The Feng Shui dragon is one of the most auspicious of all ancient Chinese symbols. It is not only one of the most powerful of the Feng Shui cures but is the embodiment of yang, the strong masculine energy.

The Feng Shui dragon is best known as the traditional cure for wealth and prosperity. If you consult the Bagua, the Feng Shui energy map, you will learn that the financial area of your home is in the southeast.

According to Chinese astrology, the wealth star changes every year. For 2009, southeast is the luckiest sector, with star 8 as the wealth star. Fire colors are recommended in 2009 to decorate your home office. A golden dragon here is the penultimate prosperity cure. If your southeast area is missing or incomplete, you can use a mirror to balance out the space. Chinese coins can also bring good fortune.

Traditionally dragons were believe to be able to control the climate. Wind, clouds and rain, all beyond our control, were thought to be controlled by dragons. This makes the Feng Shui dragon a powerful symbol for agricultural businesses and those businesses that rely on the weather.

Because the dragon is the embodiment of male energy and success, it makes a great housewarming or business gift for the man in your life. Selecting a dragon with a pearl or crystal in its claw symbolizes power, good fortune and a wealth of opportunities.

To strengthen the love and marriage area of your home, consult your Bagua, then be sure to pair the Dragon with the Phoenix. This pairing is the ultimate symbol for marital bliss.

Dragons also symbolize the number 9, the number of luck and good fortune in Chinese tradition… Having a dragon with the number 9 is a good way to bring good luck to those who possess it. Don’t be tempted to place 9 dragons in your home for extra luck, the maximum number of dragons recommended is five.

The dragon carries a strong energy of activity and creativity, so avoid using in low energy areas like the bathroom or garage. Place the dragon around eye level, and not too much higher, and always treat the dragon with respect. Don’t stick it in a closet! Place him in an open space, facing towards the center of the home, but not against a wall or corner. If there is a pearl or crystal in its claw, never face them towards a door or window.

Placed with honor, the Feng Shui dragon can bring success to many areas of your life, and allow you to harness the power of the dragon!

Feng Shui dragon, and to learn how to incorporate these principles into more balanced home decorating, without spending a fortune, visit: http://www.fengshuilight.com

The practice of Feng Shui is often referred to as a system for living in “harmony with nature.” For me, this explanation conjures up images of fields and forests, when in fact most of us are living and working indoors. Does this mean you have to spend more time outdoors to achieve the kind of balance Feng Shui adherents are referring to? Does this mean that apartment dwellers and workaholics cannot enjoy good Feng Shui? Absolutely not!

While it is enviable that some people can spend a lot of time out doors and luxurious homes are often built in the scenic mountains or at the beach, there is also an unseen, powerful aspect of nature going on right inside your home, right inside every single structure built on this planet. The Chinese call it “chi” and East Indians call it “prana.” These energies exist within our own bodies and they also exist in our surroundings. There is a constant ebb and flow and co-mingling of energies inside our bodies and our immediate physical environment. And that is one reason why having a wood framed bed could have a different affect on you than a wrought iron bed frame. There is a transferring of energies from one object to another.

This is also why a blue room will have a different affect on your body than a yellow room. Everything in your physical environment can affect your body, intellect and emotions.

Many people have had an introduction to Feng Shui through the media and what gets discussed most often is the concept of “chi flow.” This often boils down to furniture arrangement and architectural features in how they affect invisible air currents within our home or work place. These energy flows are determined to be healthful or hurtful depending on a number of factors. For example, we like to arrange a desk so that you can see and sense incoming people into a room. Having your back to a door can be unsettling and the chi flow will be hitting your back. If there is substantial clutter in a room, it will inhibit a healthy circulation of the air currents in the room, eventually resulting in ill health for the occupant.

What is less known about traditional Feng Shui is how we can alter the magnetic field of a room using raw elements. These elements are water, wood, fire, earth and metal.

