5 Feng Shui Uses for the Woulou/Calabash + The Symbolism of Pumpkins

Hey guys welcome to the Learn Feng Shui podcast where you'll Learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taking out the myth and Superstition so if you're interested in learning funu Chinese astrology all things Chinese metaphysics as well as the superstitions and myths that connect it all you'll enjoy learning fun with me hey guys here I am this week not with the episode I promise but with a replay I didn't want to leave too long of a gap in between episodes and I had a problem with my editing software this week so to improvise I thought it would be nice to put up an episode of five ways to use a wulu gourd and the symbolism of pumpkins so today's episode we're looking at five ways to use a wulu gourd anything from Health Flying Star cures to symbolisms of abundance the wulu gourd is a useful funu symbol or tool also the symbolism of pumpkins I talk about different ways pumpkins can be used to to symbolize abundance and some of the different things pumpkins can symbolize it is episode that I really enjoyed doing I thought I'd just bring this back instead of again leaving a big gap in the episode I'm going to try if I have some time to wrap up the spooky geography episode and if not it will be pushed back to December 13th but you know all you dozens of listeners will uh stick in there I suppose right okay I'll catch you guys uh then but you enjoy this replay of five ways to use warl gours and a symbolism of pumpkins all right guys full swing into Autumn weather's cooling down a little bit and we're going into the decor stores at least here in North America and here in the United States we're getting ready for Halloween and we're seeing all the pumpkin displays and we're seeing a lot of decorative gourds and same for me I love putting out beautiful pumpkin displays and um it's a little bit the same in Chinese traditions although they keep them out all year long and use what is called the Calabash or the wulu gourd and we might more commonly know them as bottle gourds so they're generally Hollow gourds that are kind of dried out and when you shake them they you know rattle because the seeds inside kind of dry out too I know um I was actually surprised a few years ago to learn that here at least where I live in West Texas where there there's a really big um pumpkin um harvesting there's a big pumpkin patch um in the town of Floyd a and when we go that way um I was able to see that they actually also grow these huge Calabash gourds and I just thought they were so beautiful so they're actually pretty native to my part of the United States which I thought was so cool and these are actually gourds that can be found anywhere in the world they're so commonly used so let's take a look at how we can use these so we're going to look at five ways we can use the Calabash gourd as well as the origin of why they are used this way bottle cords or Calabash have long been taken as auspicious objects in China with a small mouth and a big stomach they were used as containers and times path in ancient times doctors would often hang a bottle Gord in front of their stall which was originally used to hold medicine gradually the bottle gourds evolved into a symbol that represented doctors of traditional Chinese medicine meanwhile the Chinese ID of hanging a calabash to help people came into being praising the benevolence of medical practitioners who save patients in times of pain in folk culture as traditional pronunciation um of bottle gour is homophonic with Rich and happy it is thereby loved by many people in addition as the bottle cord has many seeds it came to symbolize the thriving Offspring and Bountiful Grain Harvest um it represented the wish of ancient people to have many children and much happiness number one probably the very most common way a wour is used is for a health kind of going back to the origin of how the wulu gourd originated it was said to symbolize health and it is said that you can place a calabash Gord underneath or next to your bed while you're sleeping in times of illness so and it said to you know absorb some of those negative energies another thing is that I I don't know how to do do it but I have seen and you might be able to find this online I looked when I was doing research for the show and I couldn't find anything about it but this was from a traditional Chinese practitioner and um she had a tradition in which she would cut the top off and she would fill it with some kind of liquid and let that sit out for a time so if you can find something on that let me know and if I find something on that I will let you guys know so I really I really um couldn't find anything on that but again I think it's probably you know good enough to just get a natural wulu I've gotten them from the um the Chinese Mart the Asian Marts that they have here in town and um I found some pretty large wulu again um kind of referencing back to what I said about them being around pumpkin patches and stuff like that um it is like we're kind of an agricultural area where I live and so it is pretty common to find them T kind of out with the pumpkin Decor at pumpkin patches so you might want to check there too and so number two you can use a wulu gourd it said for Flying Star number two since it is associated with illness it is said you can place the wulu gourd so for example the Flying Star number two you