Donna Stellhorn: Keeping it Real with Feng Shui

As our fair globe becomes smaller and smaller due to technological advances, the ancient arts and sciences of faraway lands have become incorporated into our daily lives. The art of Feng Shui is a perfect example. Feng Shui writings go back more than 2000 years, and portray an interesting history--it's original use applied to finding the right burial place for a loved one, to becoming the basic philosophy for designing towns and cities. Hong Kong is an example of a metropolis that plans according to Feng Shui principles.

We had a chance to talk with Donna Stellhorn, who is a board member of the Massachusetts chapter of the International Feng Shui Guild and who makes regular radio and television appearances in the Boston Area. Donna is also a brilliant astrologer, and I had the honor of having my birth horoscope interpreted by her. I've studied astrology quite a bit, but Donna came up with some subtleties in my chart that even I had been unaware of, giving me enhanced understanding of my life situation. It was a good thing...

Donna is also well-versed in Chinese astrology and often times incorporates it into her work with Feng Shui clients. "If somebody's very interested and wants to go really in depth about their own person, then pull a standard astrology chart. But for a house, I'm more concerned about how their Chinese astrology is meshing with the astrology of the house. So when you move into a house, because of the year, you get an animal sign, and you have an animal. So let's say that you're a rooster and you move into a house in the year of the dog. Well, the dog chases the rooster all around, running you ragged. So we need something to calm that energy down. We'd put things in there that would calm the dog--maybe things that were shaped like a bone, or big pillows, or things like that."

Donna acknowledges Feng Shui is a vast study--almost as big as astrology. Because China is so big, different systems emerged in different areas. "They're all valid," says Donna. "Just like different martial arts systems. So there's Kung Fu and Tai Chi--they're both very valid, it's just very hard to mix them. But it does all work. From a very basic level it is when you combine a physical action for a spiritual reason you get huge results. I want whoever's up there to connect to me and help me out. I really believe that whoever's up there can't do anything without our permission. It's a freewill place. They give us all this help, and the Feng Shui is just one example of that, and that's why it works so well."

Donna is big on practical application of Feng Shui principles, and she considers keeping it realistic is part of making Feng Shui work. "So I think it's important that people look at each room and say, Well, this I can do, but this would cause a hardship and a change that I don't want to do. It says you have to move your kitchen to the southwest, well that's going to be a lot of trouble."

Because Feng Shui is so old, there have been many systems of the art and stacks upon stacks of rules, but Donna has the ability to slice through any dogma, to get to the issue at hand. "When I go into to do a consultation," says Donna, "I want to find out what the person wants. I don't want to dogmatically just say, Okay this has to be blue, and this has to be red over here and a flower here. I want to say, Look, you've got a giant cow skull over your bed. Do you want your relationship dead? Is that what you're looking for? And it might be. They might say, I really, really want this relationship to end, so I'm going to put objects that are symbols of death all around the place. Or they can say, Oh my god, my relationship is dying just because I have this piece of art here?? And we can say, Okay, let's take that down."

A person's psychology makeup can greatly affect their experience with Feng Shui, along with their beliefs and expectations. "I've had people experience Feng Shui is different ways," reports Donna. "I've had people buy one of the little cures, take it home, and not even put it up, and have something happen. 'I put the money cure by the phone, and my aunt called me and gave me a car.' Stuff like that. On the other hand, there was a woman who wanted to sell her grocery store, and she wanted $100,000 for it. So she placed the Feng Shui cures up, and her great aunt sells off some land and she receives a check for $100,000. I said, That's it! You've got it! And she said, 'No, I need to sell the store for $100,000,' so she didn't recognize that. That's an extreme example, but that's why I say you have to be open enough to recognize when the changes are happening."

Donna says the areas of career and romance have been the current hot topics, so she's got some useful suggestions about how to design the energy flow in the home to enhance access to opportunity. "The area of career is near the front door. I mean the actual front door--the one that is architecturally considered the front door, maybe not the one you're using. What you should do is change out the welcome mat to welcome the new job. When you're doing that, you're going to look for a welcome mat that's clean, that looks very pretty, also that doesn't have pictures on it of things you wouldn't normally want to step on--so, no kittens, puppies, American flags. Usually something in natural material because we want to make the new job welcome."

When it comes to romance, there are a couple of approaches depending on how you want the romance to go. "One thing that a person can do to call somebody brand new into their life is buy new sheets. We want to change the energy of the bedroom, and one of the most inexpensive ways is just to get those sheets. They should consider sheets that are not in the pinks. I know traditionally, pink we associate with love--but that's love that in an existing relationship. If you're trying to attract new love with such a soft color, as those pastel pinks, you'll get a love in your life that has no energy to it. So the person doesn't call you, they're not enthusiastic--you have to do all the work. So red sheets, peach would be fine, even blue. Of course, by changing the sheets, you are calling that relationship right into the bedroom. So if you don't want to do that, then you'll want to enhance the living room so that they start as a friendship. Decorating, adding some things to the living room as though a special guest is coming."

Once you've managed to get out on that new date, the condition of your car can be a factor in more ways than one. "Now, our car out in the world is an extension of ourselves," declares Donna. "The condition of our car is an extension of how we feel about ourselves. So if you keep a really messy car, it can mean that things inside, internally, are not as straightened up as they should be. If you want to head off to new places to have exciting things happen where you can reach those opportunities easily, well then, clean up the car inside and out."

And if you are visiting the local thrift store to find some funky hip duds to wear on that date, Donna cautions, "The Chinese are more concerned about taking used objects from others, because they say that the energies of past owners will reside in the object. If the person was ill or had bad luck, that problem may be transferred to you. So they're more hesitant about antique furniture or used clothing than we would be." So if you're very sensitive or psychically aware, and you do want to get used things, you might want to use some sort of clearing technique on them before you use them--like sage smudging, candle lighting, incense burning, crystal placement, or Reiki.

"Feng Shui is about locating Chi energy, attracting it to where you want it to be," writes Donna on her website. "Letting it pool and reaping the benefits of that collection of good energy. In Feng Shui we also are aware of bad Chi (Sha Chi) and how it can affect our health, relationships and wealth. By finding the Chi, determining the quality of the Chi, and adding to the quantity of the good Chi we can affect great change in our lives."

Visit Donna Stellhorn's website, www.fengshuisource.com.

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Boyd joined Subtle Energy Solutions in 1998 as a product distributor, and came on as a staff member in 2002. He designed the website and sees to its daily maintenance, including the Vibrant Living Newsletter, where he is a writer. Boyd is a well-known musician (drummer) in the Portland, Oregon, area, and is an avid, daily Bikram Yoga student.