My feng shui friend Janet was born in 1952, the year of the Water Dragon. This year 2012 is also a Water Dragon year, which occurs every 60 yeas. To commemorate the event, Janet purchased a bamboo plant in a ceramic Dragon container. She sent me an email from Austin, Texas asking if it’s auspicious to place bamboo in her entrance. I told her it can be fortunate, and best if the Dragon faces the door. In feng shui, anything with a face should face the door.
The bamboo plant was healthy, but the container was not attractive. This ceramic Dragon looked like a goofy cartoon character, not the powerful and regal Chinese Dragon. And the other items in her entry were just not inviting because they didn’t blend well together. The Dragon container was placed on a small glass table, but the container was too decorative and heavy for the table, and the table should be outdoors. Big silk flowers in an orange basket were not well arranged, and took up too much space. It would be best to just remove the basket. An antique chair was also stuck in the entry, and looked uncomfortable to sit in, and was missing a few pieces. Of course, Janet never usds the phone book propped up in the corner.
I explained to Janet how her disparate items were not unified in theme or design. She saw the new direction she could take, and started making changes. I also recommended that Janet add window curtains to bring warmth in the entry. A light gold or vanilla shade would work with the floor. The curtains should come to the floor, not stop at the window, for better luck and a sense of abundance.
Last week I heard that Truman Capote’s first novel Summer Crossing was being made into a movie, so I read it. In one scene, the heroine of Summer Crossing, an earlier incarnation of Holly Golightly from Breakfast At Tiffany’s, visits the family home of her unsuitable suitor:
“Mrs. Manzers’ furniture had this look of anonymous adequacy: chairs enough, plenty of lamps, a few too many objects. It was, however, only the objects that reflected a theme: two Buddhas, splitting their sides, supported a library of three volumes; an Indian maiden, made of pink wax, carried on a dreamy smiling ceaseless flirtation with Mickey Mouse, whose doll-sized self grinned atop the radio; and, like comic angels, a bevy of cloth clowns gazed down from the tall heights of a shelf.” More interior design with disparate items that make little sense together!
Ttake a new look at the items that you’ve placed in your surroundings. You probably don’t have a pink wax Indian maiden, but what exactly do you have? And why? Spend some time looking, move things around, edit down if too many small things, and reduce clutter so your material items better blend to create a peaceful flow of energy. We can all learn from Janet’s entry. Good luck!
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