Creating sacred spaces: Time Feng Shui & Feng Shui home design

This article is part 4 of a series and is best read in the order it appears on the website. We will jump right in:

Time Feng Shui

Things get a little more complicated when we start looking at Time Feng Shui. Time Feng Shui describes special energy influences that are effective for 20-year periods, that are further divided into yearly and monthly periods. As the elements in a garden are not easily moved around, I will only look at the 20-year period here.

These 20-cycles bring lucky and unlucky ‘stars’ which sit in different areas of the home. Where exactly these stars are depends on

• What period the homeownership started[1] and
• The compass direction of your front door

To activate and make use of the positive stars (for Power to get things done; for Abundance in what you undertake; and for good Relationships) and cure the negative stars (bringing Illness, Conflict or even Disasters) we need to put some extra elements in the right places. But to find out where these stars are, we first need to decide what direction our front door will be facing.

An example to illustrate:

We build a home before 2024, so in period 8, with a door facing between 262.5˚and 292.5˚degrees = West. The stars will look like this:

If we look at the negative stars first, we can see that:

• In the South West we can cure the Illness star by keeping the area open and bringing in plenty of light.
• In the North the water of the ponds will wash away most of the negative effect of the Illness and Conflict stars. But as the cure of ‘Moving metal Chi’ (which is a large metal windchime with six hollow tubes[2]) enhances Water Chi, we may as well place this cure here.
• The Disaster star in the South East needs a windchime cure as well.
• In the North East the cure for the second Disaster star is Still water. Placing a pond would be easiest for this.

While these cures will lessen the negative effect of the stars, they can’t completely cancel out the effects. This means we need to keep the position of these stars in mind when we plan where to put important elements in our home and Garden.

To get the most benefit from the positive stars we would need to:

• Create Mountain Chi in the West by placing some large boulders or a little hill to activate the Relationship star. The main door is already in the West[3] of the home, activating the Abundance star in the whole Garden as well.
• In the South a large windchime is needed to activate both the Relationship star and the Abundance star.
• In the Centre we can choose to keep the area Open (so no trees, buildings or large objects) or put up another Windchime to activate the Power star and the Abundance star. To activate the Relationship star Moving water Chi is needed. What is important however, is that if water flows away from an area the Chi will flow away with it. To keep the water moving without flowing away, placing a fountain would work best.

I chose to look at this direction by the way, because it has such a good Chi in the Centre. If we want to create a kind of sanctuary in the Centre of the Garden, it seems a wise ide to have the best energy and the power star there. To make the best use of this energy, we would need to regularly spend time in this area, to meditate or just be. But I also think that with the flow of energy created by the Chi Gate pattern of the paths, the Chi from the stars we activated will start to flow more through the whole Garden and beyond.

I would love to go into more details about the different door directions and their effects, but unfortunately, I don’t have permission to freely share the course materials with you. Let’s just say, please consult someone before deciding on what way your door will be facing, so that you know how the stars will fall.

Feng Shui and placing our home

There are two factors to look at when deciding where to place our home:

• Depending on the materials with which we choose to build our home, it would fit better in
  
  • Earth areas, if we want to build with stone or cob;
  • In Wood areas if we decide to build with wood;
  • An Earth home would also fit in the two Metal areas[4], because Earth enhances Metal, but it is important to make sure the metal energy is strongly present in the area;
  • A Wooden home would fit in the South, with Wood enhancing Fire, but here too the Fire quality should be dominant.
• Time Feng Shui with its stars should also play an important role here if possible. By placing the home in an area with a positive star, preferably a Power star, this positive effect will be working for the whole family all the time you live there. Negative stars would similarly be in effect continuously. Lets look again at the example of the door in the West, and see what choices this offers:
  
  • The Power star can be found in the Centre, and here there is also a Relationship and an Abundance star. Together this can bring a very powerful good energy to the family. The Centre is an Earth direction, so building with cob or stone would suit best here. (This would mean that the area is less open, effecting the choice of activations for the stars).

If we choose to use the Centre for the home, we need to remember the special position we are giving the Centre, both in the Chi Gate and in Feng Shui: It should be a place of balance and harmony, and a sacred space. This may be a perfect place for you to live in, if you feel able to maintain this harmony, keep the home tidy and calm. But it might not be ideal if, for instance, you have a family with small children, or a very busy job, and so have more mess in the home and less time to keep the space tranquil.

