Ang Magiting - The Official Web Site of Rotary Club Makati North

The Week That Was - September 27, 2006

Good, Better, Best…Harnessing Positive Energy Through Feng Shui
By: Ann Daisy De La Torre

Ann Maribel Calma dispensed with the usual prayers for the Invocation and shared some words of wisdom to inspire everyday life. One of them was quite apt for the “Feng Shui” orientation for the meeting:
Good, better, best
Never let it rest
Till your good is better
And your better is best.

Regardless of whether you believe in Feng Shui or not, we can all benefit from going for the best for our health, wealth and overall well being.

After Ann Choi Reaño led the singing of the National Anthem, our moderator extraordinaire Tess Lagman opened the fining session with her well-researched questions: Where do you put a mirror? (In front of a dining table to reflect abundance.) How do you incorporate water to the home to invite wealth? (Put fountains, fish tanks and even pictures of water.) And lastly, favorite colors have meanings: Robert Syjuco’s favorite blue signifies spontaneity and affection; Dieter Brueckner’s red means strong love and alertness; Pabling Calma and Bert Lingad’s yellow indicates a happy and helping attitude.

Our lovely first lady, Tina Herrera introduced our guest speaker, vivacious Ms. Marites Allen, who took us through the history of Feng Shui whose origins go back to 2700 B.C. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of living in harmony with the energy of the environment in order to attract good fortune. She explained that there are kinds of luck: – heaven luck which refers to what you were born with – mankind luck that one creates from his decisions; and – earth luck which is what feng shui deals with

There are 5 elements that balance the energy around us: – water which is also represented by the colors blue and black and is best located in the North – metal which is color gold and best for West and Northwest – Wood which is color green and best for East/Southeast – Fire which is color red and best in the South – Earth which is best for the Southwest and Northeast

These elements interact with one another all the time. When we feel warm (fire), we take a shower or drink a cold drink (water). Nature and industries demonstrate these interactions: Fire melts/molds metal; metal like axes cut wood; the earth limits/contains water.

Ms. Allen explained that there are 4 pillars of destiny; the 5 elements are identified under the hour, day, month and year. For 2006, all elements are represented in this 4 pillars of destiny thus it is a balanced chart. However she mentioned that earth disasters are indicated at the beginning and end of the year. The recent typhoon that did extensive damage to property appears to be one of these.

She also suggested that if a child was born in a year where an element is missing in the 4 pillars of destiny, it is best to compensate for this missing element through the name of the child. For example if the year has no wood, giving the name of a flower like Lily or Jasmine completes the elements.

Ms. Allen also provided the forecast for 2006 for people born under each animal in the Chinese calendar as well as which industries are best for the year (fire industries like food, lighting), good or better this year (earth and wood like real estate, agriculture, publishing), competitive (water like shipping, fishing, spas) and which will be badly hit (metal industries like engineering and computers).

An Asian forecast for 2007 is scheduled at the Mall of Asia this coming January and we are all invited to attend it.

A trivia she pointed out was about our P500 peso bill. It was featured in a feng shui book that showed that it was an inauspicious bill because it had the number 500 printed 13 times, it had 13 stars and 13 people on the bill.

This year is the year of the Fire Dog. Next year is the year of the Boar. Think pink and green piggies!