Have you ever had a feng shui consultation and experienced dramatic shifts in your life, only to find yourself in a similar place months or years later and wondering why? As a seasoned feng shui practitioner of over two decades, I’m offering you an explanation and a solution to creating lasting empowered change in your life.
The Ancient Alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus
The ancient alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus taught, “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul” as the key to transmuting base metal into gold, a metaphor for the potential of a Soul’s journey. This principle points to the truth that there is always a mirroring between our beliefs and our reality and conversely, our reality and our thoughts about it.
It is my belief that we are no longer living solely in a “cause and effect” reality. The causal theory supports transformation, a shift in the way something shows up in the world. Similar to a getting a make over, you look different and therefore you begin to feel more confident and start to act differently. Your life begins to change to reflect the new feelings you have about yourself, yet underneath it all, you are still the same person and at some point, another layer will rise to the surface wanting to be transformed as well, all part of the Soul’s growth.
I offer that we are now being called to a deeper level of manifestation based on transmutation. Transmutation is a full metamorphosis where the energy at the core of our being is no longer obscured by our limiting beliefs. However, transformation is the first step toward transmutation, a necessary step, as it allows us to peel away and release what no longer serves us. Once removed, what remains is the true essence of the soul. No longer merely transformed in appearance, but the potential for transmuted through a process of inner alchemy exists. This is akin to the butterfly leaving the cocoon or in alchemy, the lead being changed to gold. Both are metals similar in their essence, but the gold expressing a much higher, lighter frequency. I offer that this process is also available to individuals, so we are free to express in alignment with our soul’s highest purpose. I believe that this potential is the whole meaning and gift of life!
What is our Souls Purpose?
We make the mistake of looking for our soul’s purpose by thinking that it is something we are supposed to do with our lives. When in fact, it is not a career or even a job. Rather it is a way of being in the world. By slowing down and taking responsibility for what we are drawing into our lives and then actively “taking dominion over our consciousness” by becoming aware of our responses because our response is what attracts more of the same. When we consciously choose our response to life (instead of just blindly reacting), we literally alter our way of being in the world and what is mirrored back to us is congruent with who we truly are, a limitless energetic being, divinely connected!
Life is a process of evolution and ultimately, our soul’s purpose is to continuously evolve through our own creating. However, we have to become aware of the level we are choosing to create from, (blindly reacting or consciously responding to life) in order to become conscious participants in what we are creating for ourselves. This involves radical self-forgiveness and letting go of blame and victimhood. If you want to know what level you are creating from, take a look at your life and see what it is reflecting back to you. Are you satisfied or are there areas of continual repetitive challenge?
When our natural radiance is muted by blame, victimhood, irrational beliefs and our natural radiance obscured by the false stories we tell ourselves, our reality will match the vibration we are emanating. If deep down you don’t believe you are lovable (and you may not even be aware that you are operating at this belief) you won’t be able to attract a loving relationship no matter how many people you meet or even crystals and wind chimes you hang! With the proper tools to gently remove these caustic layers eating away at the pure radiance of our soul’s essence, you will begin to radiate more brightly. Just as the Hermetic Alchemical principle, states, “as within so without”, you will become golden, attracting a life of higher vibration, fulfillment and personal meaning. The power is in your hands and choice is yours alone.
How Does this Relate to Feng Shui?
Feng shui, the way it has become popular to practice in the West, rests in the theory of cause and effect to create change; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, I add a water fountain at my entrance and I make money or I hang a crystal in my bedroom and I find a romantic relationship.
Over the years, I have witnessed powerful movement in my client’s lives. Some got the career change they longed for, others the money for a new home they couldn’t figure out how to afford. I celebrated with my clients as they entered brand new supportive relationships and healed long-standing health challenges seemingly overnight! Imagine my surprise when a year or two later, I was called back for an additional consultation because they were finding themselves in a similar life circumstance as before but now with the new job becoming demanding, a new health challenge emerging or the new relationship now draining. I had to ask myself why this was happening?
