Cures to use when a pool is located in the Fame and Reputation gua.
FIGURE 10
| Undo a “Dis”—Get Respect |
Girls, are you wondering why you never get taken home to meet your boyfriend’s mom? Guys, do you get the “dis” handwave from your partner after trying to communicate your opinions? If you had respect from others, such frustrating events should not be in your life.
Everybody needs and wants respect. It goes hand in hand with everything else you do in life: your business, your love life, your relationships with friends, coworkers, and family. Respect is essential in creating a good reputation—Aretha Franklin really knew her stuff.
If you have been “dissed” by someone, you need to either gain their respect or regain ground you’ve lost with them. Fear not, it is quite simple. Start by going to your Fame and Reputation area. Take a look at it with your feng shui eyes (and the above list of power tools and hazardous materials). Check for obvious violations—swimming pool, spa, bathtub, or fish tank. Then tune into the more subtle ones—a world map that displays all of the earth’s oceans, or a calendar of waterfalls.
If you don’t have any major atrocities in the Fame section but still got dissed, you may want to do a simple intention cure. Write the word RESPECT on a piece of red paper and place it in the area with the intention that everyone in your life respect you. If you are looking for respect from a specific person, write, “I receive total respect from _________,” on the piece of paper and place it in the Fame section of the house or your bedroom. Each effort you make with the intention of gaining respect will help you to never be dissed again.
If you don’t like the paper idea but still want respect from a certain someone, place a cactus or a thorny rose here for the same result. I like the rose, personally, because it says, “I am nice and beautiful, but don’t mishandle me or you might get hurt.” Pick which one you like best.
| Fame Is Not a Four-Letter Word |
If being in the spotlight is your dream and you literally want to become famous, here’s my advice for you. Start by clearing all items in the Fame section that have a connotation of something that doesn’t represent who you want to be. Then you can start the fun with your quest for fame.
Here is an example: If you want to be known on TV, then draw a television front on some poster board, cut away the part where the screen is, and stick the TV front to a mirror you use every day, so when you look in the mirror, you are in the television. Do this for twenty-seven days. Each time you look into it say the affirmation “I am a well-known _________ (actress, host, newscaster, commentator) on television and it fulfills me in my life path,” or any other affirmation that suits you. Or paste your photo on the front of the TV Guide and throw it on the coffee table for a while. Try it for nine or twenty-seven days (once again, those good feng shui quantities). As you continually stumble onto it you will probably go from finding it funny to eventually becoming complacent with it. Try to get to a place where you are comfortable with the idea of seeing your face on the cover of such a magazine. The more you can picture it and daydream about it, the more energy you are putting toward it.
A much simpler cure is to place a head shot or photo of yourself on top of the TV or in the entertainment center.
| The Red Carpet Treatment |
I knew of one guy in Hollywood who took everything regarding feng shui to the extreme. He was a director and yearned to be famous in the industry. It just happened that a guest bathroom was in his Fame area. When he found out that red was the color for Fame, he immediately went to work. He had the toilet changed to a red one, painted the walls, floor, door, and ceiling red, and replaced all the decorative furnishings with red ones. And in true Hollywood fashion, he placed a long red carpet on the floor. Oh, he became famous all right—as the weird guy in Hollywood with the red bathroom!
I use this example to demonstrate the importance of balance with feng shui. The red bathroom had become a sign of desperation—as if the fellow believed he couldn’t ever become famous on his own merit. He thought he needed some outside sources to deliver his fame and wasn’t taking responsibility for it. He did not make the internal shift within. When enhancing the Fame area with balance, he should have had the confidence that his request for fame had been heard and was surely on its way with much less red.
Don’t confuse self-worth with net worth.
| “Hello, I Do Exist!” |
Are you tired of other people getting the credit you deserve? About fifteen years ago, I contributed significantly in the designing and development of a jazz festival that has become a yearly event ever since. Heck, I even named it. At the volunteer celebration, someone else was given all the credit and accolades. Did I pipe up and say something? No. I remained the doormat and waited for someone else to come along and step on me. When I now consider where I lived and what was in the Fame area of my home, I have to laugh—a big black dining table! It all made perfect sense. With all that water putting out my fire in my Fame area, it’s no wonder no one noticed me. Now the Fame area of my home says, “Hello, I do exist!” with plenty of red, a copy of this book, and a newspaper article about feng shui that quoted me.
Be on the lookout for thieves of Fame. Make sure you do not have any unbalanced hazardous materials in this area.
| Building a Reputation One Block at a Time |
My client Maggie is looking to start a career in music as a singer. She has no formal training or real connections in the industry, but I believe she will succeed in her quest because of her very deliberate and balanced approach to feng shui.
