Where Energy Flows

Moving into a new home can be unsettling. There is the confusion of unplaced furniture and boxes to be unpacked, and trying to work out how things work. You can feel like a guest or interloper.

To feel more settled you can perform a blessing ceremony for grounding. This will help you put down roots and firmly establish your intention for your new home. Your intention is the quality you wish to have in your life while you live in this house, such as feeling at peace, feeling focused while studying or revitalizing relationships.

To perform the ceremony, have the people living in the house write down their intentions on a small piece of paper. Place the pieces of paper in a heat-proof vessel, such as a stone bowl. Take the vessel outside and burn the paper to ashes. Tongs are helpful here. Take care if you live in an area with fire risk.

Allow your intentions to take root by scattering the ashes in the four corners of the garden. The ashes will be washed into the soil by rain, adding nourishment. Alternatively, scatter the ashes around a tree. Imagine the ashes nourishing the tree’s roots, and the roots growing deeper into the earth.

You can also call upon the tree to act as a mentor for your intentions. Spend time sitting under the tree in deep contemplation. Ask the tree the next step on the path towards your intended outcome. Notice any colors, sounds, feelings or images that come to you. You may also notice a sign, such as an animal totem, or someone mentioning something later in the day.

People without gardens may like to watch out for my future blog on grounding with crystals.

Copyright Helen Harvey, 2008. All rights reserved

When I began learning energy healing systems many years ago, I remember long, enthusiastic, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations I had with friends about which modality was deeper: was Reiki ‘deeper’ than Therapeutic Touch because the hands were on the body? Or was Therapeutic Touch more profound because the practitioner was sensing subtle energy fields around people?  Oddly enough, I remember hearing people’s opinions that massage was not as deep as Reiki. You can’t get much more ‘hands on’ than massage.  Hmmm… 

Our understanding of Energy is what has really deepened over the years: There is only one source of energy which operates exactly the same whether the modality is TT, Reiki or another. (I mention these two because these are the ones I’ve studied in depth.)

I see some of the same discussions happening around Feng Shui and Space Clearing today: that one type of feng shui (or the original or ‘real’ feng shui) is better than another, or that a particular space clearing ceremony is preferable over another, or is only effective so long as it is done with specific space clearing tools.

As an Interior Alignment™ feng shui and space clearing teacher, my main concern is the information being put out is fear-inducing and/or doubt producing. I’m talking about the schools who publicly ‘evaluate’ other schools. Imagine how a person would feel after reading or hearing an established teacher and/or school dismissing other schools…what if they are talking about your school?! I went through that stage myself when I first began practicing Interior Alignment™.

For a short time I honestly thought I had made a dreadful mistake in the school I chose, but when I was able to be objective, I saw the comparisons with the Energy Healing modality discussions and I also remembered the generosity of spirit that attracted me to Interior Alignment™.

What I learned from my teacher Denise Linn and Interior Alignment™ is that the depth, intensity or profoundness of the method depends on how focused the practitioner is and whether they understand Intention: energy flows where intention goes. Having compassion and integrity are also important.

The tools and techniques are not the most important thing. A $20 Bell is as effective as a $200 Bell if it is loved and treated with respect and as a sacred object. In fact, space clearing can be done with no tools at all: as with Energy Healing it is done through holding the Intent and being sufficiently focused.

So it is really what resonates within the practitioner, what interests and excites us, what feels like a natural fit, or makes us feel like we are ‘called’. On the other end, of the client, there is usually a vibrational match: the client will feel drawn to a particular modality, or a particular practitioner.  

A point a yoga teacher made has stuck with me: she said half an hour of a lower vibration emotion such as anger or fear can do more harm than eating white bread and sugar for a week. So rather than engaging in the discussions about what is best, authentic or deeper – which almost inevitably will lead to experiencing lower vibrational emotions – I simply know that if one school resonates with a person, it is the right school for them.

© Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.

I found this as I was doing some of that wonderful “spring-desk-clutter-clearing.”  Great food-for-thought for everyone. May they be words for you to grow with.

I am here to bring beauty and balance to all that I touch…

I am here to create a place of peace and quiet…

I am balance, peace and most of all Love.

I resonate with the organization of live and solitude.

I resonate with the aura of healing.

I resonate with all that Earth Mother inspires.

I am committed to personal growth.

I am committed to encouraging growth in others.

I am committed to healing all who ask.

                                                      by: An Group of Amazing Women

Pray Peace, as you wander daily life and Love.

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.

What is space clearing? This is the number one question I receive when speaking to a new space clearing client.  Space Clearing is the act or process of energetically cleansing a space of unwanted residual or stuck energies.  What this statement means in every day terms, for example, is that in a space clearing a practitioner can remove negative past memories held within a home or clear away a feeling of stagnant closed in feelings.  The practitioner uses intention and special Ceremony to clear away these residual energies.

Why is it important to space clear your home? Many of my clients first want the residual energy removed of past owners or of past issues that held a big emotional charge.  For instance, have you ever gone into a room soon after an argument occurred in that room?  Many times you can still feel the emotions.  This is where the proverb, “it was so tense you could cut it with a knife” comes from.

A space clearing practitioner creates a special ceremony based on a clear intention set by the client.  This preparation for the space clearing is vital as a clear intention and the emotion around that intention is the fuel to bring the ceremony to life.

