There are so many wonderful benefits that come from displaying a large picture or painting of the whole family, highlighted on the main wall in the main living room area of any home. The family portrait instantly puts the spotlight on the togetherness aspect of the family, featuring the strong Patriarch, the nurturing Mother and the sweet children of the family, with siblings staying true and loyal to one another. This brings instant excellent family feng shui to the household, signifying the intimacy and the inseparableness of household members, instantly activating the power of visual feng shui.
FAMILY PORTRAITS CREATES HAPPINESS AURA IN THE HOME
This is an essential component in the Happiness Aspiration of all feng shui practice. If you want your family to stay devoted to each other, never getting separated from each other for whatever reason and always staying safe as a family unit, one of the easiest ways of ensuring this is to arrange to take a family picture of all members of the family smiling or laughing and obviously happy and secure in each other’s company. Let the camera capture the spirit of intimacy, the feeling of security and the depth of love that flow between each other.
The camera never lies, so it is good to choose an auspicious day to take the family picture. It is vital that the smiles captured are real, so every member in the picture should be feeling reasonably happy with each other. Most times, carefully planned pictures do not work as well as pictures taken of a family on vacation or doing something they love doing. Then selecting a picture that spontaneously reveals the genuine joy of the family would be ideal.
Make your feng shui family portrait as large as the room can take, so make sure you take your pictures in high resolution so the picture can be blown up big without looking murky or hazy. And let there be enough light, so outdoor pictures with good natural light always look better. if there is a suggestion of the sun’s rays sending blessing energy into the picture, it will be even more auspicious!
It is usually better not to have three people in a picture, but if there are only three of you making up the family, you can create a triangle in the way the people are positioned in the picture. In any case, family portraits are always luckier when the people are not placed in a straight line. It is always better to create a “mountain” effect, as this engages the feng shui strength of the mountain symbol. In Flying Star feng shui, the mountain star always stands for family harmony, excellent relationship luck and good health.
Family vacation shots are also when everyone is at their most relaxed, so these are great moments to capture and then use to ensure that the happiness of their being together stays with them. BUT THESE PICTURES MUST BE DISPLAYED. They have no power when they get locked away or are hidden inside photo albums that are stored inside cabinets. Then they become memories, not living testimony to the togetherness of the family!
BEING MINDFUL OF THE FIVE ELEMENTS
It is also a good idea that the picture contains all the symbolism of the five elements. This is the ultimate “secret” ingredient of many feng shui enhancers and cures. There is great power when all the five elements of Earth, Fire, Wood, Water and Metal are present, and this can manifest as colours, shapes, numbers or actual symbolism of the elements. Thus group family portraits can be extremely effective when crafted with good feng shui inputs.
When there is a beautiful family picture hanging in the living room, where everyone in the picture is shown smiling and looking secure and safe in each other’s company, the picture itself ensures protection against anyone splitting the family. It protects against intruders or third party interference coming in to break apart the togetherness of the family. This is one of the best and most effective ways of countering the influence of potential troublemakers. It is for this reason that I encourage my daughter, my niece and my nephew to always display pictures of their whole family – mother, father and two kids each – either hung up on the walls of the main rooms or placed around the home in frames on table tops, on pianos and cabinets!
I also encourage them to take family holidays, for this is when the best “happiness” pictures will get taken. Family vacation shots are also when everyone is at their most relaxed, so these are great moments to capture and then use to ensure that the happiness of their being together stays with them. BUT THESE PICTURES MUST BE DISPLAYED. They have no power when they get locked away or are hidden inside photo albums that are stored inside cabinets. Then they become memories, not living testimony to the togetherness of the family!
There is enormous power in harnessing the power of the visual image, and in today’s world when digital technology has revolutionized picture-taking to such an extent, there really is no excuse for not using visual feng shui techniques to enhance the quality and happiness of your life – and few things bring greater meaning to life or happiness as real as that brought about by the sense of family.
KEEPING YOUR PICTURES UP-TO-DATE
There is a time dimension to the practice of feng shui, and energy is a dynamic force. Energy is never static as it is constantly on the move, constantly evolving. Thus, in the same way that good feng shui needs to be updated, likewise, your family portrait also requires regular updates. Parents grow older with each passing year and children grow up faster than we realize. They develop personalities and get involved in new activities as they grow from babies to teenagers to adults.
The family portrait should reflect the changing stages of our lives and if not each year, then at least every few years, the family picture should get refreshed. There should not be a limit to the number of family pictures you display inside your home, and indeed, it is the presence of these pictures that prevents the formation of loneliness energies. If you want to permeate your home with love and friendship vibrations, then start displaying pictures that give you snapshots of memory moments of happiness.
POWER OF FAMILY PORTRAITS
If you could see into the intimate spaces of some of the most famous of families, you will find that in many cases, powerful matriarchs like the British Queen for instance fill every room in every one of her homes with framed pictures of her husband, her children, her sister, her mother and father, and these days, also her grandchildren and great-grandchildren! Thus despite the divorces and broken marriages of her children, nevertheless, her own marriage and her own family has stayed powerfully together and strong!
I have followed the fortunes of the Queen for a long time, as she is one of the icons of the past and present century I have admired for a long time; and I have always believed that for her, the power of feng shui is instinctive. She has dressed and lived with excellent feng shui all her life! She has made every palace of hers come to life with her insistence for pomp and ceremony, but she also insists on family gatherings throughout the year! Most of all she believes in images! Like I say, each time we get a glimpse into her private spaces, there will always be rows of portraits on her desk and on her side cabinets. There are even pictures of her dogs and horses!
The same can be said of all the SUCCESSFUL business dynasties of the world; the Estee Lauder family for instance is probably one of the most successfully managed thriving family business that is also a publicly-traded company. I just read a story of the two sons of the old lady who founded the company, and the pictures that accompanied the story reveal beautiful family pictures hanging on the walls of their private offices. I noticed that their table tops and cabinets had beautifully-framed pictures of family members, sons and daughters bringing their private world to life. This added much to the story on their company and on Estee Lauder’s son Ronald Lauder. I was very taken with the story. It inspired me to write this and encourage everyone to display family portraits.
There is a wonderful supremacy in the power of the visual image. Family portraits encapsulate all the vitality and inner fire of the members of the family. How easy it is to harness this incredible and powerful inner momentum! Those of you reading this, if you have not already done so, I do suggest you take this piece of advice to heart.
