The Year of the Dragon!

Chinese New Year on January 23^rd 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!

Festival of Lights!

Light is one of our most precious commodities, and yet, we take it for granted.  We waste it, and we don’t appreciate it until suddenly a storm hits, the power goes out, and darkness prevails.

There is however a primordial memory in the ubiquitous lighting ceremonies of trees, gardens and buildings.  In ever more decorative and elaborate displays, millions of lights illuminate the night at this darkest time of the year. 

We celebrate Christmas, the festive commemoration of the birth of Christ and divide history into B.C. and A.D. according to this momentous event.  Long before this historic landmark, light was revered worldwide by the ancients with December 25^th as the birth date of Mithra, the Iranian God of Light, and The Jewish Festival of Lights during which Jesus was born.   

Periodically, mankind has lived through revolutionary experiences with light from the discovery of fire to Thomas Edison.  The quest for light goes on, and now, in our most advanced era of technology, we once again will undergo a revolutionary innovation in our relationship with light. 

In celebration of the Festival of Light, we have devoted research and a series of newsletters to the latest developments in the use of light bulbs.  As we say good-bye to old-fashioned light bulbs, we reluctantly and with trepidations look for the latest, newest, and perhaps beneficial changes in future light options. 

We aim to stay informed as traditional incandescent light bulbs are about to be switched off.  The federal Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 set light bulb efficiency standards that will soon prevent the manufacture and importation of most incandescent bulbs.  That has created an uproar among many fans of traditional bulbs who complain about the cost, harsh tones, possible dangers and other drawbacks of the new bulbs.

What do we need to know about the new rules?  Stay tuned to more of our newsletters as we will try to make sense of the upcoming light bulb revolution.  We will study CFLs, LEDs and Halogens in our efforts to illuminate future usage and help you decide whether you need to continue hoarding incandescents.  We will try to dispel fear of the unknown with educated answers and with valid recommendations based on research. 

Illuminate Night and Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

 Lucky Bamboo – Dracaena Sanderiana!

Of all the indoor plants, lucky bamboo is probably the easiest to maintain for those without a green thumb.  Contrary to its name, it is not a bamboo plant but belongs to the family of Dracaenas. 

Dracaenas are beneficial as poison eaters that clean the air from chemical pollution.  Superstition has designated Dracaenas as money plants, i.e. promoting abundance and prosperity.  They are versatile in terms of feng shui placement.  Since all plants are of the wood element, resonating with growth and expanding energy, lucky bamboo will best enhance the community and empowerment sectors.  It can, however, easily adapt to other sectors because of its versatile characteristics. 

Lucky bamboo is happy to grow without soil in a few inches of water, therefore self/career/now as well as compassion/support will benefit.  Relationship and creativity sectors can be engaged by using appropriate type of containers.  Last but not least, the future/fame sector is promoted by adjusting wood in empowerment and thus feeding fire.  These myriad applications of lucky bamboo make it a desirable helper for feng shui adjustments.  As for containers, consider shape, size, color and materials to serve your feng shui goals. 

Best is the ease of care since stalks of lucky bamboo, when placed in water, will grow an extensive root system and immediately sprout clusters of delicate leaves at the knotty junctures.  Smaller plants can be used in multiples of odd numbers while larger stalks can be decorative focal points in larger vases.  While young and flexible, lucky bamboo can be trained to form interesting growth patterns such as curls and braids. 

Lucky bamboo is most comfortable in a few inches of water that can easily be refreshed periodically in a ritual of rinsing and cleansing the root system.  A gentle bit of plant food will boost its tendency to grow fast. 

A most welcome characteristic of lucky bamboo is its low light tolerance which helps with easy placement in any kind of light conditions.  Beware of direct exposure to the sun as sunrays will scorch its delicate leaves.  Lucky bamboo, although originating in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa, is not happy outdoors in our climate zones, and thus will do best as a year round indoor companion.     

Lucky Bamboo Will Be Happy To Stay
For A Cure With Pyramid Feng Shui!

House Plants! 

In our last newsletter we talked about transitioning plants from the garden to the indoor environment.  Now that they have adjusted, it’s time to think about where they might be happiest as well as fulfill their mission as feng shui helpers.

The areas where feng shui activation with plants is most beneficial are zhen gua and xun gua as they are wood associated.  We thus look for the family and prosperity areas in the overall footprint of the house but also in each individual room or space. 

