Purge your space to make room for new intentions
Chinese Year of the Metal Rat calls for blue, white and decluttering, Feng Shui expert says
2020 is a good year to get fresh — with the energy in your home, that is.
According to the Chinese zodiac, it’s officially the year of the Metal Rat, marking the first year of the next 60-year Feng Shui cycle and that means now is the time to purge your space to make room for new intentions to come in, said Rhonda Moffatt, founder of The Energy Institute Inc. in Ottawa.
“The base principle is clear and declutter,” said Moffatt, a master practitioner of traditional Yang Feng Shui, which is based on true direction. “If you open up your closet … and you have clothes from 1972 … take that stuff out, donate those things, because the energy you put out comes back to you,” she said.
Based on intricate formulas for positional, locational and time-dimensional energies, the concept of traditional Feng Shui — which literally translates as “wind” and “water” — links your energy to your environment.
A home consultation by the Energy Institute starts with a precise, to-the-degree measure to determine which way your front door is facing and then relies on your individual Kua number — calculated using your year of birth — and the Bagua energy map to show which areas of your home are connected to specific areas of your life.
“When we see good we connect you to it; when we see challenge, we protect you from it,” explained Moffatt. “In Feng Shui, there’s always a solution. Often when you find yourself stuck and you don’t know why, it’s because the star has moved for the year and the energy for that space has shifted.”
Though Feng Shui is a very personal journey based on personal intentions, there are some takeaways this year that “make for good conversation,” said Moffatt.
For example, blue and white are strong decor colours in the year of the Metal Rat and there are many ways they can be introduced in a home.
Blue signifies water, which protects against metal (think of how metal rusts in water, said Moffatt) so it might be time to place a small blue rug in the centre of a room, introduce a small water feature or paint a blue wall. The rat loves opulence, so “don’t leave out the gold touches,” she added.
The northwest flying star for 2020 is eight, the prosperity star, so look for ways to incorporate eight into your home, such as positioning two ornamental crystals on a shelf to form a figure eight, or arranging eight Chinese coins across a home office desk. Moffatt might also suggest positioning your chair to face northwest and if your desk is wooden, switching it out for a metal desk.
If you’re searching for a partner, take your critical eye beyond online dating services and examine your bedroom to make sure it’s ready to invite a guest in, she added, by ensuring you have “two sideboards, two lamps, a double or queen bed, and room in the closet.”
Though naysayers to the craft often call it coincidence, Moffatt says the more you work with it, the more difficult it is to deny the results. One of her regular clients, for example, recently reached out for a home Feng Shui consultation because she was facing a contract renegotiation that involved resolving a significant debt.
“We connected and aligned with the intention, and she called me three weeks later to say they forgave the entire debt and she was moving forward with a new contract,” Moffatt said.