Giving Back: Complimentary Feng Shui Analysis for August 2009. Jackie Bullen, Co-Director of Children’s Education at Unity Denver nominated the church’s fellowship room for a complimentary Feng Shui analysis as the church had recently renovated and enlarged the space. I met with Minister Nat Carter to discuss what he envisioned for the new space. Nat had big dreams and lots of ideas about this new space and enthusiastically told me his plans. He wants the space to be welcoming to members and visitors to the church, a place to relax and chat before service and a place to grab a cup of coffee and sit and visit after services. He wants a welcome desk so that visitors can find out more about Unity. He has spoken to an art curator about filling the walls with a rotating gallery of paintings. He wants to feature bulletin boards for classes, interesting activities going on at church as well as around town and around the country. And, he has a large, empty space in which to do all this.
We started by looking at the way people enter the room. From there I could explain how to lay the bagua and begin to find those areas for enhancement to help him fulfill the goals for the space. Like many modern built churches, Unity has several ways to enter. We focused on the door in which most people enter to identify the best place for the room to “say” Welcome. The door that Nat selected came along a hallway (that they expect in the future to enlarge) that falls in the Knowledge and Self-Cultivation area when laying the bagua. No wonder people choose this way to enter the church! With this entrance identified, it was easy to suggest where to place the Welcome sign – between the two wide doors that lead to the sanctuary, in the Fame/Recognition section of the room. In fact, we identified a Welcome desk from another area of the church that I suggested we move in front of the sign.
The plan for the room included a grouping of small tables set at “cocktail” height. I suggested the tables be moved to the Relationship sector of the room – which was already painted in a light peach – a perfect elemental color for this bagua.
Some of the bulletin boards Nat wanted to feature already existed in various places around the church. I suggested they all go along one wall – the Career, and Helpful People and Travel sectors. The coffee and tea buffets could be placed underneath them so people could review the boards while selecting their snack.
Next I asked about some of the pieces that were in the room, their history and usefulness to the space. Several of the items had been a part of the church for over 25 years and had simply been moved from place to place. As I pointed them out and asked about them it became clear that they no longer served their original purpose and could be given away. This was an exhilarating prospect for the space – moving out some of the old, no longer useful pieces to make room for the new tables and stools, artwork and buffets.
When looking at the overall colors and objects in the space it’s easy to identify an overwhelmingly “metal’ element with the light gray walls, the metallic-gray carpeting, the large white fluorescent lights and white tract lighting and round tables with metal bases. This makes sense for a Unity church which focuses on the understanding the mind of Christ and working through prayer to build a relationship with God. This is a church of mental activity – the activity that’s related to the metal element in Feng Shui. How to balance this? With some Fire! I recommended a Welcome sign in red, and the use of some red in the fabric of the stools for the tables. The artwork on the walls will most probably create some Fire energy with color and theme – and of course, the people who fill the space will create the most Fire energy for the space.
In a future blog, we’ll look at the transformation of the Fellowship room at Unity Church of Denver.
