Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life

by Karen Rauch Carter

  | Commonly Asked Questions and Cures |

  My home is not square. How does the bagua work then?

  There are a few items to take into consideration when doing a basic feng shui makeover. Missing pieces are a crucial consideration. If you have one or more pieces missing when you overlay the bagua onto the home, you have a place in the home that is not supporting you. And if it is not supporting you, your own personal energy is used to make up the difference. You get drained and are left weak in the area of your life associated with the missing space.

  In Figure 46, the Prosperity section of the home is missing. This may show up in your life as money going out as fast as it comes in, or perhaps as your need to work way too hard for every morsel of money you get. Part of the Children and Creativity gua is missing as well. In this situation, perhaps it’s your kids who are draining your wallet.

  An L-shaped home.

  FIGURE 46

  But don’t worry, there are several ways to correct this situation. Yes, you could hire a contractor to build an addition to your home that would fill in the missing piece, but that probably would incur great expense. If you don’t want to call the contractors, try one of these methods.

  For completing the corner using the space outdoors, carefully place vertical or horizontal objects exactly where the two walls would meet if the piece were not missing (see Figure 47). Or you can create “outdoor walls” with linear items. Several variations will work to complete a missing piece. Remember, using symbolism when making an adjustment like this adds strength. For example, if the Relationship corner is missing, one solution for the exact corner is a redbud tree. It has heart-shaped leaves. (Of course, you have to consider whether that tree grows in your climate or not.) Another example: If the Skills and Knowledge corner is missing, create an outdoor space with a statue of a sitting Buddha, Solomon, or another wise person as a focal point. Pour a concrete patio and place pennies with wise ol’ Lincoln on them into the concrete.

  Cures for an L-shaped home.

  FIGURE 47

  Below are a few other alternatives for fixing missing pieces by placing an element where the corner of the home should be.

  Vertical Objects

  tree

  flagpole

  light pole

  maypole

  tetherball pole

  clothesline pole

  outdoor fireplace with chimney (Watch the elements with this one. It’s not the best for the Creativity section.)

  fountain with water spray at corner (unless completing the Fame section)

  gazebo or other outdoor architectural structure

  trellis or fence

  garden walls

  hedge

  sculpture or large pot

  sundial

  child’s play structure

  Flat or Horizontal Objects

  a red line sprayed on paving where the walls should be (You can also bury red string or ribbon underground to complete the form.)

  stones, bricks, or tiles lined up to complete the configuration

  a pool or other water feature (best if rounded in form so no angles point at the home)

  a crystal buried at the corner (either multifaceted glass or natural)

  fire pit

  sand box

  For completing the corner using the indoor space (say, because there’s a pool outside right where your completed corner would be), use the same cure as for arrow ch’i. Place a crystal inside the home at the corner that pokes into the house (again, see Figure 47). Intend that the crystal cure the missing piece. Also, remember to adjust the elements as well—for example, if the pool in the example above is in the Fame gua.

  If you did your best with the exterior and interior cures and your life still feels a bit out of balance, here are two more suggestions. The first option is to give extra attention to the same gua that the home has missing in each room. Using Figure 46 as an example, make sure each room in the home has strong Prosperity and Creativity guas. The second option is to employ the cover-your-butt cure mentioned in the “Checks and Balances” section of Chapter 1 in the same places.

  Parts of my home jut out toward the street and are in front of the front door. How does the bagua overlay in this situation? Is the “front door” out in the yard somewhere?

  You will get different answers from different feng shui consultants on this one. My advice would be to start at the front door as usual and place the bagua over the parts of the home that fall behind it. Then take a look at which part of the home is in front of the front door and see if it is necessary to bring it “into” the home. If it is a junky garage, leave it out. If it is your child’s bedroom, bring it in (see Figure 48).

  Without proper adjustments, whatever space or room is poking out in front of the front door is outside the home’s main energy pattern. If it is the kitchen, the inhabitants may never cook and may find themselves eating out a lot. Or worse yet, one spouse eats out a lot and leaves the other one home alone.

  If it is a child’s bedroom, the child may leave home at a young age. (This works both ways. If you have an adult “kid” that won’t fly the coop and you have a bedroom in front of the front door, move them there to symbolically place them outside of the house. Maybe they will get the hint and start packing.)

  When part of your home is outside your home.

  FIGURE 48

  If you have an office in the home, this may be the room to use so it does not nag at you so much while you are at home.

  Here are some of the best uses for space in front of the front door:

  in-laws’ quarters

  adult “child”

  home office

  messy hobby or storage room

  garage

  bathroom

  Here are uses that definitely should not be in front of the front door:

  master bedroom

  small child’s room

  kitchen

  If you have a room in front of the house’s main door that needs to be brought in, simply place a mirror (preferably bagua shaped, but that’s not necessary) anywhere inside the home facing the “outside” room. (There can be walls between the mirror and this room, as in Figure 48.) Give the mirror the job of bringing the room into the home with your intention.

