While I was writing this story at home, we had a one-minute brownout and I lost pages of transcript even with the recovered file. When the lights came on, the pull-out keyboard drawer of the computer fell. My dog Freeway, whom I wasn’t paying attention to when she kept jumping at my chair, urinated in the living room.
Perhaps these two days, as the masters would say, were "inauspicious days" for me. Thank God I didn’t have a lot to ground-break! But I am holding on to what Merlina Merton told me when we sat down in her Legaspi Village office. "You have good eyebrows," she said. "They show a strong character." I wanted to tell her I’ve always hated my eyebrows, but why spoil it?
Maybe my luck would turn sometime – anytime – this year. After all, I was born in the year of the Dog, an animal that wags its tail happily even when things aren’t going so great.
The truth is, I am ambivalent about feng shui. I belong to that group of people that say, "Yeah, it could be true" and so we reposition our beds and sofas but won’t go as far as hiring somebody to rearrange our entire house or the letters in our name. To us, geomancy is both familiar and strange.
But when you listen to geomancers talk about feng shui, it all begins to make sense. After all, it is all about living in harmony with nature, harnessing the chi – or prana or cosmic breath or the subtle currents of energy. It is a practice that began in China to "ensure that the emperor would be well-located and protected. The terrain, the seasons, the directional aspects and the celestial constellations were studied, so their good influences could be harnessed by the positioning and layout of the palace buildings."
It’s not much different today, thousands of years after the Chinese began to study the environment and the stars. Feng shui is still about balancing energy, even though a million and one modern inventions now fill our homes (air conditioners, electrical appliances, etc.), whether the consultant is doing feng shui for an individual client, a company, politician, government building, or even an entire city.
You’re probably thinking, what good will feng shui do for the affairs of the nation or the world? "The fortune of a nation, like a company, depends on the fortune of its leader," says Merlina.
Government buildings, too, play a big part in the nation’s fortune. "If government buildings had good feng shui, the country would definitely enjoy better governance."
Merlina cites as an example the Batasang Pambansa in QC as having bad feng shui. Negative factors include the location of the toilets, which is directly on top of the main entrance, considered the "mouth" of any structure. In feng shui, it would be like "crapping where your mouth is."
"Facing the entrance is a flagpole, which is too high and too close to the door so when the sun comes up, it casts a shadow that divides the building – you’ve got divisiveness already. Then you’ve got all these stairs everywhere, going up and down, corridors that are not properly lighted. Then you’ve got these beautiful trees pressing against the windows of conference rooms, keeping the yang chi from entering. You’ve got a squatter’s area around it, you’ve got garbage all around."
You begin to wonder, is this why our congressmen and women get so little done all these years?
So, what’s a westerner like Merlina Merton doing in the Philippines practicing this ancient Chinese tradition? She doesn’t typify the usual feng shui master, yet she is one of the most credible practitioners of geomancy in the country for the past 15 years. Her being a westerner – and a woman at that – has worked well to her advantage. Being who she is, she learned at the feet of the best geomancers in Hong Kong and became privy to their secrets. "They didn’t consider me a threat and so they taught me well," she says with a chuckle.
She approaches feng shui with the inquiring mind of a scientist and the good taste of a designer. Not surprising, since she has worked with the best architects and interior designers in town, including Ramon Antonio and the late National Artist Lindy Locsin. "Locsin was a darling to work with. The architect I like working with the most is Ramon Antonio. I find that the bigger they are, the easier they are to work with. They don’t have an ego problem – they don’t say, ‘I won’t change anything for a geomancer!’"
Merlina has authored the book Feng Shui for Better Living, a comprehensive and illustrated guide on the general rules in feng shui for those who want to do it themselves. "If you can’t afford the best geomancer, you might as well do it yourself," she says. At the same time, she warns, "It is truly said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Feng shui is not an easy subject to master. A practitioner has to be well-versed in its many aspects before attempting to design or adjust another person’s environment."
As for personalized feng shui – well, that’s a little more complicated and expensive. That’s where you need a very good geomancer. Merlina does the feng shui based on her client’s and his family members’ four pillars of fate (Chinese natal chart). If it’s a politician’s feng shui, she factors in his henchmen’s as well to be able to do a forecast.
