Mirrors in Feng Shui - 15 Important Factors to Get the Best Results.
Dr. Michael Oon
Mirrors in Feng Shui are powerful tools. The mirror gives an image of the object. In other words, it can “double” whatever it reflects. Use it with care.
The mirror can be used to symbolise the doubling the wealth. It is a Chinese tradition to place a mirror to reflect the food on the dining table. Food is a symbol of wealth.
However, a mirror can also double the problem. The WC flushes water away. The moving of water carries away energy and wealth. A mirror doubling the image of flushing away wealth is not desirable. Water is a symbol of wealth as well.
Mirrors that are broken, tiles or imperfect give a distorted or unflattering image. This is not good.
Feng Shui mirrors or BaGua mirrors are another Feng Shui tool. These are to ward off evil spirits or negative energy.
The positioning of Mirrors – 6 Do’s and 9 Don’ts
The Mirror in Feng Shui is considered to be a powerful tool. The image doubles everything it reflects. It can double wealth, and it can double trouble as well. It has to be used with care.
Mirrors in Feng Shui – Do’s
- Dining Room: Mirror on the wall to reflect the food on the table. Food is wealth. The reflected image symbolises the doubling of wealth.
- Living Room: A mirror over the fireplace. Feng Shui is about balance. A real fire is about the excess production of the fire element in the property.
- Hallway: A mirror to bring in more light is beneficial. This helps to make the hallway brighter and give the impression of being more prominent.
- Study or Office: The mirror can be used to reflect an auspicious feng shui symbol – like a money plant or a water feature.
- Beautiful Scenery: A mirror can bring in the scenery outside to the inside with its reflection. This helps to add beauty to the room.
- Full-length mirror: Take a look at a full-length mirror of yourself before you go out. This provides a useful check on your appearance from head to toe.
Mirrors in Feng Shui – Don’ts
- Kitchen: The kitchen has an excess of fire element as it is used for cooking. Having a mirror, which is the fire element just provokes a clash. Therefore, do not have a mirror in the kitchen especially reflecting the fire of the cooker.
- Bathroom or toilets: The WC flushes water away. Water not only carries energy but also symbolises wealth. Therefore, the WC flushes not only water but wealth. You do not want a mirror to double your losses.
- Bedroom: The mirror should not reflect on the sleeping body. The mirror can disrupt sleep. It is a Chinese belief that when you sleep, your soul leaves the body and goes wondering. When it returns, it cannot distinguish the real body or the image of the body. This can cause problems when waking up.
- Hallway: Do not have the mirror facing the door directly. This reflects the incoming energy away. This prevents energy from entering the house.
Damaged, imperfect or tiled mirrors – Don’ts
These types of mirrors might be artistic but there are feng shui implications.
- Do not have broken mirrors. This mirror presents an image of you broken or in pieces. It is not flattering.
- Mirror tiles reflect split images. They are not recommended for use.
- Mirrors with damaged silver reflecting surfaces, like the broken mirror, give a broken or distorted image of you.
- Mirrors with an uneven surface on the glass give a distorted image. Like the above, it is not recommended for use.
- Show the whole mirror. Do not partially block or cover the mirror. It will only reflect a fraction of you.
Feng Shui Mirrors or BaGua Mirrors Do’s and Don’ts
The Feng Shui Mirror or BaGua Mirror is considered to be an iconic image of Feng Shui in South East Asia. I was told that a particular Feng Shui consultant in Singapore would ask all his clients to hang a Feng Shui Mirror in front of the property. It was to show the properties that he had worked on.
There is much misunderstanding about the use of this mirror.
The purpose of the BaGua mirror is to protect the entrance from the perceived threat. The threats are sha chi or poison arrows. The mirror is there to manipulate the image and the BaGua symbols to nullify it.
There are two parts to the BaGua mirror. The outer part consists of the trigrams of the BaGua. It could be either the early heaven sequence or the latter heaven sequence.
This image shows the 2 BaGua sequences. The Early Heaven Sequence on the Left and the Later Heaven Sequence on the Right. The Early Heaven Sequence deals mainly with the spiritual world (yin environments). The Later Heaven Sequence is about the here and now (yang environments).
Note the symmetry of the Early Heaven BaGua Sequence.
There are 3 types of mirrors.
Convex, Concave and flat.
- Convex mirror – the mirror has a pregnant bulge. This mirror collects the image all around and reflects it into a small image on the mirror. In other words, the mirror reduces the size of the image. Further details of the convex mirror.
- Concave mirror – This mirror has a shallow dip or valley. It collects the image all around and inverts it. The concave mirror nullifies the threat by inverting it. Further details of the concave mirror.
- Flat mirror – This is the normal household mirror and it just accurately reflects the image around it as it is. As shown in the image above.
The Feng Shui Mirror (BaGua Mirror)
The traditional convention for the BaGua mirror is
- Early heaven sequence with concave mirror.
- Later heaven sequence with convex mirror.
However, the manufacturers have made their own versions which have confused the market.
Purpose of the BaGua Mirror.
The mirror is to protect the entrance of the property from Sha Chi. Therefore, the BaGua mirror is hung above the door or the entrance. I have seen it hung in other places, but it does not serve any purpose in those locations.
I have seen it located in all sorts of places, on the front of the property, on top of windows, on the roof etc. In many places, it was not intended.
Comment:
I do not recommend the use of the BaGua mirror for a number of reasons. The primary one is client safety. The BaGua mirror should never be opened in a Yang environment or indoors. A client had left them in the house, and they encountered a series of totally unexplained problems. I recommended the immediate removal of these mirrors and the problems disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.
