Feng Shui + Embracing the Year of the Fire Monkey

featured this week on Over the Moon

On the lunar calendar, we welcome the 2016 Fire Monkey year on Monday, February 8th. This is also referred to as Chinese New Year. In feng shui, we celebrate Chinese New Year with much joy, as it represents the shift in energies and marks the start of spring on the lunar calendar.

In 2016, we are leaving the Wood Sheep year, which was more about growth and community, and heading into the Fire Monkey year, which has more of a theme of heart-focused passion and playfulness. As we welcome the new year, there are a few feng shui-specific ways of celebrating and preparing for the year ahead.

Space Clearing with Intention

One of the most important things to do for Chinese New Year is clear the space of your home and fill it with positive intention. In feng shui, one preferred method for space clearing uses the scent of oranges. You can scatter fresh orange peels around your home or use an orange essential oil mist to uplift your space. Oranges represent and create life-affirming, bright, yang energy.

I like to start at the front door and go around the whole home in a clockwise fashion. Visualize sunlight filling every corner of your home and the new intention filling your space and every cell in your body. It’s especially effective to do this on Chinese New Year’s Eve or day.

Declutter Nine Items

Removing nine pieces of clutter on Chinese New Year’s Day or on the eve of Chinese New Year will create movement and activity on a physical and energetic level in your environment. This activity works in two ways. First, you’ll be moving the qi (or life energy) around by moving the objects in your home. Sometimes we get stuck, and we can see that manifesting as clutter around our homes. By moving these nine items around, we’ll be “unsticking” that qi.

On a second level, when we remove those nine items from our homes, we essentially create a vacuum for the universe to fill with something better! A new opportunity, inspiration or insight. When the environment is static, our inner lives also become stagnant, so shake things up in your life by removing nine items!

Carry a Chinese Zodiac Charm

Many people might read this and think it would be beneficial to carry around a monkey charm in the monkey year. But in my feng shui lineage, we have been taught that it’s especially auspicious to carry around the current year animal’s best friend! The idea is that the year god (animal) will see its best friend and be so enamored that it will do you no harm.

In the Chinese zodiac system, the monkey’s best friend is the snake. A snake charm acts as a protective talisman and provides support as well. So find yourself a little snake figurine to carry around with you at all times in this Fire Monkey year. As a note, the snake must be three- dimensional and realistic looking. 

In the Western world, we don’t often celebrate the Chinese New Year as much as the beginning of our own calendar, but in the world of feng shui, the beginning of the lunar year is a very important time for starting anew and taking control of the energy in our lives. Even if you don’t want to celebrate this occasion, clearing and refreshing your space can be a start to making positive and much-needed changes! 

by Anjie Cho

Sarasvati & The Art of Attracting Abundance

featured this month in Over the Moon

Deepak Chopra shares a fascinating story in the introduction to his book, Creating Affluence, about how to attract abundance. The story begins with a young person asking his teacher how he can create wealth in order to “help and heal the world.”

The teacher shares with the student a secret: there are two Goddesses within each of us—Sarasvati, Goddess of Knowledge, and Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth. In the story, the secret is that if you seek out the Goddess of Knowledge, the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous and follow you, creating unlimited wealth.

Inspired, I began my pursuit of Sarasvati (and knowledge) by painting her images and symbols. They now reside in the Benefactors area of my home (according to the feng shui Bagua map, this is the front right corner of your floor plan). There is also an area related to self-knowledge and wisdom on the feng shui Bagua map. Besides painting the image of Sarasvati, you can activate this knowledge area of your home and/or workspace to attract wisdom.

It’s easiest to lay the bagua map on your bedroom, so let's start there. If you stand in the doorway of your bedroom facing inside the room, the corner just to your left is the knowledge area. Similarly if you want to activate this area of your desk, you can sit at your desk, divide your desk up into a 3x3 grid, and it’s the bottom, left corner, closest to you. If you activate the bedroom knowledge area, this will improve your personal self-knowledge and cultivation. If you do this on your desk, the activation is related more to your work or career.

Three great ways to activate the feng shui knowledge area are with plants, Sarasvati and the element of fire. Living green plants represent growth and life, and when added to the knowledge area, they can expand your self-knowledge and provide support and freshness to this part of your life or work. Locating an image or representation of Sarasvati in this area would also support more wisdom. Finally, the addition of something triangular or red is beneficial in this area because, according to the five element theory, they represent fire energy. The fire energy supports knowledge, because the knowledge gua is an earth area. Fire also provides brightness, clarity and passion. A new light bulb or light fixture would also do the trick!

One of the most popular requests I get with feng shui consultations is for more wealth, but many people don't realize you can welcome more abundance into your life in an indirect way as well. If you're seeking wealth or knowledge, take a look at your space and the recommendations above, and see if you can make an adjustment in your knowledge area(s) to attract wealth and knowledge. 

by Anjie Cho

Practice Feng Shui with the Moon

featured this week on Over the Moon

This month, I thought it appropriate to address the symbology of the moon from the feng shui perspective for our lovely Over the Moon readers. BTB feng shui draws much of its wisdom from Taoism, which looks to nature as “the Way” to achieve harmony. It also sees the universe in a constant dance and balance of opposites, which we call “Yin-Yang Theory.”

Yin and yang principle is about opposites, such as dark and light, cold and hot, passive and active, female and male, and so on. Even the moon and the sun fall into these two categories. The key is that, in our world, the two opposites are in constant flux because one cannot exist without the other. Darkness only exists in the absence of light.

And because the moon is yin, it’s also related to darkness, coolness, and indirect, subtle energy. In feng shui, we recognize the importance of the balance between the yin and yang energies and use the energy of the moon to make adjustments. Yin, or moon-focused adjustments, can be effective for taking the indirect route toward change or improvement. For instance, we call on the moon to clarify a confused mind, or to support fertility, or even ask for help.

One yin moon feng shui adjustment is chanting to Quan Yin under the moonlight. Quan Yin is the goddess of compassion and she is connected to the moon, as she represents the feminine yin principle. You can find a chant that calls to her and recite it under the moonlight. An example is, 

“Namo Kuan Shi Yin Pu Sa,”

which translates to, 

“Salutations to the most compassionate and merciful Bodhisattva Quan Yin.”

She has the power to cultivate compassion and understanding in your life. If Quan Yin doesn’t resonate with you, try another female deity of compassion, such as the Buddhist or Vedic Tara.

Another way to connect to the moon is with a Sun Moon Mirror. This is a BTB feng shui ritual object that has been imbued with both the yin and yang energies of the moon and the sun. There are countless ways to use this talisman, which can be prescribed by an advanced BTB feng shui practitioner. However, if you simply carry it with you at all times, it will protect as well as balance your yin yang qi.

The moon is an important expression and symbol in feng shui. I hope that you can tap into the yin energy of the moon to improve your life! 

by Anjie Cho