Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life

by Karen Rauch Carter

  Symbols of Earth Pictures of mountains or farmland both work. A globe does too. I like to use natural stones or crystals. They make me feel grounded and in touch with Mother Earth.

  Horizontal or Flat Things A square stone tabletop in this area is a great replica of earth in feng shui terms. I have my square flat wedding album on my square stone coffee table in the living room next to a plant and three rust-colored candles.

  Although you can’t get much flatter than pancakes and pizzas (I hear my brutally honest dear friends in my inner ear now saying, “No Karen, you’re wrong—your chest is much flatter!”), they’re just too temporary to be considered.

  Fire The element of fire makes earth in the Creative Cycle, so use it to your advantage here. A little candle can do a big job in this part of the house. If your fireplace is in the middle of the house, you are practically home free. Just make sure it is in good working order.

  Stars and Sun These are elements of fire that especially work well in this area. They can be symbolized by items for sun such as sunflowers, sundials, and pictures of sunrises or sunsets, and by starfish, the Stars and Stripes, or the Star of David for stars. A copy of the video A Star Is Born is questionable but probably has merit.

  Religious Objects And speaking of the Star of David, any religious object you connect with works very well here.

  Red You got it. If fire is good, then red is too. Red candles, place mats, or runners can help that table I spoke of. A redtasseled lamp shade works. A nice throw on the couch does too. Red functions great for Health. Every year a friend of mine places a big bowl of red Christmas ornaments on her living room table. Until I learned feng shui, I never knew why that made me feel so good when I saw it. Besides invigorating the ch’i by holiday decorating, the red gave the room the warmth and balance it struggled for during the rest of the year.

  Triangular or Pyramid-Shaped Objects The symbolic shape of fire can heat up the health spot of the home.

  Hazardous Materials for Health

  * * *

  Wood Wood is the destructive force that uproots earth, robbing it of its nutrients and water. So, in the earth area of the home, it is not wise to have wooden stuff, especially in the form of trees or treelike plants. Even that big fake ficus plant had better move out into another area (preferably the Family or Fame area) because it symbolizes a tree. But as I said before, if you have to have it here, do something to balance it. Place it in a big white pot (white symbolizes metal) or at least place white, red, and yellow paper in or under the pot to add the fire and earth. (If you aren’t getting this Creative and Destructive Cycle stuff by now, go back and review Chapter 1.)

  Green Since green means wood—you guessed it—no green. The green leaves of nontreelike plants are the exception to this rule, so small plants can stay.

  Columnar or Rectangular Objects Like the towering trees of wood, tall columns and other tall, rectangular objects don’t belong here. If you’re stuck with this situation, mitigate it by using the Destructive Cycle for wood (white, round, and so on) and enhance the earth element for greater strength.

  Spiral Staircases Stairways in general are a scary subject in any area, but a spiral staircase can be a feng shui nightmare. First of all, spiral staircases usually don’t have risers, which really ticks off the ch’i (it keeps falling through). Second, with the spiraling pattern, the ch’i gets so dizzy and disoriented that by the time it gets to the bottom, it’s a dysfunctional mess. And finally, these staircases are usually made of metal or wood, which may conflict with the section of the home they are located in. For example, if you have a wooden spiral staircase in the middle of your home, it would be very wise to counteract it so your health does not suffer.

  Anywhere you have a spiral staircase, take special precautions to alleviate the ch’i from corkscrewing into the ground and out of your life. Here are some ways to do that:

  1. Remove the staircase or replace it. It sounds expensive and probably is. Don’t worry, here are more alternatives . . .

  2. Take a piece of fabric or a strand of silk greenery and wrap it around the metal center post of the staircase from top to bottom (remember, as long as it doesn’t look like a tree, green is OK). You can also wrap the banister. If you can, grow a real vine on it! Weird, but it can be effective. And if all of this is too tacky for you . . .

  3. Paint the staircase (or at least the underside of the treads) the color of the area of the bagua you are in. You can also use the Creative or Destructive Cycle colors to your benefit—a white metal spiral staircase in the Family area could be painted red (to melt it), or black (to feed wood), or green (to simply add more wood). And if painting is out of the picture . . .

  4. Light the staircase from above to lift the ch’i, or hide mirrors under the stairs facing up to reflect the ch’i back up.

  | Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures |

  As a feng shui consultant, I find that I am often called in after everything else has not worked. When the situation gets to a point of desperation and there’s nothing left to lose—well, let’s give ol’ feng shui a try. That’s OK, and I can work with that, but geez, why go through the crappy stuff if you don’t have to?

  Dear friends of mine were in this position. They had recently moved into a beautiful, brand-new home in southern California. Don and Laura were both in high-paying sales positions, which allowed them to decorate their home meticulously and beautifully. Unfortunately for Don, his new position in bed was not as meticulously thought out as the home decor. (See Figure 43.) A bathroom door aligned with the foot of the bed. The double-door entry into the bedroom also aligned with the bottom of the bed on his side, at a forty-five degree angle. Right outside the double doorway into the bedroom was a huge sweeping spiral staircase—right in the middle of the house, the Health area and center of the home. And the real topper: a huge silk ficus tree graced the center of the sweeping staircase.

