LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Feng Shui


Mirrors over fireplaces correct a long list of challenging Feng Shui. Photos provided

Mirrors are symbolic of the water element, which governs the winter season including November, December and January and they are the one Feng Shui tool you can instantly benefit from when placing them correctly throughout your home. The shape of the mirror - a round mirror for Metal, a rectangular mirror for Wood, and a square mirror for Earth - comes into play and mirror placement per the BAGUA map is important, but the most important aspect is incorporating mirrors in the following ways to enhance your space and welcome positive energy into your home.

First, let's begin in the foyer. There are lots of conflicting Feng Shui ideas in terms of placing the mirror opposite the door, which reflects all the positive chi back out, however I have also seen many small dark foyers and the placement here can open the space and make it seem much bigger, thus overriding other concerns. With all things being equal it's best to place the mirror on the side wall so it's not behind the door. The light and powerful chi from outdoors will reflect inside and the mirror also enlarges the feeling of the foyer in a beneficial way. The middle front area of the home, according to the BAGUA, is also ruled by Career and the water element, and since mirrors represent water and are also very yang/active, if your front entrance or foyer is in the middle of your home, a mirror placed here is seen as a stimulant to your career.

While we are on the topic of the Front Entrance area, another Feng Shui use for a mirror is over the front door facing out toward the street. We place a special type of mirror here called a BAGUA mirror, used to deflect negative chi away from the home. If your home faces an electrical tower or water tower, a busy road, a church (happy and sad events here), a fire or police station, a graveyard or an empty lot, place a BAGUA mirror outside over your front entrance doorway to deflect the negative chi away form your home.

Next, mirrors also correct and adjust "missing" areas of the Feng Shui BAGUA map. If, when you overlay the BAGUA map over your entire home, you are "missing" an area or two or three, do not despair. Mirrors to the rescue! Chances are if your home is not perfectly rectangular or square you are missing a BAGUA map area. Mirrors visually extend the space when you place one on both adjacent walls to the area that is missing in the BAGUA map. When the mirrors are placed this way, the space is visually expanded and the missing area is no longer as prominent. Missing areas symbolize that very little energy exists there, creating struggles or blocks, so adjusting and correcting that problem is important on many levels.

You can also simply use mirrors decoratively by placing them to add more light into your environment; by placing a mirror opposite a lush natural outdoor landscape it has the potential to bring more natural light into that area of your home. This also works really well in darker rooms or in those with scant natural lighting. If the mirror reflects trees and flowers into your home, then you welcome the upward growth of wood energy, or if there is a mountain, then a lot more grounding energy visits.

Adjusting an ill-placed fireplace is also the function of hanging a mirror over one. No one will know you are adjusting with the decorative mirror (water) over the fireplace (water overcomes fire) if you have one in your master bedroom (too much fire can cause marital disharmony), or in the center of your home (fire burns up your health) or a fireplace located in the metal areas of home (fire melts metal) including helpful people or children with equally challenging results. Placing a mirror over a fireplace in these instances will prevent the negative effects and allow for a strong adjustment.

While we are mentioning bedrooms, it is smart Feng Shui to limit mirrors in the places we are meant to sleep soundly since mirrors are considered Yang or active. If you begin to have trouble sleeping in your bedroom and have lots of mirrors, try this experiment. Cover the mirrors with sheets for a couple of nights and notice if your sleep improves or not. Use the examples in this column to discover other places and uses for your bedroom mirrors if your sleep improves when they are not as much of an influence in your bedroom.

Finally, since this time of year we are enjoying our dining rooms a lot with family and friends gathering, the dining room is one of the most festive rooms to place a large mirror to reflect happy times, multiply the number of our guests as well as the wealth we have by sharing the harvest with others. Remember, mirrors are referred to as the aspirin of Feng Shui because they are prescribed to quickly adjust many challenges, therefore by just moving one or two mirrors strategically, you will create many levels of benefits - all the while creating more light and space in a subtle way that doesn't scream Feng Shui.