Category: Feng Shui

Metal Rat 庚子 2020 Feng Shui Basics

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Here’s what you need to know to get ready for the Year of the Metal Rat.

Tai Sui, Sui Po and San Sha

In the Year of the Metal Rat, which opens on December 22, 2019 at 13:04 to be exact, the Tai Sui is in the north. If you’re not already familiar with the concept of the Tai Sui you can think of it as the boss of the year. In some years people born under the same Animal sign as the year are considered to be offending the Tai Sui. In my opinion this isn’t one of them.

Seeing as how a Rat is associated with the water element, it seems fitting to say that the strongest energy of the year is akin to a firehose shooting out water from north towards the south. Being in the south on the receiving end of the firehose is an unfavorable situation.

The Animal sign opposite the Rat in the north is the Horse in the south. So for 2020 we can call the Horse the Sui Po or “year breaker”. The Horse is on the receiving end of the hose. Horses: Don’t let the metaphor freak you out. There’s so much more to this than the lowest level of understanding.

To continue with the firehose metaphor, obviously that blast of water is not just going to affect the Horse – it will also splash over to the areas on either side. The area between SE3 (Snake) and SW1 (Sheep) is called the San Sha or Three killings. I’m talking about the entire area between and including Snake and Sheep. The San Sha covers the area on the compass from 142.5-217.5 degrees.

So here are the rules:

  1. Don’t face north. You can spend time in the north location of your house but don’t face that direction. If your house faces north or south it would be helpful to consult a professional to evaluate your home and mitigate any potential issues.
  2. Don’t spend time in the south location of your house. That’s the Sui Po. Avoid as much as possible.
  3. Also avoid the areas directly adjacent to the south where the Horse is. That’s the San Sha. Avoid digging, drilling or other activations in this area. Keep it quiet if possible. If this is not possible, consult a professional (like me) who can recommend the proper timing.

Flying Stars for Metal Rat Year 2020

Flying Stars is a system used to identify energy pockets within a building, city, country…The base energy is the traditional Lo Shu where 5 is in the middle. In addition to the base stars which are static, there are the annual stars which move each year. There are also monthly Flying Stars and daily Flying Stars which you may be familiar with if you read my daily forecasts.

Each Star corresponds to a trigram from the Later Heaven Bagua and so each one also has an elemental nature. Some Stars naturally pair up. Some Stars play well together and some don’t. Some are helpful and some not so much. I won’t try to explain it more here as it’s quite complicated.

The map below will tell you the locations of the Flying Stars within your home for the Metal Rat year.

Annual Flying Stars

San Sha SE3-SW1
SE S SW
6 2 4
E 5 7 9 W
1 3 8
NE N NW
  1. As a general practice, we want to avoid the Wu Huang or 5 yellow, so don’t spend time in the east location of your home. Keep it as quiet as possible. Facing east is fine just don’t be in that area.
  2. The 7 star is in the middle (the home of base star 5) making the tai chi or center of your house another no go area for hammering, drilling or other such activations that cause disruption and noise.

I’m particularly interested to hear from people with Period 7 houses this year since I suspect the 7 in the center may make these houses more timely during 2020. What the heck is a Period 7 house? It’s a house of a certain age. Maybe. Get in touch if you want to ask about yours.

When to Act

Moving things around the house and placing Feng Shui cures and enhancements is best done between December 22nd 2019 and February 4th 2020. For best results find a good date. I recommend them in my newsletters and/or I can find one that’s tailored to you.

By using the information in this post and knowing your Ming Gua, you can probably figure out how to set up your home in a way that will help you make the most of 2020. Just compare your good directions with the “rules”. And of course I’m available if you want to enhance or mitigate rather than simply avoid.

Metal Rat 庚子 2020 Your Good Directions

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Ming Gua, East and West Life Groups

The Ming Gua is a number that is calculated using gender and birthday in order to employ the Feng Shui method called 8 House, 8 Mansions or Ba Zhai. Each number corresponds to a trigram and an element in the Later Heaven Bagua. The Ming Gua is also known as the Natal Trigram, Destiny Number or Life Star number.

Do you know your Ming Gua? If not, send me your birthday and gender and I can tell you. Once you know your number you will be able to use your best directions for setting up your home.

