A Costly Flourish

One of the things that intrigues me about Feng Shui is how it works regardless of intent. Certainly your intent can magnify anything you do with your space - but there are universal laws that supersede an individual's plans or conscious wishes. This is why a trained Feng Shui consultant can examine a space and decode the challenges and benefits impacting those who use that space.

When a certain building was renovated with attractive wave flourishes above the entrances, I immediately sensed a problem. The building is located near the bottom of a downward slope towards a body of water; this means that there is a current of energy sweeping down the road in front of the property, accelerating as it approaches the water. Adding a design that represents a wave that flows in the same direction of the existing flow of the street further intensifies the downward pull, making the energy whoosh past this building even faster than before. My prediction when the building opened up: that it would be very hard for the owners to find tenants for the properties.

Sure enough: only two of the four storefronts have been rented, and it took about 6 months for the first of these to open, despite the prime location of the building and the ever-present 'Opening Soon' signs that were on the windows month after month. With all that energy flowing past the building, they had to work extra hard to get things done.

It is even more interesting to observe which of the properties are occupied. The two rented storefronts have their entrances beneath the lowest dip in the wave flourish, which means there is more energy descending into their property, making it (relatively) easier to attract people into the doorway. The two unrented properties are located underneath parts of the wave which scoop up and away from the entrance; these storefronts therefore contend with energy flowing downhill past them as well as upwards away from the entrance.

It is unfortunate that this very attractive design feature likely had an impact on the lack of success of the property. It goes to show that observing the laws of nature when creating man-made structures can help one avert some potential challenges.

In my work with people building properties, I have marveled at how it is obviously much easier to erase a line from a piece of paper than to re-shape or dismantle a physical structure that has been built. A store in Bali whose design I assisted with successfully averted a potentially inauspicious entrance because we consulted while it was in its conceptual stage; within ten minutes another, more inviting entrance had been drawn...it would have taken much longer to reshape the concrete steps that had threatened to divert customers from their store! Unfortunately, it will be far more costly to remove the wave flourish from the building than it would from the paper it was designed on, though there are some possible 'cures' that can work to counteract the problem.

With any changes you are making in any area of your life, consult a variety of professionals. I hope that one day Feng Shui will be seen not as a past-time culturally-irrelevant form of superstition, but as a thoroughly valued way of understanding our connection with the physical world. Perhaps then humans might live more harmoniously with their environment, understanding the forces the nurture and guide us.

(c) Mark Ainley