Where Energy Flows

“Sanctuary is a gift to yourself.  If you identify a certain space in your home as a sanctuary, you are investing in your soul. ”                

–Christopher Forrest Mcdowell

Creating an abundance altar in your home or on your property is a great idea during these times of recession.

When creating an altar intention is very important.  Begin by identifying what abundance, wealth, and prosperity means to you personally.  This is a definition beyond Webster’s dictionary.  Once you have a clear meaning for abundance, wealth and prosperity, you can begin to clarify your intention for your abundance altar. The time and energy that you take to define abundance, wealth, and prosperity is worth the effort as you will begin to accept that your definition may not mean abundance to another person. Identify what kind of life do you want to live. Identify what is important to you in your life.

Once you identify your definition for abundance and what kind of life you want to live, look for symbols that will hold these definitions for you.  For instance the energy of Buffalo (the American Bison) is a symbol of abundance for many Native American Nations.  I have a statute of a Buffalo with her calf on my abundance altar.  (I am Prairie Band Potawatomi and my Nation takes the stewardship of the Buffalo so seriously that we have a herd on our reservation to stay connected with the Wisdom of Buffalo.)  The symbol of Buffalo means health and vitality, life force, to many Native peoples. Not only did it provide sustenance but Buffalo also provided shelter - a home, clothing and luxuries.  The Annishabe Nation, you may know this Nation as the Ojibiwa Nation, may use the symbol of wild rice in their definition of abundance.  Your symbol of abundance needs to mean something to you in order for the symbol to have power.

Consider placing your abundance altar in the Wealth area of your home for the maximum assistance from your home to support your intentions, life goals and desires.

As you place thoughtful items on your abundance altar, consider including a symbol of your personal business or career.  This symbol of your personal business or career may be your business card or a brochure. You may even want to write out your intention on a beautiful card to place on your altar. 

As you receive payment for service to your clients or have your paycheck automatically deposited, place the payment or your payroll receipt on the abundance altar for a few days so that you may show your gratitude and also bless the payment.

I would also suggest placing a candle of your favorite color and scent on the altar. You may want to research the energetic qualities of colors (see Deborah Redfern’s IA blog articles about color) and the energetic qualities of certain flower essence or essential oils scents to add another layer of intention to your abundance altar.

On my abundance altar, I have a candle with the essence of Angel Wings, a lingam stone placed in a red glass bowl filled with sand so that the lingam can stand upright. I also have citrine stones which are known as the merchant stone for abundance. And, I have my business card in a prominent place on the altar as well. 

Each time I light the candle I have in my mind and heart all that I am grateful for and that I am open to all the positive abundance and prosperity flowing to me from Spirit.

May your abundance altar energize your home and hold the intentions for your life as Chi or life force energy flows through your home, may your altar receive the attention from the Universe. 

© Copyright Yvette Neshi Lokotz, August 2008, All Rights Reserved.

When filling your vehicle with petroleum, gasoline, means paying substantially more than this time last year, we have to wonder how can we approach these times of recession in a more positive way. As Interior Alignment™ practitioners and teachers we have the ability and tools to assist our clients with supportive feng shui and space clearing techniques to achieve this goal.

How can feng shui and space clearing help me pay for my full tank of gasoline?  Well it starts well before filling the gas tank. Now more than ever we need to be clear about our thoughts and intentions. Having a clear intention about what kind of life do we want to live and what is important to us in this life is the foundation for creating that life we wish for.  It is times such as these that help really identify what is important to us, such as being financially secure or having a fulfilling peaceful life. Once we are clear about our intentions, then it is our emotions behind thoughts that support or rather fuel the intentions to bring them into the physical world.  This is also the basis of the Law of Attraction. When we have this clear intention, emotions and thoughts then we turn to feng shui to help turn our homes and work spaces into areas that can support these intentions.

