Feng Shui - Sloping and Slanting Houses, Ceilings and Back Yards - Money, Love and Health Going Down

I am currently in Chicago, doing some leisurely travel after completing a Feng Shui Master Consultant Course in Austin last week!

I am staying in the western suburbs and what I am noticing here is that the houses are large and beautiful and on top of that, many of them have steep and low slanted ceilings in at least one area of the house and some of the houses drop off at the back.

I am currently staying in a house where the slanted ceiling slopes towards the front of the house.

In Feng Shui, slanted ceilings press down and suppress energy and luck. They compress energy and can restrict movement and growth. A house or yard that drops off at the back lacks support and can result in money, love and health running downhill and away from the home.

First, let's talk about slanted ceilings.

Considering that the front door and front entrance to the home is the “mouth of Chi” - where all energy enters the home - having a ceiling that slopes downwards towards the front door can push any energy entering the home - and that within the home - back out the front door and can restrict the energy from flowing through the house.

A slanted ceiling anywhere can have this compressive effect on Chi and energy, however, because the front entrance is where energy including that of money, love, health, success enters the home or business, this is particularly troublesome.

The North sector represents career, income generation and new opportunity. If the front door is located in this area with a slanted ceiling, it can be beneficial to add colours to enhance the water and metal elements (blues, black, grey, silver, white).

A water feature can be beneficial here, as can be a metal vase to catch and hold energy coming in.

Decorations / paintings that draw attention upward may help to get energy moving in a more auspicious direction and moving through the house, rather than down and out the door.

While upright, living, growing, yang plants can help to move energy upward, avoid these in the North sector.

Form School Feng Shui (environmental Feng Shui), governs that the house should be supported from behind (by mountains) and have water in front (fortune and energy pooling).

I am seeing houses in this area that are built on uneven land and in many cases, the back of the house drops off, slanting down with the line of the hill. This structure causes energy to flow down and away from the house and symbolises a loss of money, health and beneficial energy, as there is no support to hold it within the space.

The remedy for this is to create the missing support.

In these cases, the ideal, long-term solution would be to do some landscaping and level up the back of the house to be even with the front of the house.

Another, cheaper remedy, would be to a solid wall (or feature wall) from natural materials at the back of the house.

Adding a large rock / boulder (representing mountains) can offer extra support in this area as well.

A large empty bowl or vase here can help capture and hold energy, keeping it within the home.

Adding tall lights and spotlights that shine upwards, as well as tall, upward growing trees or plants can also encourage energy to move upward, instead of sloping and running down the hill.

Be sure to check which sector of the home the backyard / rear of the house is in to ensure you use materials that support the elements of that sector.

In Form School Feng Shui, the mountains that offer support at the rear of the home are represented by a black tortoise, one of the Feng Shui Celestial Guardians. Adding a black tortoise at the rear of a slating home is a fantastic representation of the support offered by mountains and can be used as a remedy here as well.

In Feng Shui, I maintain that there is no “bad Feng Shui”, just auspicious Feng Shui and less auspicious Feng Shui.

Some people get worried or fear that I will tell them to move or that they have terrible Feng Shui and are doomed. This is not my approach. Nearly every situation is remediable using the correct application of Feng Shui principles. My outcome is to work with each space and environment as it is and to do what we can to support and enhance it.