The Guas fall into two categories in this system: East Life Group and West Life Group. You can use the chart below to figure out which group you belong to.

East Life Group Numbers West Life Group Numbers
1 2
3 6
4 7
9 8

Your Ming Gua gives the Life Group and the good directions for you. Each person has four and they support in different ways. Use them to set up your desk, bed, computer, tv and other furnishings. If you’re remodeling your kitchen you can use Ba Zhai to set up your stove as well. This requires a higher level of expertise.

Good Directions for East Group Good Directions for West Group
E W
N NW
S SW
SE NE

N.B. When you are lying in bed you are facing the direction your head is pointing.

What I haven’t addressed here is that there are also four house orientations that are appropriate for each Life Group. Do you know if your house supports your Ming Gua? Email me if you’re curious about your house.

And one more thing – you’re going to need to know if any of your four good directions are unhelpful in 2020. You may want to rule some out temporarily. I’ll be explaining that in my next post.

Notes from the San Sha

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Way back in February I wrote about my new office and the risky business of being in the north in 2018. I’ve been acting as my own guinea pig, partly out of year-related doggedness and partly to see how much it is possible to mitigate the negative energy. As you may recall, the Wu Wang (5 Yellow) and the San Sha (3 Killings) are in the north in 2018. The standard advice is to stay out of the north but if you need to use it for some reason the effects of the Flying Stars are important to track month by month.

Tiger Month (February 4th-March 4th)

You may recall I was planning to move into my office in February, but I didn’t move in until March because the date I had chosen for February wasn’t good enough. My husband thought I was crazy not to get in there right away, and it’s not like me to wait patiently. I only did it because I know the importance of lining up the timing so that it works for both the person and the house. Occupying the north is a choice that goes against the energy of the year – it’s important to acknowledge and respect that.

Before I officially moved in, I loaded the room up with metal indoors and out, locked up the Wu Wang, and put a t’ang lung on the windowsill. Even then I avoided spending too much time in there. It’s not that I don’t think these remedies work. It’s that there’s only so much mitigation you can expect.

Since being courageous is one thing and foolish another, I decided not to spend any significant time in my office until April. The Flying Stars in my office would be the best then.

Rabbit Month (March 5th-April 5th)

In planning for March, I knew there would be a a magnification of the Annual 5 Yellow that I took to mean I might get burned. Take that as a metaphor or not.

My other concern about the feng shui of my office was that I would be shortsighted – maybe not seeing what was right in front of me. Doesn’t it sound funny to say that I was keeping an eye out for my own potential blind spot? How do you even do that? And how do you know whether you are affected by the negative energy?

When I have advised clients not to spend time in a certain location and they do it anyway but “don’t notice” any effects, I think it’s because they don’t make the connection with the events that occur. They expect something big and spectacular to happen to them while they are in that particular area and when it doesn’t, they tend to think I was wrong. My experience is that what happens may be big or small, but it will fit the metaphor whether or not you are open to that idea. Watch for patterns – maybe something like this:

One evening before bed I mistook a tube of body wash for a tube of lotion because they both happened to be on my dresser, they are the same size, and they smell/feel the same. I wasn’t wearing my glasses so I couldn’t (and didn’t) read the label. Since I put it on at night it was on my skin until the next morning and I ended up with a nasty case of contact dermatitis. My skin was painful, red, itchy and peeling for days. It took me a couple of days to realize what I had done, during which I was feeling sort of superstitious.

Finally, when I understood that through my own bad choice I had given myself contact dermatitis, I thought “Okay, message received; this happened because I didn’t see what was going on and yes I did get burned”. But I wasn’t ready to stop working in my office. As I said, if there was any time that would be good in that room it would be in April. Me being obstinate.

Dragon Month (April 5th-May 5th)

In the Dragon Month I started spending at least 4 hours a day in my office during the week, sometimes more. You would think that much time in the office would result in lots of productivity, but to sum it up it was just too “earthy”. I really didn’t get much done. I felt slow and stupid. There are calculations that I can do in my head that I was getting wrong. My computer kept having strange issues that required time consuming solutions. Everything I was trying to do seemed to take longer or defy even the most careful planning.

