Western School of Feng Shui » Five Elements

Fire & Metal Home to balance Elementally

terahcollins — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:18:19 +0000

Feng Shui angled entrance

Feng Shui angled entry

From a WSFS Student:
Terah, Would love your feedback. These are my suggestions for Elementally balancing this potential rental for a client of mine. Here goes:
First of all, the front door is at an angle, so I would open the door, look at the flooring and layout to determine the best direction for the Bagua. Since it is situated closer to the left hand side of the house, I would most likely observe and recommend to turn right as you enter so the back of the house is the Fame area. This being said – it looks as if some of the Helpful People area is outside of the Bagua, and would have to be anchored.

Yang Fire and Yang Metal need Yin Water

There is much Yang in the house – Fire through the natural lighting in the large windows and all the triangular shapes in the ceiling, and Metal in the large expanses of white, and the arches in the windows. To start, I would recommend controlling both the Fire and Metal. Since Fire already “melts” Metal, I would bring in Yang Water to control the Fire. This could be done with black furniture, a large mirror over the fireplace, or window treatments with an asymmetrical design. Yang also needs to be balanced with a good amount of Yin; a few ideas are many pieces of dark furniture, with soft padded, rounded lines, and pillows, many pieces of art (water scenes to help bring in water), throw rugs, displays collections of books etc.

Fire and Metal-dominant design features

The high ceilings call for a line between “Heaven and Earth.” Since this is a rental, I’m not sure how much they can paint, but it can also be done by lining up the art around the room at the same height.

Yang features in every room.

The elements need to be balanced. Even though we want to control the Fire and Metal with Water, some representations of Wood can be found in the railings, flooring, large deck, view of trees. Earth is found in the rectangles of the cabinets, but can be enhanced further through art, ceramics, or items of yellow or beige used as accents.
From the looks of the back of the house, the Relationship, Fame and Wealth areas are all on the deck, and will have to be enhanced accordingly through furniture, flowers, fountains, flags, garden art, etc.
Am I on the right track?

Terah Says:
Wow……You are SPOT ON!!!!!
I’m IMPRESSED!!!!
Lovelovelove.

Fire Buildings

terahcollins — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:14:08 +0000

Feng Shui these Fire buildings!

The words on the outside of the books, and also INSIDE the books are all associated with the Fire Element. BONUS: the Wood columnar shape really makes those RED books pop out.

It's rosy color and pointy spires make this Fire-y. And in Fashion Feng Shui, those bikini-clad pool-goers are BEING Fire-y. So, yin and yang Fire are both present…

Wood Buildings

terahcollins — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:02:28 +0000

Feng Shui these Wood buildings!

Wood. Wood. Wood. Feeling overwhelmed? That's a sure sign that there's an over abundance of the Wood Element. It also looks like it grew SO quickly that it almost can't support itself. Again, another sign of Wood in abundance.

The Wood Element can be seen in its shape and color - See all the little columns flanking either side of the main column. Also, although the material is concrete (Metal Element) its blue coloring is also a Wood Element.

Water Buildings

terahcollins — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 21:59:37 +0000

Feng Shui these Water Buildings!

Their REFLECTIVE qualities and ASYMMETRICAL design are what make these so Water-y.

Earth Buildings

terahcollins — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:53:40 +0000

Feng Shui these Earth Buildings!

Although more balanced than the others in this 5 Element series, it's actually below the Earth! Notice the Wood trim and grass, Metal (white) wall colors and shape (arches and domed roof), and Water-y asymmetrical lines all over.

Little, tiny brown boxes look detailed and intricate from this view – Yin Earth. They're probably also covered in stucco, an Earth-y texture.

Virtual Choir 2000 Voices Strong

terahcollins — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:25:57 +0000

You may have already seen Eric Whitacre and his virtual choir…. I'm very inspired by his work exemplifying our capacity to globally cocreate NOW! Enjoy!!

http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

Q&A – Sad front door

terahcollins — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:03:17 +0000

Q: I have a question as to the use of the Bagua map. I also sent a photo of the house where I rent. The reason for my doubt is that if I put it in front of the entrance door of the house, according to the Bagua map, the door is in the area of Knowledge and Self-Cultivation, but it does not like the front door facing the street. You can see that it's hidden. If I stand in front of the house, the front door would stay in the area of Career.