I counseled Maggie on what symbols mean in feng shui terms and asked her to empower herself by creating her own cures. I told her that the more intention, feeling, and visualization she could attach to her cures, the faster they would work. She immediately went about creating her unique Fame area. First, she dug out her box of old 45s, which symbolized her introduction to music. The Doors’ “Light My Fire” was the record she chose to represent her love of music, because the word fire was on it (the element for this area) and because the label was red. Next she sifted through some sheet music and decided that two songs represented her feelings toward her upcoming future in music: “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of” by Carly Simon and Sarah McLachlan’s “Building a Mystery.” She then proceeded to carefully frame the single and the sheet music on a burgundy background, inside a red wooden frame.
Maggie also decided to create a benefit concert for pediatric AIDS. She is currently fund-raising for this concert. The concert is already helping her by being the subject of conversation when she cold-calls people in the music industry. She is building respect, a good reputation, and valuable relationships by attaching herself to this charity event. So when people think of her, they will think of a generous person. People seem naturally drawn to those they think are generous. I don’t think she realizes it, but she has created the perfect giving-to-receive cure.
| Glowing Reviews |
What if you are interviewing for a job and you find yourself equally qualified with another person? Who is going to get the job? The one with the better Fame and Reputation area, that’s who. If you have given intention to your placement of objects in this area of the home, it will help you shine a little brighter on a subconscious level—which is just the thing that is needed in situations like this. As an added boost, place the interviewer’s name (if you know it) in the Helpful People corner (see Chapter 6).
| The Red Badge of Courage |
If you have been unhappily stuck in a situation but lack the guts to make a change, it sounds as if you could use some courage. Courage is needed when fear is running some part of your life and it becomes your excuse for resisting change. There are so many kinds of excuses—“They won’t let me change,” “They might not accept me,” “I’m too young, old, fat, stupid, boring”—so many I can’t list them all. But all it takes is the courage to start. A little red goes a long way here. Just add anything red in th
e Fame and Reputation section to start the process. Even if you don’t know where you are going, take action, and the next opportunity will show up.
You and your world are a product of your thoughts.
| Nine-to-Five Respect |
Tammy finally got the accounting job she was looking for in a public institution. But when she got there, she noticed that some things weren’t being handled very accurately or responsibly. She was determined to clean it up, but was met with resistance at every level, with top management actually saying to leave well enough alone. Tammy then found herself outside the organization’s loop with social as well as professional matters. She called in a feng shui professional—my friend Nate.
He immediately started moving her office furniture around. “Facing the door when you sit at your desk is a must for anyone,” he said as he placed her desk and chair in the Fame section of the office (see Figure 11). He suggested placing a wooden bookshelf on either side of her desk against the back wall (to “guard” her). Then he meticulously placed her accounting books on the shelves (to symbolically show everyone how meticulous she was). He told her to add silk plants on top of the shelves (to soften the shelves and subconsciously create trees out of them—“wood feeds fire”). Then, looking around the office for the perfect thing to hang on the wall behind her, he came upon some beautiful original art. “What’s this?” he asked, sifting through the floral paintings.
“Oh, that’s some art my grandmother did. She is a well-known artist in the country from which I came.”
“Perfect. Place these behind you,” he said. “They hold the energy of a respected person as well as having your grandmother watching out for you.” (See Figure 12.) Tammy maintained her integrity and kept working.
Desk should always face the office door but not line up with it.
FIGURE 11
It worked. After about two months, she said people were treating her with respect. After two years, she found an accounting error that everyone else had missed, and saved the institution millions and a bad reputation. Shortly after that, all the executives were asked to step down, and she was practically the last employee standing.
Your desk may be the only thing you are actually in charge of spatially at your office (see Figure 13). Make sure it gathers respect for you. If you have clientele, guests, or coworkers frequently meeting with you at your desk, have them sit on the Family side of the desk if at all possible. (Look back at Figure 11). If you are the boss, come out from behind your desk to speak with others. If you aren’t, and the boss comes to speak with you, be sure you are sitting at your desk.
Powerful office layout to gain respect.
FIGURE 12
Feng shui your desk just like your home—the front door is where you sit.
FIGURE 13
Examples of arrow ch’i.
FIGURE 14
Cures for arrow ch’i.
