Feng Shui By Fishgirl

Before I talk about Feng Shui, I want to talk about my email account. In the last ten years my email account has changed at least five times. Not because I was ping ponging from one company to another looking for the best deal. No, the opposite was true. I have only stayed with one company but that company keeps being bought and sold over and over again, each time changing my email account!

That is how I feel about my history with Feng Shui. I stay committed to Feng Shui but my practitioners keep moving!!!! They simply feng shui themselves out of my life. It started in 1996 when my good friend Ann gave me Denise Linn's "Sacred Space" Book. Although the book is NOT about Feng Shui it discusses how to clear out the bad energy and bring in more good energy.

Denise is native american so she brought in a lot of that knowledge and pointed out stagnant energies and how to release them. By the time I finished her book I was clearing out corners and taking stuff to goodwill faster than you can say, "Sacred Space." Luckily for me, my friend Ann with her Moon in Aries was out in front and had found and secured Nate, a Feng Shui practitioner because I could feel myself wanting 'more'. When I heard what Nate did in Ann's house, I was fascinated. Feng Shui seemed a natural progression after reading Sacred Spaces.

So, I too hired Nate. He was great, he came over to my apartment in my tony neighborhood and we worked out all the kinks. There were some issues that needed fixing but for the most part he said it was a pretty clear space. When he gonged the gong, it had an extra ring in it which lifted his eyebrows. He said, "That does not happen often and he said the space was good." Two months later I moved. I laugh now thinking about it. We cleared the energy so well, that I felt the need to downsize. The move was liberating on so many levels and the funny part was my 'big' move was to a smaller apartment two floors up from current apartment.

Now, with all my new information regarding Baguas (9 squares) and my list of Nos and Yes's (No Mirror in the bedroom. Yes, a Water feature near the front door.) I was ready to set up my new place with a lot more thought to space. Nate came to the new place and gave it the once over and agreed it was in good shape. And then just like that Nate moved six time zones away from Los Angeles.

And so I floated without any practitioner for two years in my little apartment but I had no complaints, my boyfriend and I got engaged and all was good. Then, again, following the gypsy in my soul, I moved out of my little place back into a bigger size apartment, this time one floor down from little apartment. I was now in my third apartment in this one building. I'm sure the managers thought I was nuts but if you saw the 1920's building in this leafy neighborhood you would have stayed too!

Anyway, after we got married and had been in the new place over a year, I felt strongly that the energy was 'off'. I was now ready to find a new Feng Shui practitioner and as these things tend to happen---when you are ready for something, that something will walk into your life and thus entered Juko.

Juko had many skills not the least was Feng Shui, but she was different for me. Nate practiced Black Hat Feng Shui which was Form School Feng Shui and Juko practiced Compass. Both, schools rely on a Grid but one uses the compass directions and the other uses the position of the Front Door. My head started to spin as I moved into East, South, West and North thinking. But once again, I had huge successes, not the least being the conception and birth of my son. And so it was that we puttered along in our apartment until my son turned six months and started to crawl. I began to panic about being up five floors with an active son and so we moved. We settled for a townhouse one neighborhood away with an expansive communal backyard. It was a piece of heaven and one more time, Juko came over, gave extensive notes as we dealt with a second floor and a front door that is directly in line to a back door (yikes) she suggested some shifts of furniture and just like that announced she was not going to be able to take any more Feng Shui clients or appointments because she was returning to school for her Masters Degree in Design. So, I was on my own again.

Now by this point, I was in my eight year of Feng Shui and space clearing and finding energies in my house that I was simply healing myself. I would putter around, tweak things, remember various lessons from Nate and Juko. Doing it all. Until finally in 2007 I could once again, feel the energy shift and I said to my husband, "I've gotta get a Feng Shui practitioner again." And so I went searching. And this is when I found Katy Allgeyer Feng Shui by Fish Girl . Katy at the time lived in Los Angeles and was convenient and after looking at her blog, I just "got" that she would be the right energy for us. Katy came over and suggested various colors to be painted on certain walls, some movement of furniture, areas that we needed to 'fix' primarily having to do with the walls of junk that one has with a five year old boy. But she did not have me overhaul everything. We did not have to go down to the studs and completely change our life over of which my husband said, "Oh, Thank god!" After Katy's work, which was a return to Form School Feng Shui, the house seemed to hum better and the hurdles shortened and the rewards multiplied. And of course, and frankly, I was used to this.. Katy sent me an email.."I'm moving to North Carolina." Was it me? or what?

I was totally fine with Katy's move since I felt we were in good shape. But then two years later I felt a 'leak' of energy in my house. My husband's schedule was increasingly taking more and more time away from the family, my own energy was being dissipated as I was being pulled in more and more different directions. Again, I felt 'off'. My friend Margaret had a recommendation of Kerry Ann who practiced Compass School. Luckily for me, Kerry Ann was in sync with Katy and although it could have been topsy turvy given my front door is directly opposite the Feng Shui North but because I use my back door like a front door the whole thing kind of worked. Kerry Ann's notes were useful and once again, we hummed along but with all things Feng Shui--I was not surprised that Kerry Ann's availability was limited since she lives primarily in Europe and is in town only a few weeks a year. And so I was on my own again for a year.

Then last month, I got an email from Katy that she would be in town and did I want a tune up? The answer was a resounding YES. I have come to realize that I always benefit by a Feng Shui practitioner's eye. I just get sloppy. I don't mean that my house is a mess kind of sloppy. I mean, sloppy in other ways. Katy said right away that my front entrance was in need of a fix. My two fruit trees branches were blocking the entrance, the front mat was ratty, the potted plants looked more half dead than half alive. After ten years of Feng Shui, I know better but I needed Katy to come in and call my attention. Hey, I once got forty pounds fat, I needed the fat doctor to call me on it. Same with Feng Shui.

Anyway, as to be expected, Katy and I moved back the tree branches from my front door, I went out and got a new mat that said, "Welcome". I started moving out some of the clutter that had accumulated in the last year and bingo..I saw a change. I had some people step up significantly at my son's school so the pressure was not just on me to get some stuff changed. I had a family member help me in a way they had never helped before. My husband got an offer that could improve his career. All in all, we felt the energy shift and concrete results. This is the stuff of Feng Shui. Luckily, you can all benefit by it in the here and now. You should check out Katy's blog--FENG SHUI BY FISHGIRL She can work with you in real life and by remote. Please give her a read.

Now, let me go move a box of crap out of my life as I prepare the space for Treasure Map.


And as Denise Linn says, "Our homes are mirrors of ourselves. Through them we can interface with the universe."

What does yours say about you?