Then we check for light conditions and how each plant might thrive.  Flowering plants usually require the brightest spots.  For low light, check the labels and perhaps select the philodendron family of plants.  Lucky Bamboo is the most tolerant of plants and easiest to maintain.  It lives in water and is happiest in a nice ceramic jar.  In fact, any plant that grows in water is extremely adaptable to the indoor environment.  Peace Lilies are low light plants that clean your air of airborne poisons.  In windowless spaces, i.e. no light at all, you’ll have to settle for silk or plants on pictures. 

All growing plants, irrespective of color are of the wood element.  Therefore they resonate with upward and expanding energy, a good countermeasure for the draining energy of bathrooms. 

Be aware of shapes in selecting your house plants and beware of cacti.  We prefer softly shaped leaves and dismiss prickly, spiky or thorny plants as they promote arguments and belligerent behavior.  One of my students removed the cacti from her kitchen windowsill and consequently improved her relationship with her mother-in-law. 

Placing your plants can be tricky.  You don’t want to create a “grown-in” feeling.  Check where you might need a powerful focal point to capture the gaze.  That’s where a splendid orchid or a colorful bouquet will be best.  Stagnant corners or poison arrows can easily be cured with plants.  You can add a decorative touch of silhouette lighting by placing an up-light behind a plant and thus creating interesting shadow patterns. 

Plants are living creatures, so why not engage them as part of your helpful people family.  Watch what happens, and don’t forget to say thank you. 

Let Your Plants Enliven Your Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

Plant Life!

Depending on your climate zone, September can bring the first frost.  That’s when your house plants want to move indoors. 

Those lush potted plants that have been enjoying outdoor air on your patio or garden, rejuvenating their photo synthesis, are now ready to move inside.  Your plants are living creatures and will thank you for providing a happy transition.  They are moving from the vast outdoors to the confined space of the indoors.  Put them near a window at first, so they can adjust gradually to the different light. 

Your plants are like children.  They will thrive with loving care in a nurturing environment.  Once they have adjusted to indoor living, you can start thinking about their feng shui positions.  We will cover that topic in our next newsletter.  So for the time being, we still voice our concerns about the transition period. 

A good hosing down, spraying or even suds can eliminate any bugs, scale or other parasites they might have picked up outside.  Maybe they have grown a bit unruly and need to be trimmed to fit into their designated space.  If your plants suffer from lack of light, they might be helped along with a plant light that will enhance growth and health. 

Only after they have gone through the transition period, they might benefit from a gentle dose of plant food.  Let them deal with one change at a time and don’t try to force them.  If your indoor climate is very dry, you plants might enjoy occasional misting.     

During a period of Indian summer with plenty of sunshine or some gentle rain, your plant children might enjoy a daytrip to the outside, just for a quick replenish of chlorophyll before winter sets in. 

We look forward to returning with feng shui recommendations for placing your plant children into positions where they might benefit your overall or specific feng shui wishes.  As you are moving them indoors, you might want to take a look and ask yourself whether you are really fond of each of your plant children to the point of caring for it all winter long.  Otherwise, perhaps now is the time to find a new home for those that do not fit your indoor scheme. 

Air is part of our invisible qi that we should consciously be aware of. Airing out at least once a day with open windows will nurture you, your plants and your pets.   

Your Plants Will Thank You Every Day
For Good Care With Pyramid Feng Shui!

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

August!

In many countries August is like a pause in the rhythm of life.  Here, Congress is in recess and the president goes on vacation.  All of France is asleep or away.  For some of us August is a transition month and looms like a giant question mark – is it still summer?  “Autumn is in the air” we say, as we describe subtle weather changes. 

Feng shui wisdom correlates late summer with the earth element.  So perhaps August should be a time of reflection and stabilization.  Summer activities are winding down and the fire element has exhausted itself at the zenith of summer heat and long daylight hours.

If August is getting you down, it’s a good time to add some earth, i.e. yellow to those fiery reds of summer as it will give you a subtle boost instead of wild expectations.   Yellow, the color of clarity and enlightenment will also help if you decide on an August retreat.  A brief period of contemplation and meditation is desirable in preparation for the new school year or going back to business. 

Think of earth as the refueling element where you will find your resources replenished with a steady supply of new energy.  Restraint is helpful as too many choices of what to do next will zap your energy.  Categorize your distractions and create a free window for renewal.  Some orange sticky notes are helpful reminders for the next task.

