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Archive for Feng Shui Newsletter

Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter April 2013

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

 Mindfulness!

Once again, science is trying to catch up with feng shui.  Mindfulness is the new buzzword in medicine, health care and the corporate world.  Mindfulness even made its way onto the agenda of the World Economic Forum 2013, the annual event held in Davos, Switzerland. 

It seems to me that we have always been mindful with everything we do in feng shui.  Mindfulness, in itself, is an abstract term and beckons to be further defined with descriptive explanations, e.g. mindfulness as a “method to sharpen focus and open minds,” or “intentionally paying attention to the present,” as perhaps in “mindful eating.”

Feng shui has the immediacy and the presence of mindfulness because it serves as a constant reminder of what is meaningful and important in the way we live.  In feng shui we talk about intention and awareness, but in essence, we are mindful of our path in life and how we connect to what’s around us every moment of our day and night. 

Qi (Chi), therefore, is the mindful experience of how we perceive life with all our senses.  And mindfulness is a good reminder that feng shui is about more than placing furniture.  It is a more concrete and hands-on  effort to focus on the presence of specifics.  When we talk about qi, we are mindful of how we move through space, or what it is that captures our gaze, the fragrance or odor that enters our nostrils, and the rough or smooth texture of our walkway.

When we are suffering a disconnect in a fractured, information-overloaded world, the scientists see mindfulness as a panacea for living with more depth, meaning and connectedness.  Mindfulness is supposed to help us spend less time worrying about the future or fretting about the past.  To reach this panacea, though, you’ll have to spend time and money, read books and attend courses or retreats, practicing meditation, hopefully with the result of “directing your mind” and “settling into a more authentic way of being.”  (NYT 3.23.13)

We believe that feng shui is the more immediate and lasting method of connecting a person to the present and to place, and raising the self to a higher level of focus and awareness. Feng shui will give you mile markers and pegs to hang your hat, so that you know every aspect of your path in life as well as the process that guides you on your journey.  Instead of hovering in a meditative pose, we know when we need yin space to decompress, and when we need a boost of yang to get going.  Our deeply personal affinities are determined by either lacking or excessive elements and can be adjusted accordingly.  A mindful walk through our ba gua will connect us to what we see, hear, smell and touch, while mindful eating is stimulating or soothing to our taste buds. 

Mindfulness, thus, has been around for 5000 years, waiting for us to pay attention and discover feng shui in creating our journey by mindfully connecting to Tao.      

Be Mindful All and Every Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter March 2013

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

 Feng Shui Tribe!

I’ve gotten hooked on a virtual community that operates under the name Feng Shui Tribe.  Why the word “tribe,” was my first reaction until I googled “tribe” and realized that it is a unique and innovative term to unite the various systems and schools that operate under the umbrella of feng shui.  Tribes are aggregates of people that are united by ties adhering to customs and traditions, common interests and beliefs, similar background, viewpoints and occupations. 

Under the leadership of Brenni Larson, the Feng Shui Tribe is conducting a series of 24 interviews as “Your Gateway to Health and Vitality.”  The Tribe seems to successfully unite feng shui experts from all the various practices and schools of thought – Form School, Classic and Compass School, Black Sect (BTB) and all other feng shui systems – in a harmonious effort to disseminate feng shui for the benefits of all who wish to raise their vibrations by using feng shui for positive life changes. 

Each speaker brings a unique viewpoint, running the gamut from the deeply spiritual to all the basic and pragmatic feng shui applications.  Brenni Larson’s “mission is to interview the top experts in the world and to introduce the variety of feng shui tools that you can use to raise your vibrations.”  Through feng shui, she hopes to reach nine million people with her vision to create a more balanced and harmonious world.  In her interviews the individual speakers address feng shui topics through their unique expertise and experience over many years as feng shui professionals. 

For example, Lois Kramer Perez suggests that “our entire space is a vision board” that reflects our past, presence and future; James Joy offers checklists of feng shui cures; and Carole Hyder describes how you can have “conversations with your home” that run the gamut from simple dialogue to written commentary and thank you notes.  The speakers answer questions on an audience dashboard and present their gifts to each participant.  Among many others, they offer tips on health and wealth, lifestyle and love, clutter clearing and intention. 

My tip for today is that you take a closer look at your “ming tang” or bright hall.  It is the space at large through which you enter your home.  It could be exterior or interior, and you might ask what captures your eye as you arrive or depart from your premises.  In your conversation with what you see, you might ask “is it uplifting, welcoming and inviting?”  Does it say “hurry back to my embracing, comforting refuge!” Your view as you enter shapes your attitude toward your private life, your microcosm, while your view as you exit shapes your attitude toward the world and the macrocosm. 

