Symbols of the Life Path You Want to Be On If your goal is to be a stockbroker, then a picture of Wall Street can work. Or just keep a current copy of the Wall Street Journal nearby. If you dream of a career in the music industry, then pipe some music into this area (using it literally) or, symbolically, place instruments, CDs, or posters of recording artists here. If you are in school or your best path in life is not yet clear to you, place items here displaying your current interests, as well as your schoolbooks, with the intention that they help you find the path in life that makes your heart sing. Although I said cures don’t have to be showing to be working, in this case, I think overtly surrounding yourself with reminders of your current interests may garner stronger ch’i for you.
Hazardous Materials for Career and Life Path
* * *
These are the things that don’t help the Career cause:
Dirt This is not the place for dirt, because when you mix dirt and water you get mud. Even pictures of mountains and clay pots can muddy the water. Keep the water pure.
Squares Since the square represents earth, and the earth is made of dirt, yadda, yadda, yadda, you get it . . . no squares.
Earth-Tone-Colored Items Yellows, oranges, and browns—if they are here, try to find a new spot for them.
OK, so you have a yellow square ceramic pot filled with brown dirt and a plant sitting right smack dab in the middle of this zone, and you like it. Don’t freak out. It can stay. But if it does, it would be wise to counterbalance the whole area with some of the power tools listed above. And remember, you can also use the Destructive Cycle to your advantage. A big tree in the pot (remember, wood uproots earth) would start to negate the earth element and its power over water.
Here’s another example. If you rent an apartment that has bright yellow linoleum squares on the Career section’s floor and you can’t do anything about it, just make sure you balance the area with something else that works from a design standpoint. I would recommend green items because green is the color for wood, and wood destroys earth. (Review these two cycles—Figures 3 and 4 in Chapter 1—if you are still confused.) If you have a large piece of wooden furniture in this area, it will surely start to overcome the power of the yellow. White or metal items, symbolizing the metal element, which makes water, may fit the decor.
Pictures of Things That You Would Never Want to Do in Your Life In the entry area of a man’s home, I saw a black-and-white picture of a tightrope artist walking between two roof-tops. Although it was interesting and did make a statement, it created a type of tension within me. The home owner said he really didn’t know why, but he hung that picture in his entry every time he moved. He also agreed that his career has always been a great source of tension in his life. (He had the black-and-white thing going for him, but the symbolism outweighed the colors.)
Notebook check. How’s that list of existing power tools to use and existing conditions to change coming along for this gua?
| The Secret Door to Success Shouldn’t Stick |
Since the entrance of the room or home is often associated with Career, let’s talk about the entry for a bit. Does your entrance seem to mimic your career path? Are there obstacles to negotiate? Does the door stick, and does that echo how you feel about your job? Do you always use another door to enter your house, even though this is the main front door? This may imitate how you are overlooked at work. As crazy as it sounds, the happier your entry, the happier you are with your career or path in life. Keep the entry clean and inviting. Make sure the doorbell works and that there is enough light to feel safe. Be sure nothing is in the way to step over or around when approaching the front door or right after entering the home. (Some of you may remember Dick Van Dyke tripping over the ottoman in the beginning of his television show. He definitely needed a feng shui consultation.) Make your address easy to find and read, and make sure it can’t be confused with other addresses, if you are in a multifamily building. Also, make sure the numbers don’t go down (see Figure 32).
The front door should reflect authority as well as be inviting. Look at your front door from the street and make sure it is not cowering behind a tree or another object. If you have a double door, do not block one of the doors with potted plants or other objects, or you are blocking half of your ch’i (see Figure 32).
If you feel you need protection, and foo dogs or a convex mirror don’t fit your style (they are very traditional Chinese cures), find something that does. Bum some of those little green toy soldiers from the kid next door and hide them in potted plants on both sides of the door. There’s nothing like army men guarding a door to keep you safe. Choose something that you would like to have protect you, maybe a concrete dog statue or a pair of topiary lions.
How not to set up the entrance to your home.
FIGURE 32
Paint your front door red (or shades of red) if you want feng shui protection. Also use this treatment if you have something negative pointing toward your home, like a road or a corner of a building (see Figure 33). If you are feng shuiing a room only, like a dorm room, painting the door red would be appropriate if your door is at the end of a long hall (see Figure 34). Paint over the red with a landlord-approved color if you must—it’s OK. The red and your intention will still be there working for you.
Cure if your house is located at the end of a road.
FIGURE 33
If there are steps to climb near the front door, make sure there is enough room to back up without falling down the stairs if the door opens outward. You don’t want to knock the Girl Scouts off the stoop on cookie delivery day.
If you always enter through the garage, and your front door gets little use other than by the occasional trick-or-treater on Halloween, exercise the energy by routinely opening the front door and giving it a little workout. You don’t want weak, sleepy, shriveled-up energy inhabiting your home anywhere, even in a space not often used.
