The Healing Home: Practical Ways to Harmonize Your Home and Energize Your Spirit

By Steven Ash

We carry our own space with us wherever we go. We expand and soften it with meditation and relaxation and we contract and sharpen it with irritability and anger. In the space in front of us we carry our dreams and expectations; behind us we carry our memories, history and old baggage.

We live in houses with memories stored in the walls and wonder why we are affected by the atmosphere in certain rooms. But because our senses and intuition become so dulled by our stressful lives, we forget to look beyond what is physically obvious and to stop long enough to notice that which we can often feel instinctively with our whole being. Layers and layers of unwanted memories and negative and stagnant energies can build up within a home and within your very self, but they can all be removed and cleared simply and effectively – both from your home and from your inner spirit. The Healing Home explores the skills needed to do this, looking at both the ancient and modern perspective, and by using simple tools and exercises handed down from a variety of cultures and traditions.

Learn the value of using a medicine wheel, crystals, stones and symbols to help you create sacred space; find out how to use a smudging stick, bells and blessed water to refine the energies in your home; learn how to clear and purify the energy in a new home; and experience for yourself the very real benefits of keeping your inner self in balance with chakra cleansing, aura cleansing and grounding exercises.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jul 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781911163886

Steven Ash

Steven Ash grew up on an Ontario reservation and has inherited an extraordinary healing ability from his father, Dr Michael Ash, the reservation doctor. Steven has studied Chinese medicine, acupuncture, Tai Chi and Chi Kung and has an honorary doctorate in dowsing. He practises worldwide as a consultant in geopathic stress, dowsing and environmental energy management. He lives in Surrey in the UK with his wife Renata, a healer and author.

Book preview

introduction

As is the atom, as is the universe.

As is the human body, as is the cosmic body.

As is the human mind, as is the cosmic mind.

As is the microcosm, as is the macrocosm.

Aurvedic Scriptures

In this complicated modern world, where time rushes by unhindered, there is a great need for each and every one of us to find peace. It’s about finding harmony and balance in everything we do and everything that we are. It’s about cleansing the energies within the home and within the body and mind for ultimate health and happiness. It’s about creating space for that energy to flow unhindered.

Healing the home is about cleansing, balancing and revitalizing the energies within clear space. To create clear space in the home you need to come from your own centre of clear space, which is about where you are: where you are outside in the world; where you are in your inner world. It is only when you have located and synchronized the coordinates for your own place in the inner and outer worlds that you can create clear space. The following exercise is the foundation of a healthy home and happy heart and will be a useful tool for self-empowerment as you are thrown, be it by Fate, Desire or Grace, into this Age of Aquarius.

Find your location. You are somewhere on this wonderful planet earth reading these words. There is no one like you, you are totally unique and you have a purpose and a powerful contribution to make.

Which way are you facing? Look at the spine of the book, which way is it pointing? Lift your eyes and look around you; do you face north, east, south or west? You don’t need to be precise, just feel into which direction the front of your body is pointing. Using a compass is a short cut but if you do not have a compass use your other senses.

Where is the sun? From where you are sitting or standing, can you locate the position of where the sun rose this morning? Can you remember in which direction the sun set last night? This will give you the east–west path. Visualize yourself on that path.

Find north. North of the equator you can find this by locating from which way the cold winter wind blows or by locating the pole star in the blanket of stars at night.

Now find south. In the northern hemisphere warm summer winds come up from the south, and in winter at midday the sun is closer to the southern horizon. Again focus upon drawing a line from north to south and visualizing yourself on that line.

Go back to feeling where you are on the east–west path and then return to feeling where you are on the north–south path. Where they cross is where you are.

Above you is sky, or heaven, and below you is earth. Heaven is yang, sun, space and the creative, and below you the earth is yin, your true mother and the receptive. Feel a line of connection between the receptive earth and the creative sky. Where they meet is where you are at the crossing of these three intersecting pathways.

You are now externally in position, in the centre of an egg-shaped, multi-dimensional sphere of energy, which you have invited to enter your space. Your space is now clear. You now need to synchronize your inner and outer worlds.

