The Turtle verses the Lo Shu

  

I’m not sure when I realized this but every year, in the early summer, I transform from a feng shui advisor extraordinaire, into a single unit turtle rescue squad. As it happens, I seem to draw the amiable tortoise to me like a moth to a flame.  One morning last week as I headed out to work, I found yet another one scrambling across the hot pavement looking for adventure.  I always hate to tell them, but usually there’s nothing on the other side of that hot road  they didn’t have on the side they just came from. Usually, I just grab them from behind and run to the other side. Once I get it settled into the closest patch of tall grass I can find where it can consider whats just happened, I’m on my way.

This time, the creature was near my own turf, not somewhere further down the road, so I kept running with him straight into my own backyard.  My mind fairly fizzed with the information from my own feng shui background.  I was filled with the desire to have this hard-shelled creature make his home in my own garden. I felt as if I was a descendant of the great Chinese Emperor Yu Huang.

Emperor Yu Haung was the first person known to observe the unique pattern of squares on the back of a turtle he had seen swimming in the vast Yellow River. Here, is where the legend of the  Lo Shu Square began over 5,000 years ago.

The magical Lo Shu Square, based on the mathematical formula found within its 3x3 grid, contains numbers within the 9 squares that, no matter which column you choose to work with, all add up to 15. From this time forward, the square began to be recognized by the Chinese as a symbol of natural order, balance, and a way to maintain a connection with the universe.

You may recall the Baqua, which, to me, is the easiest tool used to correct the balance of chi within your home. It grew from the Lo Shu and is based on the same principles. With either of these, you can begin to adjust the balance of harmony in your home as you address the concerns of any of the life areas.

It makes me wonder if the rescued turtle roaming around my garden was just trying to adjust his own harmony when I snatched him up so he could adjust mine.

Peace