Feng Shui & Money: Promoting the FLOW (or Why Not All Fountains Are Created Equal)

There are so many ways to facilitate money flow in feng shui.

And there are also so many ways to block it.

My friend and client, Dave Romanelli -- yoga & meditation teacher, Momenteer, and author of Happy is the New Healthy -- texted me for a session the other day:

our text conversation

The last time we had spoke, we assessed the Money area of his home and his office, which is usually the back left corner of the space.

If you line the brown/black/gray areas to the front door of your floor plan, you will see that the Prosperity/Money area falls in the back left of your space.

Originally, on a prior session, he had a huge metal bookshelf in his office that he did not like.  This was a problem for many reasons.

1.  It irritated him, as it was darn ugly, and it overwhelmed the space.  

2.  It was a place for collecting bits of clutter, which is a no-no anyway BUT especially in the Money area, where this shelf happened to be,  and... 

3. It was big and metal, and the element for the Money area is Wood.  In the destructive cycle, Metal "chops" Wood, so Metal is the least favorable element for that section of the bagua map!

I suggested getting rid of the shelving unit and replacing it with a small table with perhaps a fountain, which would symbolize a flow of money.  Also because Water "nurtures" Wood in the constructive cycle of the elements, a fountain would be nice, and it would add a lovely natural sound to the office.

We had not followed up until he sent me that text.  In our Skype session, he showed me the great little black table he had found and the new fountain he had purchased.  

This:

Source, Amazon

Harmless enough, right?  In fact, it's quite nice in the photo...

However, in our session, I noticed it was not on.  The fountain that was supposed to promote flow was not flowing!  

"Dave, what's up with the fountain?  Why isn't it on?"  

"Oh, it is just so noisy honestly.  I didn't want it to interrupt our call."

I raised my eyebrows.

"How often do you have to turn it off and on?"

"Well, I forget to turn it on a lot.  Really I have to unplug it.  Even then, it really doesn't work that well, to make sure it's working, I have to...etc. etc."

So now, readers, you see what is going on here.  He had the best of intentions, but this fountain that he chose was symbolizing his subconscious notions about money:  that it takes a lot of effort to even get a trickle out of it!  

Not all feng shui cures are created equal, indeed!

I'm happy to say that Dave was actually relieved to hear this and he said, "This makes total sense!"   I suggested he get rid of that fountain altogether and use some lucky bamboo (8 stalks) and a red silk cloth (red is a power color) and perhaps a deity of some sort, such as Lakshmi or Ganesha (which coincides with his yogic traditions) or a happy Buddha.  

I must say, I've seen this with fountains and water features a lot with clients.  Basically, if maintaining the feature is a huge pain and takes more effort (cleaning, fixing, etc.) than it is worth and causes you more stress than tranquility, then that fountain is NOT the way to go for you.  Think of the symbolism, always!  You would be better off with a picture of money flow or a nice, sturdy plant or any of the suggestions I gave Dave.

So...get flowing!  

If you'd like to take Feng Shui to the next level, (and learn all you can about Money and Feng Shui), considering Katie's 9-week Feng Shui Journey, a tele-course beginning July 20th, 2015!