I felt both disappointed and stubborn. Disappointed because I had fixed up this space for myself that I will mostly be using for storage until next year. Stubborn about moving my books/papers/computer to another part of the house to work because I would have to clean up after whoever was there last before I could get started. In terms of feng shui all of these experiences are related to the presence of too much Earth. The solution for that would (wood!) be flexibility.

In spite of what I already knew, I tried to tweak things to make it better. I oriented my desk to a specific degree of SW and felt like I was dreaming all the time. Then I changed it to a specific degree of NE which at first brought some sharp insights, but as the month progressed I found myself feeling quite lazy – constantly thinking about napping even though I wasn’t really tired. If you study feng shui you might read this as having to do with the hidden stems of the Dragon month in the Dog year. Anyhow, I kept coming back. Being stuck in the same pattern like this might be construed as dog-like behavior. Once you’re in it it’s hard to shake it off because you’re in it. Some might experience it as depression.

Snake Month (May 5th-June 6th)

Now it’s May which is the Snake month (May 5-June 6) and I’ve been moving my stuff to the SW each day to work. The Flying Stars are good here now, especially with a little encouragement from the basin of water I change each day and the bright light that I leave turned on day and night. I’ve been tackling some boring but necessary tasks with ease – tasks that I have been putting off for a long time. I am smarter here right now than I am in my office. I’m facing my special NE direction which I find really helpful for writing, working and just getting things done. But the Snake month is almost over.

Horse Month (June 6th-July 6th)

In June I’ll move to a new spot for working. I’ll go where the good stars are. I’ve learned my lesson for now. Famous last words…

As in many other aspects of life, those who have the most choices are the ones who can be flexible. Would you rather have no choice or a choice? One choice or many? Because that’s sort of the whole point of feng shui.

If you want to chase the good energy (and choices) around your house but don’t have time to figure it out, you might be interested in a monthly subscription to my newsletter where I also share auspicious days and other helpful feng shui info. Let me know if you’d like a free sample. I promise not to make you a guinea pig.

But We REALLY Want a Fountain!

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

I was sitting here in my new office listening to the rain this morning, while working on calendars for date selection. The sound of the water and the idea of “a good date” got me to thinking about a couple that I worked with around ten years ago. They found me via my website. At that time my business name was Double Fire Feng Shui. I had only been consulting for about 5 years and was making the transition from Black Sect to Traditional Chinese Feng Shui.

Andrew and Kay* were an up and coming young couple, working in tech companies and living in the suburbs. They were a little competitive with each other about their careers and Andrew seemed to feel Kay was winning.

Before they hired me, I had multiple telephone calls and emails, mostly with Andrew. Each time he wanted to know more about my methods, by which he meant an explanation of what I would be doing at their house. Since I hadn’t been there yet, I could only explain it in the most general terms. He wanted to see my curriculum vitae. I am always happy to provide that.

Andrew’s approach was very consumer driven, like “What do I get for the money?” and “How do I know your stuff works?” At that time there were so many people who had hung out a shingle after a weekend course in Feng Shui that I don’t blame him for being suspicious. Kay was more concerned about whether or not I would take a look at the whole situation rather than just beds, stove and the front door. She was looking at it as a holistic remedy. I felt honored that they were so meticulous and yet they still wanted to hire me. Finally it came down to me and another consultant they had in mind.

During the final phone call from Andrew, he asked me whether or not I meditated. This was not a question about my Feng Shui skills but rather about my spiritual practice. The question came up because meditation was a selling point for the other consultant they were considering. Her value add was that she would meditate, specifically about your house, before she arrived to do the survey. To me, that sounds like divination or prayer – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not Feng Shui. I told Andrew that while I do think it’s important to have a spiritual practice to go with almost any skill set, it was probably best to just go with the person who he considered to be the most competent, and left it at that. I got the job.

At that time Andrew and Kay had not revealed that the main reason they wanted Feng Shui was to assist in having a baby. They were ambitious in their careers but also anxious to start their family. They felt it was taking too long to conceive and had already investigated the medical side of things. They discovered there were no physical obstacles to conception for them.

