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Greetings!
This issue is a bit of a tossed salad. Using Feng Shui to keep holidays bright to a definitive slant on the housing market all dressed up with a bit of snake oil. Yum. And something I might continue with - and Infotorial - giving you a bit more about Feng Shui and some biased opinion. Agree of disagree - hopefully it will make you think.
AN APOLOGY
These newsletters are based on preset templates. I customize a great deal, as I feel one thing that makes this publication attractive is for it to be visually interesting. Unfortunately, the template I chose for this newsletter cannot be modified in any sort of creative way. Apparently folks who have used it before just kept to the template and did not try to alter it. Rather than wait another week for the technicians to say it is not possible, I'm sending you this - which to me is a weak design. Sort of like painting a room the color your consultant suggests and then looking at it and realizing, "I just don't like it." Adjusting the color could solve the problem, merely accepting it as fixed does not. Ah, technology.
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| Holiday Feng Shui |
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 One important way to gain full balance in a space is to se the colors from each of the elements in a room. The colors of the BaGua are red, white, black, blue, silver (or gold) and green. We feel jolly around Christmas (or Hanukah or Thanksgiving) because we're often surrounded by lots of lights (light uplifts the spirit and makes our chi rise.) Using multicolored lights raises all the energies in a space and makes us feel festive. Why does Times Square feel so exciting at night - light and movement. Want to balance any area? Just include some of each of the colors. An important part of BTB Feng Shui is the Five Element Theory. The system is used to moderate, support, control or dominate the energies present in a specific area. It uses material, or shape or color to achieve its effect. Using the 5 Element Theory I can avoid telling people they have to have lots of Feng Shui 'things' hanging about to get good results. So why do so many people go depressed during the holidays? From a Feng Shui point of view, we would say because that person has a set of mental or emotional clutter that drags them into an unpleasant past. The lights, instead of bringing them up in spirit, bring them down. They have left the present and are dwelling in the past -a past they wish they could bring back or that cased them lots of pain. Is there a solution? I'd suggest working with them to see that they are here now. Help them see they still are given the gift of living and a chance to decide on something more beneficial for themselves. Of course, if it is a pathological condition, they will need more help, but we all need to remember that we always have a choice. A candle with their yellow flame (the color of  Earth, groundeness and health) makes us feel warm inside. Going to a party that has lots of candles tends to make us feel closer. Lots of light, inside and out, creates a positive feeling. The bright colors we decorate with do their job of 'making spirits bright.' So decorate for the holidays. (A side benefit is that we usually end up cleaning a good bit before setting it up and after taking it down - and each time we do a good cleaning, we freshen up the energy and give positive things a good place to grow.
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| A Stagnant Real Estate Market |
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Feng Shui has a lot to say about establishing the home as a welcoming, nourishing place in an all too chaotic world. And everyone is aware that housing sales have been declining for months now. In the Rogue Valley, inventory is at an all time high. Prices are falling. While this may be a good thing (a recent issue of the AARP Magazine mentioned 10 overpriced markets. Medford was ranked 3rd as being overpriced by a whopping 64%! Not exactly what people want or need o hear when they need or want to sell.
Creative Visions has often mentioned that using Feng Shui can dramatically alter the odds of selling in any market, and now it is even more important for the potential seller o examine whether or not to employ a consultant. Now there's a choice - hire someone who does staging or bring in the Feng Shui expert.
Take a look at what's happened when Creative Visions was brought in to three difficult situations. Read what Gwen Haynes, Gordon and Marianne Roda and Brooks and Rod Newton had to say.
What would be the difference between hiring someone to stage the home and a Feng Shui consultation? Staging is likely to involve clearing some or all the furniture out and brining in new - which may or may not be easy or a good thing. Also the stager works to make the house look good. The Feng Shui Consultant makes the house look good using the Energy of the home to bring it up to its maximum potential.
The analogy would be having your home landscaped. In one case, you could have lots of dramatic plantings that quickly die off because none of them were  indigenous to that location. And in the second case, the design might not be quite as showy, but the plantings will flourish because they were chosen with the location, climate and ecosystem were included in the design. Many of us would like to pass on our home to others who would love it as we did, and in that case, the choice is clear. For the speculator, the choice is also clear.
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| INFOTORIAL - FENG SHUI OR MARKETING? |
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Last month I teased you about what I judge to be a major marketing bit of snake oil. It's bad enough that so many in the Feng Shui sector say that merely buying this gewgaw or those chachkes will make you wealthy. But when a major manufacturer (in this case Westinghouse) announces a new refrigerator that "is compact in size and offers flexible features that combine many Feng Shui principles to help create positive energy in the home;" I have to wonder.
So when I happened on Smarthome's Australian edition, I had to read on. And this is what I found in the manufacturer's advertising copy: "Hints from Elizabeth Wiggins." Things like:
� Keeping your frig well stocked.
� Empty and clean your frig.
� Keep healthy and nice foods. (Here the manufacturer touts their air circulation system to keep food fresher longer.)
� Keep your frig organized.
� Keep your kitchen airy and clean.
� Keep the fridge, stove and sink in a triangular orientation.
� Keep the color red out of the kitchen.
OK - so what do any of these have to do with the design of a new refrigerator? Not much. Some of the points do come from Feng Shui, but how do we get from keeping your frig airy and clean to the design? Or empty and clean? Westinghouse has little to say how their new frig facilitates emptying and cleaning (maybe it tips forward and everything just sort of falls out?) It's a mighty stretch at least. My guess is that Ms. Wiggins got herself a fat paycheck and Westinghouse Australia got a new slant advertising it's latest model. But Feng Shui? Zip bupkis in this consultant's book.
I'm not surprised, especially when I heard of the H/G cable network show Fun Shui.  What we won't do for a dollar! And that bothers me, because real Feng Shui isn't just about making more money, it's about making a better life for us and for our loved ones. Those of us who take this art seriously abide by a rather strict code of ethics. And while cracking the Western mentality regarding moving energies that cannot be seen is difficult, trivialization of any sort, an episode of South Park making fun of a "Feng Shui" character does not help anyone's serious belief in this ancient art/science. Had Fun with Needles debuted on TV, I'm wondering how many people would accept acupuncture as a legitimate treatment modality? Maybe it's the incredible results that make people nervous. My hope is that you will join me in dispelling the idea that Feng Shui is a play toy.
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"It's not nice to fool Mother Nature....."
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There won't be a December issue. This fella is going on vacation. I look forward to coming back with a January 2008 series that will entertain and enlighten. As always, if you have a question about Feng Shui, send it to me at info@fengshuiCV.com. You'll most likely get a personal answer and you may see it in these pages.