The tendency of Western culture is to represent dragons as fierce demons out to destroy everything in their path, but in the Orient, a feng shui dragon is considered an extremely powerful protector, it represents success, wealth, prosperity, power, good luck in love, and spiritual growth. The dragon is a very important symbol in feng shui because it is believed to create precious celestial Chi and bring good fortune into our homes and workplaces. We should use the figure of the dragon to encourage balance in our lives and the space that surrounds us.

How can we use dragons in feng shui?

Dragons are considered the most powerful gift you can give to a loved one, since they are symbols of power and love and exude positive energy and power.

A dragon figurine or a dragon statue is a powerful enhancer for luck in business.

They bring wisdom to the elderly.

They bring honor to the family, and they save children from harm.

Dragons are a very powerful 'Yang' symbol which can manifest itself as fearlessness and courage.

Dragons guard your home, they bring strength and fortune, and surround you with protective energy.

Place a dragon figurine in the Career Area, or the East of your home's Bagua, to attract success and wealth. Although dragons provide very auspicious energy wherever you place them because they can embody any element, particularly water or fire, they are the most powerful when placed on the East.

Choose the color or the material that will match your objectives and the area of the Bagua you really want to enhance. The best colors for dragons are turquoise (the color of water), red (the color of fire), and gold.

Place a feng shui dragon in your love and relationships area to bring you good luck and attract love. Combine the image of a dragon and a phoenix to enhance the love energy even more.

Dragons also symbolize wisdom. A 2000 years old legend says that "the souls of people make a journey into the higher realms on the back of a dragon". They are also considered mediators that transmit human desires to the Universe to make them come to life, enhancing the Law of Attraction.

Always treat the dragon's image with utmost respect. Do not display images of crippled or dying dragons, and be careful not to place them in zones with low energy levels like closets, bathrooms, storage areas or the garage.

Dragons have a very strong Yang energy and they will activate the Chi of the room they are placed in, so you will be better off placing them in your living room or dining room, and not in your bedroom, since that very same Yang energy will not allow you to rest peacefully.

Don't use a carpet with the image of a dragon, since dragons are supposed to fly free in order to protect us.

The dragon figure will improve your life. Enjoy all the benefits this powerful animal can provide you.

Photos courtesy of:

miheco

Mary Kaye

angelrravelor

These are hard times for everybody... unemployment, layoffs, foreclosures. We all need money, and work, and some financial help. But you can actually make more money using Feng Shui. I am not saying that Feng Shui will cure all your woes and make you rich overnight, but you can improve the energies that influence the wealth in your life by using it.

Spend some time studying the areas that might affect your wealth to decide what you need to do.

The most important areas are: Wealth and Prosperity, Fame and Reputation, Career and Helpful People and Travel. (Consult the Bagua map)
All these cures will apply to every room in your house, and of course, especially to the rooms where these areas fall on your house or apartment.
First thing to get rid of: clutter. Check that there's no clutter in any of these areas of any of your rooms, even the garage!!!

For your Wealth and Prosperity area:

If you don't have one by now, this is a good time to set up an aquarium.  If it's possible, make it big enough to house 3 Goldfish or more, always in odd numbers. Use rocks and plants to decorate it. Make it beautiful. A lot of people ask me what's the best placement for an aquarium, and I tell them my preference is either the Wealth area or the Career area. The only 2 places where you should not put an aquarium are the bedroom and the Fame and Reputation area. Of course, if you have money problems, maybe you can't afford an aquarium, (don't forget to check The Fish Tank Place, and Craigslist) but you can always find a picture or a painting of an aquarium or fish. If an aquarium is not something you really like, think of a table fountain. Flowing water is key. It can also be the picture of a waterfall.

Use things in shades of purple, red and blue: flowers (silk or live but never dried), candles, curtains, any decoration with these colors. Look around your house, move your furniture around, make it a comfortable corner.

Leave a lamp on in that corner 24/7. A lamp with low wattage will suffice, but keep it on. Obviously, if the wealth area of your home is in your bedroom, this would not be advisable, but do it in the wealth corner of your living room, or home office.

How about repainting that old dresser you have lying around, making it red or blue or purple and using it in the wealth corner of your living room, bedroom or den?

We all collect our pennies and other coins somewhere in the house. Well, get a nice container (a copper bowl, a purple box or something nice) and put all your change in the Wealth area. This is a great place to put valuable collections, antiques, and pictures of stuff you wish to have like a car, a boat, etc.

You have red or purple cushions lying around? Make sure you put them in this area.

If one of these areas (wealth, fame or career) happens to be a bathroom, it doesn't mean that you will forever have money problems, it just means you have to use cures to make the energy flow in the right way.

Keep the toilet lid down AT ALL TIMES. This is a rule in Feng Shui, but it's of the utmost importance if the bathroom is one of these important areas that are directly related to money.

Avoid all clutter as you would in any other part of the house.

Put a plant (silk or real, no dried flowers or herbs) in a place that is higher than the toilet.

Hang a multi faceted crystal over the toilet.

Make the bathroom a comfortable and pleasant place to be.

Use the colors related to the area to energize the Chi. Candles with these colors are perfect. Towels, bath rugs, a picture.

Keep the bathroom door closed at all times.

For your Fame and Reputation area:

Fame and Reputation Area in my Office

This area is important because your reputation is what gets you work, so you need to energize the Chi there.