The first thing that came up when I arrived at the house was that Kay and Andrew not only wanted to have a baby, they also really wanted to have a fountain. It was actually Andrew that wanted a fountain to accelerate his career. He felt it was stalled out and things were going too slow. I think he wanted to catch up with Kay career-wise but probably was also thinking about being the single breadwinner in the near future. Purely based on divination, I pointed out that they lived in a cul-de-sac and that if you looked at it from above, their house resembled a snail on a turtle’s back. To me that means progress will be SLOW.

Based on Feng Shui principles their double doors on the front needed some adjustment, as well as the lot which was shaped like a badly cut piece of pie. The house was shaped like a key; very irregular with lots of glass on the back side. There were other issues that I won’t go into here. Still, Andrew was not as interested in implementing my suggestions as he was in placing a fountain.

I really wanted to help them, and to place the fountain as Andrew wished, but at that point in my studies I only knew enough about water placement to realize it is probably the most powerful implementation of Feng Shui. If you do it wrong your result will be something like Aunt Clara’s spells on Bewitched: a muddled and unhappy surprise. In short, I didn’t know how to place water and if I had known they wanted that, I would have admitted it before they hired me.

During and even after the survey I had to refuse over and over to place the fountain or give the idea any sort of approval because I was concerned that placed incorrectly it could thwart or delay Kay and Andrew’s dream of making a family. Andrew called me two or three times asking what kind of fountain to get, did I think it would be okay by the front door, etc. In retrospect refusing to place the fountain is probably one of the kindest things I could have done even though he was disappointed. My understanding of my own ignorance was a benefit to them. I happen to know the person who was my competitor for the job didn’t know how to place water at that time either, but I’m not sure she understood that.

Kay and Andrew did make some of the changes I recommended and Andrew got a new job, Kay got pregnant and they had a healthy baby girl. I know I was helpful to them, but some of the success probably has to do with timing. Timing was another aspect of Feng Shui that I didn’t yet understand then except in the most general terms. Even so, three years later they did ask me to come back a second time when they were trying to conceive, and they were successful again. I must have done something right.

I found out on my second visit to their house that after Kay got pregnant the first time, Andrew went and bought a fountain and placed it by the front door because he had read in a book that it would help his career. He pointed proudly to the fountain and asked for my opinion while I tried not to shudder. My answer: “It’s very pretty”.

The end of my story? Feng Shui is a lifetime study and I’m sixteen years in. I will still refuse to do things that aren’t knowledge based, both for your safety and mine, but if Andrew called me back today I could tell him when and where to place the fountain. I could also tell him that while putting thing A in position B at time C might get him a promotion, it might also create “side effects” he doesn’t want. I think it’s important to consider the choice.

*not their real names

Color Me Courageous

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Color choices provide a lot of information about what is going on with the people in a house. In addition, color is effective in engaging with the dynamic energy of Flying Stars, along with other adjustments. Color is a practical solution in this sense because the Flying Stars energy changes annually and it’s fairly easy to change the color scheme of a given room either with paint or decoration. With the change of the year, color has been on my mind.

I love playing with color and I enjoy working with it in my own home. Any time I see what I would call a “good” paint color I get a sample for my collection. I am careful to choose colors that work both for my decor and for my Feng Shui purposes. That means the color is appropriate for the ch’i of the location and the look/style of the house.

Because I’ve been giving the north room of my house a makeover, I’ve been making multiple trips to the paint store gathering samples to try. I’ve been going to a particular paint store in south Seattle for 11+ years and one of the clerks, who is actually really good at color, is legally blind due to a cataract on one eye. You kind of know this already when you see how thick his glasses are.

Last Sunday when I went in, there was a woman at the counter with the legally blind clerk, and the counter was covered with photos. She had also brought a piece of wood trim. She was describing the color of her soapstone countertops. She and the clerk were in a what looked to be a lengthy discussion about what shade of “off white that doesn’t have yellow in it” she should choose for her open concept kitchen/great room. She didn’t realize he couldn’t actually see the photos because not only does he listen well, he seems to pick up an understanding of what is needed by some other means. I’m not sure how, but he can picture a color, think of its name and get you a swatch.

As she kept pressing him to choose for her, he was becoming more and more uncomfortable, walking away and coming back, cracking jokes and puns, then apologizing. She could tell he was holding back. He had opinions but kept saying “there are no wrong choices” and “I don’t want to push you into anything”. I think he knew from experience that if you agree to choose for people and they don’t like the results, they will blame you for it. If you choose for them and it’s right, they will take responsibility. Anyhow, I think they finally settled on a color called Cotton Balls. Make of that what you will!