  In less than six months of living there, Don was stricken with an illness that affected his legs, making it too painful to walk. The doctors to this day still aren’t completely sure what it was. He was hospitalized for over two weeks, where he submitted to every test imaginable.

  The day he was admitted, Laura asked me to come over and see what I could do. I immediately hung a crystal between the bathroom door and the bottom of the bed (with the intention of dispersing the ch’i). I laid down a red line of tape across the bedroom door frame (with the intention of stopping the ch’i from flowing out the door and down the staircase). And I placed mirrors in the closet under the staircase, facing up (with the intention of keeping the ch’i lifted). I also did a visualization that the staircase had bunches of helium-filled balloons tied to the railing (to keep things “looking up”).

  A recipe for disaster in Health gua.

  FIGURE 43

  Then we talked about the tree. This thing was so big there really was no other place to put it. I suggested removing it, but I could tell Laura was hesitant. So, I did the next best thing. I placed white and yellow all around the pot between the basket and the pot, and added real earth to the pot (with intention, of course).

  I gave her cures “to go”—to take to the hospital in case there were major faux pas in his room (trust me, there usually are). Then, I rang my Tibetan bell for clearing negative energies and sent them on their way. (See more on space clearing in Chapter 11.)

  As mysteriously as Don got sick, he gradually turned around, and today is running at 100 percent. The only thing the doctors did was give him huge amounts of antibiotics for several weeks in case he had some kind of infection; and once he started to get better, they pronounced that he indeed must have had one.

  I know some of you are wondering about the cures to go. I find it very common to see feng shui messes in places like hotels and hospitals. I gave Laura some red tape, to stop any ch’i in line with Don’s bed (such as from the bathroom door); a crystal, in case there was any arrow ch’i (remember, no angles pointing toward the bed); and some r
ed ribbon, to tie around the legs of the bed if it was metal and in the Family section of the room. And finally, I gave her a bag of salt (you can use rock salt, kosher, Epsom, or sea salt) so she could place some in a bowl of water under his bed, to absorb any negative energy (think of how many sick people have been in that bed before he got there).

  | If I Had Only Known Then What I Know Now . . . |

  It is always so easy to look back and trace the trail to demise. Now I use feng shui to ward it off before it happens. The following story is a little depressing, but it had so many good feng shui lessons, I am compelled to include it despite its seriousness.

  I will use my friend Gary as an example to show how a living space perpetuated mental illness. Gary was a very successful businessman bachelor who truly appreciated the finest money could buy—food, decor, furniture, cars, and the rest. He was meticulous about his seaside apartment, having a housekeeper vacuum every day and care for the large indoor plants. He was very generous with his time, money, material possessions. He was an excellent cook who prided himself on knowing the latest recipes and having the latest cooking utensils. He loved to eat. Under the advice of a doctor, he went on a supervised liquid diet to counter his ever-increasing obesity after a debilitating back injury. He decided that since he had previously quit smoking cold turkey, he could do this diet. So he cleaned out every item of food in the house and began. (Symbolically, he removed his prosperity, his love, and his physical sustenance.) He thought he could ignore the natural feelings of lack and vulnerability that came from being on such a diet. He simply turned his back on his love of fine food and social outings.

  He was on the liquid diet for about five months. He lost a lot of weight but was never the same. Although I believe his illness was a lifetime struggle just waiting to resurface, it seemed this diet was the catalyst that sent him back into its depths again. He started becoming paranoid, which caused him to fire his housekeeper. The apartment started to get quite messy, and all the plants died (accumulating clutter and dead ch’i). He then began to suffer serious symptoms of clinical depression—one symptom being the total inability to do anything, even get out of bed, talk on the phone, or leave the house (very stuck ch’i). His business dried up. He began drinking (bad for wisdom). Despite his son’s and two friend’s efforts to find help, he vehemently refused it. He started selling art off the walls to pay rent. The paranoia worsened to a point where he tacked black plastic over the windows (really bad for positive ch’i flow). Since he couldn’t leave, he had to rely on friends to deliver food and sundries. Money started quickly disappearing (like people, money doesn’t like to stick around depressing situations). He sold his truck, Jaguar, and business equipment for next to nothing because his paranoid fear of confrontation left him with the inability to negotiate. Clothes started piling up, along with empty two-liter soda bottles and garbage (more ch’i-stagnating clutter). One day when I visited, he said he couldn’t believe how his microwave and regular oven, two VCRs, and one television had all broken down within a week (direct result of stuck ch’i). Money was now very scarce, and after thirteen years of living in the once beautiful apartment, he was evicted. The final picture in my mind of this situation was this: dead plants lying on the floor, now covered with at least an inch of dust, a stench from dirty sheets and clothes, piles of mail by the door, including legal notices, and a curled-up Gary in bed. We finally called the county mental health department for intervention.

