Trouble With Air and Magic

Pat here.

I like to keep an open mind on anything that hasn’t been scientifically proven as wrong or impossible. So, yes, as far as I’m concerned, there may be ghosts and space aliens and psychics and maybe feng shui really does work.

I realize I cannot provide positive, scientific proof that any of the above isn’t superstitious hokum, but can anyone really prove otherwise? I first became interested in feng shui when we moved to a new house that I didn’t really like. It was dark and boxy and made me uncomfortable, but it was close to my husband’s job and we could afford it, which wasn’t easily done in that neighborhood. So I set about improving it by opening up rooms and adding desperately needed new plumbing. We were only a third of the way through the process when my husband lost his job. For the first time in our adult lives, my husband was not working. This was freakish enough to have me consulting astrologers if they had answers, but they didn’t.

But a good friend had the equivalent of a black belt in feng shui. She explained how the whole house was effectively a really bad chi sink—a septic tank of  bad energy. My instincts to open up the rooms and improve the plumbing were good but too late and not enough to fix the bad energy.(the basics of feng shui can be found here.)

She helped me create an inviting entryway, when I was feeling anything but welcoming. She showed me—and my husband— how to turn our desks to welcome visitors instead of putting our backs to them. We added crystals and water fountains and lovely wind chimes to invite positive energy to flow unimpeded through our ugly boxy ranch house—which we could no longer afford to fix up. We brought in palm trees and bamboo, added red to dark corners, and in general, improved the atmosphere and our attitudes.

Scoff if you like, but my career took an upturn, and I started making twice the amount of money I’d been making, enough for my husband to return to school and complete a management degree. He immediately had three job offers, and we sold the ugly house to a couple who were retiring and wanted to live near their grandkids. Our improvements made it possible for them to live there because she was in a wheelchair and no other house in the neighborhood had room for one.

I’ve applied the principles of feng shui to my homes ever since. Those of you who have been around a few years may remember when I started researching feng shui for a new book.  Basically, feng shui means “wind and water.” It’s simply a philosophy of how to arrange your surroundings in harmony with the earth’s energy—or the natural world. Frank Lloyd Wright did this with architecture and science but the precepts aren’t much different—we must fit ourselves comfortably into the world around us.

There are tons of books and Internet sites explaining a great many feng shui how-tos, most of which will sound silly. But if you apply the ones that work for you—declutter your living space, for example, fix anything that isn’t working, throw out things you hate and add things you love, remove the prickly cactus and add air-purifying bamboo palms—then if nothing else, you’re improving your attitude and spirits. Positive energy can go a long way toward improving your life.

There are even feng shui fixes for improving your love life, although in my new release from Book View Café, The Trouble With Air and Magic, (excerpt) my athletic geek hero doesn’t appreciate my feng shui expert heroine’s ability to screw up his love or his life. Since this book is a contemporary look at the descendants of my psychic historical Malcolms and their logical Ives husbands, my feng shui expert does a wee bit more than rearrange furniture. She can rearrange earth energy and kill people when focused—not that most computer geeks are likely to believe that. But when your life is at stake, any weirdness that works is all that matters. Bring on the lucky charms!

So treat yourself or a loved one to a bit of Valentine candy and enjoy romance with a touch of odd. You might even learn how to fix your chi.

How many of you have applied some of the precepts of feng shui? I don't often give prizes but in honor of Valentine's Day, I'll send a free e-book to a random commenter!

 

Comments

[Anne Gracie]

Great post, Pat. I have flirted occasionally with feng shui, but never seriously carried it through. The basic principles make sense to me, and your tales incline me to have a go at feng-shui-ing my house.

And I love the sound of your new book.

[Patricia Rice]

Feng shui is such an ancient art that it's like a history lesson learning it. Give it a try!

[Donna]

Count me firmly in the corner of your metaphysical readers. I was trained in energy work at the local branch of a huge nation-wide hospital system. At this point in time, quantum physics and science in general knows that everything is energy - even that which we perceive as matter is simply energy moving at imperceptible rates.

And funnily enough, just this weekend I was looking at my living room trying to figure out what the feng shui problem was!

Your book sounds fascinating!