It’s funny how some people feel like color is risky. Is the risk that you paint a whole space and then you don’t like it? Or is the risk that it’s too revealing of your self? Is the risk maybe being called out for having bad taste? Maybe it’s just a reluctance to commit in general. Maybe not. Choosing to paint everything in a neutral sends a message too. In the interplay of yin and yang that happens when we make choices there’s usually an emphasis on one or the other. Whatever the case, if you get the right (or wrong) color for the ch’i of the room you’ll feel it. Put a sample on the wall before you buy a whole gallon. I find it takes 3-5 samples to get the right color. Trust that it will happen.

As a Feng Shui consultant, I am often asked to choose paint colors. I mean, specific paint colors. So if I tell someone to use blue they want to know: do I mean turquoise? Teal? Baby blue? I have learned that it’s best to leave it to them. My advice on color is strictly based on Wu Xing (Five Agents) so if I tell you to use white, Bavarian Cream is not going to work. That’s really all you need to know.

But back to my story of redecorating the north room. It had already come a long way from the all-red decor it had when we moved in. And by all-red I mean the textured wallpaper, the trim, and even the tiny attached bathroom were all a screaming scarlet. Oh and did I mention the pink carpet? When we first saw it we called it the murder room. Here was a visual illustration of a clash. Girls against boys. A rejection of communication and emotional articulacy. An artificial and forced overvaluing of joy. A water place invaded by fire. The color choices in most areas of the house continued the theme of suppressing sons and husband by draining the Metal ch’i and making the Wood ch’i sick. These might have been the choices of a woman who felt dominated by men.

By the way, the paint color I chose for the north room, which is going to be my new office, is blue: Benjamin Moore New York State of Mind. I went dark. That doesn’t mean you have to.

For the last nine years I’ve been writing in the kitchen. I made the most of my stolen moments. Now it’s time for a space that can support a more intentional style of writing. I’ve selected a date and will move into my new office later this month. This is my gift to myself in 2018.

As some of you know, I’m taking a risk using the north room because there is some nasty ch’i there this year that should be avoided. I’ve learned a couple of tricks in the past year that I’m going to use to work around the Wu Wang and the San Sha, which you can employ in your home too if you like. Or, just get in touch if you want to know how I’m faring in my new space.

Hunter’s Moon

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart
Hunter’s Moon usually occurs in October

Gardeners learn to observe the cues of nature to properly time their efforts. Simply by paying attention every day to what is going on in the garden you will learn how to identify changes in season by noting the smell of the soil, temperature, precipitation and plant growth rather than relying solely on the calendar. Have you ever noticed that near the middle to end of August the plants seem to already be contracting and going dormant for the season? They may still be showing new growth on the tips but you can see that the shrubs are not as lush and dense even though they have not yet begun to drop their leaves.

For as long as humans have cultivated the land they have used the travels of the sun and the moon for timing and navigation. By using the position of the sun or moon you can determine time and direction without a watch or compass. Observation and practice is all it takes to develop this skill. The sun and moon are constantly changing their positions and path in the sky and at the same time repeat the same cycles over and over again. Just follow the patterns.

In early civilizations, observing the moon was a way to mark time and its cycles would drive agricultural (and other) practices. I am fascinated by the way that the moon affects every living thing on our planet and the fact that this has long been understood by humans. In Native American Cultures each full moon has a name and the names give an indication of what is happening in the natural cycles of the seasons. When the first settlers came to North America they learned from the native people to use the moon for timing and to call each moon by its unique name.

October was considered an important time to hunt in preparation for winter almost everywhere in North America. These are just a few of the names the October full moon goes by:

Hunter’s Moon
Dying Grass Moon
Travel Moon
Blood Moon
Young Animals Moon

These rhythms are common to many cultures. Consider that the Dog month in the Chinese calendar covers most of October. The Dog month was a time of slaughtering the animals that weren’t hardy enough to make it to the next spring. Rather than using up food to keep them going, those animals were used to keep everyone else going.

