From Site Selection to Blessings: The Art of Ceremonial Building

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 fun 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 welcome to today's episode I'm Candice Berlanga a certified funu practitioner and red ribbon professional with the international funu Guild and of course your host for the Learn Feng Shui podcast today I have a fun episode we're going to be bringing in the sacred traditions of the past into the spaces we create today we're exploring profound rituals that guide the art of building and we're going to look at how we can incorporate that into our space today so whether you're building a new building or you're moving into an existing space we'll be looking at how these rituals can be key into creating positive outcome and success all right guys while getting into today's episode I'm going to be referencing the book creating places of power Again by Nigel pinnick covered it multiple topics in this book it's very interesting and I wanted to point out today that the subtitle is called geomancy Builder rights and electional astrology in the Hermetic tradition and I'm pointing that out because I'm covering more of the builders writes today and I'm going to start off by telling a little bit of a story so I'm actually a big fan of the show Outlander and I've been going through the book series when starting book number four it's called Drums of Autumn and it is season four of the TV show I believe we uh get the story of the central characters and they're scouting out a piece of land and to my surprise everything that they do uh from finding the land to laying the foundation actually covers what is described in this book let's start off here with a little story so we have our main characters jimie and Claire Fraser Jaimie is a brave Scottish Highlander and Claire is a modern-day nurse and she actually travels back to the 18th century to the 1700s so that's the premise of the show So Jamie and Claire find themselves in the wilderness of North Carolina and Colonial America and they started this quest to establish a new home and as they're wandering through the forest they come across a patch of wild strawberries and to them this is an omen because Jamie explains to Claire that the strawberries are a symbol of the clan Fraser and the French word for Frasier is fros and it's a sign that they have found the perfect spot to begin their new life so with that decision made they actually Mark the land in an intimate way and they J this through a marital act and at one point Claire does kind of say or she thinks to herself you know she knows this isn't a question of whether it needs to be done she said it was almost like it had to be done he did explain to her also that it wasn't just you know the physical act itself but it was a ritualistic act that bound them to the land and did act as a way to Grant fertility to the land it was something something that was usually done in the Scottish tradition so some time passes and they're building their home now and it's time to lay their Hearthstone and in this Hearthstone of the future cabin which is the heart and we kind of talked about that before it was the heart of the home they actually embed an iron knife into the Hearthstone and it is a Time honor tradition that is meant to protect the home from harm that might come their way and so through these ma Jamie and Claire aren't just building a cabin but they're performing Builder rights actually covered in this book and their actions do Echo these ancient practices of intertwining these traditions and connection to the land by mirroring the principles we're talking about today which are creation selecting a land usually through Omens marking it with the sacred act and then blessing it with a protective ritual starting off first with the concept of Creation in the book creating places of power it talks about creation on page 19 I'm going to read here and then I'm going to kind of paraphrase and give my thoughts the beginning of anything is the Act of Creation it's a small reenactment of the Primal Act of coming into being of all things that described symbolically and human may my of creation and inner own ways all myths tell once how chaos was the only state of being and then at a precise moment a change came about bringing existence into to being what I take from that is him saying that starting something new is like this creative spark and it's rooted in these ancient myths and traditions and these come from our backgrounds and our beliefs and these stories whether they involve Divine forces or natural elements they do reveal how this chaos was transformed into order beginning with a single thought and that rituals can actually play a crucial role in shaping the success symbolizing the act of creation and marking the start of something significant whether it's the act of selecting a sight laying the first stone or choos using a movein date which we're covering these ceremonies do set the stage for positive and fruitful outcomes and in the case of Jamie and CLA it was them just deciding that they wanted to start this new settlement they're at a point where they are having to decide do they want to stay on this Plantation owned by his aunt or do they want to go establish this new settlement which they decide to do the latter and so just the thought process of them first setting out and embarking on this Mission and deciding that's what they want it is that start of creation the second part where they follow these Builders rights and ceremonies is going to be in their site selection as I mentioned Jamie and Claire come to this patch of wild strawberries and that was their sign that they needed to build right there in other ancient Traditions there was definitely Omens used a lot of times there would be animal Omens if they would see a certain kind of animal in a space or area they would know that's where they're supposed to build their settlement or their Church and sometimes they would do ritualistic slaughters and so they would take so many animals from an area and they would cut them open and examine their livers if the livers were clean that meant that the land was fruitful which in really does make sense right we're looking at what the animals are eating in the land is the land healthy then we are in turn going to be healthy also of course they were also eating the animals there is one account here that it says that the legendary priest