FIGURE 15
| Slings and Arrows |
In feng shui the term arrow ch’i is used when a corner of the house, or of the room, or of a piece of furniture pokes into a living space (see Figure 14). It’s kind of like that finger that always enters the picture to poke the Pillsbury Doughboy, but doesn’t tickle quite as much. This type of energy causes great upheaval in the invisible land of ch’i, slinging all sorts of erratic energy out into the room. The whole home should be reviewed for this negative energy pattern, not just the Fame section. (Perhaps a quick reminder of this in your notebook is a good idea.) It’s harsh on us humans, causing all sorts of weird ailments and behaviors, from physical aches and pains to habits like not wanting to sleep on a particular side of the bed or sit in a poorly situated chair.
If you have any of these arrows pointing in places where you spend most of your time—your bed, desk, or La-Z-Boy lounger in front of the tube—here are some feng shui choices:
1. Place a plant (hopefully one as tall as the ceiling) at the corner. (See Figure 15.)
2. Hang a crystal (one of those round glass multifaceted jobs) from the ceiling, out from the arrow corner a couple of inches. (See Figure 16.)
3. Mirror one whole side of the wall. This one can get costly and may not fit in with the decor. (See Figure 15.)
4. Move the bed, desk, or La-Z-Boy to another place, out of the line of fire.
More cures for arrow ch’i
FIGURE 16
| Life of the Party |
The Fame and Reputation area of the home, room, or yard thrives on party energy—it stirs up and invigorates the ch’i, uplifting your reputation with your friends and acquaintances. Hugh Hefner and Wolfgang Puck built their reputations with parties. Get on the invite list of an exclusive bash and you know what it can do for your reputation. I’m still fondly remembered for the body-painting parties and the yearly exotic beer parties I threw in my twenties (I can’t believe I’m putting this in a book). One thing for sure, most people think I’m fun—and to me, that’s not such a bad thing to be known for.
Youth also helps with this good kind of ch’i. (See the Creativity and Children chapter for your personal party supplies!)
Life is a party where you bring your own (as in everything). Some people just aren’t happy with what they brought.
| Fire and Ice |
The gua opposite Fame and Reputation in the bagua is Career (see Figure 17). Picture how these two are connected. If someone is talking trash about you all the time, it may be hard to keep your career afloat. These two work simultaneously to enhance the prospect of having a good reputation and a fulfilling career.
Add a little something extra to the Career gua with the intention of helping your reputation in the world. You may be surprised at the results. After doing this myself, I can’t tell you how quickly I became known and recognized for my feng shui work. I used a strategically placed pair of black curtains to do the work for me. (You really have to have the right decor to pull off black curtains. So make sure you don’t add anything that’s too out of place. It may subconsciously aggravate you, thereby lowering your personal ch’i.)
FIGURE 17
Eye’m Famous!
* * *
The eyes are the body part associated with the Fame and Reputation area of the home. If you are experiencing any trouble with your eyes, enhance this area with the intention of attracting positive ch’i for them.
One Is the Loneliest Number
* * *
The number associated with Fame and Reputation is the big numero uno. That’s right: 1. After all, with fame or reputation, it’s all about you and you alone. If you live in a 1 house (remember, add up all the numbers in the address as described in the last chapter), chances are you are being pulled to start new endeavors, like a business, a family, or a hobby. But, just as 1 is the first number, you might tend to think of yourself first and forget others. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it isn’t—just a warning.
The best house for balancing a famous person is probably a 4 house. Although the Chinese have a thing against the number 4 (because the word for die/death and four are the same word in one of their dialects), a 4 home can be good for someone who is looking for stability and security. And with the lack of stability that sometimes comes with building your reputation, you might need a rock-solid foundation. Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter, River Phoenix, Kurt Cobain, and John Belushi are a few good examples of people who became out of balance with fame. Insecurity can make people overcompensate in deadly ways.
Immediate Action Items for Fame and Reputation
* * *
1. Move any water that is movable out of the Fame section.
2. Add enhancements as necessary.
| Fame and Reputation in Summary |
Power Tools: fire, lights, red, triangular shapes, wood, green, television, rectangular or columnar shaped objects, items that represent fire, stained glass, animals and things made from animals, plants, pictures or memorabilia of celebrities or people you admire, recognition items, personal wish list, “up” stuff, real m
ountains.
Hazardous Materials: water, black, things that symbolize what you are not about, mirrors.
Opposite Gua: Career
Body Part: eye
Associated Number: I
chapter 4
* * *
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?—Relationships and Love
If you lovingly move your stuff in the Relationship corner according to feng shui wisdom, you can enhance your life in many ways. You can
find “the one”
make a commitment without fear
get married
Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life Page 6