West Meets East

West Meets East©

By Caroline Patrick

Feng Shui Reaches Legislation

This is an email I received this week. Yes, the time has come for learning institutions, hospitals, private and public facilities, city, state and federal buildings to become an example for living and working in a more balanced environmental atmosphere. Using Feng Shui or the Art of Placement to improve our living and working spaces helps each individual maintain a healthier, more positive outlook in their everyday interaction with our ‘brothers and sisters.’ Please read the proposal----

BILL INTRODUCED IN CALIFORNIA FOR FENG SHUI AND BUILDING STANDARDS:

BILL NUMBER: ACR 144 INTRODUCED

BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Yee

JANUARY 5, 2004

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 144--Relative to Feng Shui.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

ACR 144, as introduced, Yee. Feng Shui.

This measure would urge the California Building Standards Commission to adopt building standards that promote Feng Shui principles and publish these standards in the California Building Standards Code.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, Feng Shui is a natural earth science that reveals how people are affected by their immediate surroundings, and its core philosophy states humankind must live in harmony with the environment; and

WHEREAS, The practice of Feng Shui originated 4,000 years ago in ancient China when palaces and senior official residences were built according to Feng Shui principles that ensured that the royal families and senior court officials enjoyed harmony and high vitality living in a positive energy environment; and

WHEREAS, Feng Shui means wind (Feng) and water (Shui), and Chinese practitioners have focused their studies on obtaining the most benefit from the understanding of the flow of energies in the earth known as chi; and

WHEREAS, Feng Shui advocates living in harmony with the Earth’s environment and its energy lines, so that there is a proper balance between the forces of nature; and

WHEREAS, Feng Shui is widely practiced in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, and it is regarded as a vital part of everyday life in many parts of Asia; and

WHEREAS, Several western companies practice Feng Shui, including Citibank, N.M. Rothschild, Shell, and Sime Darby, and the principles of Feng Shui have become increasingly popular in western culture with fashion designers such as Donna Karan and Tommy Hilfiger integrating it in their showrooms, and entrepreneur Donald Trump consulting Feng Shui experts at his properties; and

WHEREAS, The structure of a building can affect a person’s mood, which can influence a person's behavior, which, in turn, can determine the success of a person’s personal and professional relationships, and the aim of Feng Shui architecture is to study how the environment in which people live may affect their lives, and influence their quality of life; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California urges the California Building Standards Commission to adopt building standards that promote Feng Shui principles and publish these building standards in the California Building Standards Code; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

Websites – http://www.fengshui2004.com/CALIFLEGISLATION.htm; http://www.backupbrain.com/2004_01_18_archive.html and http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0101-0150/acr_144_bill_20040105_introduced.html

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for passing this information along to me. As a Feng Shui consultant/ practitioner for many years with close to 3000 consultations, I find the time has come to assist builders and contractors at the beginning of their projects and not after the building has been completed. The frustration of trying to "correct" these sites after the fact, not only with home properties, but also with businesses and large corporate structures, is trying, to say the least!

Successful persons understand energy in business. They recognize personnel who are willing to bring Chi to their company in the form of positive communication skills. Buildings also impart positive or negative force as the drawing of the proposed structure takes form and become a living energy. The creator of the building must bring to the floor plan his or her knowledge of earth stress lines, the history of the land, the shape of the plot, how Feng Shui works, the essence of numbers, the five Elements of Water, Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth, their shapes and corresponding colors to build and complete a prosperous dwelling for its owners.

I have recently decided to work with builders and contractors just to achieve this concept. Why not make the building correct as possible to begin with? Thoughts are energy and powerful. It wasn’t many weeks after I had set those thoughts into motion that I received a call asking me to help with the Feng Shui of a half-completed health complex. Of course, I wish I had been able to suggest design applications in the beginning, but I am working with the builder on rooms within the structure. Colors for carpet, tile, and design issues, artwork, murals, flags, statuary, signs, and doorway placement are some of the decisions I have been ask to make to balance the building. The owner has determined only natural and recycled materials can be used, to insure a pollution-free, healing environment for patents and clients.

About the same time I began work on the complex, I was contacted by an international magazine called "Architectural Plus" to write a page on the "Power of Art in the Workplace." I gladly accepted the assignment as they included examples of my Feng Shui artwork, giving a visual display of where to place a water painting verses a fire picture in an office or building to balance the Yin and Yang of a room or workplace.

So the time has come for WEST TO MEET EAST as energy is energy and flows from one person to the other, one city to another, one nation to another and one ocean to the other and as the sky blends from wind current to cloud. We are responsible to learn as much from each other as possible and share the positive values which nature imparts. We can’t wait another minute.

Caroline

Career profile for Caroline Patrick, author of THE POWER OF FENG SHUI ARTWORK IN THE HOME AND BUSINESS

Caroline Patrick has conducted over 2500 Feng Shui consultations and has documented many of these experiences in her weekly newspaper column titled WEST MEETS EAST, which has been a highly popular addition to the Benicia Herald’s newspaper each Wednesday for the last six years. Teaching is her passion and for the last 35 years Caroline’s range of subjects has included art, herbs and Feng Shui. Her classes and workshops fill with eager students learning ancient ideas in a modern format.

Her past and present teaching experiences include Cochise, Pima, Arizona Central, Solano and Skagit Valley Colleges in Arizona and California and Washington State. Santa Clara County Teachers Council Conventions, AMA Continental Congress Convention of Surgeons, and Medical Research Facilities have asked her educate their employees and spouses, and Feng Shui their facilities. She has appeared on television and radio.

Business owner of Caroline’s Arts and Feng Shui Shoppe in the San Francisco Bay Area for eight years, Feng Shui Practitioner, speaker, teacher, writer and author, Caroline has recently relocated to the Northwestern U.S. and lives on an island in the San Juans. Her current consultation business is called Caroline’s Feng Shui Concepts.

Caroline can be reached at:

Caroline’s Feng Shui Concepts

2511 Commercial Avenue

Anacortes, Washington 98221

(360) 293-2268.

caroline@fengshuiartistry.com