defri discovered wild s with her piglets when he was on his way to build a monastery and that was the omen that he sought and he called the monastery swine more and in Celtic symbolism the wild pig does denote fruitfulness because an Autumn it actually tramples the seeds into the Earth and is also the symbol of motherhood again symbolizing fertility to the land there is other accounts of a hunting party that was scouting out a stag and while the dogs were pursuing it they actually stopped and the hounds would not kill it the count examined the place and found that it was actually a forgotten grave of a saint and then the church was built there to commemorate the miracle so there's different things that they actually looked for when building or selecting land it would definitely look for Omens and good signs like that and of course for Jamie and CLA that was that strawberry patch that they found in that area the next point is making a mark on the land so usually making a mark would include some sort of ritual and in Jamie and Claire's case it was the ritual Act of the sex act that they performed on the land but there were many Traditions that would do ceremonial acts one would include a ritual sweeping of a place in preparation for a new building or conducting a ceremony sometimes trenches were dug around an area sometimes maybe a pole was erected and other instances they would just take a stake and Pierce the land where the foundation should be set but all of these Concepts thought to bring some sort of luck blessing or even fertility to the area that they were settling so the final thing that was done by Jamie and CLA was a foundational blessing so in many instances the foundation of the home would be inlaid with some sort of artifact to ensure the home had a blessing or protection in Jamie and Claire's case it was that iron that was given to them by their aunt jasta iron in the Scott Edition is said to have power and a spiritual connection from Heaven to Earth and when they were building the homes really these relics and things like that were set into the foundation to establish a connection between the Earth and man and heaven so that's pretty interesting because of course we have the similar Concept in funu where we have the uh that Trinity of like heaven Earth and man and the three connecting you know the cosmos man and the basically the will of God as well as our choices and actions so kind of the same thing in uh building these homes and constructing them there was thought it was thought that they really needed something to establish that connection and in many cases they actually used Human Sacrifice so this is a little bit groom if you don't think you can uh handle this part you know you might want to skip uh a few minutes here there are several accounts in the book and it says here that foundational sacrifice or deposits have been customary in the west since time in memorium so an ient ancient times you know we're talking about 300 BCE very very early on and they would actually find bones and Relics inside the foundations of buildings and churches and although this is not seen in Jamie and cla's story in Outlander going through the book we come across the uh pirate Stephen Bonnet he's a character in the book and at one point another character is asking asking him how he got out to be a sea captain like how did he end up in the ocean and he talks about a time where he was almost sacrificed he was helping construct a building and when they were finished with the basement they got him drunk and he passed out and they took him to that basement and they tried to wall him up as the sacrifice for the home obviously they ended up letting him live but uh throughout this book and series we do see a lot of these ancient Traditions that are brought into like the building and these Builder rights which I just find fascinating because I'm I'm weird I suppose at the beginning Claire does find herself in the Scottish Countryside before she travels back to the 1700s and she sees a strange custom performed on the eve of belan and she notices they're painting the doors but uh her husband in the 1940s actually tells her that this is animal blood because a sacrifice was not put into the foundation of that home therefore a blood sacrifice is needed to protect the home it says here also in the book creating places of power that apart from interment of a whole human being beneath or within the fabric of a building there's many instances where fragments of a human being are just used so of course in mainstream Christian tradition it is considered essential that some Relic should be buried in Fabric or held in the church so that its spiritual power will protect and sanctify the building and human bones play a part in this Christian sacrifice practiced if not written in Doctrine for Dr nir reasons that the strong element of ancestor worship in the Christian religion is given another name of course so relics such as bones of Saints or artifacts deemed to have association with Jesus and his immediate Entourage were placed in the foundation Stones altars and at the top of spires in these churches and we do know also so here that many Roman Catholic churches contain pieces of dead human beings actually on public View and they are considered to empower the sanctity of a place being physical witness to The Cult of the ancestral dead that is one of the key features of the Catholic Christianity this is the book okay not me Ireland is a good case of this it says here a Grizzly mummified head in the Catholic of the Catholic martyr Oliver plunket is in a glass case and in Germany The Splendid 18 Baroque altar of constants Cathedral contains mummified head with jewels in their eye sockets looking out at the congregation through por holes the Cathedral of Aras in Providence France has a whole Chapel full of wonderful golden Beed reliques that display bones blood and cloth of saints like I mentioned earlier not always were human beings sacrificed or put into the foundation other times it would be animal sacrifice that could be made and put into the foundations it also is common in Many Lands to mix blood with mortar Scottish ceremonies once included smearing the foundation with human blood or killing a chicken or allowing blood to run over a stone so not just human blood but the blood of other animals also horses were often sacrificed and put into the foundation it wasn't only horses but also sometimes it was like