Bamboo stems are also an excellent tool for slowing down Chi. If you have long corridors in your house, the rooms at the end of such corridors suffer from Shar Chi, the killing breath, rushing headlong toward them. This fast-moving Chi can be slowed down using bamboo stems hung in the same way as described above, with a red piece of thread tied between them. These hollow stems encourage the poisonous Chi to rise up through them and in the process turn the Chi into friendly Sheng Chi. The best way to counter a long corridor is to block the room it hits by using a screen or divider of some sort; bamboo stems, flutes, and windchimes can only do so much to help. If these Feng Shui antidotes are, however, much smaller than the corridor itself the best solution is to use both stationary and hanging dividers.
Banking
The business of banking belongs to the water element, and thus the most effective Feng Shui enhancer for a bank is water. Building auspicious water features in the north or the southeast is especially recommended.
Barbecues
Because barbecues represent fire (as do all cooking appliances, stoves, ovens, and so forth), they are best held in the south of the garden, which is ruled by the fire element. This activates the corner that brings recognition and fame luck to the family. It is also the sector of the middle daughter, so holding barbecues here will assist her in her grades and her personal development. If you are not able to locate the barbecue in the south corner of your garden, you should at least ensure it is not placed in the east or southeast, as these sectors are wood sectors. The fire from the barbecue will (symbolically) burn the wood, thus burning away your wealth luck (southeast) and health luck (east).
Basement Apartments
These are usually not auspicious. Feng Shui does not recommend living below road level. Basement apartments are therefore not the best units to live in. If you have no choice you can enhance the Chi by installing bright lights at the entrance. This should “raise” the energy, encouraging Chi to flow into the apartment. If the basement apartment opens into a garden at the back, the Feng Shui will be considerably improved.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms are similar to toilets in the way that Feng Shui views them. They are not good to have in the house from a Feng Shui viewpoint. Try to minimize the size and décor of your bathrooms and keep the doors to your bathrooms closed at all times. Bathrooms should never be too large.
Beaded Curtains
A Feng Shui cure for afflicted doorways. The placement of doors within the home has great Feng Shui significance. You should never have two doors directly facing each other across a corridor. This confrontational positioning will bring about quarrels and misunderstandings between the members of the household, and particularly between the two people whose doors face each other. To soften the negative effect of such a layout, short of changing the placement of the doors completely, hang a beaded curtain across the doorway. This way, the door always appears to be closed. However, if one door faces part of another this has a worse effect. In such a situation, it is advisable to try to place something between the doors, such as a plant, which can act as a divider. Beaded curtains in this instance will not be a suitable solution.
Beams
Protruding overhead beams cause Feng Shui problems inside the home and office. You can either hang a five-rod windchime or hang two hollow bamboo stems tied with red thread to overcome the negative Chi. Do not sit directly underneath exposed overhead beams, especially structural beams.
Bedrooms
Important rooms that should always enjoy good Feng Shui. The main thing to remember is that the bedroom is a place of relaxation and rest. The energies that prevail in the bedroom should thus be more Yin than Yang, since a bedroom that is too Yang will cause the occupant to be too active, which may cause difficulties in sleeping. Because of this, many Feng Shui masters warn against activating the bedroom with too many good fortune symbols. Such symbols, which may work well in the other parts of the house, may work against you in the bedroom.
Water features are generally auspicious but they do more harm than good in the bedroom. Sleeping with water behind you will cause you to be robbed or to suffer a financial loss. Note that water does not only mean aquariums, fountains, and fish bowls. Paintings of water should also be kept out of the bedroom. It is, however, acceptable to decorate your bedroom in blue, a color of relaxation and calm. Black represents water and this color should not be a prominent feature of your bedroom.
The inclusion of mirrors is one of the most common mistakes in modern bedroom interior design. Mirrors are frequently used to create a sense of space. Whether the mirrors are attached to cupboards in the bedroom, or on the ceiling, the reflective edges of mirrors send out Shar Chi onto the sleeping couple. This will cause quarrels and misunderstandings, as well as ill-health. Mirrors also bring a third party into the marriage when they reflect the sleeping couple, causing husbands and/or wives to be unfaithful. Note that anything with a reflective surface, even television sets, which resemble a mirror, should be kept out of the bedroom. If you have mirrors that you cannot take down, cover them with a curtain. Similarly, television sets should be covered with a cloth each night before you go to sleep.
Open shelves should be covered up anywhere in the house, not just in the bedroom, where they do most harm. If you have such shelves facing your bed while you sleep each of the shelves will be sending little poison arrows toward you throughout the night. It will only be a matter of time before you fall ill. If you cannot close the open shelves with doors, another solution is to ensure the shelves are lined with books whose spines are set flush with the edge of the shelf, thus getting rid of the shelves.
Flowers and plants, especially growing plants, are potent symbols of Yang energy, and are not suitable for the bedroom. If you place plants in a girl’s bedroom, this will work against her in the romance stakes. If plants feature in the bedroom of a couple they will quarrel frequently. The only time flowers and plants are justified in the bedroom is when someone is recuperating from an illness and needs Yang energy to recover.
Your sleeping direction is a most important consideration if you are to benefit from good Feng Shui. It is therefore vital that your head is pointed in one of your four good directions while sleeping. Check your good and bad directions using the formula based on your Kua number (see “Compass Feng Shui,”.)
Beds
Sleep in a bed with Feng Shui dimensions. A Feng Shui bed has auspicious dimensions and is decorated with colors that harmonize either with the element of the corner in which the bed is placed, or the element of the year in which you were born. To be safe, it is better to use the element of the corner; this allows the bed to be auspicious for more than one person (i.e. for you and your partner or spouse). Beds with headboards are better as they provide support. Because a bedroom is a place of rest, too much Yang energy is bad and can cause sleepless nights. If you wish to use red, a dark red or maroon is better than a bright, chilly red. Bedspreads are also better in plain colors. Avoid any abstract designs with arrows and triangles: these represent the fire element, which is very bad for the bedroom. It also symbolizes many poison arrows attacking you while you sleep.
Bells
Use tinkling bells to improve turnover in your business. Chinese shopkeepers have long been aware of the efficacy of tinkling bells in attracting customers into their stores. When hung on the door or on a door handle, the ringing of these metal bells creates good Chi each time someone enters the store. This brings in the luck required to make people purchase your products, enhancing your store’s turnover. This method is particularly effective for stores selling personal items such as jewelry, clothes, and accessories.
The bells can be made of any type of metal. They should be tied with a red ribbon to increase their effectiveness, as this activates their intrinsic Yang energy. The ideal number of bells is six or seven, although most shopkeepers only keep one set of bells. Tiny bells can also be placed inside the store anywhere along the west or northwest wall or high up on the ceiling directly