The Nine Elements of the Bagua
The colors for the Career section are blue and black.
Here are excellent renditions for the entryway of your home. 
What do the bridges represent to you?
Author Archives: admin
Red Envelopes
The giving of the red envelope is a tradition in China.
Red envelopes are used to enhance luck, happiness and prosperity. They are also utilized as protection against inauspicious qi (or chi) and to prevent negative events from occurring. Red packets are considered very auspicious when received as a gift.
Images used on the front of a red envelope wish blessings, long life, prosperity and good health. Through the years, artists have found new ways to improve the message of good tidings such as carp swimming amongst flowering lotus, the fabled creatures of dragon and phoenix, Chinese zodiac animals depending on the year being presented, peonies in full bloom, the three immortals, golden pineapples, Buddha’s and children. They are actually very beautiful and the varied designs we have seen over the years have been outstanding. As a company we hand pick every design as the quality and presentation is very important.
Red symbolizes power, protection and good luck. Payment to a Feng Shui Master is made in previously unused red envelopes for a Feng Shui Consult or when Feng sacred knowledge is transmitted for several reasons:
- To show respect for sacred knowledge given during a consultation.
- To increase the effectiveness of cures.
- To protect the Feng Shui Master from harm for revealing sacred knowledge and from taking on energy of concerns discussed or cleared during the consultation.
Tradition
Recipients of Feng Shui methods present payment within one, three or nine new red envelopes. Because nine is the number of completion, it is the preferred number. Eight envelopes can contain one dollar each and the last the balance of the consultation fee.
If you cannot find red envelopes locally, they can be purchased online from many sources, or you can make them yourself with red construction paper. It is your sincere intent that is most important in this tradition.
Bagua in My Bedroom?
Dear Caroline,
I live in a house with two levels. I have my bedroom in the second level. The bedroom is accessed by stairs and they are on the left side of the main door of the house, that is on the Knowledge area – I guess.
I don’t know if I should consider the stairs as the main entrance of the bedroom or still use the main door of the house as a reference point.
I have also tried to use a compass to find out for example where the Relationships area is. In theory, it is in the southwest part of the house. But when I use the bagua and use it according to the main entrance situation, the result is completely different.
Could you help me with this? Thank you very much.
With Best Regards
A Reader
Dear Reader,
Please contact me again this weekend to let me know if you are using Black Hat Feng Shui or Compass school? It can be confusing having different books giving different ways of mapping your home.
As a consultant, I have found the system which works best for the novice is the school of thought which aligns the Bagua or 8-sided octagonal shaped grid. Master Lin Yun brought this school of Feng Shui to the United States in the early 80s. His teaching of this ancient form of harmony and balance began at Berkeley, California. His schooling began at age five in China, and the world has never been the same. When attending his classes, I witnessed his humility, spiritual awareness and honesty when presenting Feng Shui to Americans.
My newspaper column called West Meets East, archived from the Benicia Herald, can also be read on my website. The archive contains more than 100 stories and teachings to help inform and answer questions pertaining to Black Hat School of thought. Many of these might answer your questions.
Black Hat School can be used without the compass and provide excellent results. I began my career using Compass School, which works very well also, but is complicated for the client. My goal was to educate the client, so the client could take control of his or her life with the diagram or floor plan of their home or office after I left the home. Each of my consultations became a private lesson. This is a very empowering gift for the owner of the dwelling.
So, according to Black Hat methodology, place the Bagua over the house centering the grid with the center of the house as closely as possible. Also include the garage if it is built onto the structure, as most garages nowadays hold 2-3 vehicles and are a large part of the floor plan. Place an invisible thumbtack in the center of the Bagua and swing the Career section of the Bagua to your FRONT DOOR. For most home this works. Now the architectural front door becomes the “mouth of the Chi.”
Next, there are two options at the top of the second story. In Master Lin’s early teaching, the second level was considered a second and new Bagua alignment, and in this second phase the Career zone started at the top of the stairs. Although this mapping is still used by many consultants with success, I find Terah Collins, author of many Feng Shui books and a San Diego school, advice quite helpful. Terah’s idea is, as below so above. (She is also a past student of His Holiness and follows many of his teachings.) This system also works very well on homes with multiple stairways.
