Tag Archives: Jin

Inhabit Paradise. Year of the Metal Ox.

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“To live in a peaceful home is to experience paradise on earth.”
–Shri Radhe Maa

Coming off of the hard, tumultuous rapids of change into the gentle yoke of strength, stability and nourishment will feel like a breath of fresh air. February 12, 2021, the trustworthy Ox with its “Buddha” energy is ready to plow a path of good fortune for us this year.

The Year of the Metal Ox portends that good luck will unfurl when we apply Ox’s synergy of patience, determination, diligence and wisdom. Integrating these qualities into our actions will have a flourishing effect on our inner reality and we may expect to thrive in our relationships and goals in 2021.

What did the troubled waters of the Rat year teach us? To unite our efforts. To live in the present moment. To show compassion. To notice suffering and say a kind word. To lend a hand. This is the source of your wealth and peace of mind. Ox’s altruistic nature, service to mankind and ability to grant wishes (according to Feng Shui tradition) make it the perfect animal to shoulder our personal endeavors. We will prosper when we stay focused and organized while keeping our emotions on even keel.

In Japan the ox is rooted in Buddhist lore. Zen Buddhism specialist, Martine Batchelor says a parable depicts “a young ox herder whose quest leads him to tame, train and transform his heart and mind, a process that is represented by subduing the ox.” (Japan Times).

Relationships will be highlighted in 2021. Uniting our efforts under the calm presence of the Ox we will see improvements among groups, families, friends and tribes.

How To Inhabit Paradise In The Year of the Metal Ox
The fanfare, the food and family celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year create a tsunami of positive energy while chasing away negative Ch’i. Every year, the centuries-old traditions of displaying red lanterns, gold coins, mounting spring couplets on the doors of homes and setting off firecrackers are believed to guarantee financial success and family harmony. In the west we focus on individual achievement but in Asian cultures success happens because of the people who are in our lives. Success is based on Yuan–family unity. Yuan means roundness. The image of the circle, seen in many of the food dishes like fish balls and oranges, are associated with family unity, support and continuity. This suggests the attainment of the Five Fold Happiness – luck, prosperity, longevity, happiness and wealth. These symbols and motifs ensure the timeless wishes for harmony and goodwill among all.

Invite Success
Accessorizing with Ox’s lucky colors (besides white, the color for Metal), yellow and green, will magnetize luck, prosperity and success.

Meet Your Zodiac Year
In the Year of the Metal Ox, for the Ox it is your “Benming Nian”. You will need to take a few precautions to ensure the year is not a bad one. Traditionally it is believed that wearing red will bring supreme good luck. Red is one of the luckiest colors in Chinese traditions, standing for loyalty, success and happiness. You’ll see red all everywhere during traditional Chinese festivals and particularly Chinese New Year: red lanterns, red envelopes, red paper hangings. When it comes to decorations, just about everyone is red and ornamented in gold.

Add red accessories to every outfit. Or play it simple, wear a cute bracelet made of red interwoven Chinese knots around your wrist off bad luck. But maybe you’re not a big fan of red in your outer wardrobe. Red underwear is, of course, the answer. It’s an easy way to protect yourself against the hazards of benming nian. You can stock or ask your sweetheart to gift you with some new sets on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Those persons born with the Chinese zodiac sign of the “Ox” are the Yuan Chen Tai Sui or they are situated atop the Tai Sui (hot seat). The Horse is the most confrontational with the Ox. From the Yun Lin Temple, When the white Horse meets the Green Ox, it will get overwhelmed and intimidated by situations. The Ram sits directly opposite the Year God (Ox) and will suffer direct conflict relationship. The Dragon and the Dog are  seated at right angle to the Year God and considered to be the offending situation. Take extra precaution dear friends if your Zodiac animal is one of these signs. Be sure to carry a three dimensional rat made of jade, bone or boxwood. If you have the following BTSB ceremonies: “Welcoming the Wealth Gods” into your home; “the Golden Cicada” ceremony and  “Changing the Ch’i of the House and Transforming The Fortunes for Individual and Residences” you will improve your luck exponentially.

Carry The Golden Ox’s Secret Friend
“When the Rat and the Ox come together, the joy of this encounter is enough to offset any evil that the moment may harbor.” –HH Grandmaster Lin Yun
No matter what your Chinese Zodiac animal is (except for the Horse, carry the Rooster and Snake together), when you carry a three dimensional rat made of jade, bone or boxwood, it will supply you with auspicious opportunities. Feng Shui Shopper on Etsy has a nice selection.

Display Prosperity Fruit
Da Ju, Da Li
“May you enjoy an abundance of fortune and profits.”
Tangerine or ju in the Chinese language is close to the word for auspicious or lucky. Ju also sounds similar to zhu fu, which means a wish for good fortune. Da ju, da li expresses, “May you enjoy an abundance of fortune and profits.” It is customary to see two tangerine trees at the entrance of a home or business in many Asian countries, not just China. This represents an abundance of auspiciousness.

Bloom Good Luck
Displaying daffodils and narcissus during the New Year bring good fortune and luck into your home.