Whichever way you are facing focus on the attributes and qualities of the direction, For example, west energy is sunset, the warm and soft, wet winds billowing off the pristine blue/green sea; harvest and the ripening of apples and grains; cleansing rain and autumn leaves – visualize the leaves twisting and turning in the wind.

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Each of us are in the centre of our own universe, drawing in energy from the sacred directions. The UCL, or Universal Calibration Lattice®, as originated by Peggy Phoenix Dubro, links with the chakras within the body, and is the most up to date vision of our personal energy in relation to these sacred directions.

As you project these thoughts westward send three breaths of gratitude to that direction. As you breathe in, draw the immense qualities of the direction towards you. As you breathe out send yourself and your loving intention towards the direction. Do this giving and receiving with three breaths into each of the six directions (north, south, east, west, sky, earth). Build up an interaction with each direction so that over a period of time your relationship is one of seeking knowledge and understanding.

Each direction is an arc of 90 degrees, for example north is from north-west through north to north-east. Like a spreading fan you are drawing these attributes towards yourself, bathing in their qualities and giving back respect and consciousness.

Above you is the whole dome of the sky and below you is the complete sphere of the earth meeting at the horizon. You are enclosed within an energetic sphere, surrounded by power in all directions.

How do you feel? Have you got a clear picture of where you are in the universe? It is from this clear space that you can cleanse and balance your home and your spirit. In almost all of the ancient traditions and religions this basic template is the foundation for clear living, clear prayer, clear focus and overall clear space.

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We all have the power of choice; our ancestors have left us symbols and formed structures that remind each of us how to behave and keep focused.

In the natural world there is perfect balance: note the perfection in the natural flow of a clear babbling brook and the way the falling leaves seem to be co-ordinated as they float through the air to land in the rippling water. There is a level of communication and consciousness within everything, which is aware of everything. This consciousness, be it chance or grace, is independent of your belief system or mine. It is not dependent upon us as observers, it just is! In ancient Oriental philosophy this ‘Just is’ is called the Tao, which means The Way. When we are natural and flow along with the natural course of things we all somehow adjust ourselves to the Way.

Remember how to be an observer rather than a manipulator: let go and release your control of your life and the lives around you; release your fear, enjoy and learn to live this life as if you are special and have purpose. This is the real challenge: to be happy and free.

At this time in history you are being given the opportunity to be free and happy if you choose that path. Yes, you have to give something up, let go of something and make space in your life, but only so that the new energy templates can enter. When you make that space, let go of everything that has held you back, then you can and will move into empowerment and ultimately ‘ownership’ of your life. Do you own your life? Have you given yourself the space to run and laugh with your children in the snow?

Take the book, go to a mirror, turn the book upside-down and take a look at this word:

CHOICE

Can you see the magic that exists in the words you write and speak? There is magic all around you and especially within. We are learning to be free: free to love and be loved. Free to choose and be chosen. It is all to do with choice. That which is within is without; your inner world is a reflection of your outer world. The feeling of self-righteous aggression that we might feel towards neighbours (be they other countries, other cultures or other religions) needs to be faced and dealt with. Where do these feelings come from? With propaganda fed to the world through the media, which plays upon our deepest fears, these negative feelings spread among thousands of people and the inevitable result is war. But we do have a choice. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to choose to use the same power of choice and direct your power towards peace? You can do it and you can create a more harmonious and less edgy little world by learning to be in touch with your power of intention.

When you are in an aeroplane and you look down from way up in the sky you see the cars creeping along the roads. They are actually travelling fast but from up there it looks like they are crawling along so slowly. Each car contains a human being that is being driven by his or her own agenda, speeding along through their life drawn by their individual desires, attachments, needs and hopes. Every one of those motorists has a purpose, although some are awake and some are asleep. This is our time to wake up and take responsibility. The Hopi Elders of North America have said, ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for’. This is our time and our opportunity.

