Linn - Feng Shui for the soul

FENG SHUI
FOR THE
SOUL

How to Create a Harmonious Environment
That Will Nurture and Sustain You

Denise Linn

HAY HOUSE, INC.

Carlsbad, California New York City

London Sydney Johannesburg

Vancouver Hong Kong New Delhi

I dedicate this book to
Interior Alignment Feng Shui practitioners
throughout the world

***

Copyright 1999 by Denise Linn

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

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 useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Originally published in 1999 by Rider, an imprint of Ebury Press Random House, London, England ISBN: 0-7126-7081-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Linn, Denise.

Feng-shui for the soul / Denise Linn.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-56170-731-7

1. Feng-shui. 2. Spiritual lifeMiscellanea. I. Title.

BF1779.F4 L5755 2000

133.3'337dc21 99-048222

ISBN 13:978-1-56170-731-7
ISBN 10: 1-56170-731-7

13 12 11 10 13 12 11 10

1st Hay House printing, August 2000
10th printing, March 2010

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

I am so grateful to have Claire Brown in my life. A remarkable human being, exemplary writer, and good friend, her suggestions added magic and soul to this book.

I want to thank my husband, David; our daughter, Meadow Linn; and Ellie Baker, Charlie Baker, and Antonia Chavasse for putting their love into my Interior Alignment Feng Shui courses.

I am also grateful to Louise Coe and Jerry Nowatzke for their assistance with research for this book. I especially want to thank Danny Sollene for his very generous support of Interior Alignment. Also, much thanks to my wondrous editor, Judith Kendra, and to Jill Kramer at Hay House.

In addition, I want to thank these friends for the depth of their love and supportand also for the contributions that they have each made to the field of Feng Shui: Jane Alexander, Maureen Bell, Tom Bender, Ron Chin, Terah Kathryn Collins, Dennis Fairchild, Lillian Garnier, Johndennis Govert, Roger Green, Andreas Hager, David Daniel Kennedy, Monica King, Karen Kingston, Bruno and Monica Koppel, Jes Lem, Pamela Laurence, Gina Lazenby, Robin Lennon, Jami Lin, Courtney Milne, Katherine Metz, James Moser, Helen and Micheal Oon, John Sandifer, Nancy SantoPietro, Stephen Skinner, William Spear, Sophia Stainton, Sarah Surety, Angel Thompson, Lillian Too, Carol Venolia, Derek Walters, Richard Webster, Rich and Christine Welt, Nancilee Wydra, Seann Xenja, and to Prof. Lin Yun for bringing heart into Feng Shui.

***

Note from the Hay House editor to American readers: This book was originally published in England, so some of the spellings and syntax reflect the British use of the English language. However, your appreciation of the content should not be affected. Thank you!

A S A CHILD I moved house nine times. My roots would begin to take hold in a new place, only to be abruptly ripped up once again. None the less I grew like a weed, taking root wherever we lived. There didn't seem to be a common thread connecting the various places; each one was completely different.

My first home was a small wooden house atop a hill in Astoria, Oregon a rainy fishing village by the Pacific Ocean. The house overlooked the sea, rolling mists and fog. A later move took us to the dry arid heat of King City, California, where we lived in abandoned army barracks. Whenever we needed more space my dad would knock down a wall, opening up another unit. Later we moved to Chicago and lived in a run-down tenement apartment. The fluorescent lights from the greasy spoon coffee shop on the street below blinked endlessly into my bedroom window every night.

Better times in my father's career took us to a beautiful Tudor-style home in a middle-class neighbourhood near Chicago. After this we moved to a rural region of Ohio, where we lived in an old farmhouse surrounded by an overgrown apple orchard.

Later, I lived for two years with my grandparents near Los Angeles. Their home was a suburban bungalow in a transitional neighbourhood that was slowly being infiltrated by gangs. By my high-school years, we lived on a gracious tree-lined street in a mid-sized town in Ohio. Our three-storey, historical house had marble window seats, hand-carved woodwork, antique stained-glass windows, and an intricately patterned slate roof.

Disruptive as it was for a child to be uprooted so many times, I now know that every move we made prepared me for practising and teaching feng shui. The wide spectrum of environments that I called home when I was growing up gave me an intimate understanding of the spaces we occupy and how they influence us.

This understanding was accelerated by a near-death experience. When I was seventeen, a traumatic random meeting with a crazed gunman left me in critical condition, in an intensive-care unit of a hospital. I had been riding my motorbike on a country road, when I was run into and then shot by a man who had shot several other people. A farmer found me on the side of the road and took me to the nearby hospital. While the doctors were frantically trying to save my life, something remarkable happened: I floated out of my body and entered into a realm of golden radiant light. I was surrounded by a loving force that appeared to be infusing the entire universe with vitality and energy. It all felt so very familiar. I remembered knowing that I was connected to all people and all life, animate and inanimate. I felt that this was something I had always known, but had forgotten. I was eventually pulled back into my physical body, but from that point onward I saw the world through different eyes.

Human beings usually experience the world around them as comprising separate parts thrown together in a jumble of colour, sound and form. But this is an illusion. At death's gateway, I had an experience of not being separate from the world. In that exquisite moment I knew that we are all one with the sea, the mountains, and all creatures on this beautiful planet.

This awareness eventually propelled me towards the study of feng shui. I found this ancient tradition provided keys to access the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the natural world. By using feng shui principles to organise and clear living spaces, people could live more in oneness and balance with the environment.