  A big chunk of my bagua falls in the apartment next door and I’m pretty sure the guy who lives there would think I’m crazy if I mentioned feng shui to him. How can I complete my missing piece?

  This type of multitenant living can result in mixed energies with your neighbor if indeed his apartment completes yours. You’ll find you have to use extra energy to overcome this situation without a feng shui cure. Place a plant, crystal, or chime at the corner of the two walls where the neighbor’s apartment pokes into yours (see Figure 49). As well as curing the arrow ch’i, this can cure the missing part. Give it strong intention that it is being placed there to overcome this unsatisfactory ch’i condition.

  When part of your home falls in someone else’s home.

  FIGURE 49

  Does the shed built onto the side of the house count? (I can only get into it from the outside.)

  Anything attached to the house that is under solid roof can affect the energy of a home (see Figure 50). Just as applying makeup alters the look of your face, this addition alters the energy of your house. Notice which gua of the home it falls into and make sure there is nothing hazardous to that particular section’s essence. If the family skis are stored neatly in the Family section, there’s no problem. If the garbage cans are stored there, you might be looking to rectify this if family matters are priority concerns right now.

  Sheds.

  FIGURE 50

  How do you treat a detached garage or other outbuildings on the lot?

  Whether it’s the doghouse or an outhouse, if it is not connected to the building you live in, it is considered a separate feng shui situation (see Figure 51). Place the bagua over it just as you did for the house, starting with the door. But one
thing you should do is to consider where that outbuilding falls if you overlay the bagua onto the whole lot. You wouldn’t want the outhouse in your Prosperity corner. Hey, a toilet is a toilet.

  Detached garages and outhouses.

  FIGURE 51

  Use the formal entry to the lot as the front door when overlaying the bagua.

  Do the closets count as part of the room?

  Yes and no. You can use a closet as an addition to the room (like the shed mentioned above) or as a part of it (see Figure 52). Also, if it has a door on it, you can treat it as its own “room.” Just align the bagua of the closet with the closet door and go from there.

  Closets.

  FIGURE 52

  I have a sunken living room in the house. Does this affect anything?

  Ch’i flows like water. It will eventually flow to the lowest part of the home. If you have a sunken room, counterbalance the flow by placing items anywhere that bring the ch’i back up: mirrors, crystals, ceiling fans, or pictures that have sky, balloons, planes, or birds in them. Or keep the ch’i stirred up with pets, children, and other moving things.

  I live in a two-story home with a full basement. Do I feng shui all of the floors?

  It is best to review all floors of your home for negative ch’i-flowing conditions and apply proper feng shui cures to them. I’m talking here about things like corners (arrow ch’i) pointing at your bed, beams overhead, and beds in line with doors. But the ground floor—the floor above the basement where the front door is located—is the most important floor to have properly feng shuied.

  The other floors should reflect the ground floor’s sections of the bagua (either directly above or below it; see Figure 53). If your home is totally unique—say, only the doorway is on one floor, and the rest of the home goes up from there—call a professional or use your intuition as to the best alignment.

  My home sits lower than the street. Is that OK?

  Yeah, so does mine. This is one of those commonsense ones. Water travels downhill. Street water can now drain toward your house. This is a potential danger. One way to counterbalance this is by symbolically lifting up the rear of the lot and lowering the side adjacent to the street. Place boulders in the front-yard corners to weigh them down, and place “up” lights in the rear corners. Or do whatever else seems appropriate to your situation (see Figure 54).

  Orient the bagua of additional floors in the same manner as the main floor that includes the front door.

  FIGURE 53

  I heard it was bad to live in a home sitting at the end of a long street. Is there anything wrong with that?

  If you are in line with something like a street (see Figure 55), you may need a little protection. There are several choices. Paint the front door red if it is not out of keeping with your home’s decor. If there is a shiny, reflective door knocker on it, so much the better. Hide a mirror in a planter or pot by the front door, facing the street, with the intention of reflecting the street away. Finally, you could place things like boulders in the yard (maybe consult a landscape architect who knows feng shui and other landscape solutions) to slow the ch’i down so it won’t hit your home straight on.

  Homes that are lower than the street.

  FIGURE 54

  My home is built on a hillside, and most of the house is on stilts. Is this a problem?

  There may be grounding and foundation problems. If you feel as if your head is in the clouds or your feet aren’t on the ground, try placing an object of weight (either symbolic weight or actual weight) in the corners of the home that are not touching the ground. Round stones, barbells, or toy heavy machinery can all work with the proper intention. Just place the items in the corner and say to yourself something like, “I am now grounded in my thoughts and actions.” (See Figure 56.) Here’s a personal-grounding cure: place small rounded rocks on top of a mirror facing up under your bed, in the lower abdomen area.