First we ensure life force energy is invited and welcomed into our home-mouth of chi which is our front door. Second, that life force energy can flow through each of the rooms of our home and energize critical areas that hold our intentions and spend more time and energy there (abundance altars). Third, we ensure that the natural elements (fire, air, wood, earth, metal) energy is balanced to be in harmony with nature. Fourth, that yin and yang energies are balanced so that those opposing energies in nature are balanced in our home. When we have these items in balance, then our home is ready and able to help us to create what we desire.

Space Clearing is the otherside of the Interior Alignment™ coin. Once the feng shui is in place, then a space clearing to remove unwanted energies that are no longer useful to us can be released. The template is set through the clear intention, the feng shui supports the intention, space clearing clears blocks to energy flowing to that intention. Space clearing brings all the aspects of the Universe to help support your intention through prayer and ceremony. Your home becomes a sacred space that supports the life you intend to live as you and your home are in balance with all of nature and Universe.

What is your intentions for your life and are what are you emotions around your intentions? Its time to seriously know what you want from life.

© Yvette Neshi Lokotz, August 2008. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve written on the Helpful People area of the bagua  a fair bit, since it is one of my favourites. It is interesting because while most of the bagua trigrams are a mixture of yin and yang energy, Helpful People is all yang, which means it is very strong, action-oriented , male energy. 

It is a big force in our lives. Some people think the Law of Attraction is the same as the Helpful People area. I believe Helpful People is one aspect of the Law of Attraction — the creative part, what some call synchronicity, when the desires we put out in the universe begin to be answered.  The trigram for Helpful People means Creative Heaven. Help often comes in creative ways such as:  

• that meaningful dream you had
• those times when you just ‘know’ what is going to happen
• when signs show up in your life (the appearance of animals or objects that have special meaning to you)

Help (or signs) can also in the shape of other people who become heavenly helpers when they show up at precisely the right time in your life offering help or guidance, or put you in touch with the right people at the right time. Some believe this is an angel, or an angel acting through a person.

Synchronicity is also part of the Helpful People area. Syn is the Greek word for together and Chronos means time. Synchronicity is when seemingly random and unrelated events occur together in a way that has special significance to you. Synchronicity can happen at the everyday mundane level or through amazing and spectacular ‘coincidences’. We could fill a post just on spectacular coincidences. My personal favourite was the hawk that showed up in my garden the morning of a vision quest. Hawk is big medicine for me, being one of my totem animals. 

It is important to note that many people are not comfortable with the idea of being guided by an intelligent force outside themselves — a force whose job is to provide help, because the ‘help’ often cannot be explained rationally, and feeling in control is much more comfortable and familiar. But are we ever really in control? Think of often plans turn out differently than we thought they would.

Helpful People area also shows that we can let go of the need to micro-manage all parts of our lives and instead have faith that all is unfolding as it is meant to. The real gift of Helpful People, as I see it, is the opportunity for inner growth as we open the door to the flow of creativity in our lives.   

Ideas for Cultivating more Helpful People energy in your Life.

• Record your dreams. Sometimes dreams come from mental processing of the days’ events, but sometimes they have deeper meanings. Recording your dreams is an effective way to tap into inner messages, but you need to be prepared by having a notebook and pen close to your bed. Write down the dream as soon as you wake up.
• Experiment in dreamtime. Write a question you would like clarity on in your dream notebook before going to sleep and the next morning record the answers that come to you while you are sleeping.
• Create an altar. An altar is a place set aside in your home or office dedicated to receiving guidance and giving thanks. An altar does not have to be religious, nor need it be a shrine. It can simply be a collection of objects that help you focus your attention in a special way. For more ideas, see my post “How To Create a Home Altar“.
• To invite more guidance and synchronicity in your life, locate the Helpful People area of your home and choose some of these feng shui enhancements in the Helpful People and Travel area. You can also use these enhancements for an altar in the Helpful People area of any room in your home.· Colours for the area are black, grey and white· Candles· Scent: incense, lavender or juniper essential oil (or your favourite essential oil), resins – I like frankincense and copal – or herbs such as sweet grass

  · Objects of nature: stones, crystals, flowers, plants, seeds, nuts acorns, pine cones, shells, feathers, salt, corn, wine, water, wood

  · Your written prayers, affirmations or blessings

  · Religious objects depicting the image of Buddha, Jesus Mary, Angels or Goddesses

  · Other objects that have a spiritual or sacred meaning to you

  · Photographs of yourself and/or other people in your life.

