The Chinese New Year is coming up and if you practice feng shui, that means it’s time to start making some changes. Feng shui harnesses the energy around you and makes your life more harmonious. Adjusting for feng shui is easy, but those adjustments must be made carefully so that you have the best chance of using all those good influences coming your way.
Why Is the Chinese New Year So Important for Feng Shui?
The Chinese New Year is not only the start of a new calendar cycle but a new energy cycle as well. For flying-star systems, there are definite changes in energy that need to be accounted for so that harmonious energy continues to dominate in your life.
General Advice That Applies to All Systems
When the new year starts, you want to greet it in a way that shows you are organized, ready to get going, and willing to leave the past behind. Clean your house and make necessary repairs, and pay off what debts you can.
Caution: Don’t clean once the new year arrives, or rather don’t clean for a few days — you want that new-year luck to settle into your home peacefully!
Li Chun, or the Day the Feng Shui Energy Changes
In 2018, Chinese New Year falls on February 16, but you should start making changes to your feng shui arrangements on February 4. This is Li Chun, or the start of spring in the Chinese calendar. This day is especially important if you use a flying-star feng shui system because this is the day the stars change location, and you want to address those changes as soon as possible.
Get a Chinese zodiac reading on Keen to learn more.
Reviewing the Basic Bagua
The bagua is the “map” used to link directions with areas of a building or room. It has eight main sectors plus the center of the room, and the sectors are given compass-direction names. Each sector is associated with a quality or aspect of life and a series of colors:
- Northwest: Helpful people, travel; black, white, and gray
- North: Career; gold and black
- Northeast: Education, knowledge; blue, green, and purple
- East: Family, health; green
- Southeast: Money, wealth, prosperity, material abundance; purple, blue, and red
- South: Fame, reputation; red
- Southwest: Love, marriage, relationships; red, pink, white
- West: Children; white
The center doesn’t really have a basic bagua designation, though the color yellow is often associated with this area.
Changes for Fixed-Bagua Systems
If you follow a fixed-bagua system such as Black Hat feng shui, flying stars and energy changes aren’t going to concern you. You use a bagua that is always fixed so that the northwest/north/northeast sectors align with the main entry to the room, building, or open space. However, it’s still vital that you make some changes each year.
Leaving things alone creates stagnant energy. That does not mean that you have to change how an area looks if you still like it, but it does mean that you need to consciously re-evaluate what you want in that sector. For example, if you didn’t really do anything with your education and career sectors last year, and this year you think you’d like to expand your duties at work or be promoted, you might add ornaments with appropriate colors to those areas for 2018.
Changes for Flying Star Systems
If you use a flying star system, based on the feng shui compass, pay close attention to what’s happening this year.
Positive changes:
Flying star #1, of relationships and luck, goes into the northwest sector of helpful people and travel. If your system uses afflictions, the Grand Duke Tai Sui will be in that corner, too. Treat this area gently, adding some water energy for star #1, such as a picture of water, and avoid fire elements. For Tai Sui, get either a pi yao, which is a small statue of a specific type of lion, or a Tai Sui plaque. Both of these will be available from feng shui dealers.
The south sector of fame welcomes star #4 this year, emphasizing creativity and education. Its element is wood, so you’ve got a clash between that and the southern fire element. Try to use mainly wood and earth elements in this area to promote the positive energies of the star.
This is going to be a great year for money as wealth star #8 will sit right in the southeast corner of money and wealth. However, the affliction known as Sui Po in that corner as well. Use a reasonable amount of fire element like triangular shapes or red and purple colors in that corner. Do not overdo this. Also add some earth element for star #8. For example, a citrine gem tree would add earth (citrine) and wood (the tree).
The southwest will also do well with star #6 flying in to enhance careers. Metal windchimes are good, and other metal objects and colors would work, too. Just don’t overemphasize metal here as there’s the chance that it will cause your work and marriage to clash.
Star #9 of new beginnings and future wealth settles in the center. This star likes purple and has fire as its element. If you can position a small table in the center of the room, add amethyst crystals or other purple ornaments.
Changes to watch out for:
The north sector of career will deal with both star #5, or Five Yellow, as well as Three Killings. You’ve got a number of traditional cures you can use, such as metal “three guardians” statue; a feng shui practitioner can give you more ideas. Avoid earth and fire elements here, and use water and metal instead.
Over in the northeast sector of education, you’ll have star #3, which covers arguments and lawsuits. It’s a wood element, so you want some fire here to counter the influence of that star. Metal helps as well. Use associated colors like red and purple, and if you want, look for a small feng shui ornament that looks like a fireball.
Down in the east sector of family and health sits star #7, which influences loss and unexpected events. Emphasize wood and water here; avoid metal as much as possible. Also avoid anything associated with earth, like crystals or earthy colors. Plants, fountains, pictures of water — those are what you want.
Over in the west is star #2, which influences illness. A very good cure for health issues is the wu lou, or gourd, and you can find these as necklace charms all the way up to hefty tabletop decorations. Get a metal version of the wu lou for this area. Avoid earth, which is the element of this star, and stick with metal.
Feng shui is about more than cures and colors, and if you want a customized plan for 2018, get personal feng shui analysis online. 2018 is shaping up to be an interesting year, and you’ll want to make the most of it!
