Feng shui symbols for you

Back in the 90s, with the feng shui symbols frenzy, everyone was going to have an aquarium in the money corner and a pair of mandarin ducks in the love corner to attract prosperity and love. Well, I’m sure it works, but unless you’re Chinese you might as well want to try your own symbols to attract the same.

If mandarin ducks remind you of hunting or a baby playing in the bath –why use them to attract love? You need to find symbols that work for you. If your grand parents were happily married for 60 years and it’s this kind of rock solid relationship you dream about than put a picture of them on the wall where you see it frequently. Or you might want to improve the relationship you’re already in – use Photoshop or another program to manipulate pictures of you and the man in your life: Place the two of you in a gondola in Venice or on silk sheets on huge bed covered with flower petals, and with champagne and caviar on the night table.

Talking about flowers: Because of the thorns, roses aren’t considered a very good feng shui symbol by the Chinese, but I don’t care! I love a man who brings me roses and for me, always, roses will be a symbol of love. Whether it’s real roses, a picture of roses or my rose patterned tea mug – they make me think of love and romance. Peonies, that the Chinese like, reminds me of old grannies potting around in their garden – not steamy sex and hot romance.

The important thing is to find out what works for you, what you associate with love or whatever you want to attract. Visiting a friend who dreams of a new love affair after her divorce I pointed out the “sterility” of her bedroom. After her husband moved out she got a new bed – single size. She also put a desk in her bedroom. The room was pretty, but it didn’t exactly invite to romance. She needed to get in some feng shui symbols to attract the lover she dreams off. Simply adding some candles can be enough – and of course, to screen off the desk. More about a feng shui bedroom here.

Discussing prosperity with some friends recently I was surprised to discover that all of them associate prosperity with the color purple. To me, prosperity is green! Green like the hundred euro note and green like the money plant. That’s why I painted the door to my office green and put a money plant on the desk. But you might want to use other colors and symbols to attract prosperity. The Chinese use coins tied with a red thread nearby the cash register in an office or shop. If you’ve been to Greece you might have seen that a taverna or bar has bank notes framed or just clued to the wall nearby the cash register – for the same reason as the Chinese, to attract income to the business.

A friend of mine had all her life used a tiny little child purse, the size of a credit card and with no room for a lot of money. It suddenly struck her that it could be a good idea to get a proper wallet – one for what she calls serious money. She splashed out on an exclusive leather wallet. Every time she opens it she’s reminded of prosperity – which makes it so much easier to attract prosperity, as well.

We associate feng shui symbols with China, but even in the west we have used similar symbols for the same reasons - for health, wealth, strength, protection, love and fertility. For instance, in Europe there was a tradition to plant sage outside the house for protection and health. If you want to clear a house of bad energies you can walk through it splashing water with a sage branch or burning dried sage. Here in Greece it’s normal to call on the priest when you move into a new house or start a new business, and he’ll bless the place with a branch of basil dipped in holy water. Here common symbols to keep away evil are garlic and the blue eye. It’s still common to hang a braid of garlic by the entrance to keep away evil – almost like the Chinese use the feng shui symbol of a mirror to reflect away any negative energy pointing towards the home. I read an interview with a Greek feng shui expert who advised using the blue eye for the same reason.

But for a non-Greek it might make more sense to use other symbols – someone once recommended me to bury something of steel in all corners of the garden around the house to protect against burglary. If you associate steel with strength and protection it will work for you.

Take a look around you, at the pictures on your walls, the decorative bits and pieces you’ve collected, even the books on your shelves – what do you associate with the things you are surrounded by? Are there pleasant memories? Do you feel rich and beautiful? Do you feel the way you want to feel at home? What more do you want? Do you miss something?

In traditional feng shui the different corners of your home represent different areas of your life. Of course, if you are Chinese and have grown up learning that the entrance of your home shall be from south, and now you live in a house with an entrance from north, it will feel wrong. I believe that for the rest of us it is more important how the entrance is: You want it to be light, tidy and welcoming. I don’t believe you’re doomed to poverty if you have a toilet in the south-east corner of your home. I think it’s more about the general tone of your home. Want to be rich? Feng shui symbols for prosperity might be the crystal glasses and silver tea spoons you inherited after you grandma. Use them, don’t hide them in the cupboard. Want love – make sure your home welcomes a man. Feng shui symbols can be a free coat hanger in your hall way and a spare tooth brush in your bathroom cupboard, for instance. Dream about moving to a big house in the country? Give the place you live an open, light country home feel by using the right lightning, mirrors and green plants. Find those feng shui symbols that work for you.

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