Eight Mansions – Thinking Outside the Box
by Nancy C. Canestaro, D.Arch.
People try lots of techniques to improve their lives. Typically before turning to Feng Shui, they’ve experimented with different approaches to be healthy, more productive, and get along better with others at home or work.
They finally turn to feng shui because they’re stuck. Life just isn’t working the way they thought it would.
Sometimes it takes doing something radical to make a shift for the better in life. Think about this…many of us live in little boxes that sit on rectangular lots, in uniform subdivisions.
However, we’re all unique individuals and we respond to this order and regularity in different ways. Houses that have identical layouts, oriented in the same direction on their sites, can have very different influences on an individual occupant’s health, wealth, and harmony.
In previous articles I’ve discussed Feng Shui Flying Stars methodology. This system analyzes different energy patterns that flow into a building, based on the year a house was built and its orientation on the land.
The limitation here is that it doesn’t account for an individual’s unique energy pattern that they take on at the moment of their first breath. Think of this unique energy pattern as a way of responding to the world.
Eight Mansions…
Why is it that in the same house, one person thrives, yet another struggles? Even a couple who share the same space…for dining, watching tv, or sleeping, may be reacting to the same energies in different ways.
Picture your house as a mansion. There are eight different directions (orientations) that your mansion could face…North, South, East, West; or one of the combination directions…NW, NE, SE, or SW. Four directions will be beneficial and four detrimental for you in varying degrees.
You also carry the energy of one of these directions as your personal energy pattern, based on your year of birth and gender. You resonate (thrive) in four of these directions/locations, and wither in the other four in varying degrees. This means that one specific place may be beneficial for one person, but not for their partner.
Let’s take an example…where to sleep… One of two people sleeping in the same bed may be experiencing health problems, or just can’t get to sleep, while the other is doing just fine. If the bed is repositioned in the same room, or they sleep together in a different room, their situation may be reversed. Complicating this is the fact that the energies shift for everyone on an annual basis… That’s the dynamic dilemma.
The Eight Mansions Feng Shui approach allows us to think outside “the box”. So, consider repositioning your bed to sleep in your personal best or second best direction in your current bedroom. You may find this disconcerting because the new furniture arrangement may not satisfy your personal taste. However, are you sleeping better?
If not, find your personal best area for sleeping. This new space may not offer the amenities of your designated master bedroom, such as a large bath and plenty of closet space. Is this trade-off worth the benefit for better sleep?
If you’re not satisfied with the results, consider consulting with a feng shui expert who can offer more specific remedies and corrections.
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