In this post I will collate the major feng shui adjustments I’ve made since Samhain season opened on 23 October. I will explain them using my understanding of feng shui theory. Where I refer to the bagua, I am using the Black Hat system because I do not think my neighborhood was build with the cardinal directions in mind.
If you’re looking for a feng shui primer, I always recommend Cliff Tan’s Feng Shui Modern.
I’m still very much moving into the house and making it my own. After a year and a half of living here I feel like a functional form is finally taking shape.
Fire Festival is usually when I feel moved to make changes to the feng shui. Often this comes through a desire to purge and deep clean, which is then followed by the opening of new spaces that invite the establishment of new concepts.
This Samhain I’m tying up a year of preparation and opening the door to my new life, in which I am well enough to run what will hopefully stay a very small business. I’m no longer bedridden, so my former lounging spaces are transforming into work spaces.
01
Moved desk to walnut work table
Before this, my computer was set up by the sofa bed downstairs. Now instead of reclining on soft pillows and feeling groggy and half asleep, I work upright and mentally alert, seated in the command position of the entire house.
In terms of the bagua, I’ve changed my working position from Knowledge to Helpful Friends. This is a more extroverted place to be working, which is reflected by the physical experience of sitting facing the front window. It’s unarguably a better location for manifesting a collective that fits my work better than the audience I built and removed on Instagram over the summer and autumn.
Element wise, this room houses most of my plant collection, and I definitely feel the upward and outward energy when I’m waking up in the morning. It helps me maintain my focus in some way. I feel like I write well in this energetic context.
In terms of the energy flow of the house, I am now much closer to the kitchen. When I was working from the sofa, I had to haul myself out of my nest and walk up half a flight of stairs if I wanted anything to eat, and this is a big deterrent for me as a not particularly food-motivated person. Now I am mere steps away.
02
Set up stainless steel production table
I bought this table over the Midsummer and since then it’s been blocking the doors to my entryway closet because I wasn’t sure where I would put it.
This corner used to house a shikifuton and a pile of pillows, which came in clutch when I was not well enough to sit in a chair around this time last year, but has gradually been more abandoned as I’ve gotten better. Last week I took the setup down so I could establish the table there instead.
This too is the Helpful Friends corner of the house, which I think is apt because this is where I will be packing up shipments to people who have paid me money for goods, a very helpful and friendly thing to do in my opinion.
As a secondary feng shui adjustment, setting up this table enabled me to unblock the Life Path section of the house, the entryway. The amount of cardboard I cleared out of there was absolutely insane. Clutter collects more clutter, and this table was the anchor for a lot of boxes by the end.
There is also a tertiary feng shui adjustment: as soon as the doors to the entryway closet were unblocked, I was able to open it for the first time in five months and reorganize the closet’s interior.
03
Set up Creative Projects / Helpful Friends wall
The first thing to develop here was the offering altar on the left side. That cabinet used to be in the Life Path corner of this same room (shown in next item). I added the textile because my friend remarked that it reminded him of ceiling paintings in Italian cathedrals. Anchored both sides with two of my marble pedestals and built an altar using the items that seemed right. It made sense to set up my three headed light facing the altar. Sephie asked for a prayer mat and while we look for the right one I’ve placed my sheepskin rug in front of the altar for her.
Next I placed my white board calendar on the wall beside the offering altar because it’s the best spot in my view from the desk, and I need to reference this calendar frequently for my work.
Then I placed the menu boards because they matched the width of the white board. They came with a screw system that would affix them to the wall, but I hung them with yarn and nails instead so I can take them down frequently to adjust the letters without having to crane my neck.
Below the menu boards is the pile of throw blankets. It doesn’t make sense to keep it here now that the shikifuton is gone, but my cat keeps sleeping there while I work, so I’m going to get him a soft cushion to replace it before I move the pile of blankets down to the Nest in Saturn’s Corner.
To the right of all this, the picture shows one, but later I might move another of the black shelves that used to be in the dining room (displaced by item 05). I’m using them to store things I’ll need for packaging and shipping.
04
Built altar in the Life Path section
This wall was emptied when I removed the cabinet shown in item 03. The first thing I placed here after that was the clock. The second was the altar table that used to be in the entryway.
For a while the table sat empty. Then I went around the house collecting items that could create an altar to the vague idea of my life path here. This is a bit of an exercise since I’ve never much thought about or dreamed of the future. I’ve been too busy living in the present to form aspirations. I did my best.
The PEACE garland is a shout out to the manifestor signature I aspire to. According to Human Design, I shouldn’t judge my alignment by satisfaction or success, but instead by how peaceful I feel.
This setup sits to the right of my work table, within view, and it serves as a pleasant reminder of what I’m doing all this for.
05
Added sheet pan rack
The black shelf shown in Item 03 used to live here, but the sheet pan rack fits so perfectly into this corner of dead space that I decided it’s going to live there.
I’m using the sheet pans to organize my in-process work, including items that are due for mailing, curations in process, and food in the packaging process. It may be a simple item, but it’s totally revolutionized my work process. Each sheet pan is like a whole table, but they’re all in a stack.
This is a good change to make in the Creative Projects section of the house. It levels up the systems I use to organize my projects, enabling me to achieve more while holding less of the labor in my hands.
06
Redesigned entryway
This space used to house the table that is now in item 04. When it was here it would just gather clutter. When I finally addressed the issue, it was covered in things I had not wanted to put away and things I didn’t know what to do with. The former went on shelves; most of the latter went in the trash.
First I placed the mirror, which used to be in my bedroom. I have a distinctly monastic bedroom. There is nothing in it except a little storage for my few shirts and pants, a table that houses a fan, and an altar. The room is very dark even with its light on, so it didn’t make sense for the mirror to be there. I thought it would be happier up here, where it gets to serve a purpose. I've positioned it where it hides the thermostat, but it’s easy to scoot it out of the way to change settings if need be.
The stool in the corner came second, because I can’t keep denying that I’m reaching the stage of my life where it helps to sit down to put on my shoes. I bought this stool last winter despite not knowing where it would go, and much to my surprise, it suits this space very well.
To anchor the other side of the mirror I placed my Orpheus table facing the stairs that lead down to the studio. I made an arrangement of objects on top of him. He’s asked me to start giving him occasional incense offerings, which is actually going to be great for the energy flow of the entire house, since this space is facing the stairwell.
This is decidedly the Health and Center part of the house, so it’s probably a positive change to reduce the clutter that sits here and make the area more functional and more beautiful.
07
Reset dining room
After tonight I may have reason to update this post with a new photo and a new writeup, because I’m considering making more changes in anticipation of the small fridge I ordered, which will serve as a cheese cave.
Until the middle of last week, this table had spent several months serving as not a space for eating meals, but as a surface for collecting objects intended for later recycling.
This was not a matter of intention, it was really a matter of illness. For a while I was really unwell with migraines and all sorts of other disability flares going on. But now I’m better.
First I boxed up all the recycling and took it out to the bin. Then I identified the dishes that needed washing, collected trash, and wiped down the surface. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes.
It’s nice to be healthy enough now that I can reset a space like this with such ease. But at this point in my journey I can finally hold empathy for the version of myself that lets it get blocked up with clutter. For a long time I really have not been myself.
The dining room is in the Partnership corner of my house, which in my life relates mostly to the committed contracts I have with Saturn, Pluto, Sephie, my Sídhe, and my cat. Clearing up clutter there can only be a good thing. I wonder what it means that this is such an easy place for clutter to build up?