(Four pillars, also called "eight characters," is a method of fortune analysis "based on the combinations of the 10 heavenly stems and the 12 earthly branches. One stem and one branch each being assigned to the year, month, day and hour of birth," says Merlina.)
In doing the feng shui for a house, the geomancer takes into account the four pillars of the whole family or people living there. Because one position may be lucky for another and unlucky for the other, geomancers take the four pillars of the breadwinner. If there are two breadwinners in the family they do the four pillars of both. If they have opposing four pillars, Merlina says, "It’s who’s making more money that counts. Sometimes, if there’s a problem in the marriage, we do the feng shui that the husband or wife needs based on his or her four pillars. We use so many schools of feng shui for different situations. You have to know all the schools, and the secret is when to know where to apply what school. You have to study like hell. It’s not hocus-pocus. We do it very technically."
Has Merlina succeeded in patching up couples with feng shui where marriage counselors have failed? "Absolutely. Sometimes, we make the husband stronger or we manipulate the chi in the bedroom for the couple to have more sex if they want to get pregnant! Feng shui not only helps, sometimes it even saves lives."
Fortunately for us, we don’t have to study as hard as the experts. Or spend years studying how to use a bagua properly or how to cure the bad feng shui areas. With Merlina’s tips for general feng shui, we can start managing the energy of our environment.
• Do place the head of the bed against a solid wall. A bed should have "backing." This rule applies to major feng shui placements and is particularly important for a bed. A firm, solid support behind your head gives a comforting feeling of security. When you are sleeping, your subconscious mind will let down its guard, giving you better quality of rest.
• Don’t place the bed under a window. This placement does not provide a feeling of safety and may bring restlessness during the night.
• Don’t slant your bed across a corner. This diagonal position can drain your energy because energy escapes through corners.
• Don’t sleep in a cantilevered area. A cantilever is protruded or an over-hanging area that has no foundation or support. If a portion of your bedroom is cantilevered, don’t place your bed in it. A person who sleeps in this area will lose self-confidence because the mind will always be aware that there is nothing solid below.
• Don’t place the bed in the direct path of a door. This placement is very disturbing to the energy field of the bed — every time the door of opened, a rush of chi hits the bed. If the door opens to a toilet, the humid and fetid toilet chi will be absorbed by the energy field of the bed and the health of the couple will be affected. It is usually problems with the urinary tract that manifest.
• Don’t sleep too high above the ground. If your bed is too high, you will be disconnected from the ground chi. Sleeping on the floor is actually the best way to get in touch with the earth’s energy. If you’re recovering from an illness, you might do so faster if you sleep on a low bed or on the floor. Waterbeds are not recommended. If you must have one, use it in a vacation home which you occupy for less than 30 days at a time.
• Don’t place the bed under a toilet of the floor above you. This is a basic rule of feng shui. Toilets are dirty elements and must be carefully located to avoid contamination of favorite areas of the house.
• Don’t place the bed with a toilet behind it. A bed placed against the bathroom wall, with the toilet directly behind it, is a no-no for reasons similar to the above.
• Don’t sleep under a water tank. Water chi penetrates the floor below. If there is a water tank over your bed, you will absorb the yin water chi — to the detriment of your health.
• Don’t place a stove or heating appliances behind your bed. These emit the frequency of fire. If the appliance is used daily, a heat field will build up and penetrate the wall behind your bed. This subtle energy will affect you when you are at your most vulnerable, i.e., when you are sleeping. The result is irritability and hot-headedness.
• Don’t place your bed directly above a stove. If you are living in a two-storey house, your bed might be over your stove. Fire chi rises and penetrates to the upper floor. If you are bad-tempered or prone to fever, check what is downstairs under your bed.
• Do avoid overhead beams. They exert pressure in whatever or whoever is beneath them. For instance, a beam over the chest area will make you susceptible to coughs and cold and will aggravate asthmatic condition, etc.
• Don’t put a mirror in a position that it reflects the bed. If the mirror is behind the bed, it voids the principle of solid backing.
• Don’t put a mirror on the ceiling directly above the bed. It is damaging to the psyche, as constantly seeing yourself lying prone on a bed suggests sickness or death to your subconscious mind.
