Tag Archives: orange peel ceremony

Winter Solstice 2020. Dreaming In A New Era.

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“If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?” 
― Don Miguel Ruiz

Winter Solstice 2020 heralds the return to light but this year is exceptional. We will experience an astrological phenomenon of a grand design. Saturn and Jupiter in a rare, dynamic rendezvous will ascend upon the horizon just after dusk. Their massive, celestial bodies will appear like starry lovers embracing on a dance floor. Look to the west-southwest and you will see the coupled planets shining through the twilight.

What does this mean for humanity? Compared to the Christmas star that guided the wise men, the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter means old, tyrannical ways will be released. Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius will help us dream in a new era where humans will experience an expansion of consciousness, compassion and concern for the well being of the eight billion people on this planet. We will become global citizens. We will see more humanitarian policies set in place. Climate change will be addressed in more aggressive measures. Technological advancement will seem beyond miraculous, so buckle up.

What it means for you personally? There will be a greater impetus to realize your purpose. If you want to write a book, change your career or begin a project, this conjunction is fresh with innovative ideas. It’s the best time to tune in. Meditate and the small, still voice will whisper with clarity. Hold your thoughts in sincerity and devotion and you will be set on a trajectory to create something new and meaningful. Give it your full expression and heart, and it will receive the support it needs.

This conjunction is considered the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. We will use empathy to change the world. “Everyone will feel encouraged to embody the highest vibration in the form of social and progressive social activism.” Gandhi’s quote will be more relevant than ever, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. 

Consider the following if you want to align with the momentum of the Winter Solstice 2020 and the new energies of Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius. Plan time to meditate and perform rituals. Engaging your senses with your psyche you will nourish your body and spirit. These practices will help you hold your life’s vision while you “write the most beautiful story of yourself”.

Straighten your house. Begin with the front entry. Remove clutter, especially shoes (or organize them). When they are in disarray (in the Chinese language it means chaos or evil reside here)  the mouth of Ch’i becomes unruly. Bad luck follows.

Wash with orange peel. Cut nine circles from the skin of the orange. You will only want to use the zest (one of the reason oranges are used is their roundness means is not only as a symbol of gold but also completeness). Break down the peels to release their essence. While you are breaking the peels into smaller pieces, visualize the light of 10,000 Buddhas is emitted into the peels. Or visualize a deity of your choice. Chant Om Mani Padme Hum nine times or say a prayer. Draw a warm bath and drop the peels into the water. Let it sit a few minutes to infuse the water. Step in and wash your body. Do not forget to wash your hair. Feel the purification. Feel your Ch’i revived and refreshed.

Purify your space. Purchase nine oranges. The night before the Winter Solstice, this year, Sunday, December 20 at 11:00 p.m. open all the windows in your home. Cut (as you do with the orange peel bath) nine circles out of each orange for a total of 81 circles of orange peel. Break down the peels to release their essence. Nuance: talk to the oranges. Tell them they are being used in the best way possible. While you are breaking the peels into smaller pieces, visualize the light of 10,000 Buddhas is emitted into the peels. Or visualize a deity of your choice. Chant Om Mani Padme Hum continuously (at least 108 times) until the last circle is broken down. Begin at the front door. Quiet your body, mind and spirit. Walk around the house either clockwise or counter clockwise. Take a very small handful and scatter the peels out, as if you are feeding chickens. This mudra feeds “the hungry ghosts”.  At the same place take another very small handful of the orange peels, cast them straight down. You are ”planting auspicious seeds”. Stay in the same place and take another small handful and throw up into the air, chant Om Mani Padme Hum in excitement. You are sending blessings to heaven. Move throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs until you have covered the house. As you are scattering the peels visualize that tens of thousands of Buddhas’s light are filling every corner of your house. Stand at one open window, take a deep, deep breath and exhale while chanting Om Mani Padme Hum nine times in short puffs (use only one breath – do your best). See the mantras cleansing the room of any negative ch’i such as illness, bankruptcy, death, etc. See the room filled with positive ch’i and good fortune. You and the room receive the blessings of Heaven and Earth. Close the windows and end the ceremony at the front door with the Calming Heart Mudra and chant Om Mani Padme Hum nine times. You are complete. If you are experiencing digestive issues do this adjustment. It will remove old patterns, resentments and vendettas.

Meditate to focus. Find a comfortable sitting position. Hold the ‘gyan’ mudra, (The Mudra of Knowledge). It will improve your mental and physical health – increasing your memory power, pituitary gland production and improves the nervous system. Touch the tip of your index finger to your thumb. Hold the other three fingers straight and stretched. Be sure they are parallel to each other. Do the mudra with both hands. Rest your hands onto your knees. Close your eyes. If you can open them slightly and focus on your nose bridge if that is comfortable. Breathe in for the count of five and exhale for the count of five. Keep your spine straight during the mediation pose. Let your mind become empty just watching your breathe (in and out). If you choose you can chant Om or Om Mani Padme Hum at least 108 times to 216 to 324 times. Hold this for at least 15 minutes if not 30 minutes. The posture will promote the flow of prana; improves focus; enhances memory and promotes of sense of balance.

