Chapters from the 'Design Your Way to Happiness' Series by

Drs. Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis

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How to Clear Antiques

(an excerpt from Happiness Lessons
from the Feng Shui Fuzion Series)

by Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis

Now that you've brought that beautiful piece of furniture from the flea market or even antique store into your house, what else have you brought home with it? Everything has energy and a piece of furniture that has been in intimate contact with a family for a long time develops a distinctive energetic signature. How will it influence you, for the better or worse? How do you clear it of any negative history while protecting its original grace and style? Here are some helpful techniques.

Amid the trickiest culprits found between Chippendale and the odd Louis the fourteenth sideboard is the antique, or even well used mirror. Found in elaborate gilded frames, or simple wood, with their silver intact or streaked by age, a mirror holds the memory of the faces long gone that once stood before them. Like a photographic plate coated with a silver emulsion, a mirror captures the impression of the human aura.

So when you hang that mirror on your wall, ask yourself "Who used that mirror every day to fix their hair and apply their make-up, watching themselves through the years as their hair thinned and grayed and the wrinkles connected together like fine lace?" Is that really the message you want projected upon you first thing in the morning? Probably not! Fill a home with antique mirrors and suddenly the residents seem burdened by their years, but it's really somebody else's years that are prematurely aging them.

Yet it's very easy to scrub those old auric patterns out. The simplest way is by exposing the face of the mirror to bright sunlight for a day. When you bring it home lay it out in the garden and let the bright rays realign the silver particles. If you're shopping on a cloudy day then set up a bright lamp pointing at the mirror, within a couple of feet of it and leave it on for an entire day. When you move into a new home this is a good practice with the built in mirrors that can't be carted outside.

After a good day in the Sun, the mirror will feel refreshed, the old impressions and expressions have been wiped away. The next step is something that should be done with any type of old furniture, including mirrors. That is the clearing of the energy with smudge sticks and essential oils. Smudge sticks are bundles of the herb sage. You can simply buy stalks of sage from the local herbalist shop. If you want to add a little rosemary or lavender flowers you'll improve the fragrance, although the sage is pleasant by itself.

Place the opened bundle in a fireproof bowel or cast iron pot and light it. The smoke from the sage acts as an energetic eraser. Pass the sage near the piece and blow the smoke into all of the drawers, nooks and crannies. Work your way around the piece clockwise and state out loud your intentions for this addition to your home. Never underestimate the power of the spoken word. If you clear the old vibration away and immediately impress it with your spoken intention you have made it your own. The next stage is the cleaning.

After all, who brings an old relic into your living space and doesn't clean it? The key here is what you clean it with. For the best results clean it three times, although in a pristine piece that may be just a gentle, but thorough wiping. Make sure you reach under the piece and clear out all the places where someone else's cobwebs and dust are hiding. At each of the stages add some essential oil to the cleaning water.

To bring the vibration up very quickly we like to use lemon, pink grapefruit, mandarin orange or bergamot essential oils. For clearing work, avoid the stronger heart based oils like rose, ylang ylang and patchouli. While they're wonderful for inspiring the heart chakra, our intention here is to produce a clean slate and citrus does that beautifully. Add enough to the water to produce a definite scent. Twenty to forty drops to a gallon of water works well. Don't depend upon the inferior and often times synthetic oils found in most commercial cleaners.

A true, high quality essential oil has a powerfully transforming electrical charge that will wipe away the vagrant dreams of the past. In most cases the furniture, mirror or object d' art is now clear and safe to use, but sometimes it requires some additional manipulation. Let's say you get a piece of furniture from Aunt Sadie, and it's a great chest of drawers but Aunt Sadie was the one who never really liked you. She never liked who you dated, didn't like who you married, and when you told her your chosen career said in her typical squeaky voice "You're going to do what with your life?" So you've got two choices, either sell that gorgeous piece of English oak, or really make it your own.

Since you're planning on keeping it here's how you do that. On the back or bottom of the piece where no one will see it you're going to mark it as yours. To do this you'll need a piece of bright red paper or card stock and a roll of red electrical tape. Red is the yang energy that is most controlled by the yin. Red is the color of blood, which is yang, iron based and Mars ruled, but which flows through our veins or venous system which is yin and Venus ruled. As a result red represents properly controlled power.

All positive energy flows towards red. On the red paper draw a symbolic object or shape. You can use many different things although some have more power than others; An equilateral triangle sitting like a pyramid with a small circle placed in the center one third up from the bottom, a circle enclosing an equilateral cross, a heart or two hearts woven together all work well. When drawing the heart, make sure that the point at the bottom and the angle at the top are distinct.

The objects need to incorporate the two polarities through the combination of angle and curve. Now write your names across the top of the page and just below it, your intention for this addition to your home. Use the red electrical tape to attach the paper to the furniture. Next you're going to place small pieces of red tape under the corners and along the edges of the piece where they can't be seen. For the best results place nine pieces, and before you separate them from the roll jot your initials on them.

The piece is now safely yours. Of course the best revenge might be to sell that piece and go out to dinner on Aunt Sadie. Here are a couple of final points. For fans of metal furniture don't worry so much. Metal is mutable and once you've smudged and wiped them with some citrus water they're usually clear, although if they're highly reflective treat them like a mirror. Second, even new furniture carries some static, not to mention glues and wood stains. To clear those energies use some incense or run an essential oil diffuser in that room during the daylight hours for several days.

Choose the scent of your heart carefully and you'll find that your new additions settle quite comfortably into their new home.

Drs. Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis were directors of one of America's largest and most modern professional Feng Shui practitioner programs, based in Philadelphia. Their books Feng Shui and the Tango, Happiness Lessons and Prosperity Lessons, from the Feng Shui Fuzion Series are transforming the practical applications of environmental design in America. For a complete directory of their articles and a catalog of their books and other products, visit www.SpaceAndTime.com. Copyright 2002 Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis

Editors who would like to print this article, including the additional graphics, please email Ralph@SpaceAndTime.com , and we will send you the links to the pdf documents.