Elixir's
Eleventh Feng Shui Window

03/06/10 (21/1/4708)

Geng/Yang Metal
Yan/Yang Wood (Tiger) Year

Ji/ Celestial Yin Earth
Mao/ Terrestrial Yin Wood(Rabbit) Month

Yi/Yin Wood Mao/ Yin Wood (Rabbit) Day

This is the beginning of the beginning of Jing Zhi , Frighten Insects.

This month's basic feng shui framework

Ji/ Celestial Yin Earth, which is the planet Saturn, the density and the limits of space.

and

Mao/ Terrestrial Yin Wood, which is grasses, weeds, herbs and small plants.

Mao converts to Yi/Celestial Yin Wood, which is The planet Jupiter and the expansion of space.

Discussion about this month's window

This month's window explores the relationship between Earth in the heavens and Wood on the level of the earth. Five is the number of centrality, centralization and Earth. There are five essential spaces defined within the ritual space of our window frame this month.

This big 20th century English bee skep in the form of a beehive defines the first space. The meaning of Jing Zhi, this solar month's name, is "Frighten Insects." What does that mean, really? It means that this is the time of year when the insects are first beginning to stir, to break out of their nests and pupae to begin their lives in the spring. The bee is a wonderful symbol of this quality of the work of pollination and honeymaking, which is itself an alchemy of Earth and Wood elements.

The beehive stands on the shoulders of a component from last month's window, this beautiful chunk of pine bark...

What's the little thing that looks like a saltshaker there on the bark next to the beehive? We'll get to that later...

This beautiful santalina in a rectangular basket defines our second space.

And this tiny santalina the third. Both bring the energies of Terrestrial Yin Wood.

An open bee skep with a rosemary topiary defines space number four...

I love the way the rosemary comes springing out of the basket like a jack-in-the-box. This image really produces the energy of Yin Wood breaking through the boundaries of Earth, in just the way that a blade of grass can break through concrete, or a small tree can crack an immense granite boulder. Wood expands, while earth limits, contains and holds...

It also manages to invoke the energy of a charmed snake rearing its head out of a basket somehow...

Finally, a 19th century Chinese gourd cricket cage with gold legs and a carved ivory top defines the fifth space. The gourd is an ancient invocation of Earth, containing the cricket, a tiny denizen of Yin Wood. This piece at once brings the energy of ancient tradition and is a key to a beautiful world that once was here that is now lost forever.

Here you can see some of the magnificent carving on the ivory. Each one of the small holes is actually a perfect 6-pointed star, all gathered around an iris image.

This fifth space is united with the first by the pine bark, bringing the entire work together full circle.

Take home lesson

There are hundreds of thousands of works of exquisite art that survive, some of them from ancient times, up to the present. It's amazing that of all the things that withstand the ravages of time and human abuse, these delicate objects move through time around the earth on definite paths of creation, essentially forever. Their lives extend far beyond our own and connect individuals who have passed with those yet unborn.

While we are alive, we have the opportunity to guide some of these pieces to do their work in, around and through us. It's a great privilege to do this kind of work.

Many of these works of art can never be created again. It takes an entire society, perhaps even an entire world or worlds to create them. There's nobody around who can make these things anymore. The materials don't exist, nor does any of the infrastructure you need to create a multidimensional masterpiece at a high level in the way it used to be done in the old days.

If you find a work of true art, care for it. Love it, use it in your life and then send it onto the next step of its immortal journey. Who knows? You may return to it again someday.

Back to Elixir's Feng Shui Window Gallery

Elixir's feng shui Windows are a collaboration between John Mini
and C.Terrence Schell.

John Mini, M.S.C.M./ L.Ac.