West Meets East©

By Caroline Patrick

Spring Ahead with Feng Shui

You feel you have made an impact with the subject of Feng Shui when one of your loyal readers, a friend and student, catches a huge mistake in this column on the placement of Guas. Last week in the Taiwan travel series number III, I referred to the Helpful People and Travel Heaven Gua being located in the immediate left corner of the house. WRONG!!! Its home or area is located in the immediate right corner of the house from the architectural front door. Please except my apologies. I'm putting this SOS at the top of this article so anyone building a house or remodeling one can catch this information.

I will be coming to Benicia May 1st through the 9th to teach and to give a FREE talk, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE HOUSES THAT TALK ABOUT YOU, at “A Faerytale” on First Street in Benicia on Tuesday evening, May 1st. Mini-consultations for a fee will be given on the 2nd all day, but you must sign up for the talk or an appointment. Please call if you need an on-site consultation the following week. So...I will talk about the Helpful People Corner at length, as I have had several clients the past few weeks, with fascinating stories in conjunction with activating the Helpful People corner. Thanks again to the special person who caught my mistake, I congratulate her keen eye and probably owe her a dinner!

I will continue my Taiwan travelogue next week with the final episode.

Landscaping your home by using Feng Shui principles enhances the flow of Chi or energy of your property. Its benefits increase the growth of abundance for your family. Using this ancient knowledge to design the outside of your living spaces brings a balance of yin and yang, and by using certain colors, water features, plants, stone statuary, metal structures and earth elements, you can enliven your career, wisdom, and family life; increase finances; build and create character and self esteem; provide a garden for communication with your partner; activate a time for play; attract individuals in work and home-related situations where help is needed; and bring a contentment and peace to your home, community, the nation and the world.

Whether a professional landscaper is hired to provide such a space or you and your family want to design your own areas, here are some tips for developing tranquility in your environment by using ancient Chinese Feng Shui principles.

Step 1: Map the Home. I offer several workshops a year on this simple process. Using the ancient grid set up by several civilizations, but perfected by the Chinese 4,000 — 5,000 years ago, an eight-sided octagonal-shaped template was devised my masters of this culture to equally divide the nine major aspects of humans and their mind, body and spirit connection to their earthly existence. This template can be used by any religion or culture to determine whether the houses or land on which they have chosen to live is in balance. This equal mathematical eight-sided grid, when placed over the body, home, buildings or plots of land, sets the stations of life into a visual map. By mapping the home, the energy of each section inside the dwelling flows magically into the front, side and backyards of the family structure.

Step 2: Now that the extending areas of the Bagua or eight-sided grid are located over your house, we continue into the outside living spaces.

Usually the front door to the house faces the street. If it does not, a qualified Feng Shui consultant is needed to determine the mouth of the chi or energy entering the property of the home, room, or business in question.

This seemingly difficult determination is easily solved by a professional consultant. Although there are many Feng Shui schools of thought such as Geomancy, Form School, Compass, Pyramid or Black Sect Tibetan Buddhism form, all have unique ways of aligning your land and house. Each school has valid information to share.

I practice a form called Black Sect, which automatically aligns the architectural entry door with the Career zone of the dwelling which usually faces the street. Using actual physical directions is not necessary when using the Black Sect Tradition of Feng Shui. The main purpose of Feng Shui is to bring a balance of wind and water into your environment, allowing the peaceful energy to nurturing body, mind and spirit. This unseen energy or Chi circulates throughout the home filling each room and space, if the house is clutter free!

Step 3: Rid the house inside and outside of clutter, old or new. Creating new energy requires getting rid of old stuff. A vacant space must be formed to allow the growth of new possibilities. If this suggestion gives you the “bends,” “Call The Man!” or woman! Ask your neighbor or friends for recommendations on competent companies or workmen who provide the hauling services needed to clean up your excess clutter. Vow never to build up those piles of stagnant energy again. The rewards of this effort can bring relief to the areas of your life that seem stuck.

Example — are family quarrels the norm? Look to the middle left side yard of the house for the answer. Is this the dumping ground for old lumber, buckets, weeds and broken motors?

Step 4: Check out the romance section of your life. The far back right corner of the house represents the love life, inside and outside. From my experience, if trouble is brewing with your partner, a barbecue, pot, broken hot tub or a cactus garden could be the landscaping culprit. Where are the outbuildings, septic tank, fire pit, or dog pens located? Each building holds energy, good or not so good. Leaking pipes, faucets and clogged drains are related to kidney, bladder and money leaving the bank account. Stuffed hallways are serious signs of clogged arteries. Old appliances drain a home’s energy, sending harmful EMF’s through walls and into your bedrooms.

Step 5: Choose happiness in your new living spaces.

Caroline Patrick, Feng Shui consultant/practitioner, teacher/speaker, Feng Shui artist and writer, lives in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington. Her current scheduled classes, private mentoring and workshops are posted on www.moongateschool.com. She will be coming to Berkeley and Benicia California the first of May 2007 to give a workshop and is available for consultations. Please email for information and availability.

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 Patrick Caroline's Feng Shui Concepts Mt. Vernon, WA 360-424-1501

caroline@fengshuiartistry.com www.fengshuiartistry.com www.moongateschool.com