During one of Master Lin’s workshops, I heard him contend, yes, the second floor could be considered as below so above. He feels the Bagua is a part of your being, and this invisible energy or Chi is always changing and always flowing. Life is never the same from second to second, and we must adjust to the Chi’s changing and life forces.
The Bagua can be placed over the home, car, boat, property, the body, the face and the nation.
Choose your consultant wisely and ask questions. If someone suggests a doorway be boarded up or tells you must follow their advice only and predicts scary situations, run, don’t walk to a known and proven consultant. Good Luck!
PS: I am available consultations by email. This service can be done by fax and phone with an appointment.
Caroline Patrick
We Arrive Home
The ancient art of placement, called Feng Shui uses an eight-sided grid called a Bagua to locate the mouth of Chi in your living and working spaces. This 5000-year-old tool contains nine equal sections which supports the nine aspects of life and works with the five elements necessary for balance and harmony on the earth. Water, Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth are the necessary elements. and the aspects are Career, Knowledge, Family, Wealth, Fame, Partnership, Helpful People and Travel and good Health. With a balanced combination of all these supporting factors, our lives become easier to manage. When one or two aspects become too important, then the others suffer.
The last few years our family life suffered. I longed to see my two grandsons more often. I wanted to see the daily cute things they say and do. I felt sorry for myself at times and wished they could live closer. Too many miles separated us for too long. Our present home was beautiful, but the Family sector lacked the support for the Chi or Energy to flow properly. The section related to this Wood Qua was not free of clutter. Our garage filled this sector and my husband in his Feng Shui innocence had piled a thousand pounds of tile against the back side door or entry. Once a door has been built, blocking the entry is a Feng Shui no-no! I didn’t expect him to re-stack the tile. We were going to retile the house that spring, and spring was just around the corner. His current job project was local and he was assured traveling wasn’t scheduled by his company. Of course he was quickly assigned a project four hours from home.
The tile sat in the Family sector another six years, and problems began to occur shortly. Little ones and big ones too personal to write about, I applied my knowledge of Feng Shui which helped a lot, but the blockage was there and needed to addressed. Now it was time to relocate for retirement. Boxes began to be moved and shifted in the garage and our life reflected this action. It was time for realigning our lives.
Many situations took place and finally the stagnation in our home was released. Looking for car papers, house insurance and all of those fun projects which make you crazy, was changing our thinking and planning every few hours, it seemed. We would put money on one home, only to find out another couple had just put earnest money on the same property an hour before. This process repeated itself again and again. But I realized that losing your grip on a sure thing is God’s way of “stepping in” to save you from yourself.
We had given up on finding a home on the Oregon Coast and were now ready to give up and try later, when our son called with his suggestion to move both families to the San Juan Islands. My dream was coming true. I let go of the constant yearning to be near the little ones. That is when things materialize into form. The blockage of controlling any situation can stagnate any purpose. The Chi lodges in the home, in the atmosphere or in the body. Blockage is blockage.
To make a long story short, we are now living on an island in the San Juan Islands. The house materialized easily, our other home sold the next week with a few quirks of its own to be discussed later. Pine trees tower above our property and the wind talks to me daily. Kiddingly I told my husband, “If the next house we see has blue-green kitchen counter tops, refrigerator with a bottom freezer, and a studio, and a fountain in the front yard, I’ll buy it!” It did, and we bought it!
The children are here with us as we figure out the rest of the plan, or maybe it reveals itself. There is magic around every pathway, as the former owner believed in secrets planted around every corner. Her projects are my treasures as I spent a lot of time with the little ones, looking at bugs and dragons in our Never, Never Land.
Yes, there are days when I think I was crazy for wishing the six loads of laundry and lunches to pack, Ferry Boat, meetings to attend, school bus schedules to mark on the calendar, but soon the little guys will be big guys, not wanting Grandma’s attention.
I still will be doing Feng Shui. The local college just signed me up to teach several classes next winter and the calls are coming in for speaking engagements. My picture is again in the local paper, and I am the only Feng Shui Consultant in the Yellow Pages within a hundred miles. I’d better enjoy the hectic schedule of the little ones because going back to work will probably be the only rest I’m going to get.
