Feng Shui, translated from the Chinese, means "wind and water", and is the practice of artful placement of objects and furnishings in a dwelling to bring about prosperity and good fortune. With proper placement, the flow of chi (the Life Force-yes, George Lucas really did have something there) is improved and the home becomes all the things we most desire: comfortable, welcoming, nurturing and safe.
Chinese Astrology is one of the main factors used in Feng Shui practice. Unlike the Western Zodiac, where birth sign is determined by month and day, Chinese astrology uses the year. Once you know what animal-element-color is representative of you, adjustments (often referred to as cures) can be made in the home environment to bring about harmony.
These adjustments might include: clearing away clutter, which impedes the flow of chi, hanging mirrors or crystals in strategic spots to reflect away sha chi (negative energy), selecting plants with rounded leaves and flowers to promote growth, or augmenting certain guas (sections of rooms) with colored objects that amplify or multiply good chi. In certain cases, chi can even be affected by your television or stereo!
In our last home, there were frequent family squabbles, (which I later learned were symptoms of bad chi from the previous occupants). Mind you, I would have declared this the purest hocus-pocus while living there-but after we moved (to a new home where we were the very first owners), the strife turned off like a faucet. I mean to say, it was a pronounced reduction. Quite impressive!
Only recently have I learned how important Chinese astrology can be when drawing up a bagua (map of placement) of the home. It is essential that one discover the animal for the year they were born. My research soon lead me to the information that my husband was born in the year of the Purple Fire Monkey, and my son the Red Fire Tiger. Excitedly, I read on-only to discover that I was born in the year of the Golden Earth Boar...
Okay, brain, screech to a halt on that. Did you say Boar? As in pig?
Oh, come on...
Yes, pig. Great. Just great...
You know, I was probably the only person in Cincinnati (aka Porkopolis) that hated the decision to have flying pigs as our city symbol, and detested the Big Pig Gig, which featured statuary of oinkers strewn on every street corner last summer from here to Hamilton.
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