February 4: Chinese Solar New Year
February 9: New Moon in Aquarius … Update Your HP&T Gua
February 10: Chinese Lunar New Year
February 14: Valentine’s Day
February 24: Full Snow Moon
We begin February heading into a third quarter moon. This leads up to the new moon on February 9th and Chinese (Lunar) New Year on February 10th. Third quarter moons are the best time of the month to let go of clutter, and release things that you no longer love or use. The moon’s energy wanes (decreases), as it moves toward the new moon. As a result, you are more likely to feel like thinning things out.
If you make annual changes for your home according to the Flying Stars, February 4th is the day to install your cures and adjustments. This is the solar new year, the symbolic beginning of spring. February 10th is the day of celebrations and parades. See my separate blog post about this.
Helpful People & Travel Gua
The first week of February is an ideal time to prepare for the February 9th new moon and Chinese New Year. Helpful People & Travel (HP&T) is the gua that correlates with the February new moon. This is the front (or nearest) right corner of your house, every room in your house, and your house, your office or workspace and your land, based on how you enter that space. During the winter months in the northeast, enjoying the interior of your home is good enough. Don’t worry about your yard at this time of year, other than clearing snow and maintaining open access to your main doors.
The HP&T gua influences the right people coming into your life at the right time. This could be family and friends, professionals and business associates, teachers, mentors, guides, spiritual helpers (seen and unseen). This area also relates to relationships with the males in your life …fathers, grandfathers, step-dads, spouses, partners, etc. If you’d like to strengthen, reinforce, or shift a relationship with an influential male in your life, this is the area to work with. (To attract a male partner, work with the Partnership gua, the back right corner of your house. (See separate blog post).
Headaches, Migraines, and Neurological Issues
From a health perspective, the HP&T gua rules your head and brain. If you or others in your home experience migraine headaches, have brain injuries, or other neurological conditions or ailments, give some extra attention to the HP&T guas in your house and the front right corners of each room.
Travel is another theme of this gua. If you’d like to visit a particular place or area, place something in this gua to hold that intention for you. It could be a picture of or from the location, a map, a travel book, a favorite item or trinket from the area, etc.
What does it mean to “give extra attention” to these areas? By this, I mean:
- Clear out clutter. These are items that you don’t use or love.
- Open any blocked area or pathway... shoes at doorways, overstuffed closets.
- Make sure plumbing and electric are in proper working order.
- Put things away. Give everything a home.
- Clean the space. Dust and Vacuum. Get it sparkling.
- Audit the messages and symbolism in your décor. Remove items that reinforce what you no longer want.
- Include one or more items or art that hold or strengthen your intentions.
- Step back and set an overall intention related to HP&T.
Years ago, one of my clients told me that his wife suffered from migraine headaches and that she worked at a very cluttered desk and sat in a broken chair in what turned out to be the HP&T gua of their kitchen and house. So, she actually sat in the HP&T corner within the HP&T gua … a “double” gua area. After replacing her chair, clearing the clutter, and reorganizing her work area, they realized that her migraines also went away.
I recommend that you review the front right area of your house and every room in your house prior to the February 9th new moon. How do these spaces look and feel? Are you happy with them? Do they feel clean and energized? If you notice clutter or things that are out of place, this is a good time to clear the excess and refresh the area. Remove what doesn’t below there. Eliminate paper piles (including too many magazines, catalogs, or books). Look for piles on the floor … which can contribute to depression. This month, lighten up and clean up! Even if you don’t know any feng shui, doing so can lead to a significant improvement in your life.
Front Doors in the Helpful People & Travel Gua
If your front door is located in the HP&T gua, give it some extra attention. Make sure that there is a clear and open path to your front door (clear all snow!). Once inside, notice the focal point or the first thing that captures your attention. What is the message it’s giving off? Does it reinforce your wishes or intentions? If not, make some adjustments so that every time you come in your front door, you invigorate this area of your life.
Also, if you have a pile of shoes inside your front door, organize them. Too many shoes at the front door can lead to accidents, such as tripping over them.
The Helpful Peo0ple & Travel Gua is. Metal Gua
The HP&T gua is energized by the “Metal” element. Metal is represented by all metals; the colors white and gray (as well as pastels); and circular, oval, and arch shapes. This is a great area to include pictures, images, sculptures, and representations of males important to you, benefactors and helpful people, spiritual guides, and leaders. This is an area to ask for help or to set an intention for the right people to come into your life at the right time.
Metal is strengthened by Earth and weakened by Water. Thus, square shapes, earthy items, and the colors yellow, beige and brown are supportive, while undulating shapes and a lot of black is not. That said, every area needs to have all five elements represented. The overall look and feel of each space will indicate which elements are dominant. Aligning the energies so that they enhance your intentions is more likely to bring the results you’re looking for, faster and easier.
In the HP&T gua, ramp up Earth and Metal elements, balanced by Water, Wood and Fire elements. I encourage you to play with the look and feel of your spaces. Get them so that they are comfortable and pleasing to you, within a feng shui framework.
