Six months ago I contacted Roger Green, the founder of seven Feng Shui schools throughout the world, about the displaying my new art series called The Five Elements in his upcoming International Conference. He agreed it would be a good idea.
Roger’s teaching ability is profound, as he is able to bring to the surface complex subjects in a manner, which are learned and assimilated quickly by his students. I first met Roger Green during a Feng Shui Guild meeting in Marin, California, two years previously. I was taken by his natural easy way of talking and his casual interaction with the group. Ego had long since been put away and passion for his subject was immediate and compelling. I liked him. That is my first criteria when looking for a new teacher. His workshops are dynamite, and I personally recommend any of his classes.
Roger is a certified natural health counselor and runs training programs on the I Ching, the ancient study of the path or the way of life. He ran a natural foods cooking school for 15 years and has also translated the Lo Pan, or Chinese Compass used for directional Feng Shui into English. Natural medicines and Feng Shui are also part of the curriculum he established for teaching Feng Shui, and is now being used in the United States, Europe and Australia. One of his popular schools in the Bay Area is called Golden Gate School of Feng Shui. (www.fengshuiseminars.com is the site for more information.)
His recent new book, The I Ching Workbook, is a gem for anyone interested in the profound wisdom of the trigrams which make up the Bagua, or eight-sided octagonal grid used in mapping the home and understanding the sixty-four hexagrams of life. Roger’s workbook was selling at a rapid pace at the conference to his current students and newcomers to the world of harmony and balance.
I have been painting pictures throughout my career with an underlying purpose of symbolic healing which I didn’t fully understand until I began to learn Feng Shui and the five Element systems of harmony and balance. Using Water, Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth, their specific colors and shapes to create a painting or mural brought the peace of Feng Shui easily into a living space. My art classes filled as I began the journey of painting with Chi. Visual images are one of most powerful ways to change a room or business space.
Now back to my current dilemma! Six months seemed ample time to create the five new pictures for the conference, and now I had five days to turn out the promised work. I cleared my home, did the appropriate Feng Shui enhancements, turned on the music and began to paint with ease as if the Gods and Goddesses were behind me guiding each stroke of the brush. TIME was only a space, and I have never felt so free and the work flowed quickly and effortlessly.
I packed the car in record time, placing each 48 x 48 inch painting between blankets for protection during the long drive to San Luis Obispo. I drove onto the ferryboat with time to spare and made the six-minute trip to the mainland of Washington State. A quick goodbye to the grandchildren, who now live two blocks from the ferry terminal, and a stop by my office for last-minute calls, and I was on my way south down the I-5 freeway which takes you from the top of the United States to the very tip of southern California.
I leaned over the driver’s seat and pulled a cassette tape from a large box containing recordings of the 2001 conference in Florida, which I missed, and began listening to the wisdom of international teachers from that gathering. There were over l00 tapes, and without looking I had chosen Master Lin Yun’s talk at that conference. Professor Lin Yun is my Master teacher of Feng Shui, and so I leaned back, listening to his wise words of creating peace within the home, city, nation and world through Feng Shui and placement of the five Elements.
My cell phone rang and the sound startled the tranquil moment. It was my webmaster, who is a jewel to work with. “Where are the new pictures for the site? I’m ready to create the page on the five Element artwork.” he chimed.
“You read my mind. I didn’t have time for the shoot. I will be back in two weeks and have an appointment with the photographer then,” I replied. “What’s the deal on selling prints?” he asked, referring to the setup for pay arrangement and other details of website business I don’t like to think about. “I’ll get the prints done, give you the sizes and you do your magic and create the page for selling the art work AND the credit card stuff!” I begged, as I had discontinued the credit card hookup from my sold business last year. “You got it,” he agreeably responded. “Have a good trip, bye,” he ended. “He is the best. Good friends are a value to work with,” I thought as my mind went back to the sound of Master Lin’s voice of encouragement. My contentment and excitement grew equally as I traveled south to one of the most beautiful places on the coast of California.
