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Dr. Gabriele Van Zon
Tel: 904 273-2445
Cell: 904 608-0906
gabriele@fengshuiuniversal.com





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Archive for Water

Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter January 2013

By gabriele · Comments (0)
Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

The Year of the Water Snake!

This year the Chinese New Year begins on February 10th.  After our turbulent year of man-made and natural disasters, the weary Water Dragon slinks away, and out slithers the Water Snake.  And fortunately, with all five elements present in Chinese astrological charts, the Water Snake brings a fresh set of energies to the New Year.  

With no element missing, the year’s outlook will be positive, bringing harmony with fewer obstacles and problems.  A new sense of calm pervades the year, and everyone will have a chance to see better times ahead.  People will refocus their goals and work to create a new world order.  As seen from a spiritual feng shui perspective, the Water Snake suggests that the spirits of the Earth will be helpful rather than destructive.

We are moving from the strong yang of the Dragon to the mysterious yin of the Snake.  That means outward activity will shift from Dragon, the doer, to inward sensitivities of Snake, the thinker.  2013 will be a special year that should bring advances for scientists and scholars.  The Snake picks up vibes and senses inner truths causing falsehoods to be revealed and exposed.      

Advice for the Snake year of 2013:  Pause and reflect on the past as well as plan for the future.  Like the Snake shedding its skin, let go of all attachments – emotional, mental, physical, financial, and spiritual – that may be holding you back.  The Water Snake will bring transformation, rebirth and new beginnings. 

On an individual level, the Snake is very sophisticated and prefers a cultural home environment.  The Snake is elegant and graceful with a flair for luxurious comfort.  We might want to think about enhancing our environment with feng shui adjustments that would endorse these characteristics of the Snake.  Clever balancing of the elements in your living space will replicate in the microcosm what seems so promising on the macro scale.  Adding a little extra metal in your living space will also feed the water element that is so closely related to the year’s tendencies.  Earth and metal add resources to water in the productive cycle of the elements, symbolically creating wealth.  Also, a little sparkle will lift the spirit. 

The Snake is private and secretive, appears to be lazy, and loves to go on vacation.  However, keen and cunning, intelligent and wise, the Snake is working hard behind the scenes, putting great value on material wealth.   

While Ahead, Let’s Make Hay
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

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Categories : Earth, Elements, Feng Shui, Metal, Water
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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter December 2012

By gabriele · Comments (0)
Saturday, December 15th, 2012

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Christmas Tree!

Looking at Christmas with feng shui eyes, we discover that our tradition of the Christmas tree is a perfect feng shui symbol.  And yes of course, we are talking about a natural, living Christmas tree.  Any one of the magnificent specimen of conifers will be the perfect tao connection to nature.  It is also a vertical tao connection to a long history of multi-cultural significance. 

 In his short and entertaining history, “Inventing the Christmas Tree,” the German writer Bernd Brunner traces the tree’s roots to the 12th or 13th century.  In a fascinating description on “Building a Better Christmas Tree” (NYTimes.com 12.6.12), we learn about Dr. Chastagner, a plant pathologist who heads a Chrismas tree research lab, and Dennis Tompkins who edited “The American Christmas Tree Journal.”

 If you can have the good fortune of bringing a living tree into your space, you will benefit from the beneficial qi (chi) of a living, breathing creature from the plant kingdom.  In addition to its perfect tao and qi, our living Christmas tree represents all five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water.  It has the expanding energy of the wood element.  We decorate it with lights – historically with burning candles – adding the rising energy of the fire element which is also symbolic of holiday cheer bringing joy to the world.  Ideally, our living tree has its root system intact – a rich, brown maze of earth energy – being nourished by water, the source of life and germination.  With creative flourish, we add metallic tinsel, round ornaments, silver and gold, thus embellishing our tree with the sparkle of the metal element. 

Our Christmas tree satisfies all the senses with the fresh scent of spruce and fir, the happy ting-a-ling of silver bells and its majestic presence of visual splendor.  With its yang energy, a fully decorated Christmas tree is uplifting and mood enhancing, uniting family members with festive togetherness.   