[Donna]

P. S. Pat, I forget that you're familiar with this area - it was St. Joe's.

[Patricia Rice]

Fascinating, Donna! Glad to know that hospitals recognize the importance of energy, even if they don't always know what to do with it. And St Joe's! I'm seriously impressed.

It's difficult to believe in that which we cannot see...but what's the point in closing our minds against it?

[Janga]

Decluttering is an ongoing process with me. I'm a pack rat, and so it's mostly a losing battle, but one I continue to fight nonetheless.

I do have Trouble with Air and Magic on my Kindle. It will be my reward when I finish an article that's due Friday. Maybe it will inspire me to move beyond the decluttering stage. I could use some positive energy on these gray February days.

[Patricia Rice]

Clean off the desk, Janga! Put some pretty flowers on it. Makes the February days fly right by. And hope you enjoy the book!

[Mary Jo Putney]

I'm so glad this book is finally available! A Malcom and feng shui--what more can one want? *G* Your story about changing a dark house maybe changing your fortunes is more dramatic than my brushes with feng shui. I was planning to write a book with a half CHinese heroine and was fascinated by feng shui, so I had my house done. It turned out that the two rooms I liked least had the poorest feng shui. I soon altered them both, and the energy is definitely better. I'm still waiting for reoriented my desk 90 degrees to make me write faster *G*, but at least I'm still writing!

[Donna]

Pat, St. Joe's recognized the importance of energy work when they got quantifiable results: lower blood pressure readings, lower blood sugar, raised hemoglobin rates, etc.

And we "believe in" atoms and bacteria don't we, even though we can't see either of them!

[Sherrie Holmes]

Sherrie here. Pat, I'm a relatively recent (2-3 yrs ago) believer in feng shui. What appeals to me is that a lot of it is instinctual and has to do with aesthetics and common sense. The more I study feng shui, the more I nod my head and say, "That makes sense." And because I've been blessed with the "interior decorator" gene, I'm constantly decorating my living space with a pleasing mix of eclectic art. Pretty things make me happy, be they sofa pillows, wall art, sculptures, humorous knick-knacks, or clothing.

Your feng-shui-expert heroine sounds intriguing, and it will be interesting to see how that is woven into the story. You may end up converting a lot of your readers to the feng shui camp! Best of luck on the launch of Trouble With Air and Magic. Knowing you, it'll be another hit!

I'm now going outside to clean up my front porch, which has gotten mysteriously cluttered over the winter.

[Barbara Elness]

I've only heard a little about feng shui and haven't ever tried to apply it's principles to any of my spaces. But wow, if it can make the kind of difference you talk about in your post, I'm all for it. :D

[Polly McCrillis]

I've been a fan of feng shui long before it became popularized. I live in the land-locked Midwest where bodies of salt water are totally absent, but if I close my eyes, I can imagine the sounds of surf in the wind. If I could construct a waterfall or fountain inside my home, I would. Might have to have a higher flood insurance premium, but it would be worth it! A fine post, thank you Pat.

[Janice]

A friend of mine is interested in all kinds of philosophic and spiritual studies, and I listen to her without understanding a great deal of it. However she did point out that clutter impedes energy, and I had already noticed that myself -- so my ongoing project is to sort through stuff for what I really want or need to keep vs what should be passed on one way or another. She tells me that decluttering is a tenet of feng shui. It's doing wonders for my closet at least :)

[Maureen]

I've heard of feng shui but I have never really learned much about it. After your post, though, I am intrigued and will be checking it out. I have been slowly de-cluttering so maybe this will inspire me.

[Dee]

Decluttering is always ongoing...as we get older we try to move stuff out and not bring in anything but necessities. Dee

[Dee]

P.S. Books are necessities!!!

[Patricia Rice]

We only have to walk into a new house (or see one on TV) with long spacious kitchen counters and inviting, clean interiors to "feel" the energy released by the lack of clutter. At the same time, we need to keep our beloved mementos around us. If nothing else, feng shui gives us a model for doing that.

And totally agree, Dee, books are the staff of my life!

[Margot]

I have to admit that, as something of a computer geek myself, I number among the non-believers.

However, being half Chinese, I'm definitely interested in reading the book. There really aren't many Asian characters at all in romances, so it's always nice to see one.

[Patricia Rice]

Margot, it's a romance, you need only believe in love! I love that romance is now open to a wider world and hope you don't find too many errors in my portrayal.