Feng Shui Fundamentals with T. Raphael Simons

Mirrors in Feng Shui

In some non-classical styles of feng shui now popular in the US, such things as mirrors, crystals, and wind chimes are given meanings they never had in old China. While nothing may appear wrong with this, the ill-informed use of objects in feng shui, like playing with a not-quite-full deck, may bring about disastrous results. For instance, I once saw the home of a woman whose husband had had a fatal accident. In their home they had placed mirrors in what they took to be their money and marriage corners, but which, according to the traditional Chinese compass, were in the areas called accidents and ghosts. A Chinese compass reading of a house tells interesting things about its occupants' circumstances.

Mirrors, originally made of polished jade or bronze, have been used in feng shui and related metaphysical arts by Chinese and Mongolian wizards for thousands of years. Mirrors are used for attracting and summoning spirits, banishing ghosts, purifying space and seeing into the future. Taoist monks, unless they are well-versed in the metaphysical arts, avoid hanging mirrors altogether. For mirrors, if hung on wrong walls, can attract misfortune. Conversely, however, well-placed mirrors can attract luck.

A basic Chinese compass method for finding the positive and negative sectors of your living space, whereby you can choose a good place for hanging a mirror, has the following steps: 1. Draw your floorplan. 2. Take the compass reading of the main door. 3. Mark off the North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, and Middle sectors of the space.

The way to read the door's direction is to stand in the doorway, facing out, and note the compass direction you are facing. Mirrors should be hung only in positive sectors.

Thus, if the main door of your home faces North, the positive sectors are to the E, SE, and S. If your door faces Northeast, the positive sectors are in the middle, SW, W, and NW. If your door faces East, the positive sectors are to the SE, S, and N. If your door faces Southeast, the positive sectors are to the S, N, and E. If your door faces South, the positive sectors are to the N, E, and SE. If your door faces Southwest, the positive sectors are in the W, NW, NE, and middle. If your door faces West, the positive sectors are in the NW, NE, middle and SW. If your door faces Northwest, the positive sectors are in the NE, middle, SW, and W.

If you have a fireplace in a positive sector, hang a mirror above its mantle to magnify the positive energy of the room. Never have a mirror reflecting your bed that you see yourself when lying down, lest you disturb your sleep and open yourself to unwelcome intrusions in your personal affairs.

There is a refinement of the above compass method that yields twenty-four feng shui stars for determining a doorway's positive or negative outlook. According to this method, when a malefic star is indicated, a special mirror (called a bagua mirror) is hung outside the house, above the doorway, to repel the negative effect of the star. Nowadays people mistakenly hang bagua mirrors inside their homes, hoping in vain to dispel negative conditions. There is a traditional method for dispelling negative conditions, or hauntings, using a sacred mirror instead. The sacred mirror is usually circular in shape and made of polished bronze. A consecrated, round, cosmetic mirror will do as a substitute. According to this method, hold a lighted candle in your right hand and the sacred mirror in your left so that the mirror reflects the candle flame, and walk through all the rooms, shining the reflected candle light onto the walls and into the corners, and visualizing all the negative entities and thought forms dissolving into the light.

T. Raphael Simons is
a Feng Shui expert and author of Feng Shui Step
by Step and Feng Shui Strategies for Business Success, published by Crown Trade Paperbacks. These books may be purchased on his website,
www.trs-fengshui.<WBR>com
Contact Raphael directly for consultations at
(919) 425-2307.