Tag Archives: Spring Festival

The Super Powers of the Yin Wood Snake

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“Just as the flowers start blooming, you too can have a personal renewal, a rebirth of everything that makes you unique.”
–My Bright Future

Chinese Lunar New Year  begins at midnight January 28, 2025 when the robust Dragon reign ends. This year find your balance with the super powers of the Yin Wood Snake when Xiaoling (the Little Dragon) takes the stage. What does this mean for you? The year offers introspection to recharge, find balance in a fast pace world and time for contemplating the spiritual realms. The Yin Wood Snake will influence how you decide to refresh your inner life and expand your knowledge. You might be drawn to pick up yoga or qigong to tap into calm because the Snake’s introspective nature is that strong and healing. Revered for its wisdom, intelligence, intuition and creativity, the Snake symbolizes agility, adaptability, cleverness and strategic thinking. One way to acquire Snake skills is to meditate over brainstorming to channel inspired ideas that will help you manifest your goals and with a lot less stress. Like the Dragon, the wise, enigmatic Snake is a bringer of life. In Chinese culture it controlled the rains and the rivers, symbols of fertility and change. Become friends with renewal in a Snake year. Shedding your skin serves as a powerful metaphor for transformation and letting go of the past.

In fact, losing what does not serve you becomes much easier to discard when you add a bit of alchemy. The hour is NOW to be the change you wish to see in the world. Pull out your “shape shifter” super power, it invites simple truths to unfold in perfect timing. So know your garden. Create your community. Let your attitude shape shift each moment into an awareness of possibilities.

You can alchemize the Yin Wood Snake year when you enhance it with Feng Shui adjustments (always here to help), Chinese New Year ceremonies and carry a talisman for the duration of the year. The curious, innovative Monkey is the Snake’s secret best friend. In the Year of the Yin Wood Snake it is auspicious to carry a three dimensional Monkey with you. “Monkey joins Snake to win success through their brilliance.” Enjoy the inspiration this match brings! (Khadro Crystal Chu). The clever, witty, Monkey favors jade, boxwood or bone. The Secret Friend helps you make the most of the year to achieve maximum results. If you are born in the Year of the Tiger, this Chinese Zodiac animal is at odds with the Monkey so carry the power combo charm of  the Ox and Rooster together in place of the Monkey (which you can find at Feng Shui Shopper on Etsy while talismans last. This shop closes at Chinese New Year, it’s advisable not to delay).

As the sixth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, the Snake is connected to the Fire of the Sun in the summer. Fire is connected to civilization, intelligence, fashion, what is modern and eye-catching Monkey is a curious animal. Monkey is connected to the wind. It learns new leading-edge knowledge and popular fashion very fast. It likes to try new conspicuous stuff. Snake and Monkey can be attracted to each other by the common tastes. According to Chinese horoscopes, Snake is in the Fire group and Monkey is in the Metal group. Metal is afraid of Fire. Therefore, Monkey will respect Snake, listen and follow to Snake’s requests. The metal of Monkey is money to Snake. When Monkey works for Snake, Monkey can make money for Snake. Fire can help Metal to transform a useful tool. That means Snake provides the opportunity for Monkey to become a popular figure.

Do you want to enhance what is already a good relationship with your home, family, your job or partner? I would be happy to help you with your place. “Your House Is Talking” is a full consultation service and Feng Shui A La Carte offers a taste of how Feng Shui can work for you, Let’s chat.  503-232-2543 or bette@shenmenfengshui.com.

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.

Feng Shui Flowers That Whisper Good Fortune

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“Hear blessings dropping their blossoms all around you.”
– Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

If we wish to attract what is good for us, flowers are a direct path to enhancing our feelings and elevating our sense of well-being. Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General. Hospital and her research team investigated the effects of flowers in the home and they concluded 1) flowers influence people emotionally; they foster compassion and kindness. 2) people feel less negative around flowers. Looking at them first thing in the morning dissipates anxiety or feelings of depression. 3) having flowers at home can carry over to work creating a frame of mind for happiness and enthusiasm. 

In the right place flowers in your home whisper their message, be joyful and blessings will fall like blossoms all around you.

Flowers have a long held importance and cultural significance in Chinese culture. They believe they communicate positive messages.

Here are five of my favorites that I give as Feng Shui adjustments and personally display during the Chinese seasonal festivals.

Peony Their elegant, full blossoms and delicate fragrance make them a favorite of bride’s bouquets and with good reason. The Chinese hold the peony in high esteem because it symbolizes prosperity and nobility. It also represents wealth, rank, female beauty and honor. Yellow and purple varieties are the most desirable. According to Feng Shui tradition, cultivate affluence by hanging either an image of a peony in a vase or placing an actual peony in a vase in the living room of your home. Either one expresses the wish for ‘prosperity and peace’, because the peony represents prosperity and the vase is a rebus for peace.

Orchid We all want someone special who is just right for us. The orchid represents integrity, friendship and nobility. Confucius compared the orchid to a virtuous man. In BSTB Feng Shui tradition to attract a refined and cultured partner place a pink orchid in your Relationship corner. The nuance to this relationship adjustment is visualize you are attracting the perfect person for you.

Lotus The Chinese believe the lotus symbolizes purity, long life, humility and honor. In Chinese Buddhism, Quan Yin is depicted seated on a lotus flower because it rises from the mud in beauty and symbolizes perfection and purity of the heart and mind. Mud represents a meaningful part of the lotus flower’s development. In Buddhist teachings, we humans are born into suffering, it is a vital part of our experience. The sacred lotus grows in the deep mud, far away from the sun. But sooner or later, it reaches the light becoming the most beautiful flower ever. If you’ve struggled to accept your fears. If you’ve felt your burdens have not brought you redemption. If despair reminds you that you feel you’ve failed, it may be difficult to see that these muddy waters make you the exquisite human being that you are, but you are. 