can place it where the yearly star is um and you know alternatively you can place a brass one so a lot of the stores um that sell funu type items will have like a brass or a metal Wu gourd and we know that putting metal in where the Flying Star number two is is said to help kind of cure that area kind of weaken the Earth element element or the work Earth energy that is there associated with the illness star number two so I you can get a metal wulu but I really think just a regular wulu also is fine for Flying Star number two so way number three here to use a wulu gourd is going to be the Flying Star number five speaking of flying stars the Flying Star number five is an Earth Energy you can kind of Chase that monthly Flying Star around and just use a regular old wulu gourd if you'd like to uh you can use it for the Flying Star number five again alternatively if you'd like to use a metal wulu gourd you can totally use that too cuz remember again metal controls the Earth number four a symbol of protection so it is said that wulu Gorge are supposed to be a symbol of protection um you can hang it on your door I've seen the businesses hang it up but I do think that is for um the next tip so I'll save that um and you can hang it up in your car I've seen people hang them on the rear viiew mirrors and stuff like that and it is supposed to be a sign of protection and again kind of going with the symbolism and hanging it on your door number five the fifth way you can use it is um again just hanging on the door but it is supposed to be a symbol again of wealth and abundance because of the shape of the bottle and so or you know the bottle gourd so the wood of shape is also considered ideal for accumulation of wealth since the mouth is narrow so you know the wealth kind of feeds into it and the bottom is wider in Asian culture is when something looks like something or sounds like something lucky they tend to use it and symbolize and Associate it with that thing so it is associated again with a figure eight which again we know the eight Flying Star is associated with wealth it does kind of look like a figure eight um and again you can buy the metal ones or you can open your own up and you can place symbolic objects in there coins and little things like that if you want to do some crystals you can definitely open that up and place those in top to symbolize and give yourself an intentional reminder of holding on to wealth so please visit the link in the show notes cuz I was inspired and read off of a couple different websites for this segment um one other thing I wanted to add is that if possible and you just buy regular old wulu gourd and you or you buy one at the Funway type store you want to have it blessed by a priest and you want to tie a red ribbon around it it's said to do what it's called is open the eye you want to make sure that your any you put out that's kind of funu symbol it does have a red ribbon on it and it said you can activate it so have it blessed by a priest or tie a red ribbon around it today's funu word of the day is tyy you may have heard the terms Ty soy Grand du or even Grand Duke Jupiter these are all terms that are interchangeable for the animal sign that governs the year and just as the term Grand Duke Jupiter implies this is due to planetary alignment of Jupiter in relation to certain constellations remember back in the day funu practitioners actually just used to follow constellations and stars because they didn't have compasses so a lot of these yearly energies are actually just based on constellations and this energy is also found in your home it said you're not supposed to spend a lot of time in this area for the year and if you have to sit in the area make sure that you do put the back of your head to the Grand Duke cuz it's said to appease him it also is said to empower you and kind of give you a little bit of Courage if you need it if you face the Grand Duke it's said to be offending the Grand Duke and um it could cause issues with authority sometimes arguments and problems with your spouses if elderly people or children are sleeping in that area they could have issues generally the elderly will have problems with health and I've seen children sleeping in the area have problems with bad dreams you also want to avoid Renovations in the Grand Duke sector for the year so there is date and time selection you can use if you uh specifically need to do something to the sector of your home if you need help finding it just uh shoot me a message or you can upload your floor plan to the link in the show notes and I'll help you find it no problem at all so yeah just include a little note say uh help me find the T soy Grand du sector in my home for today's folklore Friday we'll be looking at pumpkin symbolisms and meanings today's sources will be linked in the show notes below um from Angelic balance.com and writing wich.com um there's a couple good articles on pumpkin symbolism and abundance number one Prosperity so pumpkins usually symbolize Prosperity um if you think about it there is so much uh pumpkin seeds like when if you are here like in North America and have the tradition of carving pumpkins you'll no doubt realize like you have to carve so much out of that pumpkin to actually get to to carve it you got to carve out those innards and it really that's the most timec consuming thing because the pumpkins have so much flesh and they have so many