Red, red and more red…. fire is key. Avoid using a lot of black (water color) in the Fame and Reputation area, since water extinguishes fire. If you already happen to have something black there, keep in mind that there always has to be a balance of all the elements, so although fire is the ruling element in that area, you need a bit of all the elements in every area, so don't forget to add earth, wood, water and metal elements.

This is another good place to put all your red cushions, flowers, and set up a nice plate with red candles and light them once in a while. A healthy plant works fine here too.

No clutter!!   Try to avoid large mirrors. No fountains, aquariums, or pictures of water in any form.

Anything that has to do with fire is good. Electronics are considered fire elements, as well as animals and animal prints.

Great place for diplomas, awards, pictures or figurines of animals, triangular and pyramidal objects.

For the Career area:

The reasons to energize this area are obvious!

Here, you can use all the black and dark colors you want.

The area is ruled by water, so a fountain is also recommended here. For wealth, I personally like to have my aquarium in the Wealth and Prosperity area, but the Career area is also a good place to put it.

You can also put pictures of oceans, rivers or waterfalls.

If your front door is in this area, you have to make it super welcoming! Nice round rug, a mirror, a healthy plant (or a healthy looking silk plant), crystals objects.

Absolutely no clutter!!

Think of ways to energize your Career area. Get your creativity flowing and if you already have a table there, maybe you can paint it black or dark brown or blue.

Remember that if you can't afford a table fountain, or a painting, you can even use a piece of paper of the color you need and lay it on a table or hang it on the wall!

Try to keep mementos related to your career in this area. Keep in mind we are doing this in every room, so if you can't keep your diplomas near the front door, maybe you can do it in the career area in your bedroom, or your home office, just make sure that the career colors and elements are represented in every room.

For the Helpful People and Travel area:

This is an important area to enhance, especially if you have lost your job and are unemployed. Helpful people here could be your boss, your potential boss, a contact that might get you a job, even a religious figure. Use colors in the shades of white, gray and black in this area.

This is the place to put any images, paintings, posters or figures of spiritual guides, gods, goddesses, saints and angels. Pictures of mentors and influential people in your life. Maybe the picture of someone that you are hoping will give you a job, or who you would like to work with. Since it's also the Travel area, this is the place to put pictures of your favorite vacation spot or a place you want to travel to.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Feng Shui works, and if you take a serious look around and make an effort to avoid the clutter in these areas of your life and energize the Chi, your situation will improve.

Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese practice of achieving harmony with the specific placement of certain objects in your home or office, which affects the flow of energy in your surroundings, the Chi (Qi), and this can be positive or negative. Obtaining luck, health and prosperity is usually the main focus of using Feng Shui. My own theory is that Feng Shui creates such harmony in your surroundings, that everything that you look at gives you a feeling of well being. If you look at a broken TV screen or that radio that's been sitting there for the last 2 years, you will not feel good, right? Feng Shui cures are used whenever some area of our lives is not going as well as it should, like Romance, Family, Health, Wealth, etc.

Now, what does this have to do with your fish tank? Well, it's always good to add an aquarium to obtain wealth and abundance. Having a fish tank can help increase positive Chi in your life. When you are thinking of using a Feng Shui Fish tank, you should also think about putting 8 goldfish (since gold symbolizes wealth and luck) and 1 black fish (to absorb any bad luck). However, if you can't place such a big tank in your house, just keep an odd number of goldfish. I believe that just having a nice, clean fish tank with a good balance of all the elements is enough.

A Tank Set Up For Feng Shui

Aquariums are auspicious because they present a harmonious combination of wealth attracting Feng Shui factors, and a perfect balance of all 5 Feng Shui elements:

Feng Shui Water element (the water in the aquarium) Feng Shui Wood Element (the plants in the aquarium) Feng Shui Metal element (use some white and gray rocks in the fish tank, or a round aquarium) Feng Shui Earth element (the rocks and gravel at the bottom of the fish tank) Feng Shui Fire element (gold /yellow, orange and red colors of the fish, as well as the aquarium light)

The best area to place your Feng Shui aquarium is in the Wealth and Abundance area of you Bagua map; the Career area is also a good place to position your aquarium and so is the Health and Family area.

If one of these areas turns out to be in your bedroom, the kitchen, or another unsuitable area, choose the room where you want to put your tank and place it in the Wealth and Abundance area of that room. However, do not place an aquarium in the bedroom or the kitchen. These are the two places where a fish tank can stimulate the Chi too much, making you eat in excess and sleep restlessly (plus the noise of the filter would not let you sleep).  The entrance to your home is a nice place to put it if it represents the Career area.

In order to get a good flow of Chi, your tank has to be clean and well taken care off, with happy and healthy fish. A dirty tank and sick fish can emit bad chi and it will do more harm than good. You can use real plants with almost all kinds of fish; just keep them healthy and beautiful. I do not recommend them with Goldfish because they eat them, so you can use plastic plants. It's the appearance that counts. They have to be clean and pretty.

Remember what I told you about looking at things that make you feel good? Using a Feng Shui Fish tank will always give you a good feeling.

Give it a try. Sometimes just believing that things will change, changes them. But with a Feng Shui fish tank, I can tell you from my own experience, you will be surprised and shocked by the changes you will feel almost immediately.