Gardening is one way that we can keep in touch with nature and its cycles and take comfort in the unchanging repetition of change. Like the Native American people, we need to embrace the patterns of nature because this is a skill we will always need to survive.

I think an awareness of place and constant change enriches our lives in many ways, whether it’s noticing that first fragrance of daphne in winter or seeing the leaves on the trees just beginning to turn in the fall.

The predictability of the seasons gives me something to fall back on when life seems too confusing and unpredictable. No fall will be exactly like another, but I can base my expectations on the pattern.

Understanding where we are in the cycle provides me with a confidence in my own accumulated knowledge and makes me more likely to trust my own judgments rather than the third party advice of people who are not as close to the situation. The ability to do that is just one of the things I get from gardening.

Feng Shui & History in Southeast Arizona

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

The southeast corner of Arizona is a special place. In case you’re not familiar with it, cities such as Benson, Tombstone, Wilcox, Bisbee, Douglas, Huachuca City (est. in 1877 as Camp Huachuca) and Sierra Vista are in that region. This is the part of Arizona where I grew up. Some of the land is just like what you see in those old western movies about Cowboys and Indians: seemingly dry, flat and grassy with mesquite, palo verde, creosote bush, cactus and the occasional hill or arroyo. The parts of southeast Arizona you never saw in those movies are called the Sky Islands.

The term Sky Island refers to an isolated mountain range which is surrounded by lowlands with a markedly different ecosystem. This means that a temperate forest environment on the mountain can be in close proximity to a tropical or desert-like environment in the lowland. Both the Chiricahuas (peak elevation 9760 ft.) and the Dragoons (peak elevation 7520 ft.) are Madrean Sky Islands and were a sort of “cradle of civilization” in the southwestern U.S. There is archaeological evidence of Apaches living in the Chiricahuas as early as the 14th century.

The photo you see above is a picture of a geological formation called Cochise Head in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. It is said to resemble Cochise’ face gazing up at the sky.

Cochise

Chief Cochise (K’uu-ch’ish) was the leader of the Chiricahua Apaches from around 1850 until his death in 1874. The estimates of his birth year span from 1804-1825. I think he was probably born in 1806 in southern Arizona – in the region that was later known as the Gadsden Purchase. A Fire Tiger year would fit him because of his fame and his skill as a strategist. Cochise had a reputation as a great leader and although he was captured (and escaped), he was never defeated in battle.

Did you know the name Cochise means “having the qualities of oak”? I think his name has to do with the evergreen kind of oak and Cochise’ gift of survival. Oak is a very hard wood. Perhaps his biggest strength was his knowledge of the land where he grew up.

The Gadsden Purchase

Image courtesy of discoverseaz.com

In 1853 James Gadsden, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, was sent by President Franklin Pierce to make a treaty with General Antonio Santa Anna, President of Mexico, in order to extend the southern border of the U.S. The goal was to secure land for a southern railroad route to the west coast. Without a railroad, travel through the area was slow and hazardous due to the desert environment and Apache raids.

The original intention of Gadsden was to buy land as far south as Guaymas, Mexico but the Congress did not support that idea and Mexico wasn’t falling for that.

The marker on the map is Guaymas, Mexico.

I see this as a huge failure for Gadsden. Can you imagine the difference it would have made to the character and development of Arizona to have a coastline and access to the state via water? For one thing, the capital of Arizona would probably have been a port city rather than landlocked Phoenix which was purposely chosen for its central location.

The treaty was signed on December 30, 1853: a Metal Rat day in a Water Rat month in a Water Ox year. This elemental lineup of water, metal and earth does not bode well for a Fire Tiger like Cochise. The conflicts, kidnappings and killings that had already been underway would only get more intense for him and his people.

The U.S. paid $10 million dollars for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico which would later become part of the states of Arizona and New Mexico. The treaty was ratified by the Senate on June 24, 1854.

Texas Canyon

The land gained by the U.S. in the Gadsden Purchase includes part of the Sonoran Desert, the Coronado National Forest, the Chiricahua Mountains, the Dragoon Mountains, and Texas Canyon just to name a few features. The Sky Island mountains are not as formidable as the Rockies or the Cascades but they are high enough to host conifers, broadleaf evergreens, and deciduous trees. Where there are trees there is water. It was a good deal for the U.S.