   

© Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about removing clutter from a house when I moved from the east coast to the west, taking only what would fit into our RV.

Emptying the house was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Many of the things we liked but wouldn’t be taking with us were offered to family and friends. We had a giant house moving sale, then truck loads were donated to the Salvation Army, and by the time we left, we filled a dumpster with things no one would want.

In the end, we reduced our belongings by about 95 percent — as I said, only what we could take with us.  It was difficult both physically and emotionally. Five years later there is still a sense a loss over some things and a wondering…where did such and such an item go?  But the good part of it was that we learned all about clutter because there wasn’t much room to bring new things into an RV.

But, five years later, I realize we only thought we had learned about clutter. You know that saying about expenses increasing to meet income, no matter how much income increases? Well the same is true of belongings and space.

A few years ago we moved back into an apartment - a change that necessitated starting from scratch to outfit a home. And once again we had space we could fill. People began giving us things, we found ‘treasures’  and incredible bargains we simply could not pass up…

We’ve been apartment dwellers going on 4 years now, and while it is true that we are much more conscious of accumulating than we have ever been in the past, we have watched (almost helplessly) as old habits crept back into our lives. It has become obvious that there is much room in our lives to learn more about living lightly.

One of the things I’ve noticed is a tendency to give things emotions: that the knickknack a friend gave you (that you don’t love) will have its feelings hurt if you give it away. Or that the person who gave it to you will know it’s gone from your life — some kind of psychic connection. And so we hang on to things that are obviously clutter, until the appropriate time comes to let it go. And this is the reason people end up having to rent dumpsters when they move — all those deferred decisions finally catch up with them.

I had an idea, that if space clearing was combined with clutter clearing, the items needing new homes could be honoured and blessed for the intent behind them. I would make them part of a blessing altar, take photographs and bless and clear everything on the altar before the objects I no longer want to keep are sent on their journey to find new owners who will love and treasure them. 

And that would feel really good because I know that objects that have been part of a blessing altar are very auspicious gifts to give and some of my energy has gone into the item to be passed to new owners.

(c) Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

Interior Alignment™ is a blending of many belief systems that provides a depth and wealth of knowledge.  As practitioners and teachers of Interior Alignment™ we are also trained to create Altars that bridge the seen and unseen worlds in which we work. I am asked quite often about front door altars. I thought I would share one of my favorites kind of altars, Kuan/Kwan Yin for the front door.

Front door altars from a Feng Shui perspective assists Chi to floor through the door as the altar invites Chi in and from a Space Clearing perspective, the front door altar can provide protection from unwanted energies coming to your home.  So Front door altars provide both a welcome and protection at the same time.

I recently found a book by Daniela Schenker called Kuan Yin, Assessing the Power of the Divine Feminine.  Ms. Schenker goes into great depth about Kuan Yin. I appreciated this depth and sharing as I have a fondness and connection to Kuan/Kwan Yin. I have to say that this book also held another surprise gift. The forward was written by my teacher, Denise Linn. I had no idea that Denise had written this forward where she called for Kuan Yin to come and help with the birthing of her friend’s baby.

Kuan/Kwan Yin is a bodhisattva known for her deep compassion for all sentient beings as she heard the cries of the world.  Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have attained the wisdom of Buddhas but have postponed their final “liberation” or ascension. Instead they provide compassionate support to sentient beings in this world until the sentient being can achieve their own ascension.  She is also known as the protector of women and children. What I did not know was that is 33 images of Kuan/Kwan Yin for contemplation.  So there are 33 different images of Kuan/Kwan Yin to select from for your front door altar. 