Stuck doors make stuck ch’i. Make sure every door opens freely and that all hardware is working. Do not store anything behind a door that would keep it from being opened all the way. Wash the door and the knob regularly.
Cure if your apartment is located at the end of a hall.
FIGURE 34
Now, take a look at what happens once you enter the doorway. Is it scary, confusing, depressing, cluttered, dreary, claustrophobic, or hazardous? No one wants to be greeted in a home with these kinds of spaces. It’s best to have enough room for guests to enter, take off a coat, or set down the big presents they may bring. If your entry can’t accommodate these functions and you run into a wall as soon as you come into the house, hang a big mirror on the wall that crowds the space. This will give the illusion of a bigger entry. And mirrors, being a water symbol, usually make a good addition to places along the front of the home anyway.
If, upon entering, you see straight through the house and out the back door, you have another kind of ch’i problem: the ch’i is flowing in the front and immediately out the back. The goal is to have it stay awhile. A traditional cure would be to hang a crystal somewhere between the two doors in question (as I suggested you do between the stairs and door, in Chapter 2). Another idea is to carefully place items to create a meandering path between the two doors (without creating clutter, of course!). This cure holds true when entering any door in the house.
| Poinsettias and Professions |
My friend recently had a baby and decided to stay home to raise him. She was a little freaked about the loss of her income and wondered how it would affect the household financial situation. Although her husband had a fantastic job, it would definitely put a crimp in the cash flow.
Preparing for the holidays, she decided to trim back the dormant trees and shrubs (which were mostly in the Prosperity and Fame sections of their lot) and to replace the tired seasonal-colored annuals with poinsettia plants in front of the house, leading to the door (Career area). Within a week, her husband was called by a long-time acquaintance to see if he knew of anyo
ne interested—or was interested himself—in a new vice president position for a Las Vegas megacorporation. The perks and pay offered were more than the couple’s combined prebaby income.
Trimming the trees and shrubs allowed more ch’i to flow in and around Prosperity and Fame. Clearing out the withered annuals and replacing them with the red poinsettias livened up and activated Career. Without thinking much about it, she had enhanced the precise three places to stir up ch’i for a new, higher-paying job. Activate Prosperity for more money, Fame for shining brightly in the universe and getting noticed, and Career for creating a job worthy of your time while on earth.
With that kind of luck, I think, Las Vegas is a perfect place for this family to live!
| Stressed-Out Landscape |
As long as I’m talking about the yard, I’ll make another observation. I have noticed that when front yards are meticulously and tediously wrought with items like little circles of colored gravel around goofy little statues or topiary, it’s usually a sign that there are Life Path issues with the occupants inside. I’m not talking about the well-maintained garden, but a highly controlled “statement” garden, one that looks like a cry for help. For some reason, it seems the more uptight and controlled the landscape looks, the more out of control the person is inside—as if he takes out on his yard his unhappiness and feelings of being controlled. Usually it’s the person’s career that is out of control. He has a controlling boss or a rigid schedule, or has unreasonable goals placed upon him.
This is a classic Career bagua case for the feng shui consultant. Inside, the Career gua usually has similar signs of distress. If you can relate to this, don’t frizz out yet. Just keep reading. Sometimes it is a slow process, but if you follow the wisdom of this book, you will eventually get where you want to be on your life path.
| The First Step on the Path |
If you are stuck, even when attempting to take the first step on your path, don’t worry. Here are two great ways to gather the ch’i to start:
1. Place some uncooked rice in a bowl. Take all the miscellaneous change you accumulate each day and place it in the bowl. Do this for thirty days. After that, count up all the change. Then give 10 percent of it to a charity or a homeless person.
2. Write down the things you think you want out of life, or the things you think you need to begin a career, on pieces of paper—one item per paper. Fold up the papers and place them in a bowl, and stir them with a big spoon or your hand each day for nine days. All of your intentions and requests that once did not have any ch’i behind them will now be enlivened and start to work for you because you are stirring them up.
It may sound weird, but it’s the truth, plain and simple.
| Take This Job and Love It |
In addition to implementing the above power tools for your Career area, here are things you can do if you are looking for a new job. Hang metal chimes or a bell outside the door to bring attention to yourself. Hang them on the nonhinged side of the door frame. Go to the Helpful People corner (see Chapter 6) and place a piece of paper that says, “The perfect career opportunity,” in a silver box (an aluminum-foil-covered box works too). Reinforce this with any affirmations or rituals you like (see Chapter 12), and then your only job is to make sure you look over every opportunity that comes your way. Erase the picture of a specific company from your mind and replace it with a picture of yourself being very happy doing something that you love and collecting a big check for it. Sometimes you have to have one door closed to make room for another to open. So don’t panic if you somehow unexpectedly lose your present job. You can’t put a new Kenneth Cole shoe on your foot if you keep that ol’ Payless shoe strapped to it!
| Skipping Rungs on the Corporate Ladder |
Say you’ve got a job you are happy with but you want to advance in the company a little faster. What do you do? Start by attaining what is usually necessary to get a promotion.