Earth energy is fertile ground for new ideas to take root and grow – therefore, listen into the silence and dwell in the space and time you have created during this open window in August. 

 To encourage personal renewal and reflection, we shorten this newsletter and give you the opportunity to create your own next paragraph:

———————————————————————————————————-

+

———————————————————————————————————-

+

———————————————————————————————————-

Create Your Open Window on this August Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

 Summer Slump?

Have you ever experienced midsummer slump? Mood swings and the lows of midsummer doldrums, heat fatigue, post partem blues (even after a splendid vacation), and – could it be possible – boredom will get you down and begging for a change.

With feng shui tools we can diagnose the basic syndrome and come up with a cure.  A vision board with mood-lifting images might be one.  Another could be the happy tunes of a favorite show, like Mamma Mia for example.  Icecream may not be the answer if extra pounds are part of your summer struggle.   A small piece of 70 % dark chocolate may stimulate the taste buds, as well as provide the extra phenylethylamine for a quick pick-me-up. 

Perhaps you noticed that we are talking about qi (chi) and the senses.  Another, often underestimated mood make-over is the qi of our olfactory experience.  Sniffing something pleasant is a faster way to cheer up than looking at a treasured souvenir or hearing a favorite song. 

Charles Wysocki, PhD, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia says that “the olfactory system is like an interstate highway connection to the emotional part of the brain, while our visual and auditory systems are more like country roads.” 

Research shows that the cheeriest scents may be citrus.  One study at Ohio State University found that sniffing lemon oil can improve your mood-regulating hormone.  Citrus is also recommended to overcome those dreaded 3 pm slumps because the pick-me-up scent of citrus can increase your energy.  Stimulating the olfactory nerve inside your nose activates the limbic system of the brain which is associated with mood.

“Citrus scents boost your mood” says Alan Hirsch, MD, director of the Smell & Taste Treatment & Research Foundation in Chicago.  He suggests that “age may be in the nose” since women wearing a grapefruit fragrance were perceived by men as being an average of 6 years younger.

The struggle with those extra pounds can also be overcome with scents like green apple, banana or peppermint.  Smelling these scents several times a day may cut cravings according to Dr. Hirsch in a study on weight loss where participants lost 30 lbs. in 6 months.

Smell Those Slumps Away
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Down-sizing!

This month I moved from a 4200 sq ft house to a 2700 sq ft condo.  The
reasons are many and complex, but down-sizing was not one of them.  Nevertheless, I felt compelled and could not
avoid the need to purge.

Stuff is a burden, but I had a crew packing stuff.  Unpacking stuff is a
whole other story.  Boxes are stackedhigh – stuff is staring at me!  Decisions big and small are piling up.  Do I need this?  Do I want it?  Do I love it? Is it important?  Where do I put it?

Finally – “it goes”!  But where? Good Will?  Trash?  Second Hand?
A friend? A relative? E-Bay? Craig’s List? The neighborhood garage sale?

From the microcosm of my own stuff, it now goes into the macrocosm of global clutter. I am pleading with my kids, “please don’t ever again give me another object.”  Instead, I’ll eat it, smell it, drink it, burn it, go there to see and hear it – anything that can be consumed.

Adopt a new code of consumer ethics?  Recycle, re-use, and make it
bio-degradable.  Clear your space and create room to breathe and to move.
Believe me, it’s liberating!

What about feng shui in all of this?  Your good feng shui may be
smothered in all your stuff which is creating sha qi (chi) for you – you know, the bad kind of qi (chi). Some radical space clearing, i.e. getting rid of stuff, might reveal the kind of good chi you’ve been looking for.

Stand in your entry way and do the squint test or look through the port hole of your fist.  Is there anything that stands out?  If so what is it?  Does it send a message or have some kind of meaning.  Or do you see stuff and nothing in particular that attracts your attention? Or did you perhaps stuff it all behind a closet door?  Depending on where it is, you might have
created a whole other set of obstacles and negative meaning.

If you have actually managed to create a path, cleared a space and down-sized your belongings, your good feng shui will reveal itself, and you begin to understand what it’s all about.  You feel liberated, your vision improves, new opportunities arise, well-being spreads and comfort settles in.  Peace and quiet have found a new home.

