other Body Parts Not Mentioned Above

  9

  If it is not practical or desirable to have a fireplace or other fire symbols there, you can use the element in the Creative Cycle that feeds fire: wood. Use either actual wood, such as furniture or picture frames, or a symbol of wood, like a picture of a forest or of George Washington’s teeth. So remember, if you do not wish to place items in the space that directly relate to its element, try to place the element that creates it there.

  Now, let’s say (for example) you are in love with your white-walled, white-carpeted, and white-furnished home and want to keep it that way. From a feng shui standpoint, this would be considered very metal (which probably would suit Metallica fans). Why? Because white is associated with the Creativity gua, which has metal as its element (once again, refer to the chart). This would energetically be out of balance. In order to create a more harmonious situation, you could use the Destructive Cycle to balance the space. Don’t think of the word destructive as bad (that’s just an old perception). Simply think of it as another potential way to understand and balance the elements.

  In the Destructive Cycle, water douses fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood, wood pierces earth, and earth dams water (Figure 4).

  In the white-walled example above, you would use symbols of the fire element because, as you can see in the Destructive Cycle, fire melts metal, which would lessen the energy of so much metal in one place. A fireplace or lots of candles starts to lessen the impact of the metal. If you are opposed to adding red accents or other symbols of fire in the space because of the decor, hide the symbols. Place red cloth or paper behind pictures and under the couch cushions (don’t forget to look for spare change) to get red in the space. You don’t have to see it for it to work. Color vibrations know no walls.

  There is no such thing as hiding in feng shui. Fortunately and unfortunately, it works both ways. Just as items placed out of view work for you in feng shui, things like clutter, dust, and dirt work against you. Your entire living space—yes, even the corn-chip-encrusted couch crevices—are a part of your feng shui energy vibration.

  Destructive Cycle.

  FIGURE 4

  If your head is spinning right now trying to figure all this creative and destructive stuff out, don’t worry. The information is repeated several different ways throughout the book. You’ll get it soon enough.

  | Lost in Space? |

  Now it’s time to overlay the bagua onto your home. You can work with a blueprint or a hand drawing of your home, or simply figure things out as you walk through your home. Whichever way is easier for you to understand is best.

  The goal is to divide your home into nine equal areas (no measuring necessary), like the bagua. Orient it correctly by placing the Skills and Knowledge, Career, and Helpful People edge against the wall that includes the front door.

  For some, overlaying the bagua onto the home is a snap. But for some, the location of the front door is so funky, it’s hard to know where to begin. When I say the front door, I am talking about the door of either the entire home or a single room within the home. The bagua can be overlaid to both. So if you live in a dorm room, rent a room, or live in an apartment, use the front door of your personal unit.

  If for some reason you can’t figure out which door is the formal front door, try getting in touch with your feelings for a second and use your intuition to orient the bagua. Walk up to and through each door as if you are a guest, or walk through with your eyes closed and feel if one door gives off more of a formal-front-door impression. Or try to feel which way the energy flows and the bagua seems to want to be oriented.

  Look at Figure 5. In Example I, the owner felt that the bagua should be oriented differently than the front door told him, because he knew the door was built into an old porch that had been enclosed, and that the “real” part of the house started once you entered in the door and turned right (the original location of the front door). That’s how he felt the house was organized. He used the original threshold as the mouth of ch’i. As you can see, he also had an accent in the Family section. To calculate that, you measure. If the part that pokes out is less than half of the length of that whole side, it is an accent. Likewise, if a part that pokes into your home is less than half the length (see the Relationships section in Example 2), it is considered a missing piece.

  The owner of the home drawn in Example 2 felt that the ch’i flowed into the home from the front to the back and oriented the bagua accordingly. With this orientation, the Relationship gua and the Helpful People gua were slightly compromised in her house.

  Example 3 shows an opaque fence and gate fronting the home. Once you entered through the double—door gate, it felt as if you were in the private space of the house. In this example, you could consider the gate the mouth of ch’i and decorate the courtyard appropriately as a career gua outdoor room. Declare that your home is aligned a certain way and go with it.