• Alternatively, we can place the home in the West or South. These areas are closer to the edge of the Garden, giving easy access, and by placing the home in one of these areas we still have a very good energy, while leaving the Centre open and undisturbed. The Relationship stars will enhance our good relationships in our family, with friends, and if we have a home office it will also affect our business relationships. And the Abundance star can mean plenty of money, good harvests, worldly goods and -according to Chinese philosophy- also abundant children.
• It is very important to keep the home out of the Disaster areas of South East and North East. Conflict and Illness stars in the South West and North are also not ideal to build on, as I explained before: the effect can’t be completely neutralised. For this reason, it is also better not to place animal housing in these areas.

Feng Shui and Home and Garden shape

In Feng Shui it works best to have a square or rectangle as the basic shape of the home or garden. I personally prefer more interesting shapes, like hexagons or other irregular shapes. But unfortunately, it is a lot more practical to work with simple shapes.

The reason for that is that for the best flow of Chi all directions should be evenly represented. If corners are cut off, or the area has irregular shape, some of the directions will fall outside the house or area you are working with. This will mean you can’t make the best use of the Chi coming from that direction and it will be header to get a good, harmonious and balanced energy in the space you are working with.

In a house we can take a bit of liberty, because:

• Small areas that are sticking out (less than 1/3^rd the length or whit of the home) can be ignored when dividing up the homes Feng Shui directions
• If there are areas missing because the home is L-shaped for instance, we can take some measures to symbolically draw the missing area into the house’s space by either:
  
  • Placing the greenhouse in a missing area so that it becomes part of the home;
  • Adding decking or a patio covering the missing area;
  • Place a light facing the home in the missing area;
  • Placing a vertical object where the area would be, or its walls would meet. Choose elements that represent the Chi direction this area is in: a tree or shrub for Wood; a fountain or pond for Water; a fire pit or outdoor cooking area for Fire; a sculpture or bench in the right material for Earth or Metal etc.;
  • Place a horizontal structure like stones or bricks or a hedge to outline the area;
  • Install a sandpit for the children;
  • Bury a red ribbon or string to complete the form;
  • Or bury a large crystal in the corner where the walls should meet.

With the Garden this is much harder (The first rule, about sticking out areas would still work I suppose). For a normal house the shape of the garden is not a big issue, because there people are not trying to create a healing space especially. But in our Gardens, where we are working to create a source of blessing for many, it is important to get this right.  For this reason then, it would be best to make Gardens mostly square or rectangular. There is an advantage of having a square field over a rectangle by the way, because creating an even Chi Gate is much easier in a square.

Feng Shui house design

In the layout plans of the home I designed for this series of articles, I have indicated the nine Feng Shui areas with their stars, to help show why I chose to put features in their positions as I did. I have continued using the example of the West facing front door.

Kitchens and bathrooms and similar rooms with flowing water wash away the effect of any Chi that is present here. This means we shouldn’t put them in areas with positive Feng Shui stars. The negative stars however can effectively be cancelled out by placing a kitchen or bathroom here.

Storage spaces also have a cancelling effect on the Chi.

Bedrooms are best placed in areas that have a positive star or are neutral. Sleeping in disaster areas is especially unhealthy. Having a child sleep in a room with a power star is also not best practice, because this may mean that the power in the family is in the hands of this child.

Always make sure to have good Chi come in in the area of the front door. The Chi of the front door will affect everyone living in the home, so choosing a suitable area is very important[5]. As I mentioned, it’s impossible to fully cancel out negative Chi with the cures of flowing water, so again make sure to avoid negative stars and especially the disaster star.

In my design you will see that I have treated the Greenhouse as a part of the home. The two negative areas that are not cancelled out by the kitchens, bathrooms and utility room (a place for storage and a washing basin for dirty vegetables), are in the Greenhouse. As it is impossible to completely get rid of negative influences, by placing these stars in the greenhouse at least they are not in a living area.

I also placed a pond in the disaster area of the South East, with water flowing away from the house. This will make the Chi flow away from the house. A moving metal cure can easily be placed here too, to make the area quite safe to work in.

The illness star in the South West area, which is in the Greenhouse, is cured by light. I would say that by having this area in the Greenhouse we bring plenty of light into the area, effectively curing the bad star.

By placing the South area in the greenhouse, I am perhaps not making full use of the two positive stars here. If I plant my favourite plants here though, I will likely still spend a good deal of time here, so that this energy doesn’t go to waste.

When we go out into the Garden, we may occasionally want to exit through the greenhouse. When we use a door, we take the energy present in that area into the home with us, so it is important to use the South door for this rather than a door in the two negative areas of the greenhouse.