I recently had a client reach out to me with an interesting situation. She and her family had moved into a new home, which they loved, but they were having some unforeseen issues because it faced a cemetery. Her hope was that I could help her use feng shui to address these issues. Of course, most of us don’t plan (or actively try) to live next to a cemetery. But in this country, where space can be limited and houses are arranged without a lot of consideration for what else is in the community, it happens.
The land that we’re all currently living on has most likely been occupied by someone or something else at one point or another. That being’s actions, energies, and emotions leave an imprint on the land and, depending on who that being was and their history, the energy that remains with the land can be positive and life-affirming or negative and draining. Generally, living close to a cemetery is considered negative and draining because of what a cemetery actually represents (it’s literally the place that decaying bodies call home). Luckily, as with almost everything related to the energy of our spaces, feng shui can help.
The Basics
While it seems obvious that living next to a cemetery isn’t ideal, in feng shui, it also isn’t considered so great to live close enough to a church, synagogue, hospital, or school that you can physically see the structure. All of these places have big, (often) heavy energy attached to them. They are impressive sites that hold a lot of meaning and history to a lot of different people, and the activity that goes on there is often filled with varied and intense emotions. There’s typically also a lot of transient activity in these locations, with people coming and going frequently and not necessarily on a set schedule. It’s easy to assume that the energy of some of these places (I’m looking at you, cemeteries) is scary or nefarious, but that is rarely the case. The reality is more that these places don’t project calm, steady, or grounded energy, and when we’re around them, we can sense that.
How Exactly Can This Affect Us?
Being so close to these sites can affect people in various ways, and, no, we’re not talking about an Exorcist-style possession. If you’re close to a cemetery, for instance, you may have bad dreams or nightmares, and your pets could become skittish or anxious. You may feel like you’re not entirely alone in your environment. You might feel scared just because you’ve seen enough horror films to know that cemeteries are not places you want to be close to at night. If you’re near another type of big energy structure (like a church, hospital, or school), you (and your pets) may feel distracted, anxious, or overly sensitive to noise, people, or traffic. You might feel more angry, restless, or unsettled, and you could feel “on display” and exposed. Of course, it’s always possible that you may not feel affected by these sites at all – it all depends on who you are and how the energy of the place presents itself to you.
So what can we do to protect ourselves from feeling drained or negatively affected by an impressive site that’s close to our home? Read the next post, Feng Shui for Cemeteries (and Other Significant Places), to find out!