Slavin Gulch in the Dragoon Mountains – Photo ©John Forrey

In Apache it’s called Favorite Place

There’s a part of the Dragoon Mountains known as Cochise Stronghold. The term “stronghold” is a military term applied by non-Apaches. To the Apaches it was known as “favorite place”.

The Favorite Place is where there are caves for shelter, shade, fresh water and food to forage and hunt. It’s not too cold or too hot for survival. The heat from the sun brings out the scent of the trees, rocks and water together. It smells like heaven. It was a safe place for hiding and an easy place to defend. The fact that Cochise selected this land for himself and his people would indicate he was using some version of what we currently call Feng Shui and his knowledge was probably passed down to him.

In the land grabbing that followed the Gadsden Purchase, the Apaches, whose tribe had been living in the area probably since the 14th century, were compelled to defend the land and their people against all comers including the U.S. military. Though they may have been at a disadvantage in terms of numbers or weapons, they had Chief Cochise and the land on their side. Nevertheless, in 1872 the Chiricahua Apaches were finally overcome and confined to reservation lands in southeast Arizona. Cochise himself went to the Dragoons to live in his Favorite Place with his people. He was one of the few chiefs who negotiated successfully to get the land and the terms he wanted for his tribe.

In 1874 Cochise died of natural causes, probably stomach cancer, on the reservation. His body is said to have been buried in a hidden place in the Dragoons by his people. The location of his grave has not been found to this day.

Metal Element in the Garden: Fall and Fruit

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

I don’t really need a calendar to know fall is here because:

The huckleberries and crabapples are ready to be picked.
I can see in the branches and leaves of the deciduous trees that the qi is contracting.
My evergreens have just finished their leaf/needle drop.
In the morning I can smell the ocean.
The nights are cooler.

More precisely, I know we’re about six weeks away from winter because early this morning, for the first time this year, I heard the geese honking as they headed south. I’ve been here in the PNW awhile.

In the Rooster month I’m out in the garden wrapping things up and getting ready for next year. I’ll be using all sorts of metal tools for cutting, digging, dividing and transplanting. I’ll be replacing any broken bits of my drip irrigation, checking and cleaning my rain barrels, pruning, pulling out the weeds, mulching, and harvesting the huckleberries and crabapples.

Do you know what time it is?

Fall is the season of Metal, the time when historically, we would be preparing for winter by hunting, gathering, harvesting crops, canning, preserving, and slaughtering livestock to be stored away for our human version of hibernation. For those of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners fall is the time for more modern rituals of going back to school, having the boiler serviced, or getting out the soup pot and sweaters.

Crabapples

Fruits, nuts and berries are the distillation of the energy of the tree or bush and therefore related to both the season and the element of Metal.

Spiny Chestnuts

It takes three seasons of the year to make the fruits that we harvest in the fall such as apples and chestnuts. Three seasons of the year – that adds up to around 39 weeks which is the same amount of time it takes to make a baby.

Huckleberries

It’s always the same cycle once spring comes: seed to sprout, sprout to bud, bud to flower, flower to fruit. We tend to take this cycle for granted because we don’t think about the sheer amount of energy it takes for a plant or tree to produce fruit. There’s a reason that apple trees go dormant and new mothers may be exhausted. It’s the Metal.

Summer’s Almost Gone

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

Tomorrow is the first day of the Earth Monkey 戊申 month which covers the rest of August and a bit of September. When the Monkey comes the change of seasons is accelerated. Summer’s almost gone. Let’s be glad we had it.

Things are looking spent in the garden. Most of the evergreens have just done their annual leaf/needle drop so the ground is crackly and yellow just like the grass that none of us water. We have had no measurable rain here in Seattle for the last 49 days. The ground is very dry. It’s also been unusually hot with runs of days where temperatures are in the 90s. It’s easy to see our air quality is very poor when Bellevue is almost obscured from the west side of Lake Washington. You can smell the smoke in the air from the fires in British Columbia. It’s not what we are used to here in the temperate rain forest. Big changes are happening everywhere.

The part of the change to love is the crazy amount of growth that has happened this summer, the bounty of blooms and reblooms, as well as the extended season for scented bloomers. Here are the perennials and bulbs that are still performing in the garden. Enjoy!

