Use Figure of Tiger to Protect Home Entrance
Question: I own property in Palm Springs that I am preparing to lease. Do you have any feng shui advice that will attract renters? The house is on the end of a semicircle, surrounded by mountains, rocks and dry land. My front door is pink and faces west. Any suggestions will be helpful.
M. BELL
Desert Hot Springs
Answer: I can make a couple of suggestions to improve the feng shui--and therefore the marketability--of your rental home.
Because your desert home is surrounded by rocks and dry land, add some yin to all that yang. Place a few large, colorful pots of cactus, or other hardy plants, around the front and sides of the house. They will add appeal and balance to the hard, dry yang elements.
Being surrounded by mountains is a big feng shui asset. From this ancient art’s earliest days, the most desirable location for any building is to be nestled among protective hills and mountains. Ideally, this would be in the form of a dragon-shaped mountain on the east and a mountain suggesting a tiger to the west.
Because your house faces west, you might want to invoke the protection of the tiger by placing a symbolic representation of this fierce animal outside your home, if you could find, say, a tiger-shaped ceramic planter for your porch.
It is not a good idea to leave the front door pink because colors in the red family represent fire and, in the destructive cycle of the feng shui elements, fire melts metal. Anything symbolic of fire in a metal area invokes this destructive cycle and brings bad feng shui.
You would be wise to paint the front door white (the shade that represents the gleam of metal, the west’s element) and attach a brass kick plate (thus adding metal) to the bottom of the door. The fresh white paint and gleaming brass plate will add polish and distinction to the exterior of the house while paying quiet homage to the protective feng shui tiger.
But whatever you do to enhance the feng shui, don’t add anything to the house that you find unattractive or place anything in or around the place that looks strange or odd.
Giving the house a peculiar look or atmosphere would be a definite turn-off to potential renters.
Fending Off Marital and Financial Woes
Q: I thoroughly enjoy your column and hope you can help me out with a house I just purchased. This is a unique modern home built in 1957. We are the fourth owners of the house. Among the previous owners, there were six divorces, and every owner had serious financial problems (each sold the house because of dire straits).
Though we recognized that our new home had a history, the longer I live here, the more stories I hear from longtime neighbors about the wild parties and bizarre goings on. Are there any precautions I can take to ward off financial disaster and marital disharmony?
KATE PRETORIUS
Redlands
A: Feng shui does suggest that a home that has been the scene of misfortune will continue to bring bad luck to each successive owner. So you are wise to be searching for a way to break that negative cycle.
The best way to ensure marital harmony is to try to see the other person’s point of view. One of the feng shui enhancements for a successful marriage creates this mutual perspective symbolically by hanging two mirrors to face one another. This should be done in any room where the couple spends a great deal of time together (except the bedroom, where mirrors disturb the spirit).
As to warding off financial disaster, never going through a divorce is a good start. Beyond that, classic feng shui wealth enhancements include: placing fresh, moving water (an indoor fountain or aquarium) on a north wall of your home; clearing any mess or clutter from the southeast corner of a busy room in your house and placing four purple objects there. I recommend using a vase with four purple tulips, irises or any flower you like in that shade.
As an extra touch, consider acquiring a pair of elephants (statues) and placing them as guardians just outside or inside your front door. Elephants symbolize wisdom and high moral standards, and their very size signifies stability.
Fountain Better Used Outside of Bedroom
Q: I recently moved a copper fountain in my bedroom because it was in the southeastern part of the room and I did not want it to “dampen” my chances for fame and frivolity.
Since water is better off in its corresponding northern direction, I wanted to put it there. But in my room the only northern direction available is northwest. Do I still reap the benefits or is it only beneficial facing due north?
SHEILA CAVENAUGH
Via e-mail
A: You did the right thing by moving the fountain out of the southern corner of your bedroom; water is better in the northeast or northwest than in the south and you would reap benefits.
But there is one problem. Keeping a fountain in your bedroom is not good feng shui. As the unedited version of your letter mentioned, the fountain is noisy when on, and when you turn the fountain off at night for quiet, the still water is not doing you any good.
If you can put this copper fountain into a different room, preferably one which has some relation to your general prosperity, you would be much better off.
Here’s Where to Shop for Ba-Gua Mirrors
Q: Are ba-gua mirrors available in hardware stores?
BEVERLY BARN
Los Angeles
A: No, ba-gua mirrors are not found in any hardware stores that I know of. They are available from feng shui sources only. The easiest way I know to get one is through one of the feng shui sites on the Web such as https://www.fengshuiwarehouse.com or https://www.fengshuilady.com.