An example of water is a fountain. Wood can be a live plant. Fire is real fire burning or a large display of red color. Earth is something really made or stone or soil. Metal can be copper, brass, bronze, gold or silver. Our own bodies possess ratios of these five elements as well, with our bones being an example of the earth element.

A common misunderstanding about Five-Element-Theory, even amongst Feng Shui enthusiasts, is that you can create balance by representing all these elements together in a room. This is the furthest thing from the truth. As elements, they have both a productive and a destructive relationship with each other. For example, water nurtures wood the way a plant is watered and it grows. This is an example of a productive relationship. However, water can destroy fire, so they are rarely put together in the same room. And putting all the elements together will cancel out all their affects. So, to learn how to use the elements powerfully and correctly, one must train in the traditional Feng Shui schools in the same way that one studies Chinese medicine over a period of time and with qualified instructors.

In Feng Shui philosophy, we want to live in harmony with our own environment and the good news is that we can control a lot of those energies. Given that there is so much in this world which we cannot control, Feng Shui principles can provide both protection from harmful circumstances as well as ways to enhance areas that are already good, making them even better.

Beginning in February of 2009 (for one year), there will be a particularly harmful energy residing in the west sector of every person’s home. This is one of nine different annual energies that can be calculated. And by using a compass and learning how to divide up a floor plan, you can learn how to locate the west sector of your home. For some people this is going to land in a relatively unimportant area like a bathroom or dining room. For others, this harmful annual energy will have a big influence if the west sector is someone’s bedroom or entrance. This annual energy is related to sickness, depression, bleeding or miscarriage. It is a type of earth energy that is obviously considered negative and it needs to be weakened or depleted so that it will not have an influence on the occupants. Metal happens to be the element which will drain or weaken this annual influence in the West in 2009. This is just one example of using Five Element Theory correctly and strategically to improve health and well-being. What would be a disaster waiting to happen would be a large display of red color (fire element) in the West in 2009 because fire strengthens earth and you do not want to strengthen a visiting energy that can cause sickness, depression, or bleeding.

Every house is a combination of positive and negative influences, permanent as well as transitory. This is why Feng Shui can be called a predictive art like astrology: because some permanent energies are determined based on when a structure is built and others come and go with yearly cycles.

Join Kartar Diamond of Feng Shui Solutions for local or long distance assistance. You can learn feng shui from an experienced expert or you can have Diamond assess your space and give you all the answers you need to balance and enhance your own personal or professional surroundings.
Visit us on the web at http://www.FengShuiSolutions.net

The Kitchen is a very powerful place, feng shui-wise. It is the heart of the home. Like your heart, it is deserves special care for optimal health. Does your Kitchen delight the senses? Or it is usually an eyesore?

The kitchen will positively affect the part of your life and your body it relates to when :

1. The kitchen counter surfaces are primarily clear and ready to allow you to prepare yummy, healthy meals. Even if you eat out nearly all the time. You’ll want some beautiful, colorful, bountiful feeling art, accessories, or even just bowls of real fruit. A healthy plant or two.

What you don’t want are counters so stuffed with occasionally used appliances and stacks of papers that it is impossible to use the kitchen without clearing a space first.

2. Ideally, knives are kept in drawers. Yes, they probably came in a beautiful counter top knife block, but it is not good feng shui to have knives so easily accessible, especially if there are children in the house. And even if they aren’t. Williams Sonoma has in-drawer knife blocks.

3. Your kitchen will have two, three, or four drains. Drains can drain your finances, your physical health, your aspirations to travel, clog your sinuses, and otherwise wreak havoc, depending on the kitchen location in relation to the feng shui grid.

Ideally, you keep all those drains closed unless you’re using them. In reality, that can be a real hassle. Which isn’t good feng shui either.

You can energetically keep your drains closed with kitchen sink strainers.

4. Can you see the front of your refrigerator? Or it is covered with photos, kid art, exercise class schedules, calorie/fat charts, coupons, and a horde of marauding magnets?

