Mirror, mirror on the wall….

Recently, I did an audit for one of my client. The question about mirror and Fengshui came up. Are there any specific rules in Fengshui for mirror placement? What about clock, pictures, painting etc?

First of all, many many years ago, in the ancient kingdom of China, mirrors are made of bronze and not from mercury like now. Secondly, not everybody can afford a mirror during that time. This is because bronze is also very expensive. Therefore, only the rich and famous can afford mirror. Even you are filthy rich; the mirror doesn’t come in full size like now. It came in handheld form. So, the pretty lady in the family can hold it or place it in the dressing table when putting on make-up. 

Normally, she will have an army of servants putting make-up on her, dressing her up as well as dressing her hair. So, this group of servants are the so call, ancient image-consultant cum mirror as the lady will ask all her servants for her opinion on the dressing as well as make-up. Last but not least, she will do a final check using her handheld mirror.  

So, what does a small hand-held mirror got any impact to Fengshui? Nothing actually. Because of it’s size and not-so-reflective nature, normally it is placed in the room on the dressing table. Don’t think there is any major impact to the person’s Fengshui and well-being.

Now we are in the modern era where you can get a full height mirror to be installed at your house. In addition, there are also a lot of other objects that has reflective surface like mirror. These objects are basically items with a glass or mirror at the front. Examples are clock, pictures, glass framed painting etc.

Coming back to the question on what are the specific rules in Fengshui on mirror placement. In a general rule, mirror and/or any reflective objects should not place facing any door or facing a person while she or he sleeps. Why is that so? Looking at this in logical manner, if you place a mirror facing a door, what happen during the night when someone open the door before she or he switches on the light? She or he will get a shock of his/her life! Likewise, can you imagine you have a large mirror facing your balcony and when the sunlight shown in to your house and the sun ray got reflected to your neighbor? Not very good right?

So, now you know why we advocate that a mirror (or any reflective objects) shouldn’t be placed facing the door. Looking at religious practice, some said that if you have a mirror facing your front door, when the god of wealth walks into your house and he got a shock of his life when seeing his image on the mirror, he might not want to bless you with more wealth!

Last but not least, some Fengshui master advocates that placing a mirror in front of your dining table will double your food. Well, as far as I am concern, the amounts of food on the table still the same with or without the mirror. Mirrors are used in architecture design to make the place looks bigger, it won’t double the food for you….:-)

Thanks

Calvin