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Breath of the Dragon

An up and coming, fast-track, newbie Pagan I know recently referred to feng shui as “fluffy bunny magic.” I stared in amazement because, gentle reader, if taking the energy movement in your home seriously is fluffy bunny magic, then it is the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Little is more vital to your day-to-day magic than the energy flow you cultivate in your own spiritual sanctuary.

Feng shui is an Eastern philosophy that focuses on creating harmony throughout specific spaces, relative to other areas of the structure. Think of the flow of energy as the breath of a dragon. It must find its way through a house without restriction. Energy needs to move to remain healthy.

Have you ever noticed that when you move your furniture around, your entire house feels different? The way you arrange your home creates a specific energetic field. The placement of the furniture and other objects affects the dynamic of the whole house, even in those areas you do not rearrange. To shake up the energy of your life and find a new perspective, move your furniture, paint your walls, change out your rugs, or hang new pictures. The energy shift redecorating creates permeates your thinking as surely as do the winds of change.

Get Elemental

Throughout your home, balance the energy with representations of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Each of these elements represents an aspect of nature, but is complimentary to human life. Water is the flow of emotions and intuition. Fire is passion and creativity. Air is intellect and quick change. Earth is stability and prosperity. In a working circle, Earth is opposite Fire, so the stability and healing aspects of Earth balance out the passion and excitement of Fire. Water is opposite Air, so its intuitive flow balances out the intellect of Air. Within the home, this concept is beneficial on a psychological level. Put yourself in the elemental crosshairs for healthy balance.

You can use a small cauldron, a goblet, a table fountain, or a shell to represent Water. A feather, wind chimes, ribbons, or depictions of the sun rising can represent Air. Candles, lava rock or obsidian, red flowers, or your fireplace hearth can represent Fire. Stones, plants, the colors green and brown, and metals like iron or copper can represent Earth.

Speaking of Elements…

Having trouble sleeping? Which direction does your bed face? Put the head of your bed in the East where intellect and swift changes reside and you will spend the night with a brain that does not want to shut off. Put the head of your bed in the South and spend the night with creativity and burning motivation. Emotional balance, endings, healing, and stability are much better sleep partners. There is a reason why graves always have the headstone in the West or in the North.

Watch the Corners

Look around your home for places that trap energy and inhibit flow, such as behind doors and in room corners. Check out this arrangement:

tv

The environment is attractive and upscale, but the space behind the TV has issues. Televisions emit tremendous energy, not only electrically, but also emotionally. How we feel when we watch the news or view a television show or movie can affect the energy of the entire house. Here we have big energy going out from the TV, but a plain, neutral wall behind it. Energy will build up behind the TV and the area will start to feel uncomfortable. Yes, it sounds fluffy bunny, but that is the most foul, cruel, and bad tempered rodent you ever set eyes on.

Now look at these:

corners

Again, we have a trapped corner, but in the first photo, a lamp stands in the empty space and in the second, a plant redirects the energy flow. This gives the energy, for lack of a better way of putting it, “something to do,” so that it moves up and out of the corner. If you look at the photos intuitively, you can likely tell that the second two “feel” better. Now look at this photo:

roomoffset

Yes, there are framed prints to break up the energy, but they face away from the direct view toward the central focus of the chair. The lamp is to the side rather than in the corner itself, so it is of no help. Again, we have a corner with nothing to do, so energy will collect and stagnate. You can use a lamp or plant as you see in the middle pictures, wind chimes from the ceiling, a broom, or other vertically oriented item to break up cloying air in a “trapped” corner.

T-Sections

One of the toughest energy issues to combat is the T-crossing flow of energy into a house. A T-crossing is when your house faces directly into oncoming traffic from across the street like this:

image021

When a car or traffic is moving forward, energy moves with it. When the car stops, energy continues to flow for a while through inertia, even though the car is not moving. This sends a steady flow of aggressive energy directly toward your home. Houses facing oncoming traffic tend to have more tension and require greater effort to soothe.

In addition to frequent smudging, one effective tactic is to deflect the energy away from your house. You do this by placing small mirrors (the size of compact mirrors or even dental mirrors) against the front of your house. Just duct tape the mirrors to the front of your house, making certain that you do so in such a way that light does not blind the drivers of oncoming vehicles. The mirrors can be behind bushes, plants, or yard decorations as long as they face toward the oncoming traffic. They will redirect the energy even if the cars cannot see them.

Your home is not just your castle, it is your sanctuary. It is the place where you should feel safest, where you should feel energized when you wish to and where you can rest peacefully when it’s time. Treat it as the sacred haven it is and not just a pit stop between journeys into the exciting world.