SE seeds and from one uh pumpkin you could grow a ton of pumpkins I've seen people say that they've thrown their pumpkins out in their compost pile or they threw the pumpkin out the corner of the yard and they from the one pumpkin they grew like uh 30 more pumpkins so pumpkins symbolize prosperity and abundance pumpkins also symbolize longevity and security so even though we start seeing pumpkins around September they do not disappear and even though we Harvest them around that time we can keep pumpkins up until like February all through the holidays we can keep pumpkins as long as they're stored properly in a cool spot and for that reason again they represent that longevity pumpkins can also represent stability so pumpkins can pretty much grow anywhere really any climate is good for pumpkins to grow that sense of like you can put down Roots anywhere um that really does add to the symbolism of stability and both in both of these articles it does talk about that it kind of signifies like youve put down roots in a place even if that place is a little bit um temporary you can still grow pumpkins whether it's in containers or just one little plant in the corner of your yard and you'll yield a whole lot of pumpkins but it really kind of symbolizes that you've set Roots down and you're there permanently especially when you're growing pumpkins but it represents stability even there we are seeing a lot of pumpkins this time of year um there's something to be said about whenever you're you keep seeing the same symbols you keep seeing the same um animals or maybe you're seeing like pumpkins everywhere and not just like at the store but in really weird places maybe you see symbols of pumpkins it's kind of time to take note and this the universe showing you you need to pay attention this might be what it's trying to tell you here um one it might be time to speak up it said seeing a pumpkin or pumpkin seeds can signify that it is time to speak up if you feel shallow amongst people it's time to gather your strength and face reality don't give others a chance to defeat you speak and be heard since you also matter number two if you keep seeing symbolism or of pumpkins or you keep seeing pumpkins everywhere um it might be trying to tell you that you are valuable so pumpkin seed are really tiny but they hold so much value if you throw them in the garden you will yield a lot of pumpkins showing their importance despite their size so even if you feel very small in Life or you feel like you're insignificant or small remember that even something small can grow into something big number three it could be symbolizing that you need to stand powerfully so if you see pumpkins they might be trying to tell you you need to stand powerfully in your decisions it's only you that matters and other people's opinions should not bring you down you should follow your path and not let others lead you and dictate how you conduct your life another thing you can consider is that pumpkins can symbolize purpose in life pumpkins are very purposeful in many ways people in the past would rely on them for survival when there are no other fruits and vegetables pumpkins remind us that we have purpose in life and we can fulfill that to date people have used them as Halloween decorations they are used during Thanksgiving season also so that brings us to symbolizing being grateful so if you sometimes feel um you know you don't you don't know how you feel in life sometimes we just feel blah right um if you keep seeing pumpkins or just even placing your own pumpkins out remember that pumpkins are a sign of that abundance and a symbol of Thanksgiving and we can then in turn remember to be grateful for the blessings that we have if you keep seeing white pumpkins remember it is a time of year where the veil between the world is supposed to be thinner and the spirits are supposed to come through perhaps a loved one is trying to send you a message through that white pumpkin especially if it's something that it's significant to you maybe it's one of your relatives or a loved one that has passed on giving you a little wink and showing you that they're still around so pumpkin symbolism in a dream if you dream about pumpkins it could signify that there are new beginnings and experiences On Your Horizon it does say here maybe it's time to quit a job relationship um or bring something to an end they do represent also transformation so again symbolizing that something new and a change can be on its way and some closing thoughts from writing wit.com I highly recommend you look at this um article that I linked below it does have a companion video that's very lovely especially if you like that fall feeling so she says to gain a closer bond with nature and the Earth element I highly recommend growing pumpkins from seeds if you can there are even ways to do this in pots if that's the only way you can garden getting your hands dirty and gaining patience and satisfaction from the process of planting tending and harvesting your own crops is indescribably powerful in learning to understand how energy manifest in this reality if you have grown a crop from seed to harvest you'll find out it's incredibly rewarding and I really do believe what this quote says here about how it teaches you how to understand how to manifest thanks for joining me for today's fall themed episode I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving holiday