The Horoscope Master

By Kathryn Weber Moving into a new house, whether it is truly new or just new to you, is exciting. You begin making plans for your life and see it unfolding in the rooms of your new house. But the feng shui of new houses is different than houses where someone has lived a long time. There are situations about the house that you’ll need to think about before you move in. Check the tips below for ideas on what you need to know about new house chi and feng shui. Get a feng shui consultation before buying and moving in. Many times people set up a consultation after moving into a new house. The ideal time to get a consultation is before moving or buying the house. This way, the consultant can advise you on potential problems. But, if you didn’t or couldn’t get a feng shui consultation, having one after you move in is still a good idea. Clear the house before moving in. Houses hold on to energies, memories and the vibrations of all those who lived in them. This makes a house clear...

Feng Shui for 2016 the Year of the Monkey In 2016, The Year of the Monkey holds some big changes and wonderful opportunities. Women will really enjoy the Monkey year! Like all years, though, it also has its challenges. But if you're prepared and put your remedies and enhancements in place, you’ll do just fine. If you really make an effort, this could be the year you take BIG STEPS. That’s because women have some terrific energy that can help them set a plan in place that could pay off for years! Areas of Concern Security and Safety First. This year it’s more important than ever to stay on the side of caution — and in every respect — and for everyone in your family. Make sure you are thorough with contracts, read the fine print, check your credit card statements for fraudulent charges and do background checks on questionable people (single girls are you listening?). Don’t take a smooth talker at his word or job promises without getting it in writing. Make sure to chec...

In feng shui, deferred maintenance on a house means deferred money. In other words, if you’ve put off replacing that cracked window or cutting down a dead tree, you’re likely not receiving all the money you could be if your home were in good repair. Why is repairing your home so important to feng shui? In a word: chi. The chi , or energy, of a home declines when it’s got leaking faucets or roof, when the paint is peeling or when it’s dirty and cluttered. Simply looking at a home that’s not in good repair gives a depressed or sad feeling. You see a house – and the occupants who live there – that are in decline. Millionaires live in beautiful, attractive and maintained surroundings. If you’ve deferred maintaining your house, you could be deferring wealth too. Rarely is the case that when a homeowner is successful, that the house is falling down. In fact, it’s most often the case that as a homeowner becomes more successful, the more a house represents that success with pretty pl...

One of the most wildly popular feng shui books is Karen Kingston’s “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui.” And one of the topics she covers in the book – that few others have dared to touch – is the subject of the elimination system and its tie to your personal feng shui. While it’s not a pretty subject to talk about, Karen deftly connects clutter in the house with the symbol of our internal clutter we all deal with daily: our colon. She writes that your home is connected to every part of your body, and your colon is too. The idea is that by looking at both your home’s clutter and removal of what’s unnecessary, used up and needing to be purged, as well as the health of your colon, you’ll create greater health and well-being in all parts of your life. What’s interesting is that she contends by clearing up your colon, you can help rid yourself of emotional issues that may have been buried for years. Heal Your Body guru Louise Hay says that stomach problems are based on dread and f...

Chi Lin and Fu Dog Feng Shui Door Guardians Protect and Empower Your Front Door The front door is the single most important area of your home. It determines the quality of the energy that enters your home – and that directly influences the quality of energy in important life areas, such as wealth, opportunity, health and relationship success. The entrance to your home is directly influenced by the way it looks. Realtors know this as “curb appeal.” When a house looks great at the entrance, it’s extremely inviting to potential buyers. But look at it another way. When a house has a great front door and curb appeal, it also is extremely inviting to chi and helps build and lift chi at your home. Once of the ways that the Chinese have used feng shui to influence their home’s energy, and by default, their feng shui is by creating attractive and strong entrances. This often includes having a pair of door guardians to protect and enhance their front doors. You can see these guardians in...

From the earliest fairytales of genies and fairy godmothers, we all have wishes that we would love to see magically happen. Luckily in feng shui there is a wonderful technique for activating the energies associated with all of the usual aspirations that everyone wants: love, wealth, health, happiness, good fortune. It involves using gems and crystals, and when used correctly, can almost magically bring about anything you desire. Gems and crystals are powerful symbols of our earthly desires and they are powerful activators. Gems are regarded as earth’s most beautiful and precious energy made manifest in clear, beautiful, sparkling stones. These stones are widely regarded as storehouses of this beautiful earth energy – and potent objects to ground your deepest desires and help them come to fruition. Don’t believe me? Think about one of the most common gem activators. It’s the engagement ring, a serious activator and symbol of love and commitment. The size, quality, and beauty of st...