  Orienting the bagua.

  FIGURE 5

  With a door on a 45° slant, try to intuitively feel the ch’i flow, and orient the bagua by that feeling.

  Remember, for the most part, the formal front door (the one the architect designed to be the front door) is the
main door of the house. Even if you always enter your home through the side garage door, that would not make it the main entry—or as the Chinese describe it, the mouth of ch’i.

  If you have found which way to orient the bagua, you are halfway there. Now all you do is go around on the main floor (the one the front door leads you into) and find the space representing each gua. The basement, second, and third floors should be taken into consideration when applying feng shui principles, but the main floor is the most important. If you live in a split—level home, try to intuitively follow the path of ch’i and apply the cures to the floor that seems most like the main floor of the home.

  | Calling the Panacea Police! |

  Feng shui can work for anyone—and work fast. But using it as a substitute for taking responsibility in your own life is certainly not recommended. You’ve got to do your part. The feng shui panacea police will sniff out those people who think they can simply use feng shui instead of engaging in such mundane events as doing homework in school, balancing a checkbook, or getting out from under the covers in search of a meaningful relationship. If you do your part, good old Mr. Ch’i will do his.

  | Got the Tools and Ain’t Afraid to Use ’Em |

  Now you have the basic tools needed to gear up your feng shui. Although it is best to read Chapters 2 through 11 in order (especially if you are a novice), you can actually read them in any order you wish. If you are still plagued by questions—how does this work for my two—story house? how does my detached garage come into play? what do you mean by intuitively following the path of ch’i to find my way through the home?—go immediately to Chapter 11. You will find fast answers to these and other questions. Otherwise, just be sure to check out Chapter 12 when you are through with the rest of the book. It is an important chapter offering additional ways to pump up the power of your feng shui cures.

  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When you are first using feng shui, try to concentrate on fixing the problems you are currently having in your life by enhancing those specific bagua areas rather than making drastic changes in all areas. There’s plenty of time to refine your feng shui after initial changes start to bring you more into balance.

  chapter 2

  * * *

  Show Me the Money!—Prosperity

  Ancient Chinese secrets used properly in the Prosperity area of your home could create the following changes in your life. You could

  get a raise

  receive unexpected money

  make more money with your business

  have money to go on a dream vacation

  easily become philanthropic

  acquire a stable income

  increase wealth for the good things in life

  find inner peace and true happiness with what you have in life

  It’s true, there are those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and those who can’t find enough to eat. What’s with that? There are also those who win a thousand dollars in the lottery and scream, “We’re rich!” and those who consider a thousand dollars loose change. Why do some people feel wealthy with ten bucks and others feel poor with millions? Answer: attitude, baby. Prosperity is a state of mind. That said, let’s try to get you to a place of prosperity and abundance.

  Endless supply is the first rule of the universe. You can have everything you want without robbing another in the process (what do you think of that, Robin Hood?). Yes, I’m talking about having your cake and eating it too. If you do not have abundance in all areas of your life, you have bought into a lacking state of mind somewhere along the way. By moving some stuff in the Prosperity corner, you can slowly rid yourself of that false mind—set and start to live abundantly. From now on just think of yourself as one of the Jeffersons—movin’ on up.

  Let’s not get all caught up on just the money and the material side of things. Abundance is possible in more arenas than just that. Striking a balance in abundance is necessary in all parts of life. The phrase “Money can’t buy happiness” summarizes the idea perfectly. Yes, money does make life easier, and yes, we are trying to achieve that with feng shui, but don’t forget the bigger picture. Feeling that there is abundance in your life puts you in balance with the universe and how it is meant to be—like the abundance of the Garden of Eden, so to speak.

  The first step toward the garden is actually inside the house. From just inside the front door, walk to the back left corner of the room or home. (See Figure 6. When I say corner, I’m speaking of the whole one—ninth of the home defining the Prosperity gua, not just the exact corner. There is no need for exact measurements. Each of the nine areas blends gracefully into others like the colors of the rainbow.)

