Leib and Associates

Mercury Retrograde is Sept 27-Oct 18

-Lost communication devices

-Flight delays

-Lost packages

-Don’t sign contracts or make large purchases but…

Anything beginning with RE is a good thing to do:

-Review

-Reacquaint

-Revamp

-Revive

-Remove

the scream — The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch

Fu Dogs, yin and Yang

I love when I learn something new; today was no exception. My Feng Shui master and I were discussing different symbols used in Feng Shui and their efficacy. He mentioned Fu Dogs and their yin and Yang properties-even they are balanced.

I never noticed this before, but one of the Fu dogs has a pup under her paw; she is the female protecting her pup. The male dog has a globe under his paw, which signifies control over his domain. Together they are balanced and are said to protect a space in a balanced yin Yang way.

Fu dogs are one of the items people use to protect their home. I suspect they’re not very influential as a Feng Shui cure or element, but they are pretty cool!

These are my Fu Dogs (above). They are red and they reside in the Southeast on either side of our double doors.

What the Ch’i?

Yesterday, my Feng Shui master and I were discussing Ch’i-what it is and what it is not. People call it energy, but I think that is too broad and doesn’t really explain it. Some call it dust, and maybe that’s helpful for people to see why it’s so elusive and uncooperative.

I think we settled on life’s breath, for lack of a better description.

He says he can feel it-I said I know when it’s not there. Feng Shui is based on position or place, and the idea is to attract Ch’i, making sure it travels throughout your space, not too quickly, and not stopping.

If it’s lacking, or doesn’t reach your whole space, that’s a problem. If it gets stagnant, that’s also a problem.

Almost every space I’ve ever visited has areas where I do not feel the Ch’i, including Floyd, our current house.

There are, however, some absolutes when choosing a home or apartment.

If possible:

• Do choose a home where the air is calm and not constantly windy so the Ch’i can settle and enter the home through the main door -if it’s too windy, it just blows away (like dust in the wind).

• Do select a place that is not at the end of a T junction. You want to control the chi coming at your home with no car headlights barreling towards you (they call these tiger’s eyes), which is very unsettling to find coming toward you.

• Do select a place where your neighbors that you can see from your home have similar home sizes and land. This creates continuity and better relationships. Avoid homes that look onto cemeteries or religious buildings. It may seem obvious, but cemeteries attract Ch’i too, so you may be in competition for it with your neighbors.

Bottom line; If you feel comfortable and at ease while visiting your prospective future home, then there’s probably a potential to create positive Ch’i and good Feng Shui.

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

-Origin unknown

Yesterday was the Jewish day of atonement. We talked a lot about resentment, so relevant in the time of COVID. There’s plenty of anger and resentment to go around these days. If this is you, you may have too much wood in your life.

People who have too much wood element in their Bazi, their home or office, or are near too much wood have the potential to harbor anger and resentment, to explode and be aggressive. Too much wood can affect the liver and gall bladder as well. It’s important to get the Elements into balance.

How do you balance this? In magnitudes:

If you have a little too much wood, you add earth because wood because wood depletes earth in order to grow, so adding earth quells this process.

If a moderate amount of excessive wood, metal can help as it controls wood but can become exhausted quickly if not proportionate and can run out of strength.

Way too much wood, add the fire element, as it consumes wood and will destroy it.

This does not mean set fire to your trees; it means adding fire in quantities or on the property in the East or Southeast. A fire pit, bbq, but also triangular shapes and live animals represent fire.

This can help to begin to create a balance of the chi in your home or office.

Movin’ Out!

In Feng Shui, it is always more auspicious to have fewer items and less clutter…Enter the storage unit! Out of sight, out of mind for the low, low price of some absurd annual amount that makes one wonder if their stuff is worth a fraction of what they are paying.

One of my absolute truths is “Everyone should be given, upon their birth, a therapist/shrink and a storage unit, because they’re going to need both.”

Today I am celebrating the first time since 2008 that I do not have a storage unit!!

I’m free, and I could’ve funded a college education, one with a scholarship anyway, with what I’ve spent over the last 13 years.

