Here in the United States we recently finished celebrating one the largest holidays of the year, Thanksgiving. It is a time when friends and family come together to share an autumn time feast consisting of one major meal of the day. (Originally Thanksgiving was to celebrate a successful harvest, and the spirit of cooperation between the white man and the Native Americans of North America.) Now-a-days people often fly or drive across country simply to be with loved ones once again on this special holiday.

As you can probably imagine there are lots of emotions tangled up in a celebration where you’re expected to act happy and nice to everyone, where many people coming together might not have seen each other for the entire rest of the year. During such a day the atmosphere of room where two or more come together crackles with live energy of those inside. If even one person in the room has some negative energy radiating from them you cannot help but be a little ‘touched’ by it. If you happened to have had a spot at the table next to a person radiating negative energy I feel sorry for you. Usually too, it’s more than one person giving off negative energy. No wonder you feel exhausted and sick by the time all of the guests leave, or by the time you head back to your own home.

Maybe you’re asking yourself now, I’ve heard this term before but what is negative energy anyway?

There is no specific hard and fast rule that says a person will be reborn in the ghost realm. (If you’re reborn in the ghost realm then you are a ghost!) When you die and are in the transition state between life and death your habitual tendency will be guiding throughout the journey, the mind will decide. You carry along with you memories and habits. Most knowledge you learned doesn’t come with you. In short, whatever is in your heart will most probably accompany you. Whatever is in your brain will be left behind. It will be your refusal to let go of attachments, a stinginess, that is the main thing that will cause you to knowingly enter the ghost realm. Therefore, in order to meet higher spirits you need to have a noble heart.

Sometimes, a ghost does not mean to hurt anyone it is just that the ghost’s energy is at such a low frequency it can harm a human’s physical body. But what if a ghost bites or slaps you? It means you’ve probably upset him.

The Chinese classify ghosts and spirits in great detail. I’d just like to mention what seems to be the two most common types encountered on television programs shown in the United States such as “A Haunting,” and “Ghost Hunters.”

Let’s say you are investigating a ghost who seems to be doing a repetitive action like slamming a door. Let’s say the ghost is the dead sister of someone who used to live in the house. There are few possibilities for what kind of a ghost can be creating such an annoyance:

1. If the sister passed away at young age, her earthly energy within this world is still strong, and her soul will remain in a Bardo (intermediate/transition) until her ‘rightful earth years’ are exhausted.

Another options is:
2. The sister has lived her life, and she knowingly chooses to be reborn inside of the ghost realm. The ‘ghost’ then cannot rightfully be called the sister but that ‘energy’ does carry the residual memory of the sister’s past human life. But she is no longer the ‘sister’ but has many different characters.

Ghosts are not the souls of the dead. Once you’re dead your soul leaves the earth plane. Ghosts are beings from another dimension, yet they see and understand what we’re doing in our dimension. We live in a ‘parallel-universe’ with them. In other words- they are not coming and we are not going. Our worlds overlap each other. They are simultaneously doing things in the exact same space that we occupy and at the same time too. Their habitual tendencies anchored them to this earth plane of existence where they share a similar frequency. But because we are at a different wavelength from them we do not disturb each other and normally they are invisible to us. Usually only a person with a high level of spiritual attainment can see them.

Sometimes a great magician or ‘medium,’ (person calling on the spirit), can manipulate an audiences’ frequency to see ghosts, like at a séance, but it requires a lot of energy from the medium. In Buddhist texts, many times, Buddha displayed very vivid scenes of pure realms before certain crowds of disciples.

The first time we see someone we form opinions about that person before they even utter one sound. There are things about the shape of the face, hands, body, and posture, plus markings and moles on the person, that give us clues to a person’s personality and to their possibly health issues. The face and body are the out-word reflection of the person’s inner soul, already developed in the womb. Face and body reading is considered a part of Chinese metaphysics but cannot rightly be called Feng Shui.

According to the website www.dhyansanjivani.org:

Face reading first appeared in China during the 6th century BC, possibly as the speciality of “magic men” not affiliated to any religion. It is thought that they were probably Taoist shamans from rural areas such as Szechwan who specialised in non-traditional divinational arts. By 220 BC, the art of face reading was established in Chinese life and classic treatises, such as the “Golden Scissors” and “Bamboo Chronicles,” were written at this time.

