LUNAR Calendar
September
22nd – Autumnal Equinox
24th – New Moon – start a new project, Rosh Hashanah
October
4th – Mercury goes retrograde, reflect, review, Yom Kippur
8th – Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse
21-22 – Orionid Meteor shower http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/orionid.html
23rd – New Moon, Solar Eclipse
25 – Mercury goes direct, carry on
This fall those of us living in cold climates need to prepare ourselves and our homes for the inevitable winter weather that will come. This thoughtful preparation will keep our feng shui working for us. As we know, good feng shui has a “supportive environment in which to live and work.” Let’s make sure that our environment around us and our home is going to support the changes. Soon our homes will become a refuge in cold, snowy weather. Let’s get our places ready now. This will save you unhappy minutes in the cold on a daily basis if you plan ahead and make those changes.
Garage – This is the transition area that welcomes you to your home. Make it look good. It will put a smile on your face and put you in a better mood.
- The recycling bins are ready for easy access from the house or service door.
- Summer toys are put away. Winter toys are accessible.
- The unfinished projects or broken things are tossed
- Relocate items that you don’t need now (lawn chairs, cushions, etc.) to the basement.
- Get winter car items – scrapers, brushes, etc., ready
Basement – your subconscious mind. Clean it up. You may have to store items from the garage.
Last call for yard work
- Clear dead plants from entrances. (Any fragments of death and decay can affect the eldest resident living there.)
- Maintaining a clear pathway to your front door, even if you don’t use it on a regular basis, is important. Put things away now.
Wash your windows inside and out. When we are in the house more, windows can become a more important connection with the outside. Make sure this connection is a clear one, if this is possible. If you are an apartment/condo dweller you may be at the mercy of the building’s window washers for the outside, but you can still take care of the inside.
Open your windows on a dry breezy day. Windows also are ventilation allowing the chi to circulate. We can let the stale air out and fresh air in. Do this soon. There is a Buddhist ritual where we open up all the doors and windows to let negative energy out and then invite new positive energy in. (I know a person who does this every time a certain relative of hers pays her a visit.)
WINDOWS and DOORS – from a feng shui perspective:
- The windows correspond to the eyes of the residents and relate to vision problems. Be sure you have no cracks or cloudy window panes.
- Doors are the “mouth of chi” especially the front door. It corresponds to your career. On the interior, keep it unblocked with nothing restricting easy opening, well oiled (no squeaking or sticking).
- The front door should be visible from the street or made prominent and inviting so people may find you if you are working and want to be found. Check the view looking out the door. Is there shrubbery, trees, etc., that comes between the door and the roadway in front? If so, trim the bushes, remove the obstacles.
- The front door should not be in direct line with a staircase. It is thought that the good luck and money flow right out the house. The transcendental cure is to have a crystal ball or chandelier between the staircase and the front door.
- Windows represent the creativity or children of the home. The doors are the authority or parents of the home. You want to have a proper ratio of windows to doors – any more than 3:1 can make the children unruly and rebellious. I was once called into a “glass house” where the children were totally out of control. More window treatments (drapes, curtains, blinds, etc.) were in order and some bells on the doors so the parents’ voices could be heard. On the other hand, if a young child lives in a home with many big heavy doors, he/she can feel oppressed.
- Any combination of three windows or doors in a row allows the chi to move too fast. Depending on the distance involved, you need to hang a crystal balls – maybe in chandeliers – in the pathway to slow down and disperse the chi into adjacent rooms.
- Windows or glass doors that allow excessive sunlight to enter at various times of the day can create a glare that is noxious; in effect polluted chi. If you can plant trees outside that will shade this, that will stop this. Window treatments and even crystal balls that disperse the chi and make wonderful rainbows can help.
- If your window treatments are always closed – for privacy or necessary reasons, and the house is too dark and/or depressing, you might have to consider adding more lighting especially for the winter season. (The condition SADs requires full spectrum lighting… another topic we will address at another time.) Using shears or blinds that go from the bottom up, instead of the top down will give you privacy and still let in some light.
- Interior doors that can smash together if both are opened at the same time are called “arguing doors”. This is annoying and can lead to family arguments. The physical solution is to redo the doors.
The transcendental solution is to give the doors symbolic “eyes” (red dots) so they can see each other. Visualize family harmony… - Window placement in new construction should be carefully done by watching how the sun moves for a year before construction.
- Door placement in new construction should carefully consider visibility from the street, ratio to windows and all the above considerations.
- Many people come into the house from their car through a garage or back entrance and never use their front door. It is good to occasionally open the front door and find a reason to use it whenever possible. This keeps the chi vital. Remember that front entrance is how we orient the three door bagua and it needs action once in a while.
- The door we use in from the garage or back entrance is considered “the door of first impression”. What we see when we enter this door is what we psychologically want to do when we get home. If it is the kitchen, we want to eat, if it is a wall, we feel blocked, if it is a bathroom, we need to use it. To divert your view from these rooms put art, pictures, etc., that will cause your eyes to focus there first (focal points) or put a dispersing multifaceted crystal ball between you and that refrigerator.
- In general – windows, their quality of clarity, size and locations determines how a house breathes, how the chi flows from inside to out. The ratio and placement to doors determines how the children ( windows) and the parents (doors) get along and relate to each other.