The front door altar would be considered a guardian altar as it will face the front door but not directly
across the front door. The best placement is off to one side across the front door. The image you choose of Kuan Yin will protect the entryway of your home.  She will welcome visitors at the same time she will conteract any lower vibrational energies such as negative thoughts from entering your home. As you select items to add to the altar be aware of the significance of the items and your intention for the altar. You may want to add a special candle, flowers, or incense.  A special addition would be peacock feathers. The peacock is known to be Kuan/Kwan Yin’s guardian and will protect us from accidents, other disasters and can absorb negative energies.

Possible images of Kuan/Kwan Yin for the front door altar are with her using a protective mudra which is arms lifted to her chest height and the palms of her hands are parallel and facing each other; or a fearlessness mudra which is the right hand is raised and the open plam faces forward. Images using these mudras are the Four-Armed Kuan/Kwan Yin and the Kuan/Kwan Yin with a Halo of Fire (Kuan/Kwan Yin of Complete Light).

May Kuan/Kwan Yin bless your home.

© Yvette Neshi Lokotz, 2008. All rights reserved. 

Staying in a hotel when on vacation or business trip can be uncomfortable from a feng shui and space clearing perspective.  I just returned from a trip to New Mexico.  I traveled with my friend and fellow teacher, Deb Swingholm. 

Deb and I shared a room while attending a shamanic course in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  When we entered our shared room we both had the same feeling, “get a different room”.   Deb did inquire but there was not another space as nice! We knew that we had to do some Feng Shui and Space Clearing in order to feel comfortable in the room.

As we went out to our rented car, I turned to Deb and said, “we are moving the bed from the extra room into the larger space”.  The extra room was next to the bathroom and felt isolated.  So, that is exactly what we did.  We dismantled the single bed and it moved between the fire place and a large walk in closet which was in the main room.  We also moved the small club chairs.  One chair was moved to a corner we had designated for reading and the other chair next to the fire place.  The second bed was in an windowed alcove that opened into the main room.

After we finished moving the furniture around, I placed one of my shawls over the full length mirror that hung on the walk in closet door.  We stood back and assessed our work by tuning into the energy of the room.  The room felt so much better as the Energy flowed with balance and harmony.  We used the room off the bathroom as a dressing room and storage for luggage.  This worked out so well as the extra room also had a door that we could close.  I also placed a sheet over the bureau mirror at night which comes from my Native American culture.  This transformed the main room as the room felt like a safe haven in the evening.

When we were finished arranging furniture, we set up a small altar.  Deb and I set our intention for the space and began a space clearing Ceremony.  We used our Drums and a [tag[bell[/tag] to space clear the rooms.  This is the first time Deb and I have worked together as a space clearing team.  I have to admit it was so much fun.

The bell is one of Deb’s primary space clearing tools and watching them work together was magical.  We transformed a space that began as a confined with stale energy to one of beauty and easy to take full deep breaths in.  And, we did all of this in less than an hour. 

We all know that keeping a sense of humor is vital. Well, Deb and I wondered what it would have been like to video tape this feng shui and space clearing to show on YouTube. We would have entitled the video, “What do Two Feng Shui Teachers Do on Vacation?!”

On the last morning that we stayed at the Inn, we had breakfast with a few of the other course attendees.  I asked them how they liked their rooms.  Their response was their room was fine and loved the view of the mountains. Deb and I told them that we were Interior Alignment™ Master Teachers and that we incorporated feng shui into our room by changing the furniture around and doing a space clearing ceremony. Their reply was, “I wish you could have done my room too I could have slept better!”

I believe the important thing to remember is that if you have a basic feng shui knowledge you can create a comfortable place for your soul and physical body anywhere you go.  If you add a space clearing ceremony to that same space, you create an intentional sacred space. 

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Neshi Lokotz, April 2008.