"Traditional cures" are used when you want to quickly redirect or disperse ch'i (ch'i being that invisible energy that we are trying to manipulate in our home for optimal results in our life). There are many different traditional cures, but, since most problems can be cured with a mirror, a crystal, or some type of 5-element cure, we have chosen to focus on these three items here at feng shui palace for now.

Some of the most common situations where crystals are useful are:

1. When you have a "poison arrow" directed at a location where you spend a lot of time.
A poison arrow is when two walls meet and form a corner within a room, and that corner points, like an arrow, across your bed, the chair of your desk, or some other location where you spend a lot of time.

Cure Placement: Hang the crystal from the ceiling directly in front of the corner in question. A 30mm crystal will usually do the trick, but if you have a very large room or extra tall ceiling, a 40mm may be better. Use your intuition as to which one you think you need. If you don't see results, you may need a larger one.

2. When there is a long hall way with many doors along it.
Sometimes long hallways can seem like bowling alleys; narrow, boring and straight. This space in the home is judged as merely a functional way to get to the rooms off of the hall and not a "pleasant place to linger." If you don't want to linger there, then ch'i usually doesn't either. And since we want our entire home to be filled with "happy ch'i," you can help out this situation with the use of a crystal.

Cure Placement: Hang a crystal from the ceiling somewhere in the hallway (maybe start in the center and see how that feels, then adjust accordingly if necessary) to slow down and disperse the ch'i.

3. When there is a door in line with your bed or desk chair and you don't want to or can't move your bed or desk.
If there is a door directly in line with your bed or desk chair (meaning, if you walked through the door and if you kept walking, you would run right into the bed or chair) you could use a crystal to disperse or slow down the ch'i, so it doesn't negatively affect your health.

Cure Placement: Hang a crystal from the ceiling somewhere between the doorway and the bed or chair with the intention that the ch'i slow down from that angle.

4. When you have steps descending down right in front of you as you enter the front door.
This is the classic feng shui problem that most people who only know a little about feng shui seem to know: you don't want the steps in the house to descend down and deposit you in front of the front door. It can cause all sorts of "bad luck" as the Chinese call it.

Cure Placement: Hang a crystal from the ceiling somewhere between the bottom step and the front door.

Some of the most common feng shui problems where mirrors are used are:

1. When you want to reflect something negative away from you.
If there is a "poison arrow" (like a corner of a building, for example) coming from another building outside your home or office and it points directly at you inside your home or office, then you may want to use a mirror to deflect that strong energy away. You can also deflect such things like cemeteries, funeral homes, noisy neighbors, trash dumps and land fills or other not-so-pleasant things away from you.

Cure Placement: Place a mirror (usually at least a 6" mirror in cases like the ones above) between you and the thing you want to deflect. Most often this happens inside a window where the mirror is facing outside at the problem. Intend that this mirror is reflecting the problem away from you.

2. When you spend a lot of time living in a space where the ceiling slants down towards you; like when it slants above your bed, or down "on your head" at the office.

Cure Placement: Place the mirror face up with the intention that you are reflecting, or lifting the ceiling back up.

3. When you sleep or spend a lot of time in rooms above the garage.
You can also use a mirror face down on the floor, say under a bed, if you sleep above a garage. You would do this with the intention that you are reflecting away or keeping the toxic fumes, etc. from seeping up in your living quarters above. This is an especially wise cure to do if children are the ones in those rooms above the garage

4. When you want to draw something in that is outside your energy field.
If, for example, you lived near a lake or body of water, and you feel like you need to have more water inside your house, you can use a strategically placed mirror to "bring in the water" in its reflection.

Cure Placement: Place a mirror in the area of the home that "needs" that particular element in such a way that it is reflected in the mirror. Don't forget to use your intention!

Also, if you have a portion of the home that is outside the energy field of the home (usually in front of the front door) and you would like it to be a part of the home, place a mirror "energetically inside" the home facing the portion that is outside. In this case, you don't actually have to have the room reflected in the mirror. On other words, walls can be between the mirror and the room you are "bringing in." (If this makes no sense to you and you think you have this situation, please contact me for additional advice.)

If you are completely unsure of what you are doing, but you do feel that some kind of remedy is needed, then perhaps you might want to employ a "5-element cure." Although there are many ways to achieve this balance, we have designed a simple mobile to represent the five elements that can be hung just about anywhere. Use it in a space where it "just feels weird," or somewhere where you can't quite put your finger on the problem. At the palace we call this a "cover-your-butt" cure, to be used perhaps "just in case."