 With post-holiday care, we can plant our living evergreen either in the garden or a pot depending on its size.  If an evergreen is not a good candidate for your indoor environment, a tree-shaped rosemary plant, decorated with miniature lights and ornaments, would be a good substitute. 

 Mr. Brunner (s. above) writes that the tree’s reception in the Puritanical quarters of the United States was frosty, and in 1883 a lifestyle reporter for the New York Times describes it as a passing fad.  “The German Christmas tree – a rootless and lifeless corpse – was never worthy of the day,” the trend article said.  In our modern era of “being green,” perhaps the lifeless, plastic replica of the Christmas tree that can be “revived” annually is preferable if the living, breathing tree is not an option.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas Holiday
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

 

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Categories : Chi, Color, Earth, Elements, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Newsletter, Feng Shui Symbols, Fire, Hearing, Metal, Publications, Seeing, Senses, Smelling, Tao, Water, Winter, Wood, Yin Yang
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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter August 2012

By gabriele · Comments (0)
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Birthdays! Part II

Today let’s look at some practical applications for celebrating your birthday.  What type of energy do you want to experience on your special day?  Do you want to soar, be lifted high, be away from and above every day routines and chores?  Should it be a yang type of celebration with music and laughter and spirited activities?  Or do you prefer a quietly grounded yin type of ambiance with a few family members or friends to share a simple birthday meal?

If yang is your preference, let the wood or fire element guide you with color choices for décor and dress.  Is someone giving you red roses to vow everlasting passion and devotion?  Are you wearing your striped shirt or flaming red dress?  Create a wood memory, i.e. Tao connection with a new plant – a peace lily, a phalaenopsis, or lucky bamboo.  You could also plant a tree or shrub in your garden to grow with you from birthday to birthday.   

If all this is too much hype, let’s look at some earth options to tone it down.  Yellow flowers will underscore your good wishes for continued good health, and a card with dancing cranes is a symbol for vigor and longevity.  Perhaps you want to be on a nature walk or settle on a sandy beach for a picnic with your best friends. Sitting around a fire in a cozy setting will also give you this earthy feeling of togetherness.   

Metal and water might spark your creative options for finding a private hide-away on a secluded island or a historic point of interest.  Whatever your choice, make sure you feel connected and let the Tao be your guide in creating memories of the present and the past.  A family photograph, taken on your birthday, will anchor this point in time for future Tao connections. 

Metal and water can be instrumental in creating your secret list of wishes to be fulfilled.  Focus on the time span of your personal new year, the next 12 months or moon cycles, in lining up desires or projects.  Let your ideas germinate in the secrecy of the water element and then sprout in the growth cycle of wood. 

For your birthday menu let mother earth guide you to healthful choices from a variety of seasonal produce, mixing a painter’s palette of foods in elemental colors.  A feng shui salad of leafy greens with ripe tomato reds and yellow peppers, mixed with slender disks of summer squash or zucchini, offset with black olives or edible blue flowers, will be visually satisfying and pleasing to the taste buds. 

Unwrapping presents, tissues, foil and ribbons will be your touchy-feely session; a fragrant bouquet of flowers or the scent of burning candles on your birthday cake stimulate your olfactory nerve;  a musical card, playing the chicken dance, will make you bounce, and the tune of “Happy Birthday to You” will joyfully complete your sensory experience.

Enjoy Your Birthday without Too Much Fray
By Planning with Pyramid Feng Shui!

 

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Categories : Chi, Color, Earth, Elements, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Newsletter, Fire, Hearing, Metal, Publications, Seeing, Senses, Smelling, Tao, Tasting, Water, Wood, Yin Yang
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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter July 2012

By gabriele · Comments (0)
Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Birthdays! Part I

In our series of holiday newsletters in 2007 we discussed how we might enhance our annual holidays with feng shui adjustments.  To add to this series, we would now like to present our feng shui recommendations for birthday celebrations.

