Kung Hei Fat Choi!
It’s the eve of the Chinese New Year and in a few hours we’ll be welcoming the Year of the Snake! It’s my year so let’s toast to that!
Some two weeks ago, AJ and I were at Greenhills with Frances and Vince (where we found our Union Jack storage chest) and we passed by our suking feng shui store, Bensani, to ask about the lucky elements for this year 2013.
Now, if you’re not into feng shui, please skip this post or read through but don’t judge me for believing in it. A lot of people ‘misuse” the art of feng shui by looking only at how it will increase their good fortune. There is more to learn and appreciate about it.
Feng shui is an ancient art that teaches us how to balance the Qi in our body, our surroundings and our relationship with the people around us. Now, you don’t need to practice hardcore feng shui to achieve these. Our everyday experiences will already tell us that balance is everything and we should live in harmony with nature. Surround yourself with negative people and you will feel that your energy is always down; embrace clutter in your home and office and you will feel visual fatigue, sense of anxiety and congestion!
So, going back, our suki at Bensani told us that 2013 is the year of the Water Snake.
Chinese penmanship calligraphy snake from 123RF.
The 2013 Snake has water as its element. We will need to balance it with Fire, Metal and Earth. The logic is correct, and it’s easy to understand why: fire is the opposite of water, metal is weakened by water and earth fights water.
The color of water in the Five Elements System is black, so we have a Black Water Snake, to be more specific. Lucky colors are said to be black and blue – the colors of the water feng shui element. The colors to avoid are those that repel the colors of water, and those are the shades of earth and fire like brown, yellow, orange and red.
I won’t delve into anymore specifics (because I am not an expert in the field, anyway) but if you do want to know about your personal forecast for this year, you can check out this website which explains in detail what the relationships between nature elements and animals will be for this year.
You can also learn about the power of crystals and minerals and how it is said to attract the lucky energies towards you. You can re-read the old post about my feng shui bracelets where I dished out interesting tidbits of information about them.
To end this post, let me wish you dear readers a happy and prosperous new year! May we all be blessed with good health, success in our endeavors and see our wishes come true!
In picture: Chinese lanterns displayed at Mall of Asia.