If you get positive vibes from your ming tang, you must be intuitively creating your personal best feng shui.  If not, think about making changes, perhaps with the help of your feng shui consultant. 

Adjust Your Ming Tang without Delay
And Learn from Pyramid Feng Shui!

 

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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter February 2013

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

 

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Emerald!

Emerald is the new color of the year!

Last month we introduced the Water Snake of the new year which will bring transformation, rebirth and new beginnings.  Now let’s visualize this benign snake to be the color of a beautifully brilliant and translucent emerald.  As the Pantone color of the year, emerald resonates with all the expectations the Water Snake has promised for 2013. 

From extensive scientific research, we already know that green and a view of nature will speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning in classrooms and spur productivity in the workplace.  German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. 

Emerald, however, suggests a more specific and discerning notion of a very special kind of green.  Emerald immediately calls to mind the precious gemstone of high value with shimmering watery depth.  Beveled facets create the translucent rectangle of the classic emerald cut.  Translucency is the Water Snake’s special quality of sensing inner truth and exposing falsehoods.  And the green rectangle defines all the characteristics we attribute to the wood element in feng shui, with emphasis on the sun rising in the east and spring symbolizing new beginnings. 

In this year of transition and transformation, emerald assists with understanding changes and new directions.  Emerald will help to discern information in decision-making processes.  Connected to the Tao of nature, emerald is a helpful tool when facing choices.  On a spiritual level, emerald is a healer, detoxifies negative energies and supports all emotional issues of the heart.  Emerald promotes personal growth and improves memory. 

How do we bring harmony and balance, promised by the Water Snake, into our daily lives?  And how do we apply emerald in our personal space and environment?  Perhaps green is not your color; perhaps you don’t want to redecorate or live in a green house with shades of emerald. Perhaps you’re not Irish and believe in the good luck of green clover, or flash your greens on St. Patty’s day.  Think about other, more subtle ways to introduce emerald unobtrusively and beneficially.  If you are the lucky owner of an emerald, wear it, or carry it with you, but don’t rush out and spend thousands to get one, a picture will suffice.

If green doesn’t appeal to you as a fashion color, you could get green undies or start writing your “to do list” with a green pen. More plants in a lush green with shiny leaves will bring nature to your interior environment while neutralizing chemical toxins.  Perhaps you could rid yourself of lingering negative energies and let healing vibes come your way by glancing at a painting with lush shades of emerald.  And last but not least, eat your greens and reflect on abundance, vegetation and natural growth.   

Bring Emerald Into Your Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

 

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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter December 2012

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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Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter November 2012

Sunday, November 18th, 2012

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the most earthy of all holidays.  The trend to turn it into a fire holiday by opening stores on Thanksgiving day is lamentable.  Shopping and bustling malls are activities of the fire element and would shift the focus away from the domestic attributes of this very special holiday.   

With Thanksgiving we celebrate the gifts from mother earth.  The Tao of Thanksgiving is a far reaching tradition of giving thanks for harvest abundance and for settling in a new land.  Horizontal Tao connections stretch from Canada, where Thanksgiving is on the first weekend in October, to New England and to Florida.  Vertical Tao connections, derived from historic data, remind us that Thanksgiving is a holiday of connecting to nature by giving thanks for a plentiful harvest, but also one of reaching out and connecting to indigenous habits and inhabitants.  The Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock are commemorated as the first Thanksgiving held in 1621, later declared a national holiday by President Lincoln in 1865, however, historic data reveal an earlier Thanksgiving celebration on September 9th 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida, the city founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles 52 years after Ponce de Leon discovered the First Coast in 1513.  The Pilgrims in 1621 may not have had turkey, but the Spanish in St. Augustine, celebrating with the Tumucua Indians, are documented to have feasted on wild turkey, alligator and cocido, a stew made with pork.

The earth element is our theme for Thanksgiving with warm rich colors of yellow, orange, brown and terra cotta.  Tangerine tango, our color of the year, would be a great accent color for festive and uplifting clothing.  Gourds in their many variations are vessels of the earth element, and square shapes are grounding and stabilizing. 

For optimal contentment and to satisfy all the senses on Thanksgiving, Pyramid Feng Shui recommends a rainbow of foods that encompass all the colors of the elements.  In addition to the visual feast, olfactory stimulation from roasting, grilling and cooking wafts anticipation to all nostrils.  Amazing Grace and other uplifting songs remind us of national pride and traditions, and a prayer of thanks, while holding hands around a cornucopia of blessings from the land, completes the sensory experience of a Happy Thanksgiving.

In honor of what our forebears achieved, Thanksgiving should continue to be a holiday of upholding peace and togetherness, stability and nurturing. 

Celebrate Thanksgiving Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

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