There were also professional face readers during this time who combined the roles of priest, astrologer and counsellor. They were well-educated men with great compassion for human frailty. The Chinese understood the concept that the face represents the energies, health and fortune of a person and they wished to live in harmony with these, and with the prevailing energies of the five elements, yin and yang, and the seasons.

The starting principles of face reading are the cosmic energies of the five elements and yin and yang. The elements are symbols and represent qualities of energy within each person which are reflected in the face. An elaborate physical, psychological and emotional profile can be built up, incorporating the energies of the features, the ‘life points’ of the face, the three divisions from top to bottom (forehead, midface and lower face) which show the nervous, circulatory and digestive systems and the facial zones which represent the internal organs.

Each face is a map of the past, present and future. The past would be described as our inherited constitution, our mother’s pregnancy, our childhood and adolescence, with either difficulties or support in the family, and our early years as we start out in the world. The present reflects our health at the time of the reading. This is something we create ourselves.

The art of Chinese face and body reading is as relevant today as it was in the past.

“Everything changes, nothing remains without change.” -Buddha

Sometimes we get caught up in our routines. We focus on our limited telescopic viewpoint of the scenes closest to us and forget about the bigger picture. We can’t remember how we got into our current situation we only know we’re doing the best that we can with what we have.

If you look back on your life you’ll see that it was a series of movements and you can examine the many changes you went through to get where you are today. Some things you chose for yourself and other things that happened to you were completely out of your control. You always have options. True, sometimes those are limited. But this is because of prior decisions you made. Some people call this Karma.

Many people use Feng Shui cures/enhancements with the desire for immediate transformation of this or that situation that they’re experiencing. Usually it is something unpleasant they want changed. However in Esoteric Feng Shui we don’t use mirrors, wealth toads, wind-chimes, or other things like this, to ‘cure’ Qi. Simply put- if your outside environment supports it there are applications to your interior environment that can help you, (if the movement is possible within the room), to make those more positive changes sometimes happen very suddenly. That being said, you must also put forth your own effort or you’ll miss opportunities that are to be taken advantage of that are glaring you in the face.

In working with Qi, keep in mind that the longer you stay in one place the stronger you’ll be affected by the Qi of that place. Some folks will claim that all of their bad luck happened the day they moved into their new house. This is unlikely. It is more plausible that the old negative energy that has been following them around hasn’t changed yet, and the affects of the new place are not being felt, although if the Feng Shui arrangement isn’t right, after a while the affects might be just as bad but in a different way.

As a test of this you could go sit in front of a fan blowing in your face for hours upon hours. How would your face feel once you left that spot? How would you feel for the rest of your day? Do you think it would affect the choices you made for the day? Would you be a little blurr? You are not consciously aware of it but Qi is having an affect on you body and brain all of the time.

In using Feng Shui we try to ‘balance’ our life is such a way that when change does come, as it always does, it is not so alarming or discomforting for us. No one likes or wants a shock to their system. Having a bright mind is also ‘key’ to making good decisions for yourself so that your life proceeds smoothing.True Feng Shui can help you make the changes easier on you.

What are we here for? What does this question have to do with feng shui?

How many of us desire for more ‘things’ in life: a beautiful body; to be rich; a own huge house and a fast car; to be powerful at work? But what does all this mean without family? In the ancient Chinese culture the family ‘force’ was seen as the most important and vital root of life.

When I began my feng shui journey I was looking for great change in my life. I was putting out a lot of energy in finding a new job, looking for a relationship, trying to pay my bills, and yearning to travel to Europe. I thought that I was doing my life all right, yet I was seeing no results. It was hard for me to believe that the Universe was not supporting me. I knew there must be some other key…

I had become friends with some of the folks that worked at the New Renaissance Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, and I asked them if they had ever heard of anyone who practices feng shui. They said ‘yes’ and gave me her phone number.

That was over 10 years ago and I have learned more about feng shui then is contained in any books on the market.

Probably many of you, like me, would like more wealth, recognition, to have good health and better personal relationships. Let me share with you- the first place to start making these things ‘change’ is within your own heart and mind. Then feng shui can help you make it a reality.

Hold together with your loved ones in times of crisis, reach out to them to overcome the difficulties in life. Try to see the good in life even in the worst of times. Learn to appreciate at least one thing a day.