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Inaugural Column
"Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with
truth."
--Thich Nhat Hahn
As a wide-eyed college freshman in the 60s , the MSU computer assigned me an
Asian room mate who opened up my eyes and heart to Feng Shui. Initially, I
thought the concept silly and that he was one egg roll short of a Poo Poo
Platter. Now "we're" not the only ones getting strange stares.
This column is devoted to my first teacher Naohiro Yamada, premiere scribe Sarah
Rossbach, Professor Yin Lun, Edgar Sung,
the great people at GEO, Feng Shui
Warehouse, Great Britain's great Gina Lazenby, Bob Longacre,
the Feng Shui Guild, Nine
Harmonies School of Feng Shui, Stephen Skinner, the International Institute of
Bau-biologie, Roger Green, Eva Wong, Bill & Joanie Spear, Nancilee Wydra, Rich Welt,
Jami Lin, Larry Sang, Kartar Diamond, Linsey Franklin, Pam Tollefson, Carol
Bridges, Nigel Pennick, Pamela Lawrence, Raymond Lo, Nancy Santo-Pietro, Janus
Welton, Jon Sandifer, Lillian Too, Denise Linn,Cate Bramble, Jillian Brorby,
wonderful Wendover, The Feng Shui Emporium,
The Feng Shui Directory and everyone
touched by the majesty of Feng Shui. (I humbly apologize to any friend or
teacher I may have overlooked in my enthusiasm.)
This column derives its name from an expression I heard during my first of four
excursions to Asia with my roomie.
Every year during summer break, we trekked and schlepped
up mountains and through rice paddies-
"chasing the dragon- following the land's veins of energy,"
as author Eva Wong says.
The focus of Chasing Dragons is to share assorted news and info about Feng
Shui tools from schools, books, tapes, & products, with occasional nuggets from
previous Making Waves installments (with due thanks to publishers John
Lanterman, James Moser, Cindy Saul and Stephen Skinner). My intention is to
provoke and entertain, not critique. If you have any thing you'd like to
suggest or sell, please e-mail me at WFD6@aol.com
or send snail mail to
1025 East Maple, Suite 105;
Birmingham MI 48009-6435.
- April may be Eliot's cruelest, but month number four evokes a quartet of
compass directions. And the number eight, while worth thousands on a
license-plate in Hong Kong, also tallies the stations on the bagua. So 4/8/99
inaugurates the first official, or semiofficial, Feng Shui Awareness Day in
North America and hopefully beyond.
- We all owe thanks to New England author-astrologer Celeste Longacre who
persuaded the National Speaker's Association to make room to celebrate the Wind
and Water wonderment in-between dead saints, assassinated presidents and other
relics of Julian Gregorian and even more ancient calendars. Send 2
self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelopes and $5 (for printing expenses) to
Sweet Fern; RR1; Box 566; Walpole NH 03608 and get in on one of The Year of the
Rabbit's most exciting Feng Shui events.
- Mail-Order Magic: Unique Feng Shui-sensational desk and floor lamps from Bali and
other sacred spots now available from Antropologie at 1-800-309-2500.
- Toscano's free catalogue for objects and landscape sculptures can be had at
1-800-521-1733.
- For a color booklet featuring the finest selection of lighting, furnishings
and shoji screens, call Cherry Tree Design at 1-800-634-3268 now!
- Learn do-it-yourself installation techniques for dozens of distinctive Feng Shui
decorating delights featuring paper lanterns, opaque doors, glass, entrances
and screens in A Japanese Touch For Your Home (pbk; ISBN 4-7700-1662-X). In the
same planetary vein is Freeman, Evans & Lipton's In The Oriental Style: A
Sourcebook of Decoration & Design (pbk; ISBN 0-8212-2367-4). Uncover the
excitement of creating an alcove, ikebana flower arrangements, Tibetan devotion
and meditation centers for your dwelling and how Asians use color schemes. Both
books include easy installation info. Take off your double-breasted suit, roll
up your sleeves and get down and dirty.