  What do you see? An oil—stained, cluttered garage—or an ornate armoire filled with luxurious linens? Are you surprised by what you find when you associate this corner with abundance? A long—time financially suffering friend of mine laughed when she saw that her Prosperity corner was the corner that always leaked when it rained. Her money was always leaking out away from her. Sometimes feng shui answers are quite literal.

  Is this corner outside the house because the shape of the room or home was designed to have this piece missing (as in Figure 7)? If this or any other corner of your room or home is missing, complete it by employing one of the cures for missing pieces. (Skip ahead to Chapter 11 if you want immediate cures for this situation. If not, just make a note that you need one here—you’ll definitely learn about it later.)

  Prosperity location in bagua.

  FIGURE 6

  For now, let’s assume you actually have a regular and complete corner to work with. Here are some of the best items to place in the Prosperity corner. Use one, all, or however many work with your decor. “If one is good, more is better” isn’t necessarily true when you use intention to create feng shui power. (You’ll learn more about adding intention power as we go along.)

  Plan view of house or apartment with most of the Prosperity gua and some of the Family gua missing.

  FIGURE 7

  Power Tools for Prosperity

  * * *

  Purple Purple is the best color for the Prosperity corner. Put a big chunk of purple amethyst there and look out! Dig out and fire up that purple lava lamp and watch the money start to ooze up and bubble over into your life. Dare I say it? Make sure Barney’s place is in the Prosperity corner of your child’s room.

  Red The powerful color of red can add excitement and energy to almost anything. For centuries the Chinese and many other cultures have thought that red is a very powerful color. Because of this constant thought pattern over such a very long time, red now is a very powerful color, strongly set in the universe. Remember, energy follows thought. So keep that red power tie here.

  Green Anything green will do. Just remember—use green to get out of the red. I have seen Americans use sheets of real, uncut dollar bills in frames for their potent green symbol. So if your money is green, red, or purple—use it!

  You can use the colors from either side of the Prosperity gua to achieve greater power. For example, red and green are good in the Prosperity gua because they are the colors of the neighboring Family and Fame sections.

  Gold For obvious reasons, gold stuff enhances the wealth area. Give your corner the Midas touch. Use a symbol from your heritage if you want. For example, if you are Irish, get that “pot o’ gold” thing going using (chocolate) gold coins.

  Symbols That Remind You of Wealth and Abundance Change sorters and piggy banks are meaningful to some. Exotic fruits or perfumes mean wealth to others.

  Another word for this area of the home is blessings. This is a great place to acknowledge what you have been blessed with already—your spouse, a second home, vacation photos.

  Place photos of your dream car (boat, house, vacation, wardrobe) in this gua if thinking about it makes you feel abundant. Don’t forget the less materialistic things like kids, pets, religious objects. Place the item, photo, or symbol of it in this corner so whenever you see
it, you think of your ever growing abundance.

  Moving Water Get the cash flowing with moving water—guppies in a glass, or a raging waterfall. Just make sure the water is clean and it isn’t the toilet. And if you don’t have time, room, or money to get real moving water, that National Parks calendar photo of Ol’ Faithful will do.

  Round—Leaved Plants A jade plant or African violet—really just about any plant—will get the energy going for you. Just remember to keep them friendly (no barrel cactus) and healthy (no plant hospitals in this corner).

  Moving Objects This traditional category of cures works well here to get money moving around you. Battery—operated kinetic decor can be the perfect answer for getting the universe to notice your needs.

  Now is a good time to list in your notebook the power tools for Prosperity that you already own.

  If you want big money for the good things in life, the Prosperity section of your home is where to get it. On the other hand, if you need money to get out of the hole or to pay off bills before having anything for “the good life,” be sure to adjust your Family section as well. The Family section will help you acquire basic maintenance money so you can then focus on the good stuff (see Chapter 9).

  Hazardous Materials for Prosperity

  * * *

  Now here is the list of the stuff to avoid, or stuff to counter-balance with a cure, in the Prosperity gua.