West Meets East©

By Caroline Patrick BorNei

Certified Red Ribbon Professional of the International Feng Shui Guild

Feng Shui Color Gardens

There are many ways to create a more harmonious living space. Using Feng Shui, The Art of Placement, is a great tool for changing lives. This ancient Chinese system helps you choose the missing elements, shapes, and colors when designing your own sacred space.

Blacks, reds, blues, greens, purples, pinks, grays, yellows and whites are colors of nature’s healing spectrum. From science to folklore we now understand the importance of these colors. Each vitamin and mineral contains ingredients derived from plant or earth material. Each necessary microcosm has color, shape and action. This action is how planets are born. This energy or Chi flows throughout the universe, creating new life on earth and throughout space. Bringing a little of this heavenly energy into your homes and businesses has become my occupation.

Using the Bagua, or eight-sided octagonal grid placed over your property, I am able to determine what garden designs are best for your property. Starting at the street’s entry to the property, I first look at terrain, the plot shape and the general appeal of the landscaping. Starting at the entry of your home or business make sure the path leading into the front door is clear and inviting. This first section of the Bagua lines up to the section with the color black and is named Career. The element assigned to the area is water. A running fountain placed in the front yard symbolically brings money into the home. Round flowers in bright colors of reds attract the passing Chi. Like a magnet, the water element draws invisible energy through the portal of opportunities. Using lavender in large blue-green vessels on the immediate front left side of the yard, I invite the opportunities to learn more or to be respected about what I already know. To the far right of the house is the area called Helpful People and Travel. Gray rocks or a gray color of plants such as lamb’s ear or any sages will activate this very, very important section.

Next check the middle outside sections. To the left middle we find the green wood Family area. Are you having problems with close or extended family? The sacred plant called bamboo is my number one suggestion inside and outside. Clutter inside the home or overgrown neglected landscaping will trigger family chaos. Pay special attention to this Family Gua. Plant fruit trees or use this space for family reunions, picnics, family tennis or a garden enclosed in a column-shaped manner. Up-growing plants and trees are needed to teach your family the qualities of strength but retain the ability to be flexibility in mind, body and spirit. The world is now our family and we must learn to “bend” with others’ beliefs. If we don’t, we become broken in the wind of change.

Crossing over to the right middle side yard we visit the joyfulness of youth called Children and Creativity. White is the color or pastels. This is the Metal side of the house. Create a special children’s play garden with hide and seek bushes and trees, children’s swings and play tables for endless mud pie and craft making. You can also plant herb gardens with chamomile beds to lie upon and watch clouds dance in the sky, or have flowers of every color swaying in the breeze. Use chocolate mint and feverfew herbs standing next to purple Echinacea or purple, white and yellow yarrow for fevers or gray and lavender lambs ear for play bandages taped onto play-like doll wounds. Paint fairies on playhouse doors and dragonflies in transformation, as day turns into star-time. Sit under the trees and read stories or paint pictures. Participate in unplanned tea parties, for time flies by and before you know it, those little ones grow up and leave home. This is a good area for a potting bench or tool shed. Creation is the action for this right middle side.

Step lightly as we travel around the Bagua Wheel. We are now in powerful Feng Shui country – the backyard! From left to right and also the middle in the Power Zones, the three back Guas are the power force which runs the house and its owners. At the left backyard and inside the house, we have the Wealth Gua. Take care of this triad like gold, for it is the gold section. Money is its purpose. Spiritual abundance, that is. Whether it’s your 401(k)’s, stock market investments or your children’s piggy banks, this special space helps our assets grow steadily. Look around this area for clues to income problems. Do you have an unused hot tub, fountain, swimming pool or last year’s dead garden looking back at you? Time for clean up! Make this place spectacular. Wind and Water are assets for accumulating Wealth. Purple flowers, Zen garden, money plants, curving pathways toward magnificent trees and purple bushes. Herbal gardens for teas and tinctures, nettles and mullein for strength and lavender, catnip and oat straw for calmness during stock market fluctuations. A fountain with the water’s flow directed toward the house is very welcome.

The middle back Fame or fire zone should be a home for the barbeque cooking. Pointed trees, plants and lighting ensure your reputation in the community. Light up your backyard with lanterns, blinking lights or tiki-torches. Try a fire pit or open fire container in the center back of your landscaping.

Last but most important, we find the power section of Partnership. The strength of this special place depends on how you discipline others in the family. This far back right quadrant is the home of your mate. Some single people from choice, death or divorce of spouses tend to neglect this piece of property. Some folks will tell me, “I’m not interested in another mate, so what should I do?” My reply: “Keep it balanced so you’ll always have choices.” Use pink flowers or a coral shade of fabric or pottery on the back deck with seating for two. A word of advice to keep your love life happy: Find another location on the property for the dog run, children’s play equipment, hot tub or entertaining. It is a “two only” adult section of the house and backyard. Two healthy trees, a statue of two same-sized animals, people or gardens is helpful. A lovers’ lane could be created with a special hidden bench for two or maybe an outdoor bedroom for honeymoon stargazing nights.

The ideas are endless. Implement new changes. Clear out the clutter. Invite the colors and elements into the indoor and outdoor spaces of your environment. Embrace your surroundings and experience the essence of heaven Chi, animal Chi, dwelling Chi and luck Chi through Feng Shui.

If you live in the Napa, Benicia, Vallejo, Concord, Sacramento, or Redding areas, I will be giving consultations, blessings and clearings from July 29^th through August 20^th. Please call (503) 208-2960 or (360) 420-5096 for an appointment.

Caroline Patrick Bor Nei is a certified Feng Shui Practitioner and a Red Ribbon Professional of The International Feng Shui Guild. Her abilities as a consultant and artist are widely known in the US and abroad. Caroline has completed over 5000 consultations for individuals, large and small businesses. Return clients appreciate the value of her suggestions both mundane and transcendental, providing support on multiple levels. As a college art instructor for many years, Caroline understands the power of color; its symbolism and the visual effect images have on individuals in their surroundings. Her home base is Portland, OR where she continues to write, teach, paint, do illustrations and give herbal medicine making classes. She is available for Feng Shui consultations; Feng Shui art consultant, advises builders, architects and mentors a few serious students.

Call (503) 208-2960 or email caroline@fengshuiartistry.com.

Any suggestions given in this column are only for entertainment. Please contact your physician for any medical or herbal advice or diagnosis. Caroline Patrick is not responsible for any misuse of her advice or suggestions.

Caroline’s “West Meets East” weekly newspaper column can be read from archives on her website www.fengshuiartistry.com.