- In nature, as in Feng Shui, Wood energy is responsible for the growth and
renewal of all living things. When you understand a tree, you see it as a
system of organic administration: its roots secure the tree to the earth,
drawing water and nourishment from the soil; the supportive trunk; its spreading
branches and leaves draw energy from the sun for the entire structure. Wood
energy supports, shelters, develops, expands and makes resources readily
available to others. Trees
'see' the inter-relatedness, the interdependence of all life systems.
- Wood energy can express itself in the character of the strongest oak, or the
flexible, pliant bamboo. 'Good' Wood energy in Feng Shui can form the walking cane
that enables you to climb the steepest paths. 'Un-good' expressed Wood energy
can be as dangerous as a primitive pointed spear.
- Dr. Carol S. King's Designing With Wood- The Great Touch
(pbk; ISBN 0-86636-427-7) speaks of the splendor of stained, painted and ebonized ash, oak,
mahogany and the vast forest of this creative element. Although not a Feng Shui book,
its sumptuous color photos and easy how-to instruction, her info and inspiration
is sensationally in synch with wind and water. Her opening
chapter In Harmony In Nature says it all.
- The Chinese belief in the Five Forces extends naturally to the system of
astrology. The ways these elements affect individual horoscopes can be very
subtle or obvious, simple or complex. In Asian astrology, each element
manifests itself first in its positive or active aspect, then in its negative or
receptive side. For those in the know or who want to know better, Judith Cahill
offers us the 1998 Chinese Calendar($11.50 ppd) listing the daily Heavenly Stems
and elements. Order from PO Box 1467, Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557.
- Do you know your 9-star temperament? For a free character assessment and
your lunar
Predictions, log on to Blooming Garden's http://www.9starki.com/genereal.htm for
a treat. I recommend that you subscribe to their inexpensive and enlightening
lengthier reports geared
specifically to y-o-u. My 5-Yellow Soil profile fits me nicely.
- I am wild about Recipes For Surfaces: Decorative Paint Finishes Made Easy
(ISBN 0-671-68249-0; $20) by Mindy Drucker and Pierre Finkelstein (unforgettable
name, n'est pas?). Ver-ry easy to learn lessons on paint stippling, cloth
distressing, rag-rolling, wood-graining plus instructions how to prepare
surfaces for Feng Shui-renovating,
- Check out the book Blue and White Japan by Amy Katosh (ISBN 0-8048-2052-X;
Tuttle; $25) and indulge in the beautiful roots of Asian Feng Shui azure waves and
cobalt sky-culture. Great ideas when garage-sailing/sale-ing.
A visually-pleasing and fun book to peruse by Dawn Jacobson Chinoiserie
(ISBN 0-7148-2883-1,Phaidon Books). Extravagant tales of Marco Polo and 17th century Feng Shui design.
Pricey, but provoking.
- Agni Ma Wong's Wind & Water Wheel (0-9635906-7-7; $19.95) is a bit expensive
for a 3-fold card board stand-up. (Forgive my dyslexia, but it seems some math
calculations are marginally off-kilter.) But give it a try and experiment!
It's a spin-and-grin user-friendly-kinda-thing. She's a sincere, learned
researcher- and the only Feng Shui author to appear on Oprah.
- I'm uncomfortable doing out-of-town doings. I dislike sleeping on someone
else's pillow and bed. (Aren't you?) Well, Valerie Dow, a Kansas Feng Shui
practitioner and dowser, has put together a fun product for folks when away from
their area code. It's called "Feng Shui On The Go" and contains a variety of
take-along remedies: a lovely crystal on a red cord, sandal wood incense,
mini-mirrors, a B Hat bagua card and other first-aid Feng Shui items you might need when
you're alone in a hotel room with a Gidion Bible and a parking lot view. It's
packaged in a terrific oriental draw-string bag from 1-316-788-3876.
- My other major complaint is being away from my kitchen when travelling. Jon
Sandifer's Ten Day Re-Balancing Programme (ISBN 0-7126-7136-6; Rider Pubs) is
the couscous cat's meow about increasing ch'i wherever your feet walk and
rest- "inner Feng Shui". He's a masterfully marvelous macrobiotic pal who also perfectly
predicts with birthdays (and is a columnist for UK's Chic magazine, which can be
ordered through Borders' chains) and frequently tours the US. Exciting and
edifying page-turning. Discover how to turn your life around simply,
healthfully and inexpensively! Start at home.
