Davina Mackail - Feng Shui: Create Health, Wealth and Happiness Through the Power of Your Home

First published and distributed in the United Kingdom by:
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Text Davina Mackail, 2016

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use, other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.

The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice; always consult a medical practitioner. Any use of information in this book is at the readers discretion and risk. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss, claim or damage arising out of the use, or misuse, of the suggestions made, the failure to take medical advice or for any material on third party websites.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-78180-629-6 in print
ISBN 978-1-78180-690-6 in Kindle format
ISBN 978-1-78180-689-0 in ePub format

To everyone with a home, however humble, may your Land Spirits always be truly blessed.

Without all the people who have invited me into their houses over the last 20 years this book could not have come into being. I am truly grateful for all that you and your homes have taught me.

Deep gratitude also goes to Gina Lazenby for her courage and vision in promoting feng shui, and all my many feng shui teachers, too numerous to mention individually by name, you know who you are. I honour, acknowledge and am grateful for all you have taught me and all of your dedication to this work, helping people awaken to the power of their homes.

With deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks to the endless loving support of Nizami Cummins, Carla Miles and my dearest Mum without you this journey would be a great deal harder and far less fun.

Thank you to all the wonderful team at Hay House and, in particular, Amy Kiberd, Julie Oughton and Sandy Draper, who have worked tirelessly to ensure this book gets to print in a timely manner.

And last, but not least, thank you to my new home and its fascinating and complex feng shui, which has helped shape this book in myriad ways as it reveals to me further feng shui subtleties.

When there is light in the soul, there is beauty in the person;

When there is beauty in the person, there is harmony in the home;

When there is harmony in the home; there is honour in the nation;

When there is honour in the nation; there is peace in the world.

OLD CHINESE PROVERB

Theres no place like home.

DOROTHY, THE WIZARD OF OZ

In its fullest expression feng shui is a complex, multidisciplined and multilayered subject. Its practice is a broad umbrella covering cosmology, astrology, clutter and space clearing, interior design and placement, colour, five elements theory, yin and yang, geomancy and the in-depth study of the IChing the ancient Chinese Book of Changes. What is written is often misleading and confusing with several schools and approaches peppered with different theories and ideas.

Yet feng shui is really quite simple to use, governed by fundamental principles that, once you understand them, like Ariadnes golden thread, can lead you safely through the maze of confusion to the ultimate goal harmony in your home and life.

Were going to strip the subject down to its core principles, demystifying and debunking the myths, to shine a light on its practical applications and how they work in a modern context. Armed with this knowledge anyone can practise feng shui in a safe, common-sense way and use it to bring great benefit to their life and the lives of those they share space with.

I encourage you to seek out other books and teachers and explore the topic widely. Feng shui is a body of philosophical thought and therefore its solutions are open to interpretation, depending on the training and subjective synthesis of the practitioner. Just as you could ask many architects or designers for their opinion on your home, and each would give you a different and equally valid answer, its a mistake to believe there is only one way or a right way to do feng shui. There can be many answers to the same problem.

Im deeply passionate about feng shui and its power to transform. My life is entirely unrecognizable from when I discovered it 20 years ago. In fact it feels more like a past life rather than a former aspect of this one! Back then I was a consultant for a premium-rate telecoms company, travelling the world, setting up chat lines and other services. It became intolerable when I was flown home to manage a live, chat-line company to fill the shoes of a former manager who had been fired for fraud.

Commuting weekly to Leeds from Cambridge, my clean driving licence was wiped out with speeding tickets in six months, such was my haste to escape the place each day. I had a panic button on my desk with a direct link to the local police station and the local officers were frequent visitors, as there always seemed to be some kind of trouble. My office window looked out on a bleak piece of tarmac surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. I was utterly miserable: away from home, isolated, unsupported and unable to do the job assigned to me due to the antagonism of the staff, who saw me as the outsider, not to be trusted and different from them. None of it was working and I didnt know what to do.

As the saying goes, When the student is ready, the teacher appears I was definitely ready. One day I came across an article that mentioned feng shui and that eventually led me to the UKs only school of feng shui at that time, the Feng Shui Network International, founded by Gina Lazenby. Gina captured the zeitgeist of the moment. Her magnificent PR efforts ensured that many people now know about feng shui, having used it or heard about its benefits. I was extraordinarily blessed to be one of the schools first students. Gina worked hard to find international experts capable of teaching us.