Taurus and the Art of Cultivating Chi
by Anna Duval

Although this New Moon is in Aries, the Sun enters Taurus the same day. The Sun defines the season; we are in the Taurus season from April 19 through May 19.

Spring is the time we naturally gravitate to our homes and gardens. Putzing, pruning and planting, we crave getting our hands in the dirt, and spring-cleaning our homes is an age-old ritual that is as organic as it is habitual. After the fiery birth of self in Aries, in Taurus that new, innocent being begins to experience an instinctual connection to its surroundings. So Taurus, then, would also be associated with Feng Shui, the ancient art of environmental harmony.

People often wonder how Feng Shui works. Does balancing the 5 Elements guarantee health, wealth and happiness through some synchronistic sorcery that only wise old Chinese masters can comprehend?

And will it work even if I don’t believe it?

Some say yes - that Feng Shui simply works and we can’t really explain it. Personally, I believe the success of Feng Shui practices is somewhat based in the power of suggestion, but only because those practices are patterned after true universal laws. Some traditions that are strictly Chinese, and not suggestive of universal laws for other cultures, likely won’t work for westerners, since those remedies won’t suggest much to the western subconscious mind. But those Feng Shui practices that awaken universal patterns align us with the flow of life force, and are bound to increase chi because they reflect the way life works. Chi is life force. Feng Shui is all about increasing free-flowing chi, which can, when directed properly, increase power, health and success.

There’s another premise that, I believe, is at the core of Feng Shui’s effectiveness, and it’s also at the core of the Taurus experience. In the same way you begin to take on the characteristics of someone you’ve lived with for a long time, or your pet starts to behave as you do, you become your space, and your space becomes you. Its about affinity, atoms vibrating together. We say, you are what you eat. We could also say, you are what you surround yourself with.

Over the last several months I have been working on my front door area. When I first began using Feng Shui 2 years ago, I blithely painted my front door red, as "they" say you should, cleaned up the porch as best I could, and left it at that. But as my studies deepened I realized my entryway had been sorely neglected. How could I not notice? Approaching my house one would feel shabby and drab, despite the red door. There were too many weeds in the walkway, and the porch was just plain blah, with only a scraggly plant and a few stones I’d brought home from a river trip. Strangely (or not so at all!) this realization coincided with what I’ve been calling "coming out of my shell." Socially and professionally my energy has turned toward the world. And what, naturally, would the entryway of a home symbolize? It is the link to the outside! The fact that I had been completely unconscious about it is not really surprising since the space was simply reflecting my state of mind. So, I did some gardening, planted new flowers that I love, arranged places to sit with friends, and created a lovely pattern with my river rocks that invited the eye (and therefore chi) in, toward my front door.

Since that time my chi has increased dramatically! My health has improved, I’ve made new personal and professional friends, and my work-life is blossoming!

Here in the west we have a wound in Taurus. It’s a deep unconscious power issue that cuts off our connection to earth and body, and, therefore, cripples our capacity to cultivate chi.

Adrian Harris speaks of our collective wound in this paper on Sacred Ecology:

In healthy Taurus we know this oneness, this innate, fully natural (nature-based), body knowledge. Taurus is an earth sign, and represents relating not to the body but instinctively from the body. During the season of Taurus we automatically feel our physical oneness with the beauty of sensual nature as springtime flourishes and chi abounds. Take it in! Walk in the sunlight and dewy grass! Absorb prana (chi) through your breath and skin! It is here for you!

The 5 Elements of Feng Shui describe the cycle of this sensual reality we live in, the birth, growth, play, devotional work, and drawing inward again to replenish at Source that is this life. What Taurus knows instinctively and oftentimes unconsciously, the art of Feng Shui makes conscious and puts into practice. If we were all perfectly aware of our true instincts all the time we wouldn’t need Feng Shui - we would simply be the flow, living in respect for nature and our surroundings, and cultivating chi naturally. Feng Shui offers us beautiful tools to help heal the rift, and awaken our sleeping Taurean ways.

© 2004 Anna Duval
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