Number one: a good reputation. When the corporate commanders think of you, they should think of one thing only—a great employee. Your reputation cannot be tarnished. So let’s shine it up. Go to the Reputation section and make sure all is well there (see Chapter 3). You can add a little something extra with the intention of making that item help you acquire or keep a good reputation. Light a red seven-day candle and add a new green plant to the area. If you want your employers to think you can do anything, take a picture or poster of your favorite superhero, paste your photo over their face, and put your company name or logo on your chest. Place this somewhere in the Fame and Reputation section and see what happens.
Number two: you need a boss that is going to do something about your career. Write all the names of the decision makers in the company down on paper or company stationery. Add your name to it and place it in the Helpful People corner (see Chapter 6.) If you feel that you do not have a good relationship with one or more of the decision makers, place their names in the Relationship corner too (see Chapter 4), preferably on pink paper. The Relationship corner can help with all relationships, not just ones with lovers.
Remember, it is not necessary to boldly display your cures to the world. Place them behind pictures or in boxes, or tape them under a table in the area. As long as you know they are there, they will work. No one else has to know!
| King or Queen of the Cubicle |
Stuck in cubicle hell? Let’s try to make it livable. Apply the same nine guas to your cubicle as you have to your home, using the entry into the cubicle as the front door. Don’t forget that you can feng shui your desk too. (See Figure 13, Chapter 3.) Decorate each area with powerful symbols. Hang a calendar of waterfalls in the Career section. Books should go in the Skills and Knowledge area. Plants are best in the Family or Reputation section but work just about anywhere. A symbol of anything that has great value to you goes in the Prosperity corner. Spouse or lover photos work well in the Relationship corner, and kids (yours or someone else’s) next to them in Creativity. Place your Rolodex or handheld computerized address book in the Helpful People area. And finally, tape a construction-paper yellow sun under the middle of the desk for health, and you’ve got it all.
As with the example of the yellow sun, it may be easier to just use pieces of paper in the correct colors for each area. Cut them in the bagua shape (six inches across will do) for added symbolism and power. Stick them under your desk and you’ve got one cranked-up cubicle.
If your back is to the door of the cubicle or office when you sit at your desk and there is no way to change that, place a small mirror on your desk in front of you so as to catch a reflection if someone is behind you. Try a rearview mirror from an auto parts supply or a cosmetic case mirror stuck to your computer monitor. If a mirror seems too out of place, use a silver vase, a stainless steel pencil sharpener, or any other shiny, reflective office object.
| Ancient Tech Meets High Tech |
Since computers, scanners, and printers adorn most offices, you may be wondering if there is a better or worse location for them in your office or cubicle. Although there really is no terrible position for them, you may benefit if they are placed in the bagua area of the office or desk that corresponds to their function. For example, if you trade stocks on a computer all day for a living, then the Prosperity corner would be the way to go. If you use your computer more for its customer tickler file, try Helpful People. If it is used solely for payroll or accounting, perhaps the Family section may be appropriate. And if you are writing a book or screenplay, how about placing it in Fame?
Need more examples? If you are a designer and draw on the computer all day, the Creativity area seems most appropriate. Running a dating service? The computer in the Relationship corner might be the best matchup. I think you get it by now.
If you want to generate more incoming calls (maybe you are in sales), tie a red ribbon around the cord that runs from the jack to your phone. Do it to the modem line if you get business that way too. Want to really pump it up? Tie nine red ribbons instead of just one. G
et ready to hear the sound of business ringing in.
Want to pump up the Career feng shui for more business? Meet nine new people for nine or twenty-seven days and see what business comes out of it. Yes, nine people each day who you’ve never talked to before. Maybe it’s a person waiting in line behind you at the dry cleaners. Maybe it’s the copy repair person at the office. Introduce yourself and see where it goes. It’s pretty much a sure thing to generate new business or some other relationship that can help you in the future.
| Left, Right, Up, or Down? |
If you are looking for direction in your life, or are scattered because you are overwhelmed with all the possibilities and choices, check your shoes. They are the “rubber meeting the road” when it comes to your getting anywhere. Arrange them in the closet so they are all facing the same direction.
If coming out of the closet is a part of your life path, make sure the shoes are facing out, and keep the door ajar until you have succeeded. I would also suggest adding enhancements in the Family and Relationship areas with the specific intention of making this process an enjoyable and loving one.
If you can’t picture your goal clearly in your mind and don’t know where you are going, it’s impossible to know which way to turn, or if you are indeed “there.” But when you know where you are going, you not only realize when you have arrived, you can choose the kind of roads you want to take. You can use dangerous cliffside footpaths, meandering slow-paced scenic trails, or the freeway. You will be in charge of your destiny. So get clear on where you want to go. Enhance Skills and Knowledge if you are stuck with this (see Chapter 8).
Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life Page 12