New Year's Inspiration with Your Own Personal Shrine

First, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I hope it was wonderful and relaxing for everyone. I stayed in the neighborhood and shared an inspiring toast to the future with some friends and my husband.

Ok, moving along :) In my last podcast, Feng Shui and the Winter Solstice, I shared some ways to welcome the winter and new year into your home and life. Instead of just writing up a list of new year's "resolutions," I offered a way in which to create a personal shrine to embody how you want to FEEL in 2016. 

Here are the instructions! Note: I'm sharing the one I created in this post.

Materials:

• Photographs and/or small items that are special and feel inspiring to you. My selections:
  • Celestite crystals, an angelic and spiritual stone
  • Origami paper crane, white for precision, and the paper crane as a nod to creativity and the story of folding a Thousand Origami Cranes to receive one wish
  • Blessed feng shui cinnabar rice in a red envelope from a teacher, for protection, wisdom and to honor the feng shui lineage that so inspires me
• Mint tin, match book, any small box
  • I found this old mint box that held some paperclips. And how PERFECT, I opened it up and was reminded of the quote printed inside:
  • "Every thought we think is creating our future" Louise L. Hay
• Other decorative materials such as paper, plant life, ribbons, shiny things
  • I found a mirror-like silver paper and a beautiful gold satin ribbon
• Glue to put it all together!

Directions:

• Decorate the interior of the box with your special objects. Keep in mind the FEELING you want to embody and be inspired by. 
• Find a special place for it or carry it with you!

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Please send along photos of your personal shrine! I hope this project inspires you!

Note: I'm sharing this (somewhat modified) DIY activity from the Winter catalog for the Rubin Museum. The Rubin Museum of Art "is an arts and cultural hub in New York City’s vibrant Chelsea neighborhood that inspires visitors to make connections between contemporary life and the art and ideas of the Himalayas, India, and neighboring regions." Be sure to check it out if you're ever in NYC!

by Anjie Cho

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This Week on Instagram

check out my new #MandalaMatchmaker on holisticspaces.com - what mandala is best for you? #holisticspaces #mandala #sacredart #fengshui

#mantramonday my latest and favorite mandala and yantra, Saraswati the goddess of the arts and knowledge. with #3 vedic square pattern behind for wisdom. the mantra: "om hring saraswataye namaha om" #mantra #yantra #mandala #saraswati #sacredart

love these pods for airplants. cute and nice for decoration, however airplants aren't the best as #fengshui adjustments because they're spiky! #airplants

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And the #demolition begins! love these pods for airplants. cute and nice for decoration, however airplants aren't the best as #fengshui adjustments because they're spiky! #airplants#renovation

How to Harness the Wisdom of the Planets with Vedic Art

Most of you know that I have been studying Vedic yantra and mandala painting since 2008 and I just got back from a retreat at ananda ashram with my teachers, Mavis Gewant and Pieter Weltevrede. You can see some of my newest work here.

Over the years I’ve painted dozens of planet yantras, but it’s only this year that I started incorporating the wisdom of the planets in my everyday life. Did you know that each day of the week is named after one of the planets?

The names for each day of the week have slightly different meaning, depending on the culture, but the names we use in America are derived from the Roman culture. In selecting names for the days of the week, or the time it takes for the moon to move between phases, the Romans chose the names of our sun, moon and, at the time, the five known planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn). As a note, these planets were already named after Roman deities (in Latin, of course), so not only are the days of the week named after planets, they're name after Roman deities as well!

Sunday SUN radiant and bright orange

Monday MOON light feminine blue

Tuesday MARS fiery red

Wednesday MERCURY emerald green

Thursday JUPITER expansive yellow

Friday VENUS soft whites & pastels

Saturday SATURN introspective dark blue & black

I started wearing a piece of clothing or jewelry for each planet on their day of the week. For instance, today is Wednesday, so I often wear this green jade mala that I made with Satya Scainetti.  

This is from the vedic tradition, but I also connect the colors and planets with feng shui principles. For example Mars and red can relate to the Fame and Recognition area of the feng shui bagua map. I find that it helps me to understand the feng shui colors on a deeper level to connect the planet and god/goddess associations.

Wearing the color of the day can help you invoke the power of that planet to give you a little more support on that particular day. Or if you want more of a particular energy, you can wear that color. For instance you can wear orange for more radiance. It’s interesting to see how people will start to respond to this. For instance, my ascendent is the sun, and when I wear orange on Sunday, I just get so much attention!

Try it out yourself and see what happens!

by Anjie Cho

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