It is good feng shui to display your child’s art. It’s even good feng shui to do so on your refrigerator. However, not willy nilly and not in the midst of all that other stuff. If you are honoring your child’s artistic endeavors, honor it. Display it clearly.

Photos of people who love and support you, depicting fun vacations and personal celebrations are great for the refrigerator door. Create a pleasing composition of items with the door as the canvas.

Tape exercise class schedules to the INSIDE of a cabinet door. Ditto calorie/fat counters. They are handy but don’t nag you, there.

5. Out of sight is not out of mind in feng shui, so if your kitchen cabinets are stuffed with appliances, containers, multiple sets of china, and even food you haven’t used in over a year, it’s time for some clutter clearing.
Cleared out cabinets frees your creativity and your respiratory system if that is the part of the grid where your kitchen lies. If it is in your Relationship area, cleared cabinets help you clear out your emotional baggage and be fully present with your sweetie.

The basic question to guide your Kitchen Feng Shui is this: Does your Kitchen delight your senses … or not?

Feng Shui 101 is a concept I have come up with to help you learn about the basic concepts of Feng Shui. Basically, this is the barebones and completely distilled version of everything and anything you need to know about Feng Shui without any of the filler. So here we go. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese interior design philosophy, based on the principles of the I Ching. It doesn’t actually have anything to do with what style of interior decorating you’re following. Throughout Asia, Feng Shui enthusiasts consider that your home and environment, affects how you feel, as well as the energy and luck you attract into your life. Basically put, this means that your interior design affects your life and determines if you have good luck, or bad luck. Feng Shui is a way to generate an effortless (key word: effortless) stream of positive energy into your home and life.

You’ve probably realized from personal experience that cleaning your home gives you a sense of inner peace and makes you generally feel better. And redecorating certainly does the same. What you’re missing though, are some guidelines so that when you are redecorating, your home will be better, more chi-friendly and flourishing. Feng Shui is a set of those guidelines. It is really an art and science that has evolved in the Far East over thousands of years. When you put the basic Feng Shui 101 principles to practice in your home, you’ll notice the difference. Feng Shui is based on the conviction that everything in the universe contains chi, and uses time-tested principles to balance that energy correctly.

The principles behind the philosophy of Feng Shui are actually quite intricate and complex. Most practitioners undergo numerous years of training and mentorship to learn everything. Regardless though, there are basic principles you can apply to your home. One such principle is the size of your front door. Is it congruent to the rest of the house? Is it in proportion? Your fortunes may not be so good if your front door is excessively large. Is the front door visible from the kitchen? Anyone preparing meals (which symbolize prosperity in Feng Shui) should be able to see the front door without craning their head more than 45 degrees.

The dining room is not supposed to be of a lower elevation than the living room, and the southern aspect of your home must contain the color red (symbolizes congratulations in China), which represents fame and reputation. You should avoid sharp lines in your home and furniture choices – gentle curves and lines are much better for generating a chi equilibrium. Any mirrors you have should be cleaned regularly to keep their chi-enhancing properties in effect. Any other reflective surfaces should also remain spotless. Your home should also be well ventilated, with fresh and clean air entering and circulating at all times. A pair of Fu dog statues can also bring fortune to your home, as they are symbolic guardians of the home.

Jackie Tan is a Feng Shui writer and enthusiast, and part of the team behind BeingBlissful.com

Are you happy with your situation in life? Invite wealth into your life using Feng Shui money symbols. With the right knowledge of how to use it, you can attract abundance, good health, and good relationships to your life.

Health and Relationships come first, because money can’t buy good health and good relationships. Once you have avoided any negative energy (chi), then you find ways to improve Wealth and Success.

The first step is to clear all the clutter from your home and office, it is important to set your intention, otherwise the space you clean up will fill right back with the same bad energy. Second thing to do is get yourself a good compass and determine your home.

