Feng Shui Your Closet Into A Personal Treasure Vault
Hi Lynn,
I have a question that I am sure you can help me with. The wealth corner in my house [left, rear sector] is a bedroom closet that is mostly used for storage of items that are used infrequently such as holiday dinnerware, a massage table, some seasonal comforters. How can I attract wealth when my wealth corner is a closet? I do try to keep it neat and orderly, but there is only so much I can do as the home has limited storage space. Help! — Mocklee
Dear Mocklee,
If you asked twenty different feng shui consultants this question you’d probably get twenty different answers. Do all twenty!
First of all, stop giving that area so much status. Yes, its location is significant but it is part of a greater whole.
The closet can be enhanced, made somewhat vibrant, certainly, but please give equal attention to other rooms in your house and the spaces in them that occupy the wealth sector. If these are strong, that alone could offset any deficiency that may exist. Identify and strengthen these areas in each room throughout the house. Look to your outdoor property and embellish, enliven and pay special attention to the wealth sector with every passing season — new growth, plantings, perhaps a tree that can be adorned with lights if you wish.
Consider the closet your bank representing what you deem most valuable in your life. That is wealth. With sincere respect for the closet’s way of helping the organization of your life, give it treasure-box status. Bring reverence to it in any way you can, from the spectrum of silly to holy. Realize the benefits of its privacy.
Look at what’s in the closet, and even though your storage space is limited, try to find something you can remove. If you are not using the massage table regularly, find another place for it.
Paint the closet anything except black. Is there an overhead shelf or something you could re-invent with objects, imagery, a playful strand of light, hanging beads — whatever creates an effect that makes you smile and appreciate the space when you open the closet door. This area should enhance your energy. If there are ways to link it to the bedroom with color or perhaps trim, this will create a path to incorporate this special area into the rest of your house. I’m not suggesting you become best friends with your closet, but close, as it is a potent wealth-inviting space. That is your task and I imagine much energy going into this transformation. Don’t even think about torturing a crystal by placing it in there in the dark.
Dear Ms. Taylor,
We live in a small Dutch colonial that faces mostly east, but the problem is the street: we have a street that ends just across from our property. Will a brass door knocker help? I don’t know of any mirror things that I could use (I’ve read up on remedies) and there is a porch at the front so I don’t know if a mirror would even serve this purpose. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. — Linda
Dear Linda,
Your situation is a classic feng shui challenge. It can be remediated, but not with a little door knocker. You’re going to have to spend some money and it will be well spent indeed.
When you are on the receiving end of a road directed at your house, an unhealthy blast of excess energy is aimed right at you. It results in extra and unanticipated — sometimes odd — problems. There is no moderation of this accelerated chi and it must be deflected. Imagine someone close to your face shaking their finger at you — and not just once, but repeatedly. Magnify that and you will easily grasp what you are challenged with environmentally, hence the necessity to deflect it and arrest that unforgiving accusatory finger.
Things are, of course, a matter of scale and if the street that dead ends at your house is only 500 feet long or so, the situation is quite easily neutralized. Ignore it. But from your description of this T-square, that is not the case and you’ve done some feng shui research. There are some choices here. You can deflect oncoming assaults by putting something substantial that buffers you between the front of your house and the end of the street. Grand scale examples are large fountains and plantings in front of a hotel or bank headquarters or other large establishment that serve as beautiful, vibrant buffers. Businesses situated at the end of a T-junction without room to create a buffer are the ones always going out of business. Business after business will start up and then go out of business, repeating the cycle.
You can create your own buffer. A garden, shrubbery that’s not too permeable, a stone sculpture or circle out front can ground that rapid pace of oncoming chi and help it settle. Try a little windmill. The ways to create a screen are many and do, to a certain extent, depend on the situation itself. The porch out front is a tremendous help, especially if it’s a 2-3 season one. If you want to use a deflecting mirror hang it outside on the structure of the porch facing the street.
Hi Lynn,
I read with interest your answer to “Solutions for Living in a Hollow” in Spirit of Change Summer 2011. In that story the dilemma was sloping land. My dilemma is flat land and a high water table with flooding in the spring. I’m planning a landscaping project and wonder if I should apply the bagua to the yard to determine where to locate a patio, fire pit, vegetable garden and perennial beds? For privacy, a berm with tree planting is being considered to block the view of rental houses and provide protection from the stream flooding. The patio/fire pit is planned for the southwest corner of the yard. In the south corner, a Japanese-style meditation area with rocks and shrubbery is planned and the veggie garden as well as more areas of perennial gardens. What are the guidelines for feng shui for outdoor spaces? Can I create problems in landscaping by bringing in rocks/dirt to create elevations for interest? — A green thumb, Denise
Dear Green Thumb,
The very thoughtfulness, detail and deep observation you bring to your land is healthy and beautiful in itself. It’s great that you can implement so many uses of the land.
Yes, definitely apply the bagua as one of your tools for diagnostic decisions, but don’t be rigid. When introducing and locating some of the possibilities you consider, go by flowing with the land. Make each area stable and an area both unto itself, yet connected to the whole of the space you have to work with. You’ve named several features that compose a very balanced environment. Using your obvious gardening knowledge begin where you are compelled to. Using shrubbery to define and embrace areas in your yard will heighten its draw to you gracefully and with patterns that curve.
I don’t rely on cardinal directions in my feng shui decisions, but rather the form being worked with and how chi flows throughout it. The flow concept with gentle transitions is going to be important. If the spring flooding is extensive I would try to use all five elements in that area as a way to introduce balance to what is obviously out of balance, at least as far as humans can make that determination. You will not create problems by bringing in “rocks/dirt.” In fact consider the rock walls so commonly used in New England. Hug two or three sides of the fire pit with rocks or boulders. Don’t put it in the flood zone, however! Rocks, boulders — a strong, stable earth element — would ideally predominate to emphasize ground and de-emphasize water. This won’t interrupt the natural process on the property and might embellish it in spring. It shouldn’t have to be re-worked every year. With your plantings include some that remain green all year round.
Your site seems to allow many different options, which is rare itself. What a delight for a gardener with a green thumb and a very creative nature. Don’t forget to provide comfortable places to sit and enjoy this paradise of yours!
The late Lynn Taylor was a senior feng shui practitioner, teaching and consulting in the United States and Mexico for both business and home environments.
