Feng Shui: Geomancy, Part 2

The Modern Book of Feng Shui
by Steven Post

(Page 2 of 2)

The Method of Minor Additions

The Method of Minor Additions, Xie Zi Fa (pronounced SHYEH TZI FAH), is the technique of adding an object to adjust the flow of chi in a site. The principle is very simple. In a missing area or an area to be enhanced, place something that will adjust the chi appropriately. While the principle of 4 ounces (the minor addition) overcoming 800 pounds (the bad influence) is connected with the martial arts, its roots are in Feng Shui. The essence of this "small conquering large" methodology is how to use a little bit to achieve a great deal. For example, a spotlight may overcome the influence of a steep slope. A mirror may open a hundred doors.

Mirrors

Mirrors have been called the "aspirin of Feng Shui." My associate, Barry Gordon, and I joke that if someone calls us late at night with a Feng Shui problem we may advise the caller to "Take two mirrors and call us in the morning!" Mirrors control, create space, counteract negative factors, and allow good things — like a beautiful view — to enter.

Here are a few ways mirrors can help:

1. Counteract or cancel out a bad influence. If as you enter a home there is a feeling of pressure, close quarters, or darkness, a mirror on the wall facing the entrance can alleviate and remove the difficult influence.

2. Attract or bring in auspicious chi. Mirrors can be used to attach, attract, or pull in a positive energy from outside the home. On a wall opposite a view of natural beauty, place a mirror. What you see in the mirror will be the beautiful scene. Attaching a beautiful ocean view in your line of sight may enhance your ability to think or write. If you can't see the street from your front door, mirrors can disclose that view from a window and allow you to avoid missing opportunities.

3. Enable the chi to flow. If you have a door that is never opened, or one you have deliberately blocked, it is called a "dead door." Perhaps in a room with four doors you would like to seal off two of them. Placing a mirror on such doors will allow the chi to flow through and not be blocked. Mirrors in this way can prevent stagnant chi and allow chi to circulate smoothly. Even a relatively small mirror will negate the bad feeling of stuck chi.

4. Expand. Mirrors create a feeling of space. For this reason, if a mirror is placed on a wall where a trigram area is missing, it can have the effect of filling in what is missing and thus complete and expand that space.

5. Others. In Black Sect Feng Shui mirrors are not avoided in the bedroom. A large round mirror behind the master bed can relax the eyes, diffuse tension, and help improve the marriage. Combined with a mirror near the foot of the bed, an infinite doubling of the mirror image can instill a feeling of joyful expansion, completion, and advancement. Mirrors can also be placed to the left and right of a bed. This same principle can also be used in the office.

Mirror Feng Shui for Babies

Mirrors enhance development. After the period of extreme nearsightedness, infants, helped by mirrors, develop more rapidly, expanding their horizons and increasing both socialization and integration with the world. Infants are fixated on the face; it is their first experience of associating themselves and the world. Note how a newborn will respond to seeing tongue movement by moving its own tongue.

Copyright © 1998 by Steven Post. Excerpted by permission of Dell, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.