Weigela

Rose of Sharon

Summersweet “Hummingbird”

Scarlet Monkey Flower (Mimulus cardinalis)

Evergreen jasmine

Bee balm “Jacob Cline”

Gladiola

Feng Shui : What’s Your Story?

Posted on by Stephanie Stewart

By the time I was 15 years old, my family had moved house 13 times. We had lived in three different states, at least six cities, and many houses. We lived in Arizona mostly, but also in Texas and California. I became fascinated by houses and their atmospheres and started out defining them by which ones were safe or where the safe places were in each house. This was based purely on how it made me feel. I became fascinated by houses and to this day I still have many dreams that occur inside of houses.

During 5th grade when walking home from school I would look at the houses along the way, making up stories about each one. The story would tell who lived inside and what living there would be like. I would add details about their day to day lives. In some houses there would be French toast for breakfast. In others there might not be any breakfast at all. Not every story was a happy one.

There was one house that was my favorite and the story I told myself regarded what my life would be like if I lived there. The house stood out because there was a garden gate leading to the back yard that you could see from the street. It was the closest thing to a moon gate there was in Douglas, Arizona at the time. Really it was just a wooden gate with a rounded arch above it* but to me it seemed mysterious and inviting. On some days if I thought no one was home I was brave enough to go up to the gate and peek over for a glimpse into the garden. I was looking for magic (divine intervention?) as my parents had just separated. My thought was if I could live in that house my life story would be very different. Little did I know I was onto something.

After 5th grade my parents reunited and we moved to another house – this time outside of Douglas about 1/4 mile from the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The house was run down and you could tell nobody had cared about it in a long time. It had several low, tin roofed outbuildings that were spooky; a hot darkness filled with old junk, rattlesnakes and despair. Everywhere you went on the property there were snakes, scorpions and horrible smelling trees. It was easy to imagine nasty things had happened there in the past. Some days migrating Mexicans the adults I knew called “wetbacks” would come traveling through the desert asking for water. I was never afraid of them – I was afraid for them. That same year some ranchers who owned many acres near our property captured and tortured some Mexican men not far from our house. Fear was in the air.

There were no safe places in that house. I don’t remember much about the interior except for the bedroom I shared with my sister. Close to the center of the room there was a big opening in the floor covered by a board. The board fit into the opening so it was flush with the floor. If you put a rug over it you might not know it was there. There was some storage space beneath – not a full basement. It was like a grave that could open at any time. Nights were the worst because I was always afraid some person who had been hiding in there would come up out of the opening while I was asleep. For me this idea was somehow related to the people coming across our land and asking for water. I had the impression people had actually hidden in the hole at some time.

My mother became very ill and nearly died when we were living in that house. When she was in the hospital my brother and sister and I were sent to stay with friends and neighbors. I forgot to go back to our house to feed my parakeet and it died. My experiences, emotions and my family matched up with the feelings and impressions I had of the house and property.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because you might have thought you don’t know or understand anything about Feng Shui. I’m saying you do in the sense that you know your own story.

You have already noticed feelings, emotions and patterns associated with your environment but perhaps you didn’t take the time to analyze them. If you are honest with yourself you will admit there are places in your house right now that don’t look, feel, taste, smell or sound right to you. This is telling you something about the ch’i in those spaces.

Maybe there are parts of your house where you just don’t want to go. Maybe there are parts of your house where it feels great to you. Think of the words you would use to describe either of those two situations regarding your own house. Writing them down would be a good idea.

Now take those words and see how they apply to your health, relationships, money, career, family, children… Take note of how the words describing your issues link up with the feelings about certain areas of your house.

If that doesn’t work for you try this: What areas of your house or yard are neglected? For example, if it’s the SW there may be something you are avoiding in your relationship with your mother. Or maybe you are a mother who is not taking care of herself. If your front door (related to the mouth) is difficult to open and close, what does it mean to you? Are you not saying things that need to be said? Lonely? Purposely keeping people away? Experiencing illness related to the mouth?

Practicing this kind of thinking will reveal things you are capable of changing if you want to. As a Feng Shui consultant I can help you. What is your story? If you don’t like it you can change it by making different choices. Why would you wait?

*While writing this realized I tried to re-create this gate for a fenced garden in 2000.