Our ancestors knew that living a natural, virtuous and harmonious life brought happiness. They had the same desire for knowledge as you and I have right now. Within the entire variety of ancient traditions numerous ways have been developed to enhance both the outer and inner state of peace and harmony. These traditions are full of techniques to balance, cleanse and energize both the living space around you and the temple that you call your body. We are going to pool together tools and skills developed and explored over thousands of years and create something that works for you in this modern age of computers, electro smog and plastic.

The cultures that contain the highest level of intact information on clearing and healing space are Aurvedic wisdom from India, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Feng Shui from China, Japan and Tibet, the renaissance of Indigenous understanding coming from Australia, North, Central and South America, plus knowledge buried deeply within the Groves and Stone circles of the ancient Isles of Northern Europe. These cultures offer a wealth of understanding on the spiritual value of the relationship between humanity and the natural world.

vastu and feng shui

In India Vastu developed from the observed experience that people are influenced by the energy quality of the buildings in which they live, sleep, work and pray. According to the design of the structure, you will feel either comfort or discomfort. When buildings are designed according to the laws of nature there is harmony, bliss and a sense of calm. As more and more people have this positive feeling, the very structure and fabric of the building is infused with this tangible presence. When the energy and design of the original structure is in perfect harmony it will attract and increase that same perfect harmony, which is a cumulative amplification of happy energy. Conversely, an incorrectly designed structure will create feelings of anxiety and stress; poorly or ignorantly designed structures, where there is little relationship between the natural laws and utilitarian concepts, will produce sickness and depression.

We know that the universe is in perfect order and has been since it began. If the designer of the building can establish the relationship between the site, the people who will live there and the order of the universe, the lives of the inhabitants will be healthier, less stressful and more creative. We can see that from the level of the atom to the level of the cosmos, the same laws apply.

These truths are the foundations of creating a healing home. You will probably be living in a space created with no regard to this enlightenment, but this is an incredible opportunity, for now you are going to learn the skills, find the tools and use the knowledge to create that same relationship between your self and the cosmic mind.

One other beautiful and detailed aspect of Vastu is the principle it uses for energy clearing, and which many other cultures also follow: the cardinal directions (east, west, south and north) are used to anchor the energy so that past, negative energies can be removed and future, auspicious energies can be attracted. In Vastu when the architect designs the building, the plan reflects the order of both manifest and unmanifested creation in the cosmos and the relationship between owner and cosmos. Time enters the equation within the building plan through the observation of the periodic rotation of the earth in the daily pattern of sunrise and sunset. Space enters the building plan when the structure is orientated to the cardinal points. The building is thus placed within a sacred grid related to the movement of the sun, which represents heaven as it is considered to be life supporting to every living organism, and its relationship to the earth. The earth is considered to be four-cornered, sunrise and sunset defining two of these points east to west. The building is positioned at the centre of these six cardinal directions, at the point where heaven and earth, east and west, north and south meet.

In China the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Feng Shui were developing at the same time as Vastu in India. At some time in early Chinese history there appeared seven very special enlightened beings called the Sapients, who had the power to transcend time and space and taught the sages the skills of herbs, acupuncture, Chi Kung and Feng Shui. Wisdom formed upon this solid foundation of knowledge has been developed and expanded upon over countless generations. Information records the experiences of medicine people and healers who related human lives to climate, seasons, geography, diet, exercise and lifestyle, all from the perspective of Qi (pronounced chi), which in our modern understanding is energy.

Over these thousands of years Feng Shui has evolved by drawing together the relationship between the external world of the natural elements to the health and wealth of humans. It advocates living in harmony with the elements of the earth’s environment and energy lines so that we are in balance with the forces of nature. The environment is crowded with these energy lines or Dragon’s Cosmic Breath (Sheng Qi). These flowing rays or meridians of energy that coarse through the landscape are called the dragon lines. Whatever is upstream on the dragon lines will be carried into the living environment. If there is disharmony upstream and your house is on the dragon line you will be receiving that disharmony. If, on the other hand, upstream there is a place of peace and tranquillity these qualities will be carried to you.