Chrysanthemum The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Double Ninth Festival also called Chongyang Festival (this year it is October 17, 2018). Nine is a yang number (symbolizing forever). Celebrating the double nine brings auspiciousness to the household. “Double Ninth” is pronounced the same as the word “forever” so ancestors are also worshipped on that day. Chrysanthemum is a Chinese word derived from “Chu hua” meaning “October flower”. White chrysanthemums represent nobility and elegance and attract good luck to the home and a life of ease. It is revered like the orchid, bamboo and plum. Displaying chrysanthemums in the home and eating Chongyang (double yang) cakes (cake sounds like height so they are regarded as lucky) are popular customs honoring this festival. They lift the Ch’i of, not only individuals, but families and communities too.

Narcissus Narcissus is known as the “water goddess”. It is said this flower can rout out evil spirits. At Chinese New Year (The Year of the Water Pig is February 5, 2019), the Chinese believe daffodil and Narcissus bulbs when in bloom bring good fortune and luck to a home. The modern take: enliven your Ch’i through the sense of smell. This adjustment calms the nervous system and promotes a sense of well being.

The Flower Cure Many times the most unlikely Feng Shui adjustment has the greatest affect. If the valve between the stomach and the esophagus is not opening and closing properly and there is acid reflux, H.H. “Professor” Lin Yun suggested this cure (nine red envelopes requested). The essence of this cure is how the sense of smell affects the body, mind and spirit.

Photo credit: https://www.quitecontemporary.com/2017/01/diy-ceramic-vases.html

Have you decided this will be your year? “Boldness has genius”… start 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.

You Can Have Your Super Bowl And Chinese New Year Too!

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“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
–Confucius

Super Bowl and Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve are Sunday, February 7, 2016. What to do? Celebrate both!
With Super Bowl kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET there is plenty of time to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year after the game. Just set the timer and let the crock pot cook while you watch the playoff, you do it every Thanksgiving. And during the commercial breaks you can display your good luck fruit, hang your couplets, enjoy the wafting daffodils you purchased from the nursery, hand out red envelopes to your children and stay up past midnight (the sound of Sleepiness in Chinese is similar to Trouble), because really no one wants more trouble.

The Five Fold Happiness
4000 years of celebrations deepen a culture and create a legacy of endurance. Chinese Feng Shui customs honor the most celebrated festival of the year, Chinese Lunar New Year. Ending with the Lantern Festival on the full moon, the two week celebration represents a fresh start. It is hope and the promise for something better. It is the belief that dreams come true. In the west we focus on achievement but success doesn’t happen “in spite of” but “because of” the people who are in your life. Chinese Lunar New Year is the most supreme time to gather family together. The success of the individual is because of Yuan–family unity. And so the image of the circle, which you see in many of their food dishes like fish balls and oranges, is associated with family. This creates unity, support and continuity. Yuan means roundness and it suggests the attainment of the Five Fold Happiness and those qualities are luck, prosperity, longevity, happiness and wealth. The following celebrations, symbols and motifs ensure timeless wishes for harmony and goodwill among all.

Here are folkloric customs to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve. If you want to perform transcendental Chinese New ceremonies, like Changing the Ch’i of the House and Transforming the Fortunes for Individuals and Residences, get in touch with me, bette@shenmenfengshui.com

Sweep Away the Old The New Year provides an opportunity to send away misfortune that has accumulated and to start fresh. The 20th day of the Twelfth Moon is set aside for the annual housecleaning and clearing the dust of the past year. Every corner of the house must be swept and cleaned. 

Display Good Luck Fruit The Chinese love their play on words. Tangerines are symbolic of good luck. Oranges are symbolic of wealth. Orange “sounds” like gold. Pomelo means “to have.” Pineapple sounds like wealth but its real strength is it means luck and excellent fortune. You can display the fruit at the front entry, the dining room, even the kitchen.

Bloom Good Luck Enliven your Ch’i through the sense of smell. The Chinese believe daffodil and Narcissus bulbs when in bloom during the New Year, bring good fortune and luck to a home. This kind of adjustment calms the nervous system and gives you a sense of well being.

Avoid Cutting the Luck of the Year On the last day of the old year, prepare your food 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.

Stay Away From The Barber Don’t schedule your hair to be trimmed on New Year’s Day or the day after.

Honor The New Year With Foods Of Good Fortune New Year’s eve dinner is called the family reunion feast. Not only the family is united, Heaven and Earth are honored, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. Everyone’s speech is peppered with auspicious words. Almost every dish has a symbolic meaning that sounds like the Chinese characters for fortune, happiness, longevity and prosperity. KATU AMNW Foods of Good Fortune

Sleepless In The New Year The Chinese stay up for 12:01 a.m. The sound of Sleepiness in Chinese is similar to Trouble. Sleepless means no trouble for the coming year.

Hand Out, Hong Bao, 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 serve 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.

The following is a very precious cure from the BSTB School of Feng Shui. If you do nothing else, this is the adjustment to perform. It comes from His Holiness, Grandmaster Lin Yun and it’s a great secret to a successful life: perform a good deed every day. By helping another person, you shift, not only their reality, but yours as well. A kind deed will improve your luck, circumstances and income. Kindness is the antidote to the economic down turn. With your sincerity you will find the most exquisite reception for the year.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! May you experience supreme good health, boundless good luck and infinite wealth!

One thing 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.