THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARCIA MANGUM, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
ARE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS troubled? Move your bed against the wall. Career in a rut? Hang a mirror over your desk. Health problems getting you down? Keep the bathroom doors shut.
These ideas may not make sense at first, but to Feng Shui practitioner James Allyn Moser they are ``uncommon sense.''
Feng Shui, (pronounced fung shway), the ancient Chinese art of placement, maintains there is a place for everything, and if everything is in its place, there will be beneficial effects on all facets of life. Feng Shui is based on the way energy, or chi, interacts between the environment and the individual, explains Moser, president of Feng Shui L.A., a California-based consulting firm.
Proper placement of buildings, rooms and furnishings can increase harmony and comfort in the home or work place, he says.
Moser, a Master Feng Shui consultant and owner of Feng Shui Warehouse in San Diego, will provide an introduction to the art with lectures and workshops at Virginia Wesleyan College on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Feng Shui, which is most widely practiced in Hong Kong and has become popular on the West Coast, is becoming a trend in home and office design nationwide. It recently has been featured on TV specials, and locally the Heritage Store offers Feng Shui instruction, and a Williamsburg company called Wind & Water Designs provides Feng Shui consultations.
When a Feng Shui consultant goes to look at a structure, he looks at how energy moves through it, depending on the design, the colors and the placement, Moser says.
``We like to work with a basic square or rectangular shapes in a house, but it's rare that you get that,'' Moser says. Most houses have additions or alterations, so that there's something cut out of the square or rectangle.
Using the house as the metaphor for the self, the Feng Shui consultants believe that those missing chunks of the house represent something missing from the life of the person. Depending on what's missing, it could affect the person's career, relationships or health, Moser says.
Feng Shui works with the mind and body connection. ``What we impress on our minds every day has a direct effect on our bodies. If we're seeing good things every day, it will have a good effect. If we see negative things, it will have a negative effect,'' Moser explains.
Even the shape of the structure can have that effect. For example, Moser says there's an Art Deco restaurant in Los Angeles that has a tower jutting 30 feet or more in the air. ``When you look at it, it looks just like a knife,'' he says. ``About a year ago there was a murder and robbery at the restaurant. Even the image of the building can attract that sort of thing.''
But, just because your house may not be perfectly shaped or furnished, doesn't spell doom. ``With Feng Shui, there's a solution - or a cure - for everything,'' Moser says. ``If you have a front door with a fountain beside it and some nice plants, you'll feel whole and you'll feel healed when you step inside.''
Feng Shui consultants often work with new home buyers to advise them on what could be changed to improve the energy flow.
Moser says Feng Shui won't always make life instantly a bed of roses and won't always prevent bad things from happening. Rather, he says, ``When you incorporate Feng Shui, you have a little more control, and when things do go around the horn, the effect is not so severe. We say in Feng Shui, luck is being ready. When the good stuff comes your way, it can get in.''
Once you get past the structure of the home, its location and placement on the lot and its entrance, Moser says the most important things to look at inside the home are the bed, the stove and the desk.
Relationships issues center around the bed. It's where the body rests and is healed each night, so it's important that the bed be placed properly for energy movement. Moser says that means there should be a wall behind the head of the bed; the door to the room should be visible when you lie down; and the bed shouldn't be in the path of that door.
If the bed can't be placed that way, there are still things that can improve the energy, he reassures, such as positioning a mirror so you can see the door or placing a crystal ball, chimes or a throw rug between the bed and the door to slow the chi down.
With so many home offices, it's important to position the desk properly to enhance the career, he says. The guidelines for the desk are similar to those for the bed: face the door; don't face the wall; and don't be in the path of the door.
The stove is the symbol of nurturing, but also of wealth, stemming from when a full rice cooker in China meant you were a wealthy family. Moser recommends keeping the stove clean, using the back burners as well as the front and putting a mirror behind the stove to increase the energy and allow you to see what's going on behind you.
The bathrooms are also important, he notes, because they are often the weak link where energy drains out of a house, sometimes creating health problems. If a bathroom adjoins a bedroom, Moser says it is important to shut the door at night and even hang a mirror on the side facing the bedroom to reflect the good energy and keep it from floating away while you sleep.
Moser will offer a few more cures during the slide show introduction to Feng Shui on Friday night, and participants in the two-day workshop should learn enough to go home and arrange their homes according to the principles of Feng Shui.
``No house is the same, and no individual is the same,'' Moser says. ``Once people do the two-day workshop, they'll never look at a structure the same.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Feng shui teaches that crystal balls adjust the flow of energy, and
properly placed mirrors "cure" many problems.
B\W photo
Feng Shui, which is most widely practiced in Hong Kong, is becoming
a trend in home and office design nationwide.
Graphic
Feng Shui Lecture and Workshop
For copy of graphic, see microfilm.
by CNB