Your furniture arrangement should allow the chi to flow as smoothly as possible. Always place your furniture and decorative objects in simple, balanced configurations. It is best to position your furniture parallel to the walls. If your room is very large, however, you can position some pieces of furniture diagonally in the corners to create a feeling of roundness.

Avoid creating obstacles by putting too much furniture in a room or by using furniture that is too large for the space. Also, avoid arranging your furniture in ways that interfere with, or complicate, normal routines. Use common sense. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rat is reputed to make an excellent writer and this is not surprising at all. He makes it a point to know practically everything about everyone in town. He keeps tabs, has an uncanny eye for detail, a good memory and is incredibly inquisitive.

The native of this year will be successful in whatever he chooses to do because like his sign, the Rat, he will adapt himself to the situation at hand. He has the ability to cope with difficulties and is at his best during a crisis. Levelheaded and alert, he possesses keen intuition, foresight and business acumen. Adversity merely serves to sharpen his wits and he is always busy cooking up some scheme. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rat year is a year of plenty, bringing opportunity and good prospects. It will be marked by speculation and fluctuations in the prices of commodities and the stock market; the world economy in general will boom. Business will be on the upswing, fortunes can be made and it will be an easy time to accumulate wealth. However, this is also the time to make long-term investment plans as the bonanza the year of the Rat brings will serve to see us through the bleak years that may follow. All ventures begun at this time will be successful if one prepares well. But do not take chances or unnecessary risks: the year of the Rat is still ruled by the cold of winter and the darkness of night. Those who speculate indiscriminately and overextend themselves will come to a sad reckoning. Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese Horoscope Rat Born withPisces: Water + Positive Water

A very pleasing personality, as the Piscean is melodious and psychic and the Rat well versed in taking care of his family and interests. A subject formed by the combination of these two signs will always be able to demonstrate his creativity, even if he is shy and not desirous of facing the public. He could be a prolific writer because of the Fish’s deep appreciation of human emotions. Read the rest of this entry »

When looking for a place with good Feng Shui, be particularly alert to the contours of the surroundings. When the road is sloping, sites that are halfway between the highest and lowest point are better than those right at the top or at the bottom.

The top of a hill is said to be inauspicious since there is little protection from the elements.

Valleys are less problematic but in general look for sites at midlevel rather than at extremes. Read the rest of this entry »

In Feng Shui, this period is considered to be the period of seven when anything placed in numbers of seven create powerful energy patterns. When placed in the west the potency increases because seven is also the number of the west.Thus, during this period anything hung or displayed in the west part of the home or living room which symbolizes thenumber seven and the element gold will be auspicious. Examples of such symbols of good fortune — dragons, phoenixes, horses, elephants, and so forth — in the color of gold to imitate the metal element will be very lucky when they are placed in the west part of the home. Make sure, of course, that there are seven of each of the good fortune symbols. Read the rest of this entry »

The next step in interior Feng Shui is to look at other doors inside the home. As withmain doors, doors in a straight line are a classic taboo; they transform healthy, auspicious Chi into belligerent Chi because a straight line causes the Chi to move too fast. When doors in a straight line are sandwiched by the front and back doors, expect bad luck. You need to create a barrier or diversion of some kind to force the Chi to slow down and lose some of its sting. For this reason Feng Shui experts strenuously warn against three doors in a straight line.

Having taken care of this, there a few other guidelines on doors that are useful to note. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many bedroom taboos of which you should be aware. There should be a full length, solid wall behind the bed, providing you with support and a sense of security. This is an important rule, but sometimes you will want to tap a particularly auspicious direction, and then you must weigh up your options. It is not possible to get the Feng Shui of the bed 100 percent correct.

If your bed is immediately underneath a window, support is said to be sorely lacking. If you cannot reposition the bed against a solid wall, close the windows and draw the curtains when you sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

This is because the center of any home should represent the area of maximum Chi concentration, since this represents the heart of the residence. The center is alsosignified by the earth element. At the same time, Feng Shui alsowarns against siting the kitchen, any storerooms, and toilets in thecentral part of a home.

Large decorative earthen jars and pots in any rounded shape are excellent for the southwest corners of rooms. Place peacock feathers, artificial silk flowers, or freshly cut flowers inside these jars. On no account display dried or dead flowers or plants, not evendecorative driftwood. Dead wood and dried plants signify the failure and death of a relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pa-Kua, Lo-Shu system of Feng Shui, sometimes referred to as the Eight Mansions theory (and, indeed based on the powerful Eight Mansions formula of Compass School Feng Shui) can be used to assign good and bad directions of travel that are based on the Kua numbers of individuals.Thus, depending on your sex and date of birth, it is possible to determine the directions of travel that are deemed auspicious or inauspicious for you.

This method of Feng Shui can therefore be used to determine the Feng Shui luck of important decisions and moves that involve traveling. These may be an important business trip, a move to a new house or office, a relocation to a new country, or a change of place or abode. The use of Feng Shui for these purposes in a practical sense calls for the practitioner to organize his or her itinerary or move in such a way that the direction of travel is always beneficial. Read the rest of this entry »

Small backyards of the houses of city-dwellers will, if neglected, always attract and accumulateYin energy. Avoid this if you can by creating a patio or terrace garden from such spaces. Feng Shui is most accommodating: no space is too small for it.

Try to think of a patio as an inner courtyard, an extension to the house but open to the elements. A small water feature such as a fountain or a pool surrounded by plants will attract Sheng Chi into the home. As we have also seen earlier, decorative features such as small pergolas, trellises and hanging baskets are all good for gardens and can also be introduced into patios, so long as they are in proportion, to auspicious effect. Add interest to the ground plan of your patio by perhaps adding a small paved area with decorative stones. In placing them, always be guided by theelements that are represented by the compass location of your patio garden. For example, the best locations for stones or pebbles are the southwest or northeast, since the ruling element is earth. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always marveled at people like Mother Teresa who devote their entire lives to helping others. Her sacrifice was unquestionable. What drives people to help in this way? It certainly wasn’t money. I never saw Mother Teresa driving around in a Rolls Royce. Altruism, having concern for and helping other people without asking for anything in return, seems to have been a favorite topic among social psychologists. Maybe, they studied altruism with such zeal because it’s an integral part of our everyday lives. Nearly every day, we’re presented with a situation in which someone needs our help, even if it’s those sad, late-night commercials showing starving children in developing nations.

I think that most of us like to see ourselves as helpful people. If we’re not particularly helpful, then at least we’re willing to help in certain situations or when the need is severe. Hundreds, if not thousands, of studies conducted by social psychologists have investigated why, when, and who we actually help. Some of the findings are surprising, even shocking.

In New York City, 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered outside of her apartment by a man with a knife. She struggled with the attacker and screamed for help for nearly 35 minutes. No one came to her aid. There were later reports by 38 of her neighbors stating that they had witnessed the crime and heard her screams, but they did nothing to help her. Read the rest of this entry »