Journal after meditating. The flow of Ch’i will be enhanced and your mind will be open to channel ideas and insights not available to your rational mind. Write whatever comes into your consciousness. Do not censor. Appreciate the stream coming to you and the ideas for your new project, new career or new book will flow.

If you are looking to build a new home, remodel, plan a wedding, purchase a home or sell one, when you begin has tremendous influence on the outcome of your event. Beginning on the right foot with an auspicious date and time will bring success to your endeavor. Contact me, bette@shenmenfengshui.com for details of how I can assist you with getting started.

Allow me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation service or for an hour telephone conversation. Details are at this link 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.

Photo credit: Daily Express

9 Feng Shui Cures To Start Holiday Decorating ASAP!

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“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”
–Camille Pissarro

Holiday decorations up before Thanksgiving? Oh yikes? Or oh yeah! Trimming the door and whistling while you string the lights is undeniably a mood lift. TODAY reported in 2017 those individuals “who get their holiday decorations up early are happier” and tuned into their sense of well being. The sights and smells invoke pleasant memories. Decorating also tweaks our brain in just the right places, flooding it with dopamine, a feel-good hormone.

We’re also using a bit of color healing with all the ornaments, oranges and bright lights around the house. From the Feng Shui perspective, if we alleviate the continuous stress from the outside by lifting our spirits with beauty and calm on the inside of our homes this simple act benefits more than ourselves, it trickles out to our neighbors and community too.

“Beauty is one of life’s basic pleasures,” Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Nancy L. Etcoff was quoted in The Harvard Crimson. “We want to keep near us, feel more sympathy and compassion for and are elevated by what is beautiful.” Like neuroaesthetics, the science that quantifies the effect that beauty and aesthetics have on our brains, Feng Shui design not only awakens our brains but touches our hearts through enhancing beauty in our homes.

So let’s enjoy the prospect that by lavishing our homes with bits of green, some color, love, lights and soul we’ve contributed to our greater happiness and the true meaning of the season.

Adorn The Door Invite auspicious Ch’i. Start the holiday decorating nine days before Thanksgiving. Purchase a beautiful wind chime, one that pleases your ear. Put it in a special place and think about it every day. Visualize how it will bring good luck into your household. On Thanksgiving at 11:00 a.m. hang the wind chime from a red ribbon outside your front door. Say a prayer of grace, this reinforces your request. This enhancement takes your eye level gaze and preoccupation with worldly affairs and redirects them up. At this position, you invite the power of heaven to create joy, stability and forward movement.

Garnish The Front Entry Pomegranates symbolize fertility but for the holidays their usefulness can bring happiness to the family as well as good luck for your descendants. Display pomegranates in a table arrangement either at the front entry or the dining room table. If you like the pomegranate’s color and shape, display it as art in your home to attract these qualities year round.

Let The Sun Shine In Before Thanksgiving day (or any holiday) buy nine oranges. At 11:00 p.m. open all the doors and windows of the house. Cut nine round pieces of orange peels from nine oranges. You will have a total eighty-one pieces of round orange peels. Break the orange peels into small pieces. The word for orange sound like gold in the Chinese language. Begin at the front door, take a small handful, toss the peel upward, visualize that all misfortune, illness and bad luck are leaving. All is well. Take another small handful and with palm down, sprinkle the peel, sowing seeds of auspicious light and visualizing any negativity being replaced with new growth of good fortune, health and positive events. See sunlight or universal light filling every corner of your house. The light will evict any bad ch’i and misfortune and replace it with happy ch’i, prosperous ch’i and auspicious chi. Leave in all the rooms of the house. Say a prayer of grace and you are complete. Leave the peels for one night, three nights or nine nights for greater emphasis.

Trim The Table A Harvard study showed that we feel less negative around flowers. Looking at them first thing in the morning dissipates anxiety. “The positive mood that results from looking at flowers is likely to transfer to others – it’s what is called mood contagion,” says Dr. Nancy L. Etcoff. This feeling pervades throughout the day. A narcissus plant is both fragrant and it attracts prosperity for the year to come. Adjusting by sense of smell calms the nervous system. Feeling relaxed smoothes your Ch’i and puts you in good spirits when Uncle Harry arrives.

Picture Good Fortune Lemons, tangerines and oranges are a highly prized fruit. Fruit, in general symbolizes life and new beginnings. Orange or “Kum” in Chinese sounds like gold. It is also a prayer or wish for good fortune. Create an orange wreath with bay leaves for your wall or create a lemon, orange and mandarin garland for your stairway. After the holidays, if your stairway is facing the front door, paint the railing green to lift the Ch’i and keep good luck from rolling out the door.