- Like Fodor's Travel Guide series, David Kennedy's new book is chock-full of
Feng Shui short cuts replete with soul-
a handy "try this, try that"-word
tour for beginners and experts of wind of
water wonders. Kennedy's Feng Shui Tips For A Better Life (Storey Books; ISBN
1-58017-038-2) gives easy-to-use 1999 suggestions how to re-groove your living
and work space for YOU and your dreams. Available in August.
- In similar Black Sect Buddhist Feng Shui family-style, hob-nob with C.J. Hyder's
Wind and Water: Your Personal Feng Shui Journey (ISBN 0-9664434-0-3; Hyder
Enterprises). Simple and well-done filled with one-page "consider this-and
think about-that's." If you don't find it on your local bookstore shelves,
phone 1-612-823-5093. Comptemporarily clear and comfortably fits in a briefcase.
- Other hot-off-the-press titles which we'll talk more about in the near future
are: 101 Feng Shui Tips For The Home by Richard Webster (ISBN 1567188095/e;
Llewelyn); Do It Yourself Feng Shui: Take Charge of Your Destiny) by Wu Yin, Wu
Ying (ISBN 1901881350/e; Element Books); and Feng Shui At Home by Carol Soucek
King (ISBN 0866366393; PBC International).
- West Coast Feng Shui-consultant and one-time army brat, Shelley Deegan, matriculated
in misery at 17 different schools between kindergarten and college. "I never
once felt nurtured in a school," Deegan sheepishly admits. So when the
principal of San Diego's Wilson Middle School asked for help, she jumped at the
opportunity. "I knew this was a chance to make a difference." Looming above the
main entrance was a 4-foot mural featuring "very intense multinational faces of
children looking very angry," Shelley remarked. "The school exterior was a
muddled melange of white, salmon, purple, blue and green." Deegan immediately
removed the threatening artwork, highlighting the exterior with mellow blue and
green accents to help "ground" the students. All
class room chairs were re-aligned to stimulate student awareness, and the
pasty-white walls of the computer class rooms were obliterated with similar blue-green
hues. Broken vinyl furniture in the teacher's lunch room was replaced with
comfortable rockers and padded fabric chairs around oval wooden tables. Vibrant
sunny amber tones replaced the fading, chipped sickly asparagus walls
in the office of the school nurse. "It's become a calmer campus," one PTA mother
proclaims proudly. "The kids used to be 'monsters.' Now there is a serenity
not there before." Deegan can
be reached at 1-619-543-0334, or
info@fengshuiinteriors.com.
An ounce of
prevention may beget less need for pounding out the punishment.
- Also add to your want list an inexpensive paperback from Home Decorating
Institute's Creative Touches series titled Sponging (pbk; ISBN 0-86573-996-X).
I tried several of these techniques and can't wait until my paintbrush dries so
I can attempt another! Glazes, combing, rag-rolling,
texturing: with engaging and excellent and easy Feng Shui instructional inspirations.
Make friends
with your local paint store neighbors- now!
- Dash down to your local Borders magazine racks and request the newest copy of
Feng Shui For Modern Living magazine or check out
http://www.fengshui-magazine.com.
Drop-dead gorgeous, dead-on Feng Shui. Full-color pioneering
publishing perfection. If you have questions about
subscriptions, e-mail SSkinner68@aol.com
to Van.
- Fellow Detroiter Lily Tomlin reminds us, 'For fast-acting relief, try slowing
down'. Grab Tricycle Publication's (the USA's highly acclaimed ongoing
Buddhist magazine exploring Eastern philosophy's impact on Western society) new
daily meditation book called Everyday Mind (pbk; ISBN 1-57322-633-5) edited by
Jean Smith. It's 366 reflections for those on the Path. Great
stories. Good ch'i. Nice.
About the author:
Dennis Fairchild is the Birmingham-based author of several books, including
Healing Homes:
Feng Shui - Here & Now,
the US correspondent for Europe's Feng Shui For Modern Living
magazine and spoke at the 3rd annual International Feng Shui Conference.
Also of Interest:
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