One of the most powerful ways to improve your home and life is by adding landscaping, plants and flowers to your home. Beautiful plants and flowers lift the energy of your home, bringing beautiful healthy growing chi. Surrounding your home with vibrant plantings is also a good idea for real estate reasons. Realtors say that nice landscaping is one of the all-important components of curb appeal – and that can be good for your home if you’re trying to sell it. Even if you’re not in the market to sell your home, beautiful landscaping brings greater value to your home and makes living there more enjoyable. And the most auspicious part of plants? Flowers. They are are the yang expression of a plant. From a purely feng shui perspective, nice landscaping adds wonderful chi to your home. In your life that translates to good health, happier relationships, and added prosperity. Flowering blooms aren’t just lovely to look at, they can promote love and are regarded as symbols of good fortun...

There is a strong emphasis on protection and longevity in feng shui. There are few symbols that offer both like the precious wu luo. The wu luo is revered both in Buddhist and Taoist circles as a symbol of long life and perfect health. The wu luo is known by many names, such as hulu, bottle gourd, calabash or wu luo. It’s often called a calabash because of the calabash tree that the gourds grew from. The gourds were often used to carry water after they dried and were hollowed out. Because the wu luo is in a figure eight shape, it is also reputed to symbolize both heaven and earth, with heaven being at the top and earth at the bottom. Its figure eight shape is considered auspicious for wealth and prosperity. Sometimes the gourd is looked upon as magical and having the beneficial properties of transmuting problems and surmounting difficulties. In feng shui, the wu luo is most often shown as a metal figure or as the wooden gourd itself. Displaying these will enhance your life and ad...

Well, it’s that time of year again! In America, we celebrate all our blessings and bounty with the Thanksgiving holiday. It's often everyone's most favorite holiday because it just involves eating and enjoying. For some families, this is only the first, or maybe, second time they have eaten in the dining room in a  year. Regardless of whether you dine in there regularly or not, there are some simple feng shui rules about the dining room that you will want to observe anytime. Arguments start at the table? Excess wood energy is to blame. Put a red or orange tablecloth on the table to diffuse arguments and exhaust the wood energy that gets everyone bickering. The red color will make everyone hungry and focus on the food instead of who got Aunt Martha’s china. Alternatively, use a candle in your centerpiece to burn up excess wood energy. Provide for fun . Give your guests something to do such as games, cards, or even silly MadLibs that gets them interacting (instead of jus...

One of the biggest problems associated with clutter is how it roots you in a home that leaves you little or no room for growth. Of course, the growth I’m talking about is the growth in your life, your career, your relationships, and your wealth. We’re not so different than the beautiful plants you buy at the local nursery that look wonderful but then need to be divided or repotted into a larger pot — everything grows. Your life is a living, growing thing. When you’re overwhelmed by stuff, like a plant, you outgrow your pot and that’s when you start to see your relationships suffer, your business opportunities dry up, your health and vitality sapped, and finances become tighter and more restrictive. Worse than all the stuff and visual blight that clutter represents is the way it robs you and your home of vital, happy, and lively energy. Decluttering helps to remove blockages from your life that stop the flow of energy to you and everything you enjoy . Life is energy All life...

How to divide up your home’s corners with the bagua One of the most difficult tasks in feng shui is to divide up your house into 9 equal squares in feng shui and to reliably assign the corners of the house according to the bagua. Instead, I suggest you use a lo shu square that resembles a tic tac toe grid. Many use the bagua, or octagon, but it’s often easier to use the lo shu square. The lo shu’s purpose is to help you see where the various corners are in your house and they way they fall in your home’s particular layout more easily. Using a lo shu grid is so helpful. Many people try to apply feng shui and wonder why it’s not working, and it often turns out that what they thought was the north corner was actually northeast! If this is your experience, give the lo shu square a try. It’s very helpful to see plainly exactly where your home’s corners are and what’s exactly in the center sector. Now…let’s talk about how to apply the grid and what to do when a room falls in two or m...

Just because you’re on the road, traveling for business or headed off for a long-awaited vacation doesn’t mean you have to give up on your feng shui. If you’re used to living in a comfortable, clean and organized environment that has good feng shui, you’ll want to stay in hotel room that feels like your feng shui home. But how do you do that? Feng shui isn’t a difficult concept to use when you’re traveling and staying in hotel rooms. Plus, by using a little feng shui while you’re on the road, you can keep yourself energized and refreshed. That’s because we’re often tired when traveling and that often comes from being in a different environment even when that environment is a luxury hotel! Making even some small feng shui changes when you’re traveling can make a difference in the quality of your travel and the quality of your energy and vitality. So take a few steps to ensure your travel and hotel room all have good feng shui for safe, successful travels. Before you leave Packing for yo...

Your surroundings can have a huge impact on your life – to the point of affecting your personal happiness, your prosperity, even the opportunities that come to you in your life — thus making your choice of home a very important one. Because most of the important moments in our lives occur in our houses, the house itself becomes more than just four walls where we eat and sleep. That’s why careful consideration is called for if you are thinking about purchasing another home. So what do you look for when you are considering purchasing a new home? It comes down to two things: the tangible and the intangible. The tangible items include price, location, size, and condition. The intangible includes considerations such as location on a street, how the home is situated on the lot, its relationship to other buildings or homes, how the home flows inside, and situations such as whether the former occupants were ill, in financial trouble, etc. These are the types of considerations that are taken in...