Enter Spiritual Psychology
Just like what I learned about transformation versus transmutation, I began to suspect that if we were still running limiting beliefs about ourselves in our subconscious, the positive effects of feng shui adjustments would not last. The external changes appear to work at first because they have the power to transform energy, but like a boomerang turning course mid-stream, the energy can only go so far before our own beliefs and stories about ourselves call the old energy back home.
Feeling driven to look at the root cause for creating healing change, it wasn’t until after diving into the study of Spiritual Psychology and combining these skills with feng shui principles, which I call Soul-Centered Coaching, did I discover the key to unleashing true lasting change. When I began including the psyche in my feng shui consults, not only did transformation of a space take place, but transmutation of a soul. We lifted the opaque layers of unconscious patterns built up over the years…and evenlifetimes.Now,any adjustments made in the external space became empowered touchstones, capable of creating new neural pathways in the brain because they were constant reminders of the intention that was set. For example, when we see the wind chime we purposefully hung in the tree outside, it reminds us each and every time we hear or see it that we are calling in the beneficial chi to aid in our intention. This was the key to anchoring change in present reality. Game changer!
Soul-Centered Coaching offers that the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we deserve directly create our experience of life. It offers us a higher perspective to view our life and see how all that is happening to us is really happening for us. This involves a process of taking responsibility for our emotional states and reactions and working through challenges with forgiveness until we can unravel the story of victimization and transmute the heavy lead of our outdated stories into the pure gold of wisdom and meaning. Once realized, we begin expressing in a new way because we start asking the question, “what is my soul trying to teach me in this challenge”?
Putting It All Together
Our homes read as an external map of our internal beliefs. Everything we place in our home holds energy that sends vibrations out to The Universe looking for a return of its match. Do you have a habit of hanging art too high? That can symbolize goals that are out of reach. The windows are akin to your eyes and represent your ability to visualize your life or if dirty and obscured by overgrown landscape, can block your ability to see situations clearly. The relationships are endless and offer a symbolic map to what you believe about life.
We can change our exterior environment with esoteric feng shui remedies, transcendental cures and visualizations, and just like “cause and effect” the energy of the space will have shifted. I once had a client who suffered from severe TMJ until I figured out that the issue was that the front door of her old farmhouse had been sealed shut. This was a serious problem as the front door is the “mouth of chi” and being sealed shut was blocking positive energy from entering the home and also jamming her jaw physically. Once the “mouth of chi” was opened again, the cure was reflected in her own body and her jaw healed. Seemingly miraculous, these dramatic changes were commonplace in my practice.
Going Deeper
Now the paradigm has shifted and to create lasting change a deeper practice is needed. No longer finding solutions in traditional feng shui cures tied to cyclic laws of cause and effect, I created “Interior Alchemy” as a means to transform not only our spaces but rather to transmute our internal beliefs in order to align them with our interior spaces to create lasting effects.
Going to a level deeper with my “front door sealed shut” client, we looked into her psyche and uncovered areas where her voice had been stifled in the past and worked the principles of Spiritual Psychology. We also discovered where she had been holding back words that need to be spoken and looked at how she spoke to herself internally. First, we worked inside to heal the beliefs and reprogram her stories and then anchored the awakened intentions in the interior of the home. Now, not only did her jaw heal, but she also began a new career in counseling, using her words to help heal others. Her change was not just in appearance, a transformation, but rather a transmutation had taken place from the level of soul alignment and expression. This is the power of Interior Alchemy!
Interior Alchemy is an integrative process. You can deeply benefit from applying either part (soul-centered coaching and feng shui) or make a more powerful transformation through their combination. It all depends on your personal needs. I can help you clarify which is best for your situation.
Laura Vida, The Interior Alchemist, is a Feng Shui Master, Geomancer, Interior Designer, and International Top Selling Realtor and holds a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology. Laura is devoted to helping her clients create lasting change by offering a higher perspective on healing in order to align with ones souls purpose more fully. She can be reached at Laura@LauraVida.com or reach out for a free 30-minute discovery session by visiting www.lauravida.com