Feng Shui is a multi-layered science, which includes geomancy and the shaping of the landscape, and the conduction of these massive rays of energy so that the dragon’s breath moves along routes that are more harmonious to the lives of the people. Feng Shui also involves designing and placing buildings in the most auspicious aspects, a similar concept to Indian Vastu. It also directs the internal placement of artefacts, beds, kitchen, workspace, altars for worship and so on, for the most beneficial movement of Qi through the building to harness the greatest qualities of life.

According to Feng Shui principles, there are basic logical laws upon which to create harmonious living space. Avoid living in close proximity to graveyards, church spires, tall sharp trees or poles, all of which attract Shar Qi, the negative energy. The use of chimes, bells and incense encourage positive Sheng Qi energy. The Qi needs to circulate through the open spaces of each of the rooms and the less clutter, the more movement. This focus on clearing away the clutter has powerful consequences for the individual since it is symbolically very difficult to move forward into new chapters if you are dragging along quantities of history, memories and past thoughts, which are represented by your clutter.

In Feng Shui the Bagua is an eight-sectioned template upon which the overall changes in the house, as well as individual rooms, are structured. The Bagua is used to define the preferred function of each zone, within each room, within the house and upon the plot of land on which the house is built. Again this template is oriented around the cardinal directions of north, east, south and west.

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The home is a reflection of our own integrated life. In the Bagua template the layout of the house and land informs how each area links to the cardinal directions. The more that we align the home to the directions of power, encouraging the qualities of each direction into the relevant spaces, the more harmonious our lives will become.

ancient wisdom

The indigenous cultures of Asia, Australasia and the Americas have developed oral traditions with a deep wisdom of balancing, cleansing and energizing the living space, and the lives of the people, which equals that of other cultures which recorded similar information in written form. These cultures ensure the endurance of their knowledge by passing it on through apprenticeship and one-to-one learning. These teachings give an enormous respect to story telling, the ancestors and the archetypal powers in the environment. They promote an equal relationship between human beings and all other life forms, as shown in this phrase used by the Lakota Sioux of North America, which they repeat both before and after praying: ‘Mitakuye oyasin’– ‘We are all related’.

When we regard ourselves as superior to all other creation we separate ourselves from opportunity. The word ‘understanding’ comes from our ability to ‘stand under’, much like water from a tap being collected into a bowl. The ancient people realized that to gain a positive and exciting learning relationship with the powers of nature so much more was to be learnt by being humble and open rather than by being superior and separate. The qualities of the sage, healer and shaman are that of observing the synergy and balance within the process of creation. When we apply ourselves using ancient and time-tested techniques we can become co-creators within our environment.

There is a template upon which this indigenous wisdom and knowledge is based, an ancient format that pervades all these extremely successful and well-balanced cultures. This template is the medicine wheel. It is a system that includes the cycles of the day, the seasons and a lifetime, which open doorways to connect all aspects of life outside as well as life within us. Once you have begun to investigate this way of seeing the creation around you, you will not only spend the rest of your life exploring it but you will also see it manifest everywhere. You will find that it is the most fascinating and complete hologram of life and the central foundation stone for balancing, cleansing and energizing your home and your spirit.

In Europe we are experiencing a renaissance in energy medicine, discovering that under our superficial culture is a wealth of power rising to the surface. It is coming out of the land as more and more of us remember our place in the pattern of life; the land is responding and coming alive under our feet. Earth healing, cleansing and balancing rituals are present and accepted, seen in woodland groves, on the tops of hills, around sacred healing wells and in the ancient stone circles. Pathways trodden in a sacred manner by our ancestors are now once again being recognized as assets to be valued. This revolution is also an evolution where we are becoming self-empowered, drawing from all the wealth of wisdom available, and finding that we are sitting on a gold mine in our own beautiful countryside.

finding sacred space in nature

When you go into nature and listen for the spirit of the land (listen, let her speak to you), you will find yourself guided to a place of power and something will begin to happen. Try this simple exercise to find your own sacred space in nature:

1Find somewhere quiet to sit and focus upon your breath. Close your eyes and sense that you are sharing the breath with all existence. Sweep your hands in a clockwise (or sunwise) circle all around.

2Say these words