There’s a lot of debate and discussion about colors in feng shui. Is red the best color there is? Maybe it’s gold or ochre. On the other hand, black is the color of deep wealth. But then there’s purple….ah, the color confusion! Let’s look at the colors from a different perspective. Instead of concentrating on a single color, let’s discuss them all and their role and meaning in feng shui. Black – the color of deepest water that is stored, like the seas. It represents accumulated and stored wealth, limitless like the ocean. It also represents the kidney and ears, transformation, big business, and contemplation. Good to help overcome problems such as anger, selfishness, financial opportunity and protection from theft or fraud. Blue – the color of shallow, flowing water and has similar associations as black. This is the color of opportunity, generating wealth and is useful for growth, opportunity, salary raises and payments. Can be used to enhance health and wealth, forgetfulness, and calm...

Water is one of the most important elements in life – and in feng shui. The presence of water is life-giving and in feng shui, it promotes wealth, prosperity and opportunity. We could not live without water, yet so many homes rarely have water anywhere on the property. Even a small fountain can create a feeling of calm assurance and promote wealth luck and financial advantage for the homeowner. Water is used many ways in feng shui. It can be used as a remedy, such as for the Red 7 star. Yang water drains the violent and dangerous qualities of the 7 star. But water can also activate luck – especially when placed in the north, east and southeast sectors. In the north, water helps stimulate career luck and brings opportunities to rise up the corporate ladder. In the southeast, water brings about good fortune that helps wealth accumulate. In the east, it brings growth and good health plus happy family relationships. But creating a water feature that’s helpful for prosperity is of...

One of the greatest joys in life is friendship. It’s one of the aspirations of feng shui – the gift and wealth of having friends and enjoying an active social life. This area is reflected in the south sector of the house. This sector also refers to the fame and recognition area of the home, as well as your reputation and family name. Having friends to do fun things with, share your troubles with and who you enjoy being with truly is a gift. But what happens when your social life has dwindled and you find that you don’t have as many friends as you once had, or maybe you’d like to find people who you enjoy spending time with? Besides love and money, feng shui can also help you activate your home for creating a lively social life and attracting new friends. There’s a lot of questions about where to begin in feng shui to bring friendship luck to your life. Use these tips to help you build your social network or just have a friend to enjoy an afternoon outing with. Picture your frie...

One of the frequent targets of feng shui is clutter, and rightly so. Clutter drains our life energies, saps on mental energy and drowns us in the possessions that we once took interest in to where they simply take over our homes, and our lives, in some instances. It doesn’t matter how a collection starts, but what begins as an interest or even a gift, can go quickly from interesting to overwhelming. The energy of the collection then begins to take on a life of its own. Think about people who have collections that you may have known….or your own. Maybe you saw their house went from seemingly normal to feeling somewhat odd or sometimes obsessive, depending on the collection. That’s how fast collections can get out of hand. Sometimes a collection was never the goal, but they happened anyway. Like the funny camel your brother gave you and then suddenly, you’re getting camels for every occasion and from everyone. Camels begin to take over your life until you don’t see the camels anymore. Al...

Put your back into it. Keep your nose to the grindstone. These pithy sayings are meant to instill the value of consistent work effort. And, for the most part they're true, because consistent work pays off, but sometimes when you're busy looking down all the time, you lose sight of where you're going. Feng shui offers us an opportunity to lift our eyes and create movement in our lives instead of drudgery, or worse, the awful position of feeling stuck in a "Groundhog Day" kind of life. Too often we fall into the rut of day by day living to the point that we can't imagine anything different or anything better and our vision gets cut off. I'm frequently surprised at the shocked expressions I get when I ask people what they want and ask where they see their lives going or where they want their lives to go. They're stunned because they can't imagine anything different or anything more than that grindstone where their noses are pointed at every da...

Trees are an important life source and vital members of our outdoor community. Often called “the lungs of the Earth,” trees take the carbon dioxide that we breathe out and return it to us as oxygen. They also prevent groundwater run-off and soil erosion. It is obvious that trees are a crucial part of our living Earth and treasured members of our landscape family. Besides being beautiful, they provide us with shade, beauty, and a wonderful place to climb or swing from. Fruit and nut trees give us good things to eat. On a less tangible level, trees also exert a powerful influence on the feng shui of our homes. For this reason, it is important to look at the trees surrounding your home. What else do trees have to offer us? Let’s take a look at the feng shui of trees. 1. Trees give excellent support. Planted at the rear of a house, trees provide important “Mountain support” at the rear of a property. Ideally, all homes and businesses are situated on a lot with a rise at the rear of the pro...