A: You have your Bagua Map correct, with your front door in Knowledge and Self-Cultivation. Now it is time to beautify the area around your door with enhancements that let people know right away how to find your front door and give a wonderful first impression. These could be anything you like and can easily care for, such as a decorative flag/banner, windchime, pots of plants and/or red flowers, statuary, seating, etc. Ask your landlord if you can paint your front door a color you especially like. Often people choose a shade of red, but it can be any color you love. Enjoy choosing the perfect things and please send me an "After" photogrph! – Terah

Solar City Tower

terahcollins — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:07:46 +0000

Check out this Feng Shui Greeter of Olympic proportions!

http://www.rafaa.ch/rafaa/rio_de_janeiro.html

Solar City Tower will be built atop the island of Cotonduba and will be the welcome symbol to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

It will be seen by the game visitors and participants as they arrive by air or sea.

The tower captures solar energy. It will supply energy for all of the Olympic city, as well as for part of Rio. It pumps up water from the ocean to create what appears like a water fall and this fall stimulates turbines that produce energy during the night.

The Tower includes an amphitheater, an auditorium, a cafeteria and boutiques. Elevators lead to various observatories. It also has a retractable platform for bungee jumping. At the summit is an observation point to appreciate the scenery of the land and ocean, as well as the waterfall.

Solar City Tower will be the point of reference for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

It will also hold the Olympic flame.

Protected: Alumni Call February 2011 – Fashion Feng Shui

terahcollins — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:21:23 +0000

Too Much of an Element a good thing?

terahcollins — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:20:01 +0000

Q: Just in case I can't tune in for the phone call tomorrow, I do have a question I'd like to have answered. When you have an over abundance of any element, say for example, an entire main level that has wood paneling, it just adding the metal element in various forms enough? Or should I advise painting paneling even though it would take the client tons of work and money? Thanks for all of your communications!

A: The abundance to the Wood element in so much paneling is the same elemental dynamic as working with a log home where the logs are exposed inside. I recently consulted on a such a home, where the vast amounts of ornate woodgrain and many lines between the logs brought in Yin Wood while the sheer magnitude of logs brought in Yang Wood, making the space truly dominated by Woodwoodwood!

As such, the first element I employed to bring elemental balance was Metal. I suggested a light beige couch and carpeting which provided plenty of Yang Metal, while Yin Metal was brought in through a metal coffee table base, metal lamp bases, and the rounded camel back shape of the couch. With the Feng Shui goal to bring in representations of all 5 elements in their Yin and Yang expressions, my client and I did the following: To activate the Fire element, which keeps Wood "busy" in the Reductive cycle of the 5 elements, we chose a fabric for several sofa pillows with a triangular pattern in red tones, bringing in Yin Fire, and 2 dark red leather chairs to represent Yang Fire. We made the sofa pillows in square shapes to capture Yin Earth and chose a very nubby texturous type of "earthy" carpet to represent Yang Earth. TheWater element, which would have originally only strengthened the dominance of the Wood element, could now find a home in the family of elements in a kidney-shaped glass coffee table top puntuated with a beautiful glass bowl in dark tones.

As Feng Shui practitioners, we can help our clients begin to "feel" the various energies of the 5 elements by suggesting they visualize certain combinations. For instance, imagine a panelled room with a floral couch. Most people can immediately feel that's not an ideal elemental match, as it is Wood and more Wood! Or, imagine the same room with a black couch, which would bring in the Water element to "grow" the Wood element and make it even stronger! Now imagine the pastel beige couch, and most people would agree it just feels right.

Working with the 5 elements is like speaking a language. It's best to speak this language often to build and sustain your fluency. The more you practice, the more elegant you become in describing and capturing their innumerable nuances and bringing elemental balance into your clients lives.

From Terah Kathryn Collins