West Meets East©

By Caroline Patrick BorNei

Certified Red Ribbon Professional of the International Feng Shui Guild

The Student’s Continuing Questions

Mentoring with your favorite teacher is a way to jump start new knowledge. Pick a subject and don’t procrastinate any longer. I received photos of a class reunion this week from my girlfriend of 60 years. I stared at the emailed picture and wondered who all those old people were. I scanned the flat screen looking for a familiar face. Only seeing two people I recognized, it was a good reminder that I’m not getting any younger, so procrastination isn’t an option. I challenge those reading this article to not wait another day to start the future!

Don’t forget to check the immediate left front section of your current home to see what is causing a delayed decision about learning new things. This area or Gua is known to activate Knowledge. Mountains are the image to help you move upward and learn. The Color is Blue for calming the mind. Is this your garage that needs cleaning, or is this a study, den or bedroom? Clear the clutter to motivate your learning ability, add a crystal over your desk for clarity.

These are some questions and answers from one of my current students. She wanted to take my customized correspondence course, as you can do your “homework” between other jobs and learn at your own pace. Before becoming a consultant, it is important to look at your own environment. Her dream is to combine what she has already experienced in her 40 years, delete what isn’t working and move forward from that point. Here are some more shared questions and answers that may help your current journey.

Student:

You mentioned on staircases to not put pictures on the wall. Did I hear right, and is this a general rule? I did hear that you suggested tall banners to slow down Chi.

Caroline:

Again as we discussed, energy travels through halls and stairways, to slow down the “too fast” flow, wind chimes, correct Element murals, crystals, paintings, wall hanging, plants, up-growing vines and images are used to invite the Chi to linger in each area of the house. Don’t stair-step paintings as they create more fast-moving energy. Divide “Heaven and Earth” or put a border halfway between floors for a more peaceful feeling.

Remember hallways and stairways relate to the veins and arteries to your body. Don’t clog them with clutter!

Student:

I am curious of the dynamics of when someone lives in a duplex or apartment with upstairs and downstairs neighbors, and just the implications of living in a two-story house. How do you read the Bagua? You mentioned how someone adjoined to my family wall would be my “parent.” Is it preferable for a two-story house that the bedrooms are upstairs rather than downstairs? My perspective tells me it should be this way, but I would like to hear from your knowledge.

Caroline:

All life is our family. This is why studying your own family is so important. Always TRY to understand the symbols around you, as they are clues to everything ... Feng Shui your home, your business, your neighborhood, the community, the country, the nation and the world. It is all the same. Your biggest irritation is your lesson ... including your ancestors.

So those around you or close to you will “talk” to you, whether it is the neighbor’s barking dog or the little lady next door that brings cookies when you are moving in, or the dead tree or bird on your sidewalk. Read the symbols. Lay the Bagua over the United States, your city or your side of the duplex to see what your house is saying!

Bedrooms for the best Feng Shui should be located behind the center of the house for more “protection” and rest. If they are in the front of the home, mirrors can be used in certain parts of the house to “pull the room” back to the other side of the dwelling. Health problems can occur sometimes without the correction.

Student:

Mirrors: You suggested a round mirror for my office as well as Dennis’s office. What is the significance of the shape and placement? You mentioned it is to pull back Chi, and I am not getting a clear picture about this. As I understand it, mirrors will obviously reflect back unwanted Chi or slow down Chi. It will also make a room be duplicated so the house becomes balanced, i.e. to the right of my front door. I know that convex mirrors are to make things bigger and concave mirrors are to make things smaller. What information on mirrors am I missing? I seem to get a little confused here.

Caroline:

Mirrors are the aspirin of Feng Shui. Different schools of Feng Shui argue over the correct use of the reflective surface. I have found in my experience that they are very powerful, and can change your life. A book could be written just on this subject. I just mentioned one way to use these reflective surfaces in the above question. Again, experience and inspiration (after studying the cures) is necessary. They can pull, push, reflect, open spaces such as narrow dark hallways, which also symbolize the birth canal and can cause labor problems when not corrected, and light up rooms by “bringing” in the sky or Wind. Convex mirrors widen and open a whole room as in an example: a very small car rearview mirror attachment, which is convex. Concave mirrors change whatever they reflex by turning the image upside down and making the image it reflexes something entirely different from what it is.

Student:

There is in my world setting energy and then the wisdom of Feng Shui which has proven universal laws that all enhance one’s life. My question to you is, have you seen clients need to use the opposite element to counterbalance some issue in their life? For example: You know our kitchen is placed in the family Bagua. My husband and I seem to be working on a lot of karma releasing from family expectations, so it makes some sense that we have some metal elements in that area to bring into the present our own health issues (the walls are creamy white, round gold clock and I have metal chime). I am sure there is some formula to this occurrence. Any comments would be appreciated. Now I do have wood/mountain elements as well (bamboo chime, my herbal hand-painted medicine cabinet, Hawaiian maidens bathing in a mountain stream). I have yet to find an ancestor cure that works for us, but that is our growth.

Caroline:

Some family issues are beyond repair. You could spend lifetimes trying to forgive, but that is what we continue to dwell on as the energy is familiar, and so we try to change others. It leaves us dragging through life waiting for that magical moment when the person or persons magically call us and say, “I was wrong, please forgive me.” Statistics are that call won’t come. We fear freedom as much as we fear prison, because if we succeed, then we need to walk our talk!

The Heart Sutra Mantra, when practiced daily, will free you from this trap. It is for past, present, and future Karma. It releases us from the duty of judgment. (A CD can be purchased from www.fengshuishopper.com with Marina Lighthouse and Professor Lin Yun’s music for great listening and learning to calm the heart.)

If a wall is painted red in the Family Sector, this would be called using the destructive cycle to “burn” up the Wood or Family Life. Add several green plants or pictures with green matting to equal out or balance the decor, this would work. Or if the whole house in dark wood furniture, wood floors, wood cabinets, wood desks, striped wall paper, wood ceilings and wooden frames on the pictures, then you will have very stubborn, lazy people hanging around in this house. Add white and white round or dome-shaped Metal objects to “chop” some of the Wood, or red to “burn” some of the wood. That would be using the destructive cycle in a good way.

Placing a fountain into this house would give the Wood more Water to grow more Wood and clog Earth. Then the women in the family would not have “a say so” in that house. It is all very intriguing.

If you want an early bird price for our September 14th Trip to the Middle Kingdom of Tibet, please contact me before March 31^st. We will start in China and cross over into Tibet mid-trip. This is a lifetime wish and it has manifested!

Caroline Patrick BorNei 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.