Clear Your Stuff Away
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter issued by      

Feng Shui Universal – Editor: Gabriele Van Zon

904 273-2445  904 608-0906

Email: gabriele@fengshuiuniversal.com

Website: www.fengshuiuniversal.com 

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Google Alerts! 

Search engines such as Google direct us to the desired data in seconds.  Every day my inbox pops up with Google Alerts on feng shui topics. These are snippets of information spiked with links to articles and websites.  It occurred to me that this info feed is really a very yang activity, skipping and jumping from site to site and staying on the surface.

If you want to dig deeper, you need to go into yin mode, open the feed from a snippet and actually read an article or look at a website. No matter how much you want to settle in and focus on a topic, sidebars keep intruding with pop-up ads and related bits of graphics – thus, more yang to get you out of your yin concentration.

These info snippets are a dangerous means of getting your feng shui tips.  Unless you are fully trained in one of the feng shui schools, you cannot distinguish between pertinent and helpful advice versus flippant and conflicting information

These snippets are fleeting and disconnected pieces of information that you cannot capture for a unified whole.  How do you deal with surfing, phishing and scamming when e-books suddenly outnumber the tangible objects in your library? You’ve lost the eye-touch coordinator whereby you held a book and remembered that your important info bit was in the top corner of the page or under an illustration on the bottom right. 

Clicking through a series of hyperlinks I arrived at an article about “The Best Feng Shui Front Door Color.”  The advice offers two options that are contradictory but telling you that either one would be o.k.  Choosing between red, black or green, you are invited to decide between facing or sitting directions or the complex system of Chinese elements.  How can the novice make decisions based on such multi dimensional options? A temp file on your desktop could be a holding pen for snippets captured by your mouse with a quick copy and paste. 

Hyperlinks invite you to additional readings or video clips.  Thus you are led into multi readings that result in mass confusion The search is like a giant octopus with tentacles reaching for solutions that are somewhere in the clouds but cannot be captured for a cohesive system and meaningful conclusion. 

Info is floating and we need to find a way to harness it into a meaningful system of personal usefulness. 

Create Your Own System Today
With Pyramid Feng Shui!

Pyramid Feng Shui Newsletter issued by      

Feng Shui Universal – Editor: Gabriele Van Zon

904 273-2445  904 608-0906

Email: gabriele@fengshuiuniversal.com

Website: www.fengshuiuniversal.com 

Greetings to all who share the wisdom of feng shui!

Weddings! 

This week the eyes of the world are watching preparations for the royal wedding of William and Kate. It`s a reminder of how lavish an occasion the exchanging of vows can be.

We don’t know whether feng shui experts are secretly working behind the scenes, but we do know that with all the details and things to check off the list in planning a flawless day, there are important considerations that should not be left to chance.  Feng Shui is the best possible support structure for creating the harmony and positive energy for the big event.

 Feng Shui guidelines follow a basic set of principles that can be consulted for choosing colors, scents, sounds and lighting to enhance both ceremony and reception.

 Tao – Connectedness

 A wedding is a true test for family relationships and friendships.  Newly created horizontal tao connections will unite two families with the bonds created in marriage.  Vertical tao connections, i.e. long-standing relationships are refreshed and honored.  All kinds of symbols attest to the traditions and customs of the couple’s culture and heritage.  “Something old, something new…” is the perfect paraphrase for meaningful tao connections. 

 Yin and Yang – Balance

Yin and yang is basic to uniting the masculine and feminine principle and should thus be carefully considered in planning ceremony and celebration so that equilibrium between the two can be achieved.  Yin and calm for the exchanging of vows; yang, i.e. boisterous for the party.   

Chi – Vital Energy and Sensory Experience

Usually there is no lack of vital energy and sensory experience in a wedding celebration, but just how the senses are stimulated is again a matter of choices that can be supported by feng shui.

Elements – the creative cycle of colors and shapes

The elements should be balanced, however, the dominant element of the bride and groom’s personality could be part of the input for color selection and decorations. The shape of furnishings, e.g. round versus square or rectangular tables, is crucial in designing the ambiance of the setting. 

Ba Gua – Spatial Mapping for positive flow

The ba gua is always a helpful tool with seating arrangements, and venue placement. The bride and groom could best be seated in a power position where they can see the entrance and have a grand view of the space.

There are many more feng shui do’s and don’ts that will assure the success of a big event such as a wedding.  Your feng shui expert will be happy to help you with advice and choices.        

Arrange Your Wedding Day
With Pyramid Feng Shui!