here it says German Foundation Customs was to bury a blind living dog it did also seem to be customary if they were doing some work and they Unearthed one of these relics that they would ceremoniously put it back there is an account of a dog being found in the foundation under the floorboards and in this case it was just reburied ceremonially and put into the wooden box and just put back where it belonged cats were actually used quite often as the foundation and other building offering it says here that they thought that it protected against fire and vermin and others were buried in threshold horse and chimneys this was not limited to cats dogs and horses but also cows sheep and pigs were found in foundations and eggs eggs were actually found in foundations and said to protect a house against lightning strikes since the book creating places of power is mostly Western European and hermetic type of traditions it does not cover much about fun and Eastern Traditions a little bit farther into the book where it talks about about directional influences which I talked about in my wind episode that is covered in there but not the Builder rights traditions and I actually had a little bit of a hard time finding anything about traditional like Eastern Builder rights although we could say I guess fun in a whole as a practice could be those Builder rights but for funu when you're building a house or a new building it is all about the assessment of the L land form around it the soil quality and also the orientation on the land itself so specific degrees using the lowan which is that functua Compass one interesting thing that I have talked a little about a little bit before was lb ban so Lou ban was supposed to be the inventor of everything that's what he's called and he is the god of builders and contractors and he is known for creating a long line of products that helped common people we don't know if he really existed because there is a little myth mixed with some truth there coming from the China project I just wanted to read a short bit about luban the history or of who Luan was it says here that rather like a Wonder surgeon Lan's Legend thrived on the weight of generations of acceptance existing evidence trumped by past precedents and a dazzling Narrative of ancient Chinese sophisticated lore and we know they love a good folklore that's why I cover it here on the show Lan is a legendary figure credited with inventing a lot of Labor saving tools very numerous and his Origins traced back to a carpenter named gong Shuan so during the Spring and Autumn periods which I when I looked it was about 700 to 400 BC so but his story has since become a blend of myth and history so we really don't know what's what and there is no concrete evidence of his real existence Luan is celebrated for his contributions to Chinese craftsmanship with his name attached to everything from idioms to cultural artifacts and he does symbolize Ingenuity industrious Spirit of the Chinese people some of his most famous inventions are going to be the Fram saw so it revolutionized Woodworking and allowed wood to be cut quickly and cleanly and the invention significantly increased the efficiency of Timber preparation making construction projects faster he's also attributed to the carpenter square and it became an essential tool for precision in construction so it helped kind of standardize things it helped standardize measurements and angles leading to a better quality and more uniform buildings more reliable construction methods and the umbrella the legend goes that luan's wife actually decided to make the first umbrella to protect him from the elements while he worked so the invention provided a portable shelter from rain and sun and improved comfort and health for labors and eventually became a common tool in everyday life lban is also associated with a funu tool called the luban ruler and in funu it measures the dimensions of furniture tables chairs beds cabinets and doorways and it's supposed to be a sacred measurement of sorts specific measurements are thought to be auspicious and some are thought to be inauspicious and you use that it's not a standard ruler so it does not line up but it is just a Lu band ruler uh the beds also measured certain dimensions are taken from there furniture that aligns with these measurements are thought to bring about auspicious incomes and ones that do not align or align with inauspicious measurements are thought to bring negative outcome like Financial loss health problems and Discord in the relationships so the Lu band ruler is a tool with construction and interior design uh with function way principles the Lu band ruler is also traditionally used for measuring coffins and graves in Chinese culture particularly in funu burial and the dimensions of these items are carefully considered to ensure they fall Within These auspicious measurements it's also believed that this can influence the well-being of the deceased descendants and of course bring peace to The Departed Soul the grave is also measured so the size and placement of the Grave is determined using the luban ruler and it ensures the grave Falls Within These auspicious measurements to help maintain a positive connection between the living and the deceased and it is said to promote Harmony and avoid like spiritual and ancestral issues that could arise from improper burial practi in all cases the careful use of a luan ruler reflects a deep respect for the beliefs in these measurements and of course respect for L ban who is said to be the god of construction one thing I could not find is a long time ago I did an episode dedicated to L ban and I feel like I remember some ceremony would be performed which would of course fall into these Builder rights but I could not for the life of me find that information so I'd probably have to go back and check that episode um I know when I did the episode I watched a whole like YouTube video but it was in Chinese with only subtitles I got a lot of information from that video also so I'll try and find that and see if I can include the information to that in the show notes but ceremonies were performed but I could not find the information on that all right now let's look at some tips you can do to perform your own builder rights and ceremonies so how do you incorporate all of this into today's world like how do we how do we make it relevant for today right is what we really come for and so tips for your