In Interior Alignment™, we call this special ceremony, Purification.  Purification is like clearing debris from a stream.  We remove the energetic blocks so that Chi, Life Force, can energetically flow smoothly though out the home or space.

As professional space clearing practitioners we are trained to use our intuition and space clearing tools such as bells, Drums, incense and feathers as part of the purification ceremony.  When we are finished space clearing the entire home or space, we then instill the clients intended positive energies into the home, such as love, peace and Abundance.  The client then has an energetically clean space to enjoy their positive energies that fill their home.

© Copyright Yvette Neshi Lokotz, 2008. All rights reserved.

This time of year is always so refreshing and vibrant.  Just feeling the change in the breeze and warmer days brings on the desires to play hooky.
 
I wrote an article for my blog, Two-Feathers, about the Spring Equinox and I mentioned that at the equinoxes there is a balancing of energies at the exact time of the equinox.  From a Feng Shui perspective this shift or change in the seasons at the time of the Equinox is when male and female energies are balance for a short time.  We can feel that change and the balance.  Change is the male energies as the wind blows faster at this time of year ushering in the warmer weather.  Balance is the female energy which is reached for a short time. 

As we move around the Medicine Wheel to the Spring Equinox we are at the north-east winds.  This is a cross wind which comes in stronger and faster moving.  We also notice that the snow melts and we have spring showers (female water element).  Depending on which version of the Medicine Wheel you use, we are either moving from a female energy in the north into a male energy of the east or moving from a male energy of mental thoughts into a female energy of birth.  No matter which culture or belief system you are comfortable with, we have the gift of feeling balance during the equinox.

The Spring Equinox is also known as the Awakening Time.  As we come out of a time of death into a time of rebirth.  In nature we begin to see the sprouting of the new grass and spring flowers, all of which were gathering energies during the time of germination.  As the gathering of energy of the North winds gives way to the energy of the East-Winds, the time of rebirth, the Awakening, we can begin to see the sprouting of new projects that began as mere thoughts that came from our intuition while we spent time in the energies of the North.

I remember as a child attending special gatherings to honor the Spirit each season.  My grandfather was a member of the Dream Drum religion.  We would make the trip with him for these gatherings.  I liked the spring gathering the best as there was a sense of openness, freedom in the drumming, singing and dance.  The adults spoke Potawatomi most often and since I didn’t speak the language fluently, I had the gift of setting aside the world of adults.  I was able to take in the feeling of the ceremonies without the encumbrance of labels.   As I reflect on these childhood memories of the Spring Equinox Drum Dance, I remember the feeling of the beat of the drum, the heart beat of mother earth, as the vibrations became more and more expansive ushering in the Spirit of the East.

Many blessing to you on this Spring Equinox.
 
All Rights Reserved. Yvette Neshi Lokotz, March 2008.

Last week, on my way to one of my favorite breakfast spots, I passed an elaborate Ceremony in progress - the installation of a Spirit House and an Ancestor House for a new business.   And, I was honored to be invited to stay. 

In Thailand, each building has small shrines that are dedicated to the nature spirits and to the “Grandparent” spirits of the people who first lived on the property.  Some of the houses are made to look like miniature temples.  Others look like traditional Thai teak homes.  Some are whimsical and all are eye-catching and beautiful.  Offerings are made at these shrines every morning and evening. 

Great care is taken to place these shrines in the most auspicious location and Astrology is consulted to make sure that they are installed at an auspicious day and time.  And they are put in place with a great deal of ritual. 

For this installation ceremony, two large tables took over the front lawn of the building.  The tables were heavy with an assortment of offerings - flowers, water, red soda pop, whisky, plates of sweets, large wooden trays with fruit piled carefully into towers, incense, candles and two pig’s heads (an especially expensive and lucky offering).

A serious looking, older man dressed in white presided over the ceremony.  His role, a combination of priest, geomancer and astrologer.   It is his job to select the proper location for the Spirit House and to make sure that the timing of the ceremony is accurate.  He performed specific blessings and set the statues and other ornaments into position.   

At one point in the midst of this lovely ceremony, there was a bit of a hitch.  The geomancer attempted to place a Buddha image into the Spirit House, but the base of the statue was too wide to fit through the narrow door.  The business owner disappeared and quickly returned, carrying a hammer.  With a “wai” (a small bow with hands over the heart) and a prayer offered to the Buddha, she gave the base a few whacks of the hammer.  It still didn’t fit.  So, more prayers, more “wais” and a few more whacks with the hammer followed.  Finally, the statue fit and the ceremony joyfully continued on.  The Spirit House was adorned with flowers and brightly colored garlands, the candles were lit and the business owner prayerfully placed the first sticks of incense onto the altar.  

I see many Spirit Houses and Ancestor Houses every day, as I walk around town.  So, it was really wonderful to witness an installation ceremony.  Yet again, I am moved by the way that ritual and ceremony are such an integral part of life here in Thailand.  I love the way laughter and playfulness balance the seriousness.  And, I continue to be intrigued by the way the practical and the spiritual are woven together so closely (remembering Buddha and the hammer!). 

Living here, I am constantly reminded to bring spiritual elements into my own daily life and to do this in a meaningful, yet routine and ongoing way.  

Copyright Deb Swingholm, 2008  All rights reserved.