This is a journal post. I will record the feng shui adjustments I have made since the beginning of the Samhain season, and perhaps theorize their prospective effects on my life.
For feng shui theory, I prefer the Black Hat school (orientation-based) over the Classical school (cardinal direction-based). My knowledge of feng shui is intermediate at best. Classical feng shui can go beyond my level of understanding. I also don’t believe my housing development was built with cardinal direction in mind, so using a directional system doesn’t make sense to me.
If you would like a beginner-friendly primer about feng shui theory, Feng Shui Modern by Cliff Tan is THE best.
For as long as I’ve had my own living space, I’ve experienced seasonal urges to move all the furniture around to accommodate the change in the energy. As a renter this was easy enough, since I never bought anything I couldn’t lift alone. Since birth I’ve been moving house every two or three years. It wasn’t until I bought a house and committed to the idea of settling down that I realized the impact of all my restless moving – I’ve never given myself a solid foundation to anchor a routine to.
There are a few reasons that I’m told routine matters more for me than it may for others. Autism, bipolar 2, my N. Node in Gate 5 of Fixed Rhythms. But even though I knew it was important, I didn’t make any progress nailing down a daily rhythm until my therapist suggested a workbook about Social Rhythms Therapy, a new treatment for bipolar that addresses the circadian rhythm dysfunction at the root of the mood issues. I’m a type A personality and I love a workbook; even better to have one that takes my main lifestyle problem to the root cause instead of only treating symptoms.
My understanding of everything in life and the world was clarified by this workbook. My next long-term project became clear: I would have to develop the Perfect Day, and then I would have to live out variations of that day every day for the rest of my life. This day needs to fulfill all my wildest daydreams on a normal, casual basis. And the Perfect Day needs the Perfect Container, and that container is my home.
All this only happened over the Summer Solstice this year (2026). So I’ve only had a few months to attune my house to my Perfect Day. In some ways I’ve struggled to define what the Perfect Day would even entail. This is still very much in process. I do think I’ve moved closer to the center of the labyrinth over the past week.
One thing about me is that I give my cat everything his heart desires, and one of the things he desires is for the door to the screened-in porch to be open at all times, no matter the outdoor temperature. I’m actually happy to have fresh air circulating in the house all the time because of this, and after a year and a half I’ve adapted my lifestyle to the ambient temperature. During the summer and autumn, the main floor of the house is sweltering, so I retreat to the dimly lit and well insulated downstairs third of the split-level house.
The beginning of the Samhain season always draws energy back to the house’s center on the main floor, where the entrance and the kitchen are located. Around this time of year the ambient temperature outside during the day is about the same temperature I keep the inside of the house. At night it gets cooler. I actually function a lot better in cooler temperatures, so after spending all summer melting into various surfaces, during Samhain I start activating. My body wants to sit upright. I start feeling intrinsically motivated to cook and bake and clean and write.
Specific season aside, I often find myself making lifestyle changes during the Fire Festival seasons, and I think that’s because of the nature of my monastic contracts. Festival is when I level up, and that means rewards often get delivered right beforehand. This time my biggest lifestyle change is welcoming Sephie to the household, and everything that comes along with it.
1
Replaced terrible, cheap espresso machine with Profitec Go
Credit for this one goes to Sephie, who asked me to get her a better espresso machine as a wedding gift because she can’t buy one for me. For years I’ve been drinking bunk ass espresso because I didn’t care enough about myself to spend a large sum of money on a professional machine. This was just something I accepted as part of my life. And then Sephie arrived and she was like, I don’t get this. It doesn’t make sense for you.
Anyway, we looked at a bunch of options and this was the one she preferred for me. By nature of the kitchen’s layout the machine lives almost smack in the middle of the Reputation section. To go with it I’ve had to get a new espresso-specific coffee bean grinder, which lives just to its right. Between the two machines live a bunch of new hand tools I’ve gotten to reduce mess and improve my shots.
Unfortunately my Reputation section is inhibited by a corroded 50 year old cast iron pipe in the crawl space below the kitchen, and to fix it I must hire a plumber to cut into the wall, which will be an expensive ordeal. I’m saving up toward that, and my goal is to get it done before the end of my Capricorn 10th House profection year in mid-March. This feels like a realistic timeline and not an aspirational one. Capricorn, the 10th House, and Reputation all go well together.