  Homes at the end of a long street.

  FIGURE 55

  Homes on stilts.

  FIGURE 56

  My neighbors suck. I want as little to do with them as possible. Any cures for that?

  Offensive neighbors can make life a wee bit difficult, to say the least. It’s hard to be nurtured by your home if you feel invaded by someone else’s noise, smells, junk, or habits. I have two suggestions. The first is to investigate why you are allowing this person to rob you of your vital energy. Remember, energy follows thoughts. The more you think about it, the more this clod is in your life. Perhaps changing your mind would alleviate most of the turmoil. Easier said than done, I know, but I have seen dramatic results with this technique.

  My second suggestion would be to use a traditional cure. Place a mirror either on the outside of your house (preferably hidden from view), facing the neighbor, or inside on a wall, still facing the neighbor, and intend for it to reflect all annoyance away from you (see Figure 57). If you are using one outside and have access to one of those Chinese mirrors with the I Ching trigrams on it, so much the better (and if you don’t know what that is, visit the Web site fengshuipalace.com for more information).

  Reflect your neighbor away using a mirror.

  FIGURE 57

  I recently moved. For some reason I get the creeps whenever I go into one particular room in the house. I think something may have happened in there in the past. Is there anything I can do about that besides avoid the room?

  Chances are, if it feels creepy it is creepy. If there are no physical, obvious signs of stagnant ch’i (dead plants, leaky ceilings, grungy walls and furniture), there may be problems on another level (an argument may have occurred there and is still lingering, a death occurred, or the house was built on a burial site). There may even be underground utilities, aquifers, or overhead power lines affecting the space.

  There is a rule-of-thumb equation to help you choose the most effective force to use in clearing a space. It is intensity × duration = force of ch’i. That means the degree of difficulty in removing the negative ch’i really depends on how long the negativity occurred there and how intense it was. The energy force of a couple quarreling for two months before they divorced and moved out would be different from the energy of a confused teenager who committed suicide in the space. The quarreling couple’s energy took longer to create but was not as intense as the suicide.

  With any of these situations, space clearing may be necessary. If you don’t know exactly what the problem really is, it may be time to call in the professionals. Feng shui consultants (and other professionals such as bau-biologists and dowsers, who scan homes for electromagnetic fields, poor air quality, underground water, and other potentially dangerous items with specific equipment) usually have an arsenal of strategies for handling these conditions.

  It is best to apply ritual clearing techniques that equal the force of what you are releasing. For example, spending five minutes with a weak clearing technique in the dead teenager’s energy is probably not going to fully release it. I would apply a more intense ritual.

  There are many types of effective space clearing rituals out there to use. Whole books are dedicated to the subject. Here is one simple technique that is good for releasing stagnant energy in a room.

  First, clean the room. That includes wiping down the walls and touching every surface in the room if you feel it is necessary. Then, peel an orange, making nine pieces of peel in the process. (Set the orange aside.) Place the peels into a dish of fresh water. Clear the room by flicking the water solution around it, using your two middle fingers and thumb (so your hand looks like bull’s horns before you flick; see Figure 58). Do this while intending that the room be freed of the stagnant energy. Give thanks when you are done.

  If this doesn’t do it, I would call in the pros.

  Dip your hand into the orange water and then flick the water around the entire room for space clearing.

  FIGURE 58

  I live on the top floor of a multitenant building. Besides that, the roof above my head is load
ed with a bunch of air conditioners and other electrical stuff for the building. Can that be affecting me and my apartment?

  Yes, it may be affecting you. The more you are aware of it (sound vibrations when they are turned on, shadows cast over your skylight, cracks in the ceiling), the more it is probably bringing your ch’i down. Use the mirror cure, this time facing up. Intend that it reflect that junk away from you. Work on disguising its physical presence by fixing the cracks and adding a pleasant background sound in your space (like a water feature). See if there’s any way to move the item that is casting the shadow.

  I live in an apartment above a garage. You said that the ground floor is the most important, so do I have to count the garage as part of my home?

  Yes, but deal with it differently.

  In general, if your living space is directly above a garage you must take special precautions. Current residential construction practices do little to protect you from the fumes and other negative traits that living above a garage offers (like ch’i whizzing by, in and out all day). Reflect the negative stuff away by using a mirror that faces the problem. That means it is turned facing down in this example. Probably the best location for it is on the floor under a piece of furniture. Place the mirror in this position with that specific intention in mind and you will be protected.

  And just like the multitenant dweller, if you live above the ground floor, place something in your home to ground you.

  I have a storage room rented somewhere away from my home. Is this a good place to keep my stuff?

  It is definitely better than living with it in your home. But it would be better still to not have it at all. Take a good look at the stuff and ask yourself why you are paying to keep it around. Here are some answers that don’t fly: