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By Ann Trump
Most mornings, I hear the birds chattering their greeting to the dawn at least a half an hour before I see them. I have several bird feeders around my house, but I have strategically positioned a feeding area outside my bedroom window between the Korean spice bush and the quince. While I drink my first cups of coffee, before the day has gotten a firm hold on my attention, I allow myself the joy of bird watching. I highly recommend it. Back yard bird watching satisfies the yearnings of my soul, that place in me that wants a peaceful and calm demeanor, that place that trusts life and wants to leave behind the hurry. Without effort, I experience an alert, meditative state. Even on a busy day, if I stop for just a moment, and catch the scattering of sparrows as a noisy blue jay lands on and claims a feeder, I am instantly brought into the present moment.
From a Feng Shui perspective, inviting birds into your environment is inviting good chi and blessings from Heaven. Birds are symbols of new opportunities and good fortune. Feeding birds is a fabulous way to increase energy around the home and keep it from becoming stagnant. Introducing a bird bath is a wonderful way to incorporate the water element into your landscape. The material and color of the feeder can be a way to add a deficient element or enhance an area of the bagua. Being mindful of placement, for example adding a feeder to the north area of your property or in a northern widow of your house may give you added energy and blessings for a job search, as the north represents career.
Tips for feeding the birds:
- Keep the feeders full. Birds will return to feeders if they know there is a continuous food supply. If you are new to feeding, don’t be discouraged if birds don’t flock the feeder the minute you fill it. Be patient, they will find it.
- Birds like cover when they feed. Feeders hung near shrubs and trees or under porches provide safety from predators. Try draping pine branches or grape vine around feeders that are too exposed.
- Birds prefer wooden feeders to plastic feeders, with the exception of hummingbirds and finches.
- Don’t forget squirrels will invade feeders and have ravenous appetites. Give them a feeder of their own filled with corn and sunflower seeds, or buy corncobs just for them.
There is a variety of attractive window feeders for city dwellers. A red hummingbird feeder is an ideal energizer for any area of the bagua that needs a little boost and is a perfect feeder for apartments.
Experiment with homemade bird treats. Pinecones rolled in peanut butter with birdseed sprinkled on them is a nice project for children. Hang them from your porch or on trees. Birds love suet. Try the recipe below.
Suet
- Use as much lard as desired.
- Add peanut butter.
- Add any dried fruits or nuts that you have available.
- Mix in enough birdseed to make it desirable to the birds.
- Put the mix in recycled onion sacks and hang outdoors.
Bird watching and bird feeding is a soul pleasing past time and good Feng Shui. On the wall above the cash register in my favorite Chinese restaurant there hangs a beautiful painting of One Hundred Birds. The symbolic meaning of the Chinese painting is good fortune and financial blessings. I have actually counted forty four mourning doves feeding at one time in my yard. Arriving in pairs, I believe they bless me with the fortunes from Heaven.
© Ann Trump, 2010. All rights reserved.
by Minnie Kansman
For this entire month, I have been focusing on the art of allowing. Allowing more abundance, openness, healing, love and joy into my life. During this time I have also been noticing when I hinder the flow of these experiences into my life. How and why and when I place choke holds on my own happiness. The biggest block I find is the quality of my mind chatter. The negative thoughts that fly though my mind telling my why I cannot have what I want. Many pitiful excuses come up, and because they are in my mind, I am giving them emotion and intention, attracting more of what I do not want in my life.
Excuses like:
“I don’t deserve this.”
“I am not good enough.”
“The economy is too bad.”
“I don’t have enough money”
“I already have enough, it is selfish to want any more.”
I have discovered that just reaching for the next highest rung on the ladder of emotional charge for each statement, I can slowly climb up to a much higher level of experience.. By holding a conversation with myself, I can let go of the bottom rung and begin to climb higher to that place of attraction I am seeking. Like attracts like after all!
So, “I don’t deserve this”, becomes “I am not here to punish myself, I am here to experience life.” Which can move to, “I am here to experience joy” which moves even higher to ” This that I desire brings me great joy!
By the time I am at a statement like this I am smiling and know my emotions have shifted and I am in the energy that will attract more joy to my life. I have had amazing results with this “Happy Talk” in the few short weeks I have been practicing this.
Another “Happy Talk” example:
“I don’t have enough money” becomes, “I have money to stay warm and feed my family,” moves even higher to “I live in a beautiful home and have all my needs met.”
Try it, when you find your mind chatter talking in a negative way, by reaching for that next highest thought you can have about the situation. It is a form of self therapy, and truly does shift your perspective, and most importantly, your emotions. And we manifest with our emotions above all else.
Have fun Happy Talking to yourself!
© Minnie Kansman 2010. All rights reserved.
by Deb Swingholm
I find such joy in observing and discovering the magic that exists within the movements of the elements and the seasons. These cycles of the Earth and the moods of Nature are beautifully expressed in the Medicine Wheel, the Celtic Wheel of the Year and the Feng Shui Bagua.
The Celtic Wheel and the Medicine Wheel are something I use daily, monthly, seasonally, yearly. Honoring the seasons as they move and turn keeps me grounded and connected to the Earth. I celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxes as points of transition. These are days to pause and notice Nature, and contemplate the lessons and wisdom she is offering at that point in time. I take time to see how my own inner rhythms are moving in relation to these natural cycles. Often, these are periods of reflection and personal ritual.
In my daily life and work, I use the Medicine Wheel. I honor the Spirit Animals of each direction. And, I invite each direction and each element to work with me, opening to their unique qualities and gifts. There are many variations of the Medicine Wheel. In the form I use, East represents Air, new beginnings, illumination, vision. South is Fire, growth, energy, expansion. West is Water, dreaming, transformation, insight, introspection and receptivity. And, North represents Earth, grounding, wisdom, the elders and rest after completion. A project begins and takes form in the East, and I walk with it around the Wheel as it expands and comes to completion in the North. It isn’t linear – it is possible that one project may be in the East while another is nearing its finish in the North.
In Feng Shui, the Bagua is also a spiral of the seasons. The elements are represented (five elements here instead of four), and the focus is on the movements and relationships between them. Water nourishing wood. Wood feeding fire. Earth damming water. As a feng shui consultant, I look for how the seasons, cycles and elements are expressed in a home or plot of land, how they are balanced or imbalanced, and make adjustments to bring them into a healthy flow.
I also dwell in the Moon cycle. To me, it is like a spiral within the circle. When the moon turns new, I can always tell because I experience a huge rush of energy and creative juice. It’s like a gentle, energizing in-breath. This waxing cycle is usually a potent creative time for me, as the energy builds and crests at the full moon. When the moon wanes, the energy becomes quieter. This is time spent incubating and dreaming.
The beauty really is in discovering the sacred rhythms pulsing in the midst of what is happening right now. Discovering how these rhythms give shape and color to life.
© Deb Swingholm 2010. All rights reserved.
by Deborah Redfern
In the Five Element system of Chinese Medicine, Winter corresponds to the element of Water. The bagua area for the Water element is Career, meaning Deep Water. Did you ever wonder what the connections are between Winter, the element of Water and the Career area?
Water tells us more about transformation and the alchemy of change than ony of the natural elements of nature. A single drop of water in the life cycle undergoes the most radical of alterations: from cloud to fog, mist, rain, snow and ice; from fresh to salt water as it makes its way to the ocean; from part of a glacier or iceberg, to a waterfall or greak lake; a rapid river, or a tiny stream. And. at the end of the cycle the sun evaporates this water drop and returns it to the clouds to become again a drop of rain. Through all these states, water is quintessentially, water.
Deep Water means to go very deeply inside on any inner journey to find the quintessential nature that is you. I believe that through this journey you can find your personal alchemy which gives you the opportunity to turn your life around. It is a chance to transform from a person who is just putting up with a situation, to a person who is living their passion – a person who has found the gold.
– Deborah Redfern, Odyssey of the Heart:
Winter is also a time of dramatic transformation and alchemy. The growing season is over. It gets colder, there are fewer hours of daylight, and the trees are bare. In many places in the world plants whither and die back, and the earth is blanketed in a thick cover of snow. It is a time for outward stillness and dormancy. Deep inside the earth – perhaps under that blanket of snow - and inside trees, preparations are underway for the coming spring, and the season of rebirth.
People too need times of quiet and seeming dormancy in order to fully absorb the work we have done. The energy of Winter and the Water element helps us in our inner journeys. It is a time of assimilating wisdom and preparing our inner ground as we consider what is next for us – where we are happy in our lives and where we wish to bring in change. It lays the foundation for us to be receptive to what is next: new ideas, inspiration and experiences, and to let go of what does not fit for us, with a goal of getting closer to being our quintessential nature.
Does it mean that Winter is the only time that we can do this work?
No, it simply means that the cycles of nature provide us with a natural opportunity to do the work, whatever season it is and the more in tune we become to the cycles of nature, the more natural the work becomes. As well, the energy of the Element and season is often woven into our culture, in one way or another. At this time of year – year’s end – do we not naturally review and evaluate the past year, and makes New Year’s Eve Resolutions for the coming one? Although there are several months of winter and the dark time of year left, we begin to set the seeds in late December and early January.
Through using feng shui, we can also step into the winter/water element energy every time we make enhancements to the Career area of our homes, especially when we use a much deeper, contemplative approach. Enhancements (cures or remedies) using this method would likely be totally unique, and can then be activated by using the traditional Career/Water Element enhancements.
Wishing you a juicily contemplative Winter season!
© Deborah Redfern, 2009-2010. All rights reserved.
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