Enjoy A Fruitful Year
Add to your tangerine display other members of the citrus family. The word for orange (Chengzi) sounds like gold (Jin) in the Chinese language. Pomelos are large pear-shaped grapefruits which mean “to have”. Pineapple sounds like wealth but its real strength is symbolizes fame, promotion and excellent fortune. You can display the fruit at the front entry, the dining room, even the kitchen.

Show Up In Style
Dress in “up-beat” clothing or new clothes. Purchase a new red pocketbook. Professor Lin suggests a black wallet because black, the color associated with Water, is the representative of money.

Ward Off Evil
If anything breaks, like a cup or plate during New Year say “Fall to the floor and burst into bloom!”

Refrain From Cursing,
This will affect your luck for the year. If you should curse inadvertently say “Tong yen woo chi!” to reverse the affect.

Sleepless In the New Year
Stay out of trouble by staying awake!  The Chinese stay up for 12:01 a.m. for the sound of sleepiness in Chinese is similar to trouble. Sleepless means no trouble for the coming year.

Avoid Cutting the Luck of the Year
On the last day of the old year food is prepared for the next two days so that all sharp instruments, such as knives and scissors, are placed in the drawer to avoid cutting the “luck” of the New Year. The kitchen is not to be disturbed on the first day of the Year. Getting poked by pins, or getting cut can be a harbinger of surgery to come. Don’t even schedule your hair to be trimmed.

Eat Foods of Good Fortune
At Chinese New Year’s Eve families come together for the Reunion Dinner. They serve eight foods of good fortune (eight ”ba” because it rhymes with the word fa, ”to prosper” or ”to attain wealth”) to ensure good luck for the coming year.

– Shrimp in the Chinese language sounds like Ha, Ha, Ha and translates as merriment and well being. Joyfulness brings good will and a future of limitless possibility. 

– Dumplings, jiao zi, look like the golden ingots. Serving them promises wealth and prosperity. 

– Lettuce wraps are dished up because lettuce means rising fortune. 

– Serving a whole chicken during the Chinese New Year season symbolizes family togetherness. 

– Fish, “Yu,” sounds like the words both for wish and abundance. It is customary to serve a fish at the end of the evening meal, symbolizing a wish for abundance in the coming year. For added symbolism, the fish is served whole, with head and tail attached, symbolizing a good beginning and ending for the coming year.

– Sticky Rice Cake symbolizes a rich, sweet life. Longevity noodles represent a long life (an old superstition says that it’s bad luck to cut them) so keep them intact while you eat. 

– Both clams and spring rolls symbolize wealth; clams because of their resemblance to bouillon and spring rolls because their shape is similar to gold bars.

– Veggies embody the freshness of “evergreen” and store good fortune in their roots.

Remove Traces of Bad Luck
Throw away china, crockery or glassware that are broken, chipped or have hairline cracks, these augur bad luck.

Forgive And Forget
Make amends with anyone with whom you’ve had a row or falling-out.

Keep Money Rolling In
Prepare enough food to have left overs because left overs symbolize that you’ll have money rolling into the next year.

Ward Off Danger
On the morning of the first day of Spring Festival, families first set off firecrackers before going out in order to drive away evil spirits.

Hand Out Lucky Red Envelopes
The custom arose that children were easily susceptible to harm during the changing of the year and that money would protect them from evil spirits. This lucky money also served to bring good fortune for the coming year. During New Year, coins or notes, are placed in red envelopes, hong bao. Children and unmarried adults receive the red packets from elders or married friends. The red envelopes are a wish for good health, good fortune, peace and safety for the coming year.

Share a Circle of Sweetness
The first New Year Day everyone dines on a vegetarian meal to honor one’s ancestors. Then the family dresses in their finest clothes and visits older family members, paying respect, taking along gifts of Mandarin oranges and sweets of all kinds generally offered in a “tray of togetherness”. It is also customary to hand out hong bao (red envelopes with new bills or coins) to family members and friends of any age, who are single and unmarried.

Exchange The Old For The New
Bring one new item such as furniture, décor or art into your home and business to stimulate prosperity Ch’i and to expand your sheng chi (bright, uplifting energy  that is beneficial to your health and well being). In addition give away one item or more. You create space for new blessings. Taoist monks in their temples make this a practice in their temples.

Perform Good Deeds
Feeling a bit stuck? If you want your life to move forward performing nine good deeds a day brings good fortune. You will also stimulate success in your Feng Shui cures and improve your karma. Helping to change the world never was so easy than bringing a smile to a stranger’s face.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
May your joy be overflowing in the Year of the Metal Ox. May peace and prosperity abound throughout the year.

A well designed space allows you to access positive energy at all times. Please feel free to call upon me to help you arrange your home where you feel supported. I am available for a “Your House Is Talking” full consultation service or for an hour telephone conversation, Feng Shui A La Carte. Think of it as a fairy godmother for your house.

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.

December 17 New Moon. Be The Difference.

