Elixir's
Twelfth Feng Shui Window

Elixir's twelfth feng shui window revealed itself on 04/05/10 (21/2/4708), the beginning of Qing Ming , Clear Light...

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

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

Yi/Yin Wood You/ Yin Metal(Chicken) Day

This month's basic feng shui framework

Geng/ Celestial Yang Metal, which is the outbreath, escaping gravity and leaving the earth as mother and home.

and

Chen/ Terrestrial Yang Earth, which is mountains.

Chen converts to:

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

Wu/Celestial Yang Earth, which is the planet Saturn and the boundaries of space,

and

Gui/Celestial Yin Water, which is the vastness of space.

Discussion about this month's window

The Celestial Qi for this month is Yang Metal. This concept, as you can see above, is somewhat abstract to embody in our window. So we used Earthly equivalents of Yang Metal. This mostly relates to weapons and tools. We chose tools, because they fit more harmoniously with the remainder of the energies at play in this month’s display...

There are two tools in the window.

One is this beautiful wooden 18th Century French Hayfork:

The other is a 20th Century English silver watering can:

The clear vector of these energies and indeed the entire window is toward the southwest corner of the Elixir space. One of the brilliant features of the space is that this corner is actually a cut-out on the building. This is a great blessing for me, because with this orientation of the building, the corner relates to an energy called Six Curses, which is not something to be dallied with. So what we did was borrow some of the excellent Qi from the southeast corner, which is known as Celestial Monad, and send it over in the southwest direction. I like how the pitchfork kind of backs the whole thing up with some punch, symbolically reminiscent of the spear of Poseidon or Shiva and the proverbial farmer’s pitchfork, which, if you grew up in the country, you know has a variety of uses...

The watering can adds delicacy and elegance to this emphasis. It reminds me of one of the favorite sayings of my Qi Gong teacher, Ou Yang Ming, which was, “Yao wen de, yao wu de.” This means that you want to study and practice martial things and balance them with works of art and scholarship. Yin Water is streams and the depths of the oceans. In this case, the delicate silver can creates a very precise stream of water energy.

Shells are tiny homes. Here we have a basket filled with grasses and five Thorny Clam shells. This is an ideal expression of Yi/Celestial Yin Wood (grasses), Wu/Celestial Yang Earth (boundaries of basket, hominess of shells with plenty of Yang in the thorns), and Gui/Celestial Yin Water, which in the depths of the ocean where they reside.

This tiny green shell is an antique New Guinean Tree Snail, placed in this exquisitely gilded basket. This ties together the Yang Earth element, which relates to mountains and gold, and also the Yin Wood of the beautiful moss that it sits on.

Yin Wood is weeds, grasses and herbs. We chose to use mint...

and tarragon...

To create the window’s full effect.

Take home lesson

Creating a ritual feng shui space like this is very much like cooking. You know what the ingredients are going to be, but then you have to go out and get them. Then you have to check their qualities and put them all together in a way that works. Some of the things are fresh and alive and some of them have gone on long journeys to get to you. These are all of the elements that you combine to create that special alchemy that works best in this moment. Then you enjoy it while the moment lasts.

A mother, father and their infant child came by just now as I was writing this. They said hello, and the mother said that she wouldn’t be able to change out these beautiful windows each month because each one is so outstanding. Yet this is exactly the point. It is beautiful, it was beautiful, and it may be beautiful. It was just like looking at that beautiful baby, knowing that in a short while, it’s not going to be a baby, but a beautiful something else, and so on for as long as it goes on...



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.