So what does this mean for my feng shui? Because of the corroded pipe, the flow of energy will remain blocked for now, even though I’ve made a positive change. When I can get the drain fixed and energy starts to move properly again, my reputation will be influenced proportional to the influence of better espresso on my quality of life.
It’s not only about the reputation section – the ritual of preparing espresso is a foundation of my lifestyle, so making a positive change there is very impactful. I drink an iced cortado every two hours like clockwork, sunset to sunrise, every night of my life. Now that I’m using professional equipment, the espresso itself is not the only change. The quality of the entire experience of making the coffee has transformed. It happened very suddenly. I’m actually invested in taking good care of this machine, so it’s become the anchor of my new Opening and Closing ceremonies at the beginning and end of each vigil.
This change also adds a layer of enrichment to my life as a 1/3 profile: I’ve created a Notion template to track which beans I’ve tried and whether I’ve enjoyed them. Link for the curious.
2
Acquisition of Balmuda Moon Kettle
This kettle is very beautiful, it has to be said. I’m a huge fan of the aesthetic design, and it’s even better to hold in the hand. It heats the water for my tea to very specific temperatures with great speed and accuracy, and it even sings a little song while preparing to do its sacred work.
I’ve known for ages that when I finally shelled out for a proper kettle I wanted it to be from Balmuda. I’m a sucker for a brand story, maybe because I studied branding psychology for a year in graduate school before dropping out, or maybe just because I’m a millennial. I love Balmuda’s principles and their philosophy. Saturn has taught me that I should only buy things I’m truly passionate about, and now my house is full of small objects that make me feel verklempt.
I make sheng pu’er like my life depends on it, and on low energy days it’s the only thing that keeps me going. This kettle heats up to 194˚F in exactly the same amount of time it takes me to pull an espresso shot and clean up after myself.
Like the espresso setup, the Moon Kettle lives in the Reputation section. This is a fire element section so it makes sense for machines that get really hot. But once again, because of that corroded pipe, this feng shui adjustment will not come through until the plumbing is repaired.
3
Moved desk from Knowledge/Family sections to Helpful Friends section
The downstairs third of my split-level house is the most comfortable space for me to occupy during the sweltering summer months, so between Bealtaine and Samhain I usually set up the iMac facing the sofa bed in Saturn’s Corner, which is in the Knowledge section of the house. This summer I also set up my tea equipment on the desk in the Family section.
All that has now moved to the 8 seater walnut tabletop I’ve turned into my work table. I have it set up on two adjustable sawhorses instead of on spindly little legs. The iMac is on the left side of the work table, and on the right side I have my tea setup (the tea itself is stored in the Health section) and all my Flamingo Estate candles in a row. And my cuckoo clock.
Over the past few weeks I’ve also had to move my monstera plant indoors from the screened-in porch, where she spent the whole summer. Over the Autumnal Equinox temperatures dropped so suddenly that I had no choice but to put her on the right front-facing side of the work table, where she can reach the light from the window. Ceres helped me tie her more firmly to her support structure so she can have an easier time facing the light. Tomorrow after I clean the shower stall I think I’m going to take her in there and separate her into two pieces, because there is just way too much going on right now. Then the two plants can form a sort of screen between me and the window, and I’ll feel more private when I’m sitting in command position.
From the command position – the wooden bench that seats me at the iMac on the left side and my journal-writing space on the right side – I can see the intersection where my side road meets the main road. I can see any cars that pull in or out of the street. I can also see anyone who approaches my front door. I can see all the way to the other end of the house through the doorway that leads down the stairs. The only thing I want to add is a table mirror on the left side of the iMac, a little rearview of the doorway into the dining room that pressures me from behind.
Helpful Friends / Creative Projects is a more extroverted place to be working than Knowledge, and it makes sense for my Caprician journey and the way my body and mind get more active during the cold seasons. I feel like this space is more growth oriented than the Knowledge section, and I’m interested to see whether that influences the mindset I bring to my work. My sofa desk had me facing the back of the house, and this new spot is forward-facing instead.