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“Anything is possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
– JK Rowling

December 17 new moon, enter Ox. Ox folks embody endurance, honesty and diligence. True to their strength, they take on hardship anytime and anywhere. We have the opportunity to glean from their Tao of resilience and fortitude for our own winter survival. And though we may be distracted with new year anticipation, let’s keep the tempo with Ox advice this December 17 new moon: keep your focus and be the difference! Always generous, Ox is gifting us with super-strength for our super power because as Ox would say, “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”

In January we struggle between leaving holiday mode and new year work demands; it’s possible to be caught in a clash. But before you end up in bed this December 17 new moon try this cure to strengthen your immune system. Within a 99 day period change the furniture three times. Or rearrange the furniture every 27 days, for three consecutive times. When you do it that way it will take a total of 81 days. It wakes up the Ch’i and removes any stale or blocked energy. And if you are already drained from a difficult work environment try this method. Before going to bed, peel an orange in one piece. It gets you to breath deeply and focus so you don’t break the peel. After this visualize the room is filled with the scent of the orange. Oranges signify abundance. The citrus aroma cleanses your etheric field and releases stale Ch’i. The transcendental meaning: oranges bring good luck and good fortune for it (chéng zi) sounds like gold (Jin) in the Chinese language. Everyday for nine days, peel one orange and leave the peel somewhere in the room. At the end of nine days you can dispose of the peels. You can eat the fruit everyday. You can also do the cure in your car if you are distracted a lot of the time and your distraction created an automobile accident. Do it in your office to avoid petty people coming around. Put the peels in your office drawer. And always, always set your intention.

Happy New Year! Live your dream in 2018!

Chinese Lunar New Year aka Spring Festival is February 16. Until then we are steeping in winter so protect your 7th vertebrae (in Chinese medicine where illness enters your body) with a scarf and mind what’s happening to your Chinese astrology. This December 17 new moon take a fresh approach to work, enjoy! Rat: it’s a month of challenges, you might say, adversities. What you plan may not come to fruition. For the next 30 days be cautious when driving. Do not make investments either. Put extra effort into your work and you will see advancement. It is a time to focus on peace and harmony in the family. Ox: a lucky star shines on you, it is a six harmony month. You will find wealth comes easily and your plans will come to life. With the assistance from Helpful People your relationships will be flavored with auspiciousness. Perform one good deed a day and you will gain additional fortune and merits. Tiger: you will have on one had disaster and the other auspiciousness. You have a lucky star that will eventual transform any disaster into peace. Perform a good deed a day and both prosperity and wealth will exceed your expectation. For those who are trying there is a chance to conceive. Your interpersonal relationships will be harmonious. Planning will go smoothly. Rabbit: your luck is mutually offensive. Avoid disputes, this gives scoundrels an opportunity to undermine you. Monitor your spending with your income. Do not visit the sick and the bereaved and watch your mental and physical health. Dragon: this is a three harmony month. Expect good results in your business endeavors. If you are a employed you will receive get promoted and receive a raise. If you are an official your future looks bright. If traveling any distance, perform the BSTB Feng Shui cure “Walking on Six Feet of Red Cloth”. Snake: your talents and skills are being recognized. You are riding high because events around you are bringing in good luck but all the same be mindful and do not let your guard down. Instead strive for a higher achievement. Horse: this is a direct conflict month. You luck is on the low end. Though you may work faithfully and not complain, there may be expressed resentment against  you. Your emotions may be low this month. It is advised to practice, BSTB “Inhale Exhale Breathing Exercise” to relieve pressure and avoid physical harm. Ram: the luck of the month is most confrontational. There could be one stressful event after another. Be mindful of your health, there may be illness and injuries. Your emotions may be in turmoil too. Do not act on impulse and stay clear of disputes. Monkey: the clouds have parted and the sun is shining bright. Helpful People will come to your aid and your endeavors are moving with ease. Your mood is improved and you have a bright future ahead. Rooster: there is the possibility that you will be confronted with situations, meet them head on. Face it with openness when it doesn’t go your way. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Also don’t be impetuous or quick to judge. Dog: misfortune is dissolving with the clouds. Helpful People come to your aid and wherever you look, there is prosperity and harmony. During this time that your life is running smoothly focus on harmony indoor interpersonal relationships. Pig: the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Your endeavors are going smoothly and your future looks bright. Cheer up!

If you request a cure from this December 17 new moon astrology forecast, I will ask you to honor the red envelope tradition. Have a great month, Zodiac friends! 

Thank you to Khadro Crystal Chu, Black Sect Esoteric Buddhist Feng Shui for your unfailing command of Feng Shui and Chinese metaphysics.

Have you decided this will be your year? “Boldness has genius”… with one hour of Feng Shui A La Carte. Think of it as a fairy godmother for your house.

What I have discovered about our homes is that creating a heart healthy space leads to peace and contentment. The bedroom is where it begins. Start with my complimentary pdf: 27 Bedroom Concepts To Maximize Your Health, Happiness and Peace of Mind. Design your space to your best advantage. Subscribe to my blog and special offers. You’ll receive this valuable Feng Shui Guide as a thank you gift.