As you evaluate your space, consider how the mix of the Five Elements is represented in your space. Color weighs heavily. If the walls of your room are white or gray, the area already has a good amount of metal energy. Next evaluate your furniture. Wood furniture is categorized as the Earth element since the wood has been harvested. Fresh plants and trees represent the Wood element.
After you evaluate the primary attributes of your space, look at your additional décor. Decorative pillows and blankets, artistic objects, pictures and paintings, lamps, etc. Generally, these provide ample opportunities for making shifts in various rooms and throughout your house. Often, a few well thought out adjustments can make a big difference.
What might some of these be?
Evaluate color. If the predominant color is in the black, green, or red family, tone it down with colors in a yellow, brown, beige, white or gray palette. Slip covers, pillows, and blankets are easy ways to make a big color change without changing wall color.
Assess photographs. Remove all pictures that were not taken during happy times, where people were unhappy, of people with whom you have a troubled relationship, etc. Add a beautiful photo of a male in your life with whom you have a good relationship or with whom you’d like to have a better one.
Check your artwork. What messages are being conveyed? Replace fighting or aggressive art with something that conveys leadership, kind-hearted authority, or spiritual blessings.
If the space is dark, add a light, such as a metal lamp with a white or light-colored shade.
Hang a beautiful crystal for clarity or place a bowl of beautiful crystals.
Include one or more earthenware items.
Here’s a review of the Five Elements. Have more Earth and Metal. Tone down (but don’t completely omit) objects that are predominantly Water, Wood, or Fire elements.
Have or introduce objects with Metal and Earth energy in your HP&T gua:
Metal energy helps bring clarity to a space. Metal items include:
· Shiny objects
· All metal: gold, silver, brass, aluminum and more (pots, pans, lamps, picture frames …)
· Marble, granite, flagstone
· Natural crystals and rocks dug from deep in the earth.
· Circles, oval and arch shapes
· White, gray, and pastel colors.
Earth energy grounds and anchors your space. Earth items include:
· Pottery, earthenware, bricks, and clay
· Square, flat, and horizontal shapes
· Oversized or heavy furniture that hugs the floor
· Yellow, brown and earth tones
Minimize or reduce Water, Wood, and Fire elements if/when they are overwhelming:
Water energy helps to create flow. It also brings reflective and philosophical qualities. Water is represented by:
· Water features and water itself
· Mirrors, windows, glass, reflective and shiny surfaces
· Black and very dark colors
· Free form, wavy and symmetrical shapes
· Pictures of lakes, rivers, harbors, ocean views
Wood energy is about growth and expansion. Wood is represented by:
· Fresh flowers, evergreens, garlands, and plants
· Floral fabrics and patterns
· Vertical stripes and tall columns
· Vertical rectangles
· Green and blue
Fire brings dazzling, sparkling energy to a space. It is represented by:
· Fire, flames, lights, sunlight, candles
· Stars, triangles, pyramids, diamond, and cone shapes
· People and animals
· Electronics and electrical items
· Red, burgundy and the red palette
February 9th – 10th New Moon and Chinese New Year
Do a meditation on February 9th calling on the Helpful People in your life or asking for the right ones to come to you. If you’d like to travel to a particular place(s), include that in your meditation as well. Helpful People and Travel is also the location for male authority figures: such as your father or a father figure in your life, male leaders, and more. This is another aspect to work with if you would like to honor, shift, or strengthen these relationships.
Write down your intentions. Think of this as planting the seeds for your wishes. Put your intention in a red envelope, activate it with a prayer or blessing and then place it in the GP&T gua of your home, bedroom, or office. Write your intention in the present tense, using positive words, just as if it’s happening for you now. For example: “At this new moon I am so grateful that my relationship with my father is growing stronger.” You can also be more specific. The more details you include, the better your result.
Allow your intentions to take root via your mediation. Sit quiet, reflect on what you’d like to happen and see it taking place. Let go of how it will unfold. Leave this up to the Universe. Your intentions will gain momentum as the moonlight grows stronger and culminates with a full moon on Saturday, February 24th.
Nine Feng Shui Tips for the HP&T gua
Continue to enhance your HP&T gua throughout the month. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Travel books
- A map or globe
- Pictures of places for travel
- A happy picture of your husband, dad, or grand-dad, or step-father
- Metal objects: gold, silver, brass, copper, etc. … lamps, art, sculpture
- Round or oval objects: frames, art, furniture
- Gray, silver, white, or pastel colors
- Pictures or symbols of special helpers, leaders, mentors, guides, teachers, spiritual beings, angels
- A crystal or lamp to bring more clarity and light.
Chinese New Year is February 10th. We’ll be in the year of the Yang Wood Dragon. See my separate blog post to learn more.
Check-in at the February 24th Full Moon
The February full moon is two weeks later on Saturday, February 24th. On this day and the following two weeks, looks for signs that the intentions you set on February 9th have taken root. As the light of the full moon shines bright, may it fill you with you and inspiration as well.
Contact Peg for a Consultation
If you’d like help applying these concepts to your space, contact Peg for a consultation. It can help to put you on a path to success.