The Year of the Water Snake – Coming In For a Landing
On February 10th, we officially say goodbye to the Year of the Water Dragon and hello to the Year of the Water Snake. Imagine the wings and scales of a dragon transforming into a lithe fluid snake body that can easily appear and disappear in a heartbeat…. It’s this quicksilver quality of ‘now we don’t see it, now we do’ that weaves itself into this year, presenting us with an interesting mix of energies.
Sudden changes in the fabric of our lives can be quite unsettling. Most people who have physically encountered a snake recall how surprising and often alarming it is. Such an abrupt shift in reality produces a wake-up call that is memorable. Suddenly, we see something significant that we didn’t see before and must act accordingly. Experiences like these compel us to sharpen our observation skills, heighten our present-state awareness, and pay attention to who and what surrounds us.
Whatever amount of heaven the Dragon opened within you last year is now ready to be solidly grounded into your life on earth. It is time to blend your five senses with your intuition and maintain a deep communion with your visible and invisible streams of guidance. Eyes open and feelers out, you literally align yourself with synchronicity and chart your course accordingly. As a conscious conduit of heaven and earth, your capacity to sense and feel subtle energies can key you into the ideal timing to be out in the world.
A snake is fluidity in motion. She has the capacity to move like lightning or remain motionless until just the right moment. She teaches us how to be mindful and align our thoughts, words, and actions with the flow of each moment. Impulsiveness is a direct pathway to unwelcome surprises. Like the snake, practicing patience and presence can assure safe passage through life.
These directives inevitably lead us into the depths of self-inquiry, especially with 2013’s Water element plunging us into our own deepest mysteries. To buoy our explorations, Feng Shui suggests that we create (or recreate) two places – an outer and an inner sanctuary. An outer sanctuary, housed in our abodes, may be any size that’s appropriate, from a tiny altar to a whole room or section of the house. As you craft your sacred space, include meaningful items that symbolize the 5 Elements and fashion a personally pleasing and serene atmosphere where the alchemy of incarnation is solidly anchored in place.
To deepen your practice, liberate your creative imagination and breathe life into an inner sanctuary. Make it an extraordinary reflection of yourself, flesh out every detail, and savor the process. You are the ‘soul’ creator of your inner sanctuary, free of all constraints. Here, you are truly limitless!
The more you develop and refine your sensory and intuitive acuity, the better. The study of any healing modality (including the environmental healing practice of Feng Shui), art, music, dance, yoga, martial arts, shamanism, animal communication, and the many veins of earth wisdom such as herbal medicine, organic gardening, foraging, and tracking, are just a few suggestions for learning during 2013. No more fooling around – it’s time to root yourself in your true interests and make them an active part of your daily life.
Our collective work is to transform any tendency to sleepwalk, space out, or disconnect from self or each other. We invest ourselves in being solidly grounded, wide-awake, and openheartedly connected to all that comprises our everyday down-to-earth life. This is a year of maturation, a coming of age, as we intimately embrace the sacred equality of earth and heaven. The Year of the Snake opens us up to the wonders of the embodied world. Let’s see it clearly, feel it fully, and maybe for the first time in our lives, come in for a landing.
With Love & Every Blessing,
Terah Kathryn Collins
Founder, Western School of Feng Shui™
The Fire Element
The Fire element activates leadership qualities and kindles healthy emotional interactions between people. Too much Fire in an environment stimulates or amplifies aggression, impatience, and impulsive behavior, while too little Fire can promote emotional darkness or coldness.
The Fire element is found in:
· lighting, including electric, oil, candles, fireplaces, and natural sunlight.
· items from animals, such as fur, suede, leather, bone, feathers, silk, and wool
· pets and wildlife.
· art portraying people or animals.
· art depicting sunshine, fire, or other illumination.
· triangles, pyramids, and cone shapes.
· all red tones, including pink, red orange, magenta, and maroon.
Read More
The Season of Returning Light
by Terah Kathryn Collins
‘Tis the Season when short days and cool temperatures beckon us to spend more time indoors. Winter is the time when the Sun, Nature’s primal source of the Fire element, offers the least warmth. To maintain our elemental balance, it’s the time to illuminate our homes with enhancements that bring the comfort of the Fire element’s warmth indoors.
Candlelight is an archetypal symbol of Fire. A room can be transformed by lighting it with the luminous magic of candles. With safety always in mind, group pillar candles, tea lights, votives, and tapers to create multi-tiered arrangements of illumination. Choose any hue of red, the color of the Fire element, and add reflective trays and holders to multiply and magnify the light.
Soft lamplight accentuates the warm ambiance of any room. Turn glare into glow by installing rheostats or dimmers that let you adjust your lighting to fit every need and mood. Consider replacing fluorescent lights with more versatile and appealing track or recessed lighting. Or, add task lights, ornamental lamps, and other alternative lighting so that the fluorescents are rarely needed.
The fireplace or hearth symbolizes the heart of a home and inspires the timeless feelings of comfort and safety. Keep a wood-burning fireplace at the ready with fresh logs for the next fire as this connotes continual warmth and light.
In the Nourishing Cycle of Feng Shui’s Five Elements, Wood feeds Fire. When you combine them together, you can create a particularly welcoming wintertime environment. Interestingly, their color associations – red and green – correlate with the classic Christmas colors. Arrange evergreens, ribbons, candles, flowers, ornaments, and other seasonal decorations in reds and greens to create your own beautiful displays.
The element of Fire is also enhanced by your relationships with your loved ones. Include “mementos of the heart” that remind you of your favorite people and display photos of them from previous holidays, as well as ornaments made by or given to you by them.
Winter is the time to create an environment that invites us to renew ourselves and deepen our kinship with friends and family. We seek places to settle into deep introspection and meaningful conversation. Let’s light the candles, cozy up around the fire, and share good times with those we love. With our home fires burning, we open our hearts to winter’s essence and celebrate the returning of the light.
(c) 2013 Terah Kathryn Collins
Read MoreThe Water Element
The Water element enhances spirituality, inspiration, relaxation, and the ability to go with the flow. Too much Water in an environment can promote spaciness and diminish productivity, while too little Water encourages stress, rivalry, anxiety, pettiness, and sarcasm.
The Water element is found in:
· streams, pools, fountains, and water features of all kinds.
· reflective surfaces such as cut crystal, glass, and mirrors.
· flowing, free-form, and asymmetrical shapes.
· art portraying bodies of water.
· black and all dark tones, such as charcoal gray and navy blue.
Read MoreThe Metal Element
The Metal element enhances mental acuity and independence, and strengthens presence of mind, even in times of stress. Too much Metal creates mental rigidity, stubbornness, lack of teamwork, and the inability to compromise; while too little Metal promotes indecisiveness, procrastination, and confusion.
The Metal element is found in:
· all metals, including stainless steel, copper, brass, iron, silver, aluminum, and gold.
· cement, rocks, and stones—including marble, granite, and flagstone.
· natural crystals and gemstones.
· art and sculpture made from metal or stone.
· circular, oval, and arched shapes.
· white and light pastel colors.
Read MoreThe Earth Element
The Earth element enhances physical strength, sensuality, order, practicality, and stability. Too much Earth in a home creates an atmosphere that is heavy, serious, or conservative, while too little of the Earth element promotes instability, clutter, and chaos.
The Earth element is found in:
· adobe, brick, and tile.
· ceramics and earthenware objects.
· square and rectangular shapes.
· art portraying earthy landscapes, such as deserts or fertile fields.
· yellow and all earthtones.
Read More
Stay Connected