Feng Shui Moving Adventures
Last week I left you at an Oregon motel contemplating my future. Married to my partner for almost 43 years, I now felt a sort of security and familiarity and mature love that comes with the good times and not-so-good times that bind two people into some kind of comfort zone in making major life decisions. After 43 years, marriage survival techniques have already been established and hopefully understanding your partner’s dreams as well as your own have been voiced and noted.
We met in high school. Our parents were in the resort business. Both of us worked on the lake with customers who loved fishing, hunting, hiking the Ozarks and boating. My family owned boats all of my life, so I practically lived on the water working and playing. My husband’s family owned a store, fishing dock and cabins for weekend customers. We talked many times over the years of our desire to only view the water after the long hours of dealing with the public. We owned a few boats throughout our marriage and fishing trips did happen but not to excess after the early exposure, associating work with the craft.
Suddenly, planning retirement brought back the good memories of those times and my husband began talking about boats again. Part of choosing a new location for our newfound freedom was to fish again. I love the outdoors but get very wiggly after an hour in a boat; but bringing along a few artist’s paints and a small canvas to paint a picture keeps me a “happy camper.”
Now back at the motel after a long day of house hunting, I have phoned our son and daughter to explain our latest adventures on looking for a new location with good Feng Shui, a lake nearby for Dad’s fishing and a three-car garage. My usually calm mate was becoming increasingly hot tempered as he listened to my view of the days events, especially when I mentioned a certain housing development on the north side of the community. What was his problem? I could not get him to ‘fess up at his apparent disapproval. As I was teasingly explaining his grumpiness to his children, a roar of explanation suddenly erupted behind. “There are no bass fish in that northern lake and I’m not going to drive clear up there to fish for the wrong kind of fish,” he roared. I began laughing, thinking he was teasing, which made him worse. He has fished for all kinds of fish, but I did remember him saying many time, “bass are fighters, they are a challenge and I love a challenge.”
Suddenly realizing the location of my next home teetered on a bass, I became speechless. “Life is weird,” I surmised. Sitting on that bed with the phone in my hand, I decided I was living with a stranger. Who was this person that couldn’t drive 15 minutes to a southern lake to bass fish? We have driven seven hours in Arizona to spend six hours to fishing for trout. A simple divorce seemed appropriate, or maybe I should sleep on it.
We went to dinner next. He talked happily throughout dinner as I sat quietly, only observing his facial expressions, as he now seemed unburdened by his confession about bass and the water of the northern lake being too cold to foster the species. Also knowing the flip-flop of this man’s behavior, he sometimes changes his mind at the drop of a hat. “Yes, I will wait until tomorrow to announce my plans for divorce,” I thought. I was as calm as a cucumber as I calculated and rehearsed my speech for dividing up the assets before this next phase of our life became too complicated. My reaction bothered me somewhat as it seemed a shame to split after many years, but it was more than the bass, it was “Who am I?”
The next morning rain sprinkled, the wind blew and we ran to the realtor’s car. An ocean lot was our next stop. Raw land, he decided, was the way to go. Driving toward the property, the trees lay tight against the earth, all facing away from the ocean where the wind with its constant force shaped the bare exotic branches. A smile filled my partner’s face as he “walked” the next piece of a sand dune. Don’t get me wrong, I usually go with the flow, because around every corner is another adventure, new people and a lot of purpose. I began to see the sparkle in his eyes. “Okay, I can do this,” I thought. “Plenty of room for a three-car garage, good resale and location, location, location.”
Back in the car and out of the wind, I asked the realtor for the land maps checking the shape of the lots and plots with lucky numbers. Feng Shui is very definite with the energy of mathematics. Numbers play a big part in choosing the correct combination. My husband has long been convinced of the Art of Placement’s advantages, watching over the years the success of choosing places with good Chi. Our realtor was becoming fascinated with my selections and was full of questions. “Oh, please come to our town to live, I want to learn all about Feng Shui.” “Okay,” I replied, “just help locate an office space, I think my husband is happy with the lots, let’s make a bid.” Looking over my shoulder, I could see he was thinking again, as he gazed out the back window of the deluxe automobile. Not a good sign!