It feels great, and I have to say, other than feeding my obsession with storage unit mystery (what’s behind the door number 1022, 1024 as I walk to mine), I won’t miss it one bit!

What’s Cooking?

In Feng Shui, the stove is considered one of the most influential objects in a home. They are synonymous with wealth, and the more the stove is in full operation, the more opportunity for wealth.

Most important-Keep it clean!

But, as everything in Feng Shui, it’s not that simple. It is best to “cook on all burners“ -use all of your burners.

The stove or range should be operational/ not broken.

It’s best not to walk into the kitchen and see the stove directly across from the door.

Your range/stove should not be next to the sink or directly across from the sink. If it is, you need wood element between them.

Depending on who you consult, (in my opinion) it is best to have the stove against a wall rather than on an island.

Here is my stove: I love it ❤️!

What Element are Crystals in Feng Shui?

I love crystals and have them in every shape, size and color around the house. Now I have to hide them from our cats, who think they are toys.

My Bazi master, Richard Ashworth, says I can benefit from crystals as they represent the element earth, and evidently, I need more earth in my life.

I understand this because they exist in earth and often make up what we see as earth.

But there is another contender for element of crystal. I read somewhere that in Feng Shui, crystals are metal element, because the earth creates/produces them and they need to be extracted from the earth. This makes sense to me as well, as they are mineral composites yielded from the earth.

So which is correct? Maybe they are somewhere in between. Some people correlate element to color, so maybe clear crystals are metal and garnet is fire because it’s red. So confusing, right?

I’ve sort of settled on earth element, because they are solid and are often part of the earth and most Feng Shui texts identify natural crystals as earth.

There is that part of me that wonders about the metal component, and I’m still working it out.

What do you think? Earth or Metal?

Front Door Colors and Feng Shui

Floyd’s new front door is in!!!

(It still needs the doorbell, which is a very old turn ringer-see below-and part of the reason I love Floyd)

People often ask me about front door color; what color they should paint the door? My answer- whatever color you like! In reality, the front door’s location is far more important than the color.

Red doors do not necessarily bring you wealth any more than purple or green doors. If the green door is in an area where the color green is relevant, for example, maybe slightly helpful. Unless you know your best directions according to your gua number (my husband, daughter and I happen all to be west gua 8) then the color isn’t going to save you or your wealth gua.

If you want to learn your directions, you can go back to my post Are You East or West?, or you can just paint the door any color you fancy.

Notice the first pic is without lights, the second with lights on- look how different the light makes the same door!

Friends and Helpful People

So maybe we haven’t been able to see many helpful people in person recently, but, luckily, they don’t have to be with you to be helpful.

The Helpful people area of the bagua is located in the Northwest. Metal is usually the element associated with this area.

If you find yourself lacking in the helpful people and friends area (also sometimes associated with travel) then you may be short of metal.

To bolster your metal and your helpful people army (after all, armies carry a lot of metal, right?), then you can wear metal, ride in or on metal, hang out in metal structures, and hang out in the northwest part of your home.

Be aware of those who are really being helpful at the time you need-helpful people come and go and are helpful at different times for different purposes.

Think about your goals and who might help you reach them, pick up your metal phone and connect.

It’s Our 1-Year Anniversary

It’s been exactly one year since our post-heart transplant COVID Big Sur wedding at Nepenthe Inn. Happy Anniversary, Tom❤️

So many things came together to make that day happen in under 1 month.

We met (over the phone), an amazing manager at Nepenthe, Alisha, who not only allowed us to get married on the property, but also told us about an officiant in Big Sur, Soaring. Soaring told us about an amazing photographer, Brandon Scott, who ended up being our photographer and our witness; you have to get creative in a pandemic. I found our florist, who lives 5 minutes away, Dyana Zwang, at A Bit of Earth, who has a mind-blowing garden where she grows most of her flowers. She also knew Brandon Scott.

And the dress!!! Anthropologie has a wedding gown department where my daughter and I were able to go in and try on dresses, and scored my dream gown in a week.

Where there’s a will…Our journey was and is a process, woven into something beautiful by helpful people.
There is a link there to Feng Shui-there always is.

For the rest of the story, you’ll have to read Feng Shui Friday; Stay tuned!