Q & A – Feng Shui and Guns

Q. Where is the best place to store guns? I had them in the closet in family and we have explosive arguments. I can do almost anywhere in the basement except skill and knowledge. Please help, I am reading books and my consultant said to email you.

A. There is a difference between antique gun collections and guns of current vintage and use. The antiques have a strong historical, even valuable, artifact energy. As such, they can sometimes be successfully housed within the home’s Bagua when displayed in a nice glassed, even locked, case, within a large enough space, so as not to dominate the "conversation" in the room. This strategy applies to other antique weapons, as well as any other historical items that might be "scary",
such as old medical instruments, tools, pieces of machinery, etc. Though "of the ancestors", I wouldn’t place them in any large quantity in the Health and Family gua, as they would bring too much of that old, decaying, unused energy into a gua we like to see enhanced with fresher Ch’i.

If the items have a difficult story to tell (massacres, etc.) I would be more cautious with them, and would probably suggest donating them to a museum, where their story can be more appropriately housed and shared with a larger community of interest.

Guns, and other weapons, of current use are a different story. They carry more of a "danger–you are unsafe here" message. Hunting guns can be safely stored in an outbuilding or detached garage, which takes them out of the home’s primary Bagua energy entirely. Even placement in an attached garage can be better than placement within the main family living areas. "Out of sight, out of mind" allows more positive thought to prevail inside the home, and the impact of the gun energy is lessened.
 Smaller guns intended for use in case of intruders are problematic for a variety of reasons, but each family will have their own personal decisions to make about how to keep themselves feeling safe both from intruders AND from the gun(s) itself. Obviously, to be of use in an emergency, any weapon needs to be kept handy, but still out of sight, and certainly out of reach of children.

I have done FS for clients with "current use" gun collections stored in a large gun "safe", which is locked and made to look like a piece of decorative furniture. This armoire-shaped safe is then put into a side room or guest room, or den and is fairly innocent of negative energetics. The only negative energy forthcoming was that of any household members who were in disagreement over the keeping of guns on the premises in the first place. This disagreement definitely had to be worked out within the family before the gun safe felt friendly to all. In one instance, I recommended that the safe be put out into the garage because its presence was being felt far too strongly by the wife, who had fears about children’s safety with guns on the premises. 

We can do a lot with basic Form School Feng Shui remedies to assist clients in feeling more safe in their homes. Sharp corners, breakable items, exposed knives, too many uncurtained windows, and a lack of a protective embrace around the home, to list just a few, can all contribute to a client’s anxiety and feelings of vulnerability. As you can see, the "correct" placement of weapons in the home requires the answering of deeper questions before a good solution is found.

Karen Carrasco, WSFS Teacher