Birthdays are of course the most personal and individual of all holidays.  Yet, there are generalities that apply to all as well as observances dictated by culture, traditions and social norms.  These are the Tao of birthdays since they control how we connect to all aspects of our environment.  In feng shui we are mindful of our deeper connections to nature, therefore the Tao of our birthdays also relates to the season, climate and topography of our birthplace and time. 

In our western culture, astrological charts tell us that we are born under the auspices of a celestial symbol providing a character analysis that is derived from centuries of empirical observations.  Chinese astrology provides a different set of symbols and long-held belief systems that influence the nature and life expectations of human beings.

In Pyramid Feng Shui we respect a person’s preferences but would like to add our verifiable specifics on the feng shui aspects of a birthday.  Birthday qi is how we experience the world around us with our sensory perceptions.  Yin and yang is how we personally expend our energy in processing these experiences.  Tangible evidence of how we fit into the environment can be derived from a study of the elements.

Our birth element can be found in the charts of the Chinese lunar calendar, e.g. this is the year of the water dragon.  Many Chinese families are clamoring to give birth this year under the auspices of the powerful and lucky dragon. A person’s element profile can also be derived from a simple questionnaire which helps to understand how the element cycle is in a constant state of flux.  A significant aspect of an individual’s element profile is the season.  If you were a summer baby, you are under the influence of the fire element while a winter baby is more affected by water. Spring resonates with wood and Fall with metal.  Babies born in late or Indian summer will have more of the earth element to contend with. 

In the overall scheme of assessing the element profile we should consider all aspects and influences as well as how weighted we are by the elements.  Since balance is always the optimal goal, we learn to understand how we might have to adjust our environment by adding or reducing one or the other of the elements in our profile.

Tune in to our August newsletter for additional wisdom on the feng shui of birthdays.

Celebrate Your Birthday
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

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Categories : Chi, Earth, Elements, Fall, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Newsletter, Fire, Metal, Publications, Seasons, Senses, Spring, Summer, Tao, Water, Winter, Wood, Yin Yang
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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter January 2012

By gabriele · Comments (0)
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

The Year of the Dragon!

Chinese New Year on January 23rd celebrates the beginning of the year of the Dragon.  Contrary to other more dire forecasts, Chinese Astrology does not predict an end of the world scenario.  In fact, the theme for the year is one of transformation, change and new beginnings. 

The Dragon is the auspicious creature of spring and the wood element, however, in the cyclical sequence of Chinese elements, we move into the year of the Water Dragon.  With the powerful forces of water feeding wood, we will experience a year of renewal, overcoming the disasters of the past few years, with new political and economic developments on a global scale. 

 The missing element in this year’s zodiac is fire.  When we add fire, we run the risk of clashing with water, therefore, we might consider adding wood in a sequential process of feeding fire.  According to Lillian Too, the fire element in 2012 signifies intelligence and creativity, therefore, bringing well thought out ideas to any situation improves the outcome and success.  The clever and the wise will prevail. 

 Since fire adjustments will be needed, we will continue our research and series on light bulbs with an additional section on the color of the year.  Keeping your home brightly lit is an easy way to keep the fire element in your environment.  Bright lights add sparkle, brilliance and luminescence, which can be uplifting and invigorating.  We do however suggest balancing the yang of bright lights with the yin of indirect lighting for times of relaxation and winding down before bedtime.  Then, upon waking, it is best not to illuminate brightly, causing a sudden dilating of the pupil, but to gradually adjust the eye from darkness to a dimmed shine of a low wattage candelabra.  I like to use a reading light, a hurricane lamp or a candle in the early am. 

Ironically, as of January 1, 2012 100-watt incandescent bulbs have been eliminated.  We can hoard what is left in inventories, but supplies will not be replenished by manufacturers.  Exceptions to these new laws cover specialty bulbs. Therefore you can still enjoy a range of luminescence with three-way bulbs, as well as many types of halogen bulbs, which are a type of incandescents that meet the new standards.

Stay tuned in February for more enlightenment on light bulbs and new regulations.

 Brighten up your Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

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Categories : Feng Shui, Feng Shui Newsletter, Fire, Publications, Seeing, Water, Wood, Yin Yang
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