Elixir's
Thirteenth Feng Shui Window

Elixir's Thirteenth Feng Shui Window revealed itself on 05/05/10 (22/3/4708), the beginning of Li Xia , Summer Standing...

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

Geng/ Celestial Yang Metal
Chen/ Terrestrial Yang Earth (Dragon) Month

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

This month's basic feng shui framework

This month we’re working with the energies of:

Xin/ Celestial Yin Metal, which is the planet Venus

and

Si/ Terrestrial Yang Fire, which is wildfire.

Si converts to:

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

Bing/Celestial Yang Fire, which is The Sun. ,

and

Geng/Celestial Yang Metal, which is clouds, thunder and rain, shooting stars and the rays of stars.

Discussion about this month's window

The most essential qualities of this month’s feng shui are those of the interaction between Celestial Yin Metal and Terrestrial Yang Fire. This creates a kind of crucible at best, where the Celestial Metal can become molten and eventually take a useful form. At its worst, Terrestrial Yang Fire can rampage out of control, overpower the delicate Celestial Yin Metal and completely squander the riches of heaven on earth.

Our feng shui window for the beginning of Li Xia, Summer Standing, invokes both of these potentials. This reminds us of the razor’s edge of alchemical work and how dearly we need to pay attention to the small details in life if we want our lives to be successful.

What am I talking about?

These four pieces of charred pine bark come from site of the massive forest fire that ravaged Point Reyes over a decade ago. They remind us of what happens when Terrestrial Yang Fire takes its natural progression unchecked. It burns everything down to the ground. Although this is a very positive and necessary cycle in nature, this same Fire can also lay to waste the totality of our life’s work if we don’t deal with it creatively and with great responsibility.

Yet there are moments when we can use the passion and force of this Fire to our advantage.

In order to do this, we need to create a set of perfect and inviolable boundary conditions. We invoked this energy into this space through this 19th Century Japanese jade archer’s ring. Jade is the highest physical exponent of Earth energy.

Once we create our crucible, we need to tune the heat, intensity, frequency and focus of our Fire in a way that is sensitive to the needs of the materials we are working with. We demonstrate this part of the process here with a pair of delicate gold 20th Century American baskets. These baskets create an air of sensitivity and awareness, and at the same time demonstrate that an appropriate boundary sometimes only needs to take the form of a whisper. These two tiny baskets also bring in the energies of twins, as Venus is not only the Metal planet, but is classically referred to as twins in two ways:

The first is that Venus is both the Morning and Evening star.

The second is that Venus is often referred to in the classics as Earth’s divine twin or partner.

The end product of our alchemy is to create a work of beauty. We express this beauty here through these two 19th Century American gold rings. The pairing of these rings brings us back again to the partnering energy, here contrasted with the charred pine bark to demonstrate how even the strongest wildfire can strengthen and purify the alchemical bonds of a true relationship.

But even if the Fire goes wild and destroys all, life eventually returns again and we chalk the whole thing up as a ‘learning experience.’ We brought in this process of individual growth and rebirth here via three young gingko trees rising up from the ashes of what once was. Part of the quality of the gingko tree is to cleanse the nervous system in an upward ascension of this purifying fire. Its seeds also help us to deal with the grief that follows from the excessive loss that such Fire brings into our lives.

Then there’s the Japanese Duck.

Finally, this potted Japanese Forest Grass, set in a round basket, and by virtue of its ray-like structure, brings the energy of The Sun, shooting stars and the rays of stars to complete our picture for this month.

Take home lesson

Many times in feng shui it’s the shape of a thing that imparts its energetic qualities to the surroundings. A great example of this is in the Japanese sparse grass that I just mentioned above. If you look at its structure, its explosive, rayish quality is totally obvious.

There are many ways that you can impart resonance to a space. The more subtle and flexible you can be in this art, the more powerful it will be.

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.