Shawne Mitchell - Home Sanctuaries: Creating Sacred Spaces, Altars, and Shrines with Feng Shui

HOME SANCTUARIES

Creating Sacred Spaces, Altars,

and Shrines with Feng Shui

Shawne Mitchell

with Stephanie Gunning

Soul Style Press

Santa Barbara, California

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

I love this book! It shows you how to easily turn your home into a sanctuary of sacred space. It is elegant and eloquent. I highly recommend this book!

Denise Linn, author of Sacred Space and Feng Shui for the Soul

Shawne Mitchell understands the profound soulfulness of the home and the many ways that personal space can support us as spiritual beings. In her book, she guides us to transform our intimate environments so they nurture our creativity, serenity, joy and relationships.

Arielle Ford, author of Soulmate Secrets

Home Sanctuaries is not only about creating a nurturing and safe nest; it is about having the place where you reside be sacred. If you want your home spaces to nourish, rejuvenate and recharge you, then Shawnes book will show you the way.

Cherie Carter-Scott, PhD., author of If Life is Game, These are the Rules

Shawne Mitchell came to feng shui my home and stayed with me for three days, as I had decided to change my life and go back to work. Change my life she did! My only complaint is that Ive only had three days off since she was here. Shawne can rearrange one more thing for me right now... I need a vacation.

Sharon Stone, actress

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Copyright 2003, 2013 by Shawne Mitchell. All rights reserved. No part of this book may 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 useother than fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The first edition of this work was published by New Page Books under the title Creating Home Sanctuaries with Feng Shui.

For bulk purchases of books and permissions contact info@soulstyle.com.

Soul Style Press

P.O. Box 5765

Santa Barbara, CA. 93150

www.soulstyle.com

Cover and interior design by Gus Yoo

978-0-9889677-1-7 (ebook)

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Im delighted to thank Stephanie Gunning, a true patron saint for writers. Her wisdom, patience, inspiration, and exemplary writing skills have contributed much to this book. And her collaboration made this project fun. I thank her with all my heart!

I am blessed and honored to love, and be loved, by my sons, Austin and Travis Cook. I treasure them both beyond words and thank them for their patience, humor, wisdom and insight!

Sincere gratitude and appreciation to Janice Blair for her beautiful illustrations.

I am also grateful for the support, friendship, and love of all those who have helped me both directly and indirectly on my life path to share the loving energy of Spirit including my sons, Travis and Austin, Connie, Arielle, Juliet, Christian, and Mark.

Heartfelt love and deep thanks to my parents in heaven, Nona and King, and to my brothers, Richard, Chris, Mitch, Ryan, and Dan, and their families for providing a foundation of love and support. I know I am very blessed.

I want to pay a special thank you-acknowledgement to my brother Mitch; my long-time friends Dianne, Renee, Shannon, and Andrea, all of whom were special guardian angels during a very dark-night-of-the-soul period of time for me. Thank you with all my heart. One never knows who will lovingly step up during a personal crisis and be your hero.

Lastly, thank you, God, for allowing me to share a lifestyle aligned with the soulmy Soul Style.

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CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

Your Home as a Sacred Sanctuary

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition

Samuel Johnson

Throughout history, people have sought to commune with the Divine and bring sacred energy into the everyday world. Ancient farmers made offerings to the gods to reap a bountiful harvest from the fields. Fisher folk asked for blessings on their ships to increase the yield of the catch and feed their children. Healer-priests prayed in temples for spiritual intervention for those they served. And artists honored the muses of inspiration in marble, on canvas, or on a paper. What the field, ship, temple, and artist media have always had in common is that they were vessels for the Divine on Earth. People knew that libations, burnt offerings, and other forms of worship would bring abundance, creativity, health, and community if sacred energy fields filled their lives.

A contemporary home is no less a vessel for the sacred than a temple is, although we may not believe it possible because ordinary life goes on within. Over time, many of us came to believe the notion that God lives separately inside churches, synagogues, and temples. Because these buildings are often exquisite and uplifting, sometimes designed with high, vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows, and gleaming golden artifacts, it is easy to forget that they are not only focal points available to celebrate the essence of the Divine. A home can also overflow with sanctity if we pay it respectful attention. In fact, the home is almost always a mirror that reflects what we cherish and find valuable: our most beloved others, our selves, the mementos of our lives, and our highest aspirations. Why shouldnt we celebrate the Divine and enjoy its sacred blessings in our everyday spaces?

Years ago, I attended a lecture given by Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul. He spoke about his hobby of handcrafting wooden furniture for his home (tables, chairs, shelves, and cabinets). He described how, as he lovingly and patiently carved, sawed, and planted, the pieces became imbued with his soul essence. The moment he said this, it was as though a lightning bolt had shot straight through my body, jolting my mind, my heart, and my soul. Of course! I thought gleefully. Your soul imprints your belongings with its energy. I had already been in real estate for fifteen years and it seemed obvious in and relevant to my past experiences.

Even though I knew nothing about the art of feng shui, as a Realtor, at that time, I had always been able to sense the subtle energy in a house. Like a tuning fork, I would respond to the emotional undercurrents in the places I went, knowing intuitively whether the inhabitants were happy, sad, loving, or angry. During my career, Id literally visited thousands of properties, and understood that I was affected by intangible, as well as aesthetic, considerations. Similarly, people coming to my house often said, Wow! Your home feels so good. I began mulling it over: What is it about a home that makes it feel a certain way?

So, hearing Moores comments, I found the answer: The people who live there endow their home with an energetic signature. My insight was the permission I needed to begin advising my clients about specific ways to find and create homes that would both please their senses and nourish their souls. And they loved it! My business expanded in new directions.

Before long, I was studying the Black Hat Sect School of feng shui, which is based on Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. I also traveled around the world and conducted my own research on the historical significance of sacred spaces, shrines, and altars. I have always been a spiritual seeker and explorer, even while being raised a Catholic and attending parochial school. I began to incorporate and blend everything I learned, including Hinduism and Buddhism, along with my experiences as a student of Transcendental Meditation and of the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, into my burgeoning perspective on home design. It was intriguing that the discoveries by quantum physicists about energy echoed the beliefs of ancient mystics about Spirit. Gradually, I developed a vocabulary with which to communicate the ideas that youll find in the pages of this book.