In metaphysical practice, mirrors can be used as doors to other dimensions. When you sleep, your astral form moves out of the physical body, it can pass through the mirror and wander into astral realms, causing fatigue and disturbed, restless sleep, sometimes with vivid, colorful dreams.
Other things unsuited to the bedroom:
• Round shapes — round beds, windows, tables or ornaments — because this represents movement. A bedroom should be "steady."
• Metal beds or metal furniture as these give off cold chi.
• Triangular shapes or pointed objects, which emit arrows of chi.
• Irregular-shaped rooms have many angles, too many protrusions and hollows. Fill the follows with furniture or plants. If protrusions are pointed, round them off or place a plant in front of them.
• If you cannot avoid having a beam over your bed, you should drop the ceiling to the level of the beam. Feng shui experts sometimes recommend dropping the ceiling only over the bed area and placing lights behind the dropped section. This not only corrects the feng shui violation, it also gives attractive, indirect lighting to the room.
• There should not be exposed beams on the ceiling. If beams are an essential factor in the architectural style of your home, avoid seating anyone directly under them.
• Ceilings should not have excessive moldings or design.
• Floors should have a smooth finish or be carpeted, and not be on a level lower than the rest of the house, like a sunken area. If you have a sunken living room, bring up the chi with potted plants and overhead lighting.
• The room needs adequate natural light and area, but not excessive cross ventilation.
• Your furniture placements should not obstruct access to and from the door. Too much furniture not only clutters a room, it also impedes the flow of chi.
• Sharp corners or walls or pillars can be rounded off or softened with plants or vines.
• If you have an unpleasant view from a window, grow plants in window boxes to enliven the chi of the room and block the negative view.
• If there is a beautiful view outside your window, you can bring it into the room by using a well-placed mirror — make sure the mirror does not reflect a door to the outside.
• A beam traversing a dining table will cut the energy field of the table and have a divisible effect on the diners. This will certainly not create the right environment for happy, harmonious family meals or successful dinner parties. If you cannot move the table, you can hang a light from the beam, over the table, to diffuse the heavy chi.
• A mirror can be placed behind the buffet table on which food is served. This multiplies the food and suggests abundance and prosperity, but if the mirror is large, be sure it’s not on the rear wall of the house.
• A dining room should be well-lit but without glare. Indirect lighting that is focused on the food, and not on the diners, is pleasant and comfortable.
• Mirrors on the ceiling of the dining table should be avoided as this turns the equilibrium of the diners by reflecting their bodies upside down.
• Make sure your dining table is not placed under an upstairs toilet.
• Portraits or pictures of ancestors emit yin chi. They should not be hung in the dining room, especially not facing the table. Yang energy should be cultivated in a room where food is eaten.
• A toilet of an upper floor over your door. Toilets are very negative factors in feng shui. Water chi flows downward, permeating whatever is beneath it. The dirty water chi of a toilet pervading the mouth of your house will not augur well for your health and prosperity.
• A door opening to a corner sends sharp chi to the door.
• A door opening to a mirror is a definite negative in feng shui.
• A front door opening to a bedroom door. Strong chi from the front door can over-activate the bedroom and disperse the energy field of the bed.
• A front door facing the stairs leads to the loss of fortune.
• A front door opening to a toilet door will neutralize the good chi entering through the door.
• A front door opening to a pillar blocks the chi from entering the house. It’s even worse if the corner of the pillar faces the door as it will send arrow-like chi to the door 24 hours a day.
• A front door opening to a wall is only bad if the wall is close to the door, which will again block the chi from entering the house.
• If the front door opens to a toilet door, you can fit the toilet door with an automatic closer and/or place a screen, curtain or plants between the two doors.
• If the front door opens to a bedroom door, you should place a screen or divider between the two doors or inside your bedroom door. If there is no sufficient space for a screen, hang a curtain outside the bedroom door and/or fit the bedroom door with an automatic closer.
• If you have a front door that opens to a wall, you should hang a painting on the wall so that it directly faces the door. The painting should have depth, to draw in the chi. It can be a landscape, but should not depict high mountains as these will symbolically block the chi. If the painting depicts water, be sure the water is flowering into the house and not toward the door.
• Corners that point to the door should be rounded. Or, place plants in front of them as plants can disguise or soften the sharp angles of a pillar.