Bedeck Yourself  Feel empower(red). Holiday decorating means pull out the gay apparel. Red in Feng Shui symbolism means happiness, righteousness, virtuosity, courtesy, etiquette, power and strength. If you want to put out a family fire, wear red. If you want to bring joy to the table wear red. If your son or daughter are not paying attention or giving you a hard time wear red. Red attracts auspiciousness and respect.

Take Out The Stress If tension has been running high all year long between you and your partner and you are feeling anxious and a bit depressed, place a round mirror in the bedroom to help eliminate tension and rough talk.

Replenish Your Love Pine trees symbolize friendship and loyalty. But also any type of evergreen symbolizes durability and endurance. They never lose their positive energy and create an optimistic spirit. Place a young, live pine tree in a pot at your entry or in the great room. Begin your holiday decorating by engaging your entire family to trim it with favorite photos and ornaments. See your family feeling unified. After the holiday take it to the forest, plant it and visualize you are replenishing Mother Earth.

Trim The Earth Show loving kindness. A kind word, holding the door, buying a cup of coffee, letting someone in line, helping an elder cross the street or visiting a friend in the hospital builds community, defeats depression and inspires prosperity in oneself and others. Do one good deed in terms of the benefit of others and you benefit the most.

A well designed space allows you to access positive energy at all times. Call upon me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation Service or for an hour telephone conversation. Details are at this link 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.

Magic Is In The Details

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photo credit: Shutterstock

“Believe in your heart that you’re meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

When Heaven Ch’i and Earth Ch’i conjoin there isn’t anything Human Ch’i can’t do. Such is the case with the July 31 celebration of the new moon entering Leo. The major themes are: broadcast big love, lead with heart and allow your creativity to soar. This is as good as it gets! Now would be the time to anchor this new paradigm into your home with Feng Shui design. You will enjoy the benefits well into the future.

Not only is the western zodiac playing host to Leo (rules the Heart), in Eastern cosmology the Fire element is lighting up the sky. Correspondingly in the Feng Shui Bagua the Heart is connected to the Fire element and its placement rests within the Fame gua, (the back of the house and center). Its Chinese name is “Li” meaning bright or radiance. This is your reputation, how you are known in the workplace, your neighborhood and community. The intention in Feng Shui design is to activate this area so you can broadcast your divine spark because the world needs to experience your gifts. For example how do you shine your light and encourage others to shine in their unique way too? How do you lead others to connect with their passion, their charisma, their warmth and interface with others? This gua is referred to as “rising yang”, the quality of expansiveness. How will you stimulate new ideas and expand your creativity in your profession, intimate relationships, family and friends?

I believe the magic is in the details so I’ve gathered five adjustments to help you anchor this paradigm into new awareness.

Activate the power to move with confidence
Hang the Chinese zodiac animals (three dimensional carved jade animals strung with a red cord) in the Fame gua. Visualize forming amicable bonds and correcting disharmonious relationships. This will help you build trust among coworkers, siblings, family and friends.

Minimize conflict and arguments
If there are a lot of doors in a small space in the Fame gua, (includes any place in the house) it can create conflict where family members or co-workers may quarrel. “It is a “noisy” place because all the “voices” of all the doors are “speaking” at once.” Bring quiet to the doors by camouflaging them or hang a crystal in the center or a light fixture with crystals.

Empower your leadership style
A home office or a family room in this gua is the perfect area to use color to quicken your reputation. Paint the back wall red. Red is symbolic of happiness, righteousness and virtuosity. According to H.H. Lin Yun, red is like “a red sun rising from the East.” When it first emerges over the horizon, it is red hot. It is the source of energy of the universe. Red is a very powerful color for it is an energy source; a stimulator; and a way of expelling bad Ch’i (Interior Design with Feng Shui). Benjamin Moore’s (Affinity line) Moroccan Spice has been a successful color with my clients.

Freshen the energy
The bright energy of an orange peel ceremony instils a more positive attitude and smooth handling of events. It’s warm sunny, sweet aroma conveys joy. Cut nine circles out of nine oranges and break those into smaller pieces onto a plate. As you break the pieces down see the orange pieces filled with positive Ch’i and spiritual light. This intention will bring blessings to your home and remove stagnate and predecessor energy. Say a prayer for posterity. Leave one or three days. Remove all the pieces and place in a folded red piece of paper. Compost or throw into the trash. You can use lemons instead, the smell should be strong and bright.

Clean and be clear
Windows are symbolic of the eyes. In the Bagua there is a direct link between the eyes and the heart. Clean your windows often and expand your vision to include acting on the messages from your heart.

Ritualize your intentions
The new moon is empty and ready to receive. Perfect time to promote blessings, to summon, to decide and to forge your intentions. To marshal your forces sit at your altar, light three sticks of incense and meditate on the themes present at this time: beauty, leadership, expansion, love and creativity.

Let the magic begin!

A well designed space allows you to access positive energy at all times. Call upon me to help you arrange your home where you feel fully supported. I am available for a full consultation 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.