own builder rights the first step is that thought of creation you know what do you really want in a building what suits your needs do you you know start thinking of that start making a list of things you want I know when I bought my house that I live in now it almost seemed un attainable so it was something that we really wanted we didn't know if we could really make it happen or not one of the factors was that my house was in pre-foreclosure with the previous tenants and that uh it those types of deals take a very very very long time to negotiate we had found this house and I fell in love with it I really wanted it I loved it I just thought you know it was in a lot of disrepair and I really want to come in and make it my own space and I would actually like drive by it every so often I would you know take a look inside it was open because it was just that bank owned property was kind of abandoned so I would I would come inside and I would just imagine myself living in the home you know and so really again started with that thought of wanting to move houses or you know and currently we do want to build a home so now I have to think about building a home you know what do I want in a home and so just that thought process of really man you know really visualizing and thinking about what you want in a home uh is the start so you can start there you know maybe make a little vision board for your new home and I know for a lot of people right now home ownership is a little unattainable because of the current market you know things are just messed up right now with the market at least here in the US I'm not sure how it works globally but here in the US sometimes it feels a little unattainable so just start with that vision board okay start with what you want in a home so number two looking at the building itself if you're starting a new construction making The Mark with fun there is dates you can use for groundbreaking um but if you're not necessarily building on fresh ground definitely uh looking at things like a movein date you know using a traditional date whether it's from your own perspective you know maybe you've heard certain days are good to move in and certain days are not good to move in you know follow your own perspective on that okay if you think you know you want a good funu date message me and we'll help with that too so really just moving an item into your home burying an item in your backyard um again if you're building the groundbreaking you know putting something into the ground there putting your own Spirit your own thoughts your own emotions into the space is like making the mark on the space so now that we're getting into building or having a space that's already built performing a ceremony so making it meaningful to you again we want to use something from our own Traditions our own religions our own cultural backgrounds so for me that might be different from what would be meaningful to bless your home but something that blesses it you know making it meaningful according to your own faith maybe you invite a pastor or priest server to speak and they say a blessing over your home before you move in you know maybe you have a housewarming housewarming can definitely be tradition saying a prayer burning incense I know I've heard some people when they're building a home that they will go write Bible scriptures that they'll write on the studs of the walls I know that my one of my funu teachers um she talked about when she was building her home how she puts something to represent each of the eight directions or the eight sectors in the home so that if you practice traditional funu you could go off the uh the sectors you know North southeast west Southeast and all that and if you practice btb Funway you can actually just look up those life aspirations and you can grid it out and you can put something that represents those nine life aspirations so it you know it it just has to be something that's meaningful to you I can't necessarily tell you what that is going to be with the chines tradition it is customary to get a new broom sweeping is definitely one of the things that again um earlier I talked about sweeping the area before building is constructed there well the Chinese believe that buying a new broom and uh sweeping and stuff like that is actually lucky so sweeping the new home and symbolically cleaning it that way buying a new broom is recommended and that is thought to cleanse the area again you don't want to sweep Your Dust out just kind of like in Chinese traditions there is times of the year where you actually want to hold on and accumulate U they do believe if you sweep the dust out of your home and you know open the door and sweep it out you're actually sweeping away the luck so you're supposed to just gather it and throw it away just like there's times of the year where the Chinese don't take their trash out or clean for a period of time because they're letting you know that luck in that Chi buildup and usually that's during the Chinese New Year and then there is a specific day where they take everything out and you know throw their trash from the holidays so yeah think of it that way and just perform your own ceremony in the space it doesn't have to be when you just move in either it could be at any time of the year maybe you have yearly Traditions you do maybe you're on holiday spring cleaning and whatnot and that does again symbolically put your energy into a space all right guys well hope you enjoyed today's episode about Builder R and bringing it into modern times so I'll catch you guys not next week but the week after for September energy update I believe that's September 6 can you believe that already wow month of the rooster so if you need anything between a now and then feel free to shoot me a message go subscribe to the newsletter on the website learnfengshui.com so that companion newsletter will be out on that September 6th as well if you haven't checked out that newsletter I highly recommend it's Pack full of funu information for you to plan your month zodiac sign forecast flying stars and even more as well as lucky dates so if you want a lucky date to move in hey maybe you could find one on the newsletter right all right well I'll catch you guys then for a free energy mapping of your floor plan please check the link in the show notes to support today's podcast going to learnfengshui.com sign up for emails leave a review and share with your family and friends