Feng Shui, personal directions: Feeling lucky?

By Courtney Nelson | Straight Talk

My last column, "Feng Shui for life," encouraged readers to pick a space that needed energy work and to clear the clutter and grime, inviting prosperity with Feng Shui. This second part will touch on personal directions, bad "sha" energy and adjustments.

Lucky numbers in the east and the west ideally, placement of a building, rooms and furniture should be based on best directions. A personal kua number, stemming from the Feng Shui Eight Mansions and determined by year of birth, determines individuals' luckiest directions, the way sleeping heads should lie, office locations, and oven and front-door placement. When it's not possible to accommodate all household members, place the major bread winner in their ideal locations first.

Determining kua numbers is simple but different for men and women (www.trustyguides.com/feng-shui4.html). For women, add the last two digits of the year you were born (subtract one year from your birth if your birthday is between Jan. 1 and Feb. 20) and keep adding the digits of the sums until there is only one digit. (For example, a person born in 1983 would add 8 plus 3, which equals 11, then add 1 plus 1, to get 2.)

Now add 5 and continue adding until there's one digit. On the last step, men should subtract 10 instead of adding 5. Whala - your kua!

One, 3, 4 and 9 are east people and 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 are west. To complicate the matter, the numbers also have water, earth, wood and fire element associations and trigrams.

Start with bedroom basics

The head of a bed should be placed against a wall to reinforce security. Avoid placing it under a window. Ideally you can use your kua number to determine the top four directions your head should face. If those directions aren't practical, then do sleep experiments to determine where you sleep best.

There should be only one door to a bedroom so chi energy can be absorbed instead of continuing through another door. Mirrors should not be visible from the bed. A-frames should not pass over the bed because stagnant chi accumulates in them. And don't hang lights or pictures over the bed head, because they are subconsciously threatening and reduce sleep quality.

Most importantly, upon waking, do you see an inspiring painting or breathtaking view or do you see a pile of clothes that need to be darned and a cluttered dresser? Adjust to inspire.

House compatibility

What direction does your front door face? If it faces southeast, northeast, southwest or east, then it's an east house. If it faces north, south, west or northwest, it's a west house. If you and your house belong to the same group, then your basic house Feng Shui is in your favor. Some people instinctively use another entrance that's more compatible with their direction.

Inside the house there are lucky directions associated with people's lives. Recognition and fame in the south, marriage prospects and marital happiness in the southwest, children in the west, mentors in the northwest, career prospects in the north, education in the northeast, family relationships and health in the east, and finally wealth and prosperity in the southeast. Determine your room direction placements and try to arrange accordingly.

Secret or poison arrows

"Secret arrows," are unseen energy lines that create disharmony. They are strong attacking energy in the form of pointed or sharp edges, pointing at your personal energy field. A neighbor's satellite dish can be a secret arrow if it's directed at your house or your most vulnerable spot: your front door. A church steeple, electrical pylons, roof lines or any set of parallel straight lines can cause problems. Furniture and framed photos can create disruptive secret arrows.

At the intersection of Egan Drive and old Glacier Highway is a huge radio tower creating secret arrows. The arrows are directed directly at the spot I, and many others, have lost control of our cars. I ping-ponged from the guardrail to the ditch when I entered the secret arrow energy line and was shaken to the bone. I'm just sayin' ...

Many secret arrows can be softened or deflected quite easily with mirrors, plants and crystals. Take a look outside your front door. Can you see any secret arrows directed at you?

"Killing Breath" - too much of a good thing

If chi is off balance in either direction, the life force energy can turn into a destructive element called "sha," or "killing breath." This can happen in your home or in the larger city.

I looked at accident locations in Juneau over the last 10 years and found Back Loop Road, Mendenhall Road, Egan and Glacier Highway are accident hot spots likely due to long stretches of road where chi moves so swiftly it turns destructive.

Gentle meandering Old Glacier Highway along Twin Lakes for example might be a better travel choice.

Stagnation

Stagnation is created by sharp corners and angles and the United States designs things on square grid patterns which is problematic. Juneau recently put in the roundabout on Douglas Island to improve the flow and ease of traffic, which is more in line with Feng Shui's circular patterns.

Round objects are also good inside the home as opposed to sharp angled furniture. Angles can be softened by plants or other elements.

Avoid the "T"

If your house is positioned at the top of a "T" with cars driving toward your front door, consider an adjustment. This is practical because if they don't brake or turn adequately, they will end up on your property. Consider moving or protecting your house with a fence or row of trees.

Buckingham Palace, for example, is placed at a "T" intersection but has a statue and roundabout that deflected the channeled energy flow coming down the mall. That is until they "pedestrianised" it, and energy flowed directly into the palace. Some people believe the popularity of the British Monarchy went down after this, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana broke up as well as all the Queen's children's marriages.

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Feng Shui can be used as a tool to access the mysteries of the universe by studying the environment, seasonal changes, tides and vibrations of nature.

And it's a fun way to look at your environment.

• Contact Juneau resident Courtney Nelson at nelsonfamily@acsalaska.net">nelsonfamily@acsalaska.net if you would like a part three to the series covering Trigrams, elements, sexagenary year, the 12 earthly branches and more.

Disclaimer: Courtney Nelson is not a Feng Shui master, so take this column with a grain of salt and a shot of tequila.