Feng Shui has money tools (wealth, fortune, success and abundance) to help us manifest anything we want and need. It needs to be positive, (focused on what you want, rather than what you don’t want). The key as always is to create the balance into your life.

This three colors purple, red and green support prosperity (a never ending flow of giving and receiving) energy in your home or office.

The Feng Shui or Money Frog (this is a three legged statue of a frog or toad with a coin in his mouth)

The frog can bring good fortune, happiness, longevity and good health! And also called Three Legged Toad or Frog, “Chan Chu” as the money frog is called in Chinese is associated with the moon. This is because it is believed that the frog transforms with the moon. The Feng Shui money frog represents wealth, good health. Place the Money Frogs to enhance the southeast. To double your cash flow and the income of your home, you may put two Money Frogs on each side of the entrance inside but their heads must looking in and not out because if they walk out the door they will never return. Place as many fogs as you feel in your living room, but not too high, as frogs lives on the ground.

The Money tree (botanical name Pachira)

Just like other indoor plants, it needs some sun light and periodically watering. It can grow as tall as seven feet. The money tree have thin branches with five big green leaves on the top, like human hands with five fingers, which symbol the five fundamental elements of Feng Shui: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. It is also known as the good luck or good fortune tree. It brings prosperity (a never ending flow of giving and receiving) to your home.

The Good Luck Golden Cat of Abundance and Protection is a unique Feng Shui symbol.

On one side the cat is smiling and holding his paw up which in Feng Shui represents good fortune and the attraction of wealth. On the other side the cat is frowning for protection and holding a broom to sweep away trouble. Place this cat in your wealth sector, South-East.

Chinese Coins

Imperial Coins, round with square hole in center, also called Feng Shui Coins or I-Ching Coins, are an excellent symbol of wealth, prosperity, and security especially when tied with red thread and also attract money to your home. They are tied in multiples of 3, 6 or 9 with red thread. Hang the coin sword on the wall in the living room, with the tip facing down and towards the entrance or windows

The laughing Buddha of Wealth

The Happy Buddha is a symbol of happiness and abundance. You will find him sitting on a huge gold ingot or dancing on a money bag. The gold ingot is considered a very lucky symbol of wealth. Place the Buddha of Wealth on your desk or in the wealth sector of your home to bring wealth to the family.

Goldfish

“Yu”, is the Chinese word for fish it also means success. The best location for your aquarium is the North wall or the South East wall. The best shape for an aquarium is rectangular or round.
The Chinese place three orange or yellow gold fish (energy) and one black goldfish (protection) in an aquarium to attract money. They believe that if misfortune hits your family, the black goldfish will die and receive the misfortune.

The Pearl Dragon

The Dragon is the symbol of absolute power in Feng Shui. Dragons are the most striking creature in Chinese mythology. The Pearl Dragon stands for power, and abundant wealth. He can be placed anywhere in your home, (buy not in your bedroom bedroom), it brings good luck. Place this dragon in high-activity working areas, on the East of your desk.

If you are considering bringing Feng Shui into your life, you must think about it before purchasing any products. Your intuition and your own energy will lead you to the right product of Feng Shui money symbols that is right for you. And the energy flows where intention goes.

What is a Wealth Vase

Simply put, the wealth vase is considered to be a very potent wealth enhancer for your family. It was a luxury available only for the wealthy in traditional China and you’ll be surprised by how many homes there have a wealth vase in a secret corner of their home. Many of these have lasted for many generations (being passed down) and is considered the secret of how many of these wealthy families continue to gain wealth and opportunities.

Choosing the Wealth Vase

Most wealth vases will be of the traditional chinese types, but that does not mean you are limited to it. The majority of the older wealth vases are of chinese designs simply because it was obtained in china and thus had its cultural influences in its art. What’s more important is that you choose a strong and sturdy (non-transparent vase). The top part of the vase (also known as the neck) should be smaller than the body and base. This allows you to place layers of cloth over it and tie it firmly with colored ribbons. When looking out for one, find one that you have an affinity with and gives you the feeling that it’s classy and very sturdy. But remember, what makes the Wealth Vase so potent is not the vase itself, but the ingredients that go into it.