  Although this event occurred before I was taught feng shui, I look back with my feng shui eyes now and see the negative spiral he was in with his environment. The simple event of denying himself food and removing it from the house started him on a path that resulted in a total loss of everything—health, prosperity, reputation, relationships, career, family, helpful people, children, and wisdom. Such a simple, seemingly harmless change of environment caused a catastrophic chain of events. I often wonder how things would have been different if he hadn’t thrown out all of his basic-sustenance ch’i by removing all food.

  | Feng Shui, the Real Maytag Repairman |

  You might be wondering what the deal was with all Gary’s appliances breaking down at the same time. I think it was no coincidence. If the center of your home is healthy, your stereo, fax, car, computer, and appliances will be too. Give these items names and treat them like friends. I know, I know, it sounds weird, but is it the first thing that sounds weird in this book?

  | The Weight of the World Is on My Shoulders, Thighs, Hips, and Abdomen |

  I personally feel that if you properly apply feng shui to all the areas of your home, you won’t have a weight problem. But for those of you out there who think that’s a cop-out, here’s my quick-fix cure for obesity: Place a mirror facing out toward you on the refrigerator. If your downfall is the cabinet that houses the megamorsel cookies and the deep-fried pork rinds, mirror it as well. Mirrored cabinetry—it could catch on. Who knows?

  And if you consistently use a kitchen door to enter your home, either screen the kitchen from view somehow or (I may be getting too complicated here) use another door! If Cheez-Its and Funyuns are the first things you see each time you come home, you may be prone to heavy calorie pounding before you get a chance to think about what you’re doing. One client of mine who had this situation installed a Japanese curtain in the doorway to the kitchen. It helped that she was of Japanese descent, but it may work for you too.

  | Room with a View (For One Eyeball, Anyway) |

  The feng shui term split view refers to a situation in which, when you enter a room and look forward, one eye focuses on a close wall straight ahead and the other focuses on a wall, space, or object farther away (see Figure 44). This condition can cause imbalance and may show up several ways. It is a problem anywhere in the home—not just the Health gua.

  A split view is created by Wall A when you try to look into the distant room. The right eye focuses close on the wall and the left eye focuses at a distance.

  FIGURE 44

  A client recently had a split view upon entering his home. When I asked him if he had any feelings of instability, imbalance, or fatigue, he responded, “Well, I have just started seeing a psychologist because I think I have everything and should be happy, but deep down I’m not. Could that be it?” You see, split views make us see two things at the same time. In his case, it showed up as confusion about being happy and sad.

  The cures for this are simple. Place in the space something stunning that completely catches your attention (with both eyes) upon entering, so you focus on it instead. This could be a beautiful flower arrangement, a piece of art, or a big colorful bird in a cage. You could actually place an outrageous object in front of the wall that creates the split view (see Figure 45). Another alternative is to mirror the closer wall to “make it disappear,” thereby allowing your eyes to focus at a farther distance.

  Add elements that command both eyes to look either on or in front of Wall A, or into the distant room, to cure a split view.

  FIGURE 45

  The Body Bases Are Covered

  * * *

  By now you know the other eight areas of the home and their associated body parts. But if you have an ailment other than the foot, hip, eye, mouth, head, ear, hand, or organs, don’t worry. The center has got you covered. It takes care of any other body part and any other life situation you can think of that is not covered by the preceding eight guas. So enhance this area if you don’t think your particular problem fits into any of the other guas. Isn’t that tidy—an area of the home for anything else! As I said before, feng shui can benefit any condition.

  Nine Ladies Dancing

  * * *

  Nine is the number most closely associated with this part of the home. The number 9 is the highest digit of the lineup, and also the highest in humanitarianism. If you live in a 9 house you will be prone to thinking high thoughts (like the big picture in life) and will be able to reach once-considered-unattainable heights. Since it is the last of the numbers in
the lineup as well, 9 is prone to complete things and resolve old issues. Don’t lose sight of yourself in the process, though—keep the balance and it will seem like an effortless dance.

  Immediate Action Items for Health

  * * *

  1. Place metal (candlesticks, tray, and the like) on top of any wooden table that is in the middle of the room.

  2. Cure spiraling staircases anywhere in the home.

  3. Add enhancements as necessary.

  | Health in Summary |

  Power Tools: earth, items made from earth, fruit, funny stuff, yellow, gold, earth tones, squares, symbols of earth, horizontal or flat items, fire, stars and sun, religious objects, red, triangular or pointy objects.

  Hazardous Materials: wood, green, columnar or rectangular objects, spiral staircases.

  Opposite Gua: none

  Body Part: all other body parts not specifically mentioned in other guas

  Associated Number: 9

  chapter 11

  * * *

  Our House Is a Very, Very, Very Strange House

  This chapter will answer some of the questions about unique home configurations that might come up when using feng shui. After all, not everyone lives in a perfectly square or rectangular home. Different scenarios will be discussed that, with a little intuition and imagination, can fit a myriad of conditions.