Where Energy Flows

Traditionally in feng shui the career area is about what you do for a living, but it can also refer to your passions in life. In recent years it has become popular to talk about passions as if they were everyday common sense sort of things – as if we all could concisely describe our passions and were actively living them. 

In teaching Soul Coaching classes, I find that one of the reasons people have difficulty manifesting goals and dreams – using the law in of attraction in their lives — is because they do not know precisely what they are. The Career Area is as much about exploring passions as it is about helping your career to flourish.

It is interesting to note that the trigram for the career area translates to Deep Water. It means the process of going deeply inside to find the quintessential nature that is you. This is deeper than passions (or another way to put it is what lies underneath your passions). Most of us actually have more than one passion, with each representing a different phase or time in your life. Some of these naturally fade out out and then return with renewed interest. So you can say that the Career area is also about change, or alchemy. If you look at the nature of water, this is very fitting because water changes shape radically, from cloud to fog, mist, rain, snow and ice; from fresh to salt water, yet underneath water is quintessentially water. Similarly with passions, if you look closely enough, you will discover there is a common thread that runs throughout your life in these passions, one which relates to your values and inner purpose. This will connect you to the quintessential nature that is you, and will tell you what you need to feel whole. 

Working with the Career Area is an opportunity to transform your life from ’settling’ to choosing your life. Working with a life coach is often very beneficial in exploring these questions. As a Certified Soul Coach as well as being a Feng Shui Master, I have combined the two modalities into some unique offerings. You can read more about this at Feng Shui Coaching.

Traditional Feng Shui Enhancements to Activate the Career Area

Locate the Career Area of your home. (Click here to see the bagua map). To enhance your career or explore your passions in life, use some of these feng shui enhancements in the Career area your home:

Locate the Career Area of your home. To enhance your career or explore your passions in life, use some of these feng shui enhancements in the Career area your home: 

 The colour for this area is black or very dark shades of other colours

• Add items related to the element of water such as fountains and water features.
• Use images and symbols of water - oceans, lakes, or waterfalls.
• Mirrors represent the element of water.
• Include objects which remind you of your career such as diplomas and awards.
• Put items that represent your passions in your life.
• Add items that represent your journey, inner search for meaning or wholeness in your life.
• Since fire puts out water, anything related to the element of fire should be reduced or eliminated. This include symbols of fire: images of the sun or sunsets, candles, fireplaces, sun colours (red, orange) and triangular shapes. Electrical appliances are also the in the fire element family, so consider removing any extraneous electrical gadgets.

© Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

Black is technically not a colour at all. Rather, it is the total absorption of light. From a feng shui perspective, the qualities of black are power and stillness. Black is associated with power, strength, authority, and independence. Stillness evokes quiet, introspection, the night, dreamtime, the unknown, mystery, self-protection, and to go unnoticed. Black is also associated with beginnings and endings: beginnings - we are born into the light; endings - death, a return to darkness.

From the bagua map perspective black is the color for the Career gua.  The element for the Career area is water, and the trigram means ‘deep water’.  If you have studied feng shui, you may know that Career does not mean only what you do as your job; rather it also refers to the soul-searching that happens when you contemplate your purpose in life. From my book on the bagua Odyssey of the Heart,

Deep water means to go very deeply inside on an 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.

So if black represents finding yourself and your true purpose in life, those qualities of black (power and stillness) are important. For example, do you use your power in a constructive way? There are two types of power, one having to do with the misuse of it and the other having to do with self mastery. The misuse of power (having power over someone) explains one of the cautions I have read on wearing black. It is said to ’express hidden aggressive impulses and causes one to absorb unfiltered energies from the world outside’.

Do the qualities of black help you become more centered or still inside, or does it protect you in some way — to ‘disappear’ or go unnoticed?

Using Black

Black should not be used in young children’s rooms, therapy rooms, or living rooms. 

I sometimes do a feng shui consultation for someone who wants a black and white bedroom scheme. I try to dissuade them because while it might look dramatic and mysterious in the night, by day it depresses the energy. Have you ever been in a night club or restaurant with a black or very dark color scheme by day? Were they places you wanted to linger in?

Similarly, long term wearing of black, head to toe - almost like a uniform - is not recommended from an energetic perspective, but then too, there are colour/fashion experts who tell us that a lot of us just do not look good in black! Some wear black because it doesn’t show the dirt, but personally I find the opposite is true and my black clothing seems to need cleaning after each wearing. But there are times when it is useful:

• If there is a time in your life when you need self-protection or to go unnoticed
• When you are feeling extreme exhaustion
• To quiet an over-active mind.

© Copyright 2007 Deborah Redfern. All rights reserved.