Feng Shui & The Redesigned Oval Office

Today’s news includes an entertaining article about President Obama’s redesign of the Oval Office, in which designers and celebrities weigh in on the new design.

Wow -- that's a lot of brown.

How is the new Oval Office from a Feng Shui perspective?

Very brown. Very heavy. Very Earth.

Everything in the center of this office looks heavy.

In Feng Shui it can be a good thing to anchor the energy, but here it looks like it would be very tough to get new ideas off the ground: there’s no lightness to it at all.

So much Earth energy throws it out of balance in terms of the Five Elements. The dark blue lamps (Water energy) can hardly compete with all that Earth, and the apples on the table don’t provide the uplifting Wood energy that might lighten things up.

To me it now feels like the energy is stuck (and of course I have a few ideas for what Obama and his designer could do about that )

What do you think?

photo courtesy of the New York Times.

The Passing Of A Feng Shui Master

While I was on vacation these past few weeks, the Feng Shui world lost one of its best-known Masters, Professor Thomas Lin Yun of Taiwan and Berkeley, California, on August 11.

Feng Shui Grandmaster Professor Lin Yun

The Professor was one of the first to bring Feng Shui to the West over 25 years ago.

He is perhaps best known as the co-author with Sarah Rossbach of the earliest Feng Shui books in English, including Feng Shui: The Chinese Art Of Placement from 1983.

Professor Lin Yun influenced my life because many of my teachers learned Feng Shui directly from him.

Here are a few excerpts from the very moving message we received from Crystal Chu, CEO of the Yun Lin Temple in Berkeley.

“With deepest sorrow, I am very reluctant to let you know that the saddest thing has finally come upon us. Our beloved great teacher, His Holiness Grandmaster Professor Lin Yun left us yesterday….

“Some of us chanted at his bedside to pray that his Ch’i would be received by the Buddha in the Pure Land.

“One of the messages I received during the chanting was from His Holiness, and he said: ‘I have taught you more than enough, now is the time for you to go on by yourselves.’”

The Professor will be sadly and sorely missed by the entire Feng Shui community.

The Most Yang Day Of The Year

At 7:28 (EDT) this morning the earth was tilted at its maximum angle towards the sun, in the Northern Hemisphere.

Yin & Yang, Earth & Sun

This is the Summer Solstice — the longest day of the year, and the most Yang day of the year, when the sun’s arc peaks and it shines brightly on us the longest.

Now the cycle turns again towards the darkness of Yin, which gets to its maximum point in December.

In Feng Shui the season of the Fire element has begun: hot, bright and filled with activity.

Celebrate today by staying outdoors to enjoy the sunshine for as long as you can!

Yang peaks today.

For your further enjoyment, here’s a little photo diary of Solstice celebrations around the world.

photo courtesy wikipedia.org

A Feng Shui Graduation

Congratulations to the new Feng Shui practitioners who graduated this week!

New Feng Shui practioners!

The students graduated from a nine-month Feng Shui Certification program at the Metropolitan Institute of Design on Long Island (a New York State accredited school).

They learned about every aspect of Feng Shui in tremendous depth, from the Bagua to the I Ching to Space-Clearing ceremonies. I was honored to be one of the teachers on their journey towards this special day.

The Feng Shui teachers...

l. to r.: Karen Ferraro, Maureen Calamia, Rosalie Prinzivalli, Pamela Lawrence, RD Chin, Christine Bushell, Ann Bingley Gallops, Anthony Maceli.

Among the evening’s many beautiful moments, the exotic and haunting music of a bamboo flute wove its way throughout the ceremony.

Bamboo flute music...

Many of the new graduates already work in the design field and plan to integrate their profound new knowledge into their existing practices, adding depth and thousands of years of knowledge to the benefit of their clients.

Would you be interested in attending a Feng Shui school? What would you most like to learn about?

Great Chi Energy Coming To Times Square

Newsflash: A river is coming to New York City this summer when Times Square’s streets will be painted like a river (!).

Times Square -- flowing like a river....

I’m not sure NYC’s Department of Transportation realizes it but this artwork will add an extra dose of great Chi energy to a city that already has loads of it, cooling down one of the hottest spots in town during the high summer months. (Read more about New York City’s great Feng Shui here).

Come to NYC and take a dip!

And thanks to Gothamist for the heads up on this fantastic project, by Brooklyn’s own Molly Dilworth.

I can hardly wait to see it.

Photo rendering courtesy of NYC’s DOT.

P.S., In related news, the Champs Elysee in Paris was transformed into a temporary farm over the weekend!