Dispelling Some Myths of the Wealth Vase

Though there are many recipes out there and there is no reason for an individual to cater the contents to their tastes; many rulings are not entirely necessary or just plain funny. A good example of an unnecessary content to have inside would be a picture of someone wealthy you know. If you were to ask any of the elder generation of chinese about this, their reply would be ‘we wanted more wealth, not be stalkers’ or ’since when did we have cameras back then?’. Pictures/photos back then were not easily available and thus not used in traditional Wealth Vases.

Another myth would be choosing a vase that is made from a certain type (e.g. metal, wood, etc) depending on where you place it. Your Wealth Vase is meant to harmonize with its surroundings and sway things in your favor, regardless of the make. Additionally, wooden vases may not always withstand the test of time due to humidity or accidents.

Putting in the Contents

Before we start about the order of contents going in, there is no specific weight/amount that you have to put inside. Though it is better to try and make everything an approximate equal amount, some ingredients can be a lot more. Common favorites to pile in extra of would be: Feng Shui Wealth Coins, Fortune Flower Coins, and Semi Precious Stones.

The Bottom of the Wealth Vase

At the bottom, you should have soil from your home. This provides a bonding of sorts between the wealth vase and you/your home. Another word for this method is to ensure personalization that it works only for you, your family or future generations. Once this is done, add a layer of uncooked dry rice and dry beans. This is symbolic of abundant food and self sufficiency in your household. In ancient china, wealth was tied very closely to the amount of food you had at your disposal. Elders enjoy explaining this process as it represents your earth always growing and providing food/wealth for you.

The Middle of the Wealth Vase

The most important ingredient here would be Feng Shui Coins. Be generous in the distribution and put in as much as you can. To add extra potency, add in various forms of auspicious coins mentioned earlier (ie Feng Shui Fortune Flower Coins) and Amulets for Inauspicious Directions. This was considered as the best secret ingredient possible in the middle. The flower shaped design signifies growth, happiness and harmony always blossoming. The amulet is primarily used as a remedy against bad sectors, and its inscriptions will be used as a protective barrier for your life and wealth. This results in happiness, material wealth, and harmony all secured for you.

Near the top

After finishing up with the contents in the middle, lay around ingots and wealth bars until it creates a layer by itself. This further adds more stable wealth for you. At this point it is said that you put in some actually money inside, but the secret ingredient here is to use: currencies from a country whose currency is stronger than yours. This will vary from person to person, but think of currencies like the British Pound, US Dollar, notes from Dubai, etc. Then comes a Ru Yi Scepter for control and dominance in what you do, meaning you will never lose grip of your self earned resources. To top it off, you will need a wealth god you have an affinity to.

So, to sum up all the ingredients:
Wealth God, Semi Precious Stones, Ingots, Wealth Bars, Feng Shui Wealth Coins, Ru Yi Scepter, Soil From your Home, Rice, Dry beans

Secret Ingredients:
Fortune Flower Coins, Amulet for Inauspicious Directions, Health & Wealth Pendants, strong currency.

Finishing Up

Once everything has been filled up to the brim, put the lid on. Place a white cloth over the lid and neck of the vase so that it can be tied up with string/rope that represents the five elements (red, blue, brown, yellow and green). And there you have it. Your own wealth vase! It should be pretty heavy at this point in time, but try to lift it up and give it a good and graceful shake to help the contents settle comfortably. The final part is to find a place to hide it in such as a cupboard where it will not be bothered or opened frequently.

Smiling Bamboo strives to preserve the true traditions of Feng Shui amidst all the marketing hype of today. You can visit us at: http://www.smilingbamboo.com