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Meet an Enthusiast | Author: Ann Lees and Mollie Love
Conversations with a Consultant and Friend
In this issue of the Newsletter Ann converses with Sarah McAllister FSSA who also runs her own Feng Shui School, and Mollie talks with Rita Cave a Friend who lives in Spain - Welcome to both Sarah and Rita - Thank you for giving us the benefit of your work and experiences.
Conversation with an Accredited Consultant - Sarah McAllister FSSA
By Ann Lees.
What a delight it has been to chat with Sarah McAllister FSSA, who provides a fascinating conversation for this issue.
Sarah was born into a family of martial arts medallists and instructors, which provided the perfect background to fuel her early interest in Eastern knowledge and philosophies.
As you will see below, Sarah's journey working with energy has been diverse, including many different styles of Feng shui, Shiatsu, martial arts and wilderness philosophy, and she continues to expand her knowledge and abilities.
In addition to being director of a successful consulting business, Sarah is also the principal of the first Chue Style Feng Shui School to be accredited by the Feng Shui Society, known as the Feng Shui Agency Chue Style School.
1. Sarah, will you share with us something of your family history with regards to martial arts and how this influenced your early life?
It's all quite simple really, my father was a Judo instructor in his spare time, so I was in the dojo since about age 4 in my little gi, running around the mats. Dad always exuded a great respect for the wisdom of the Far East and he had a charming way of introducing the discipline of the dojo by telling all the kids to bow to the little Japanese man in the clock, upon entering at the main door. This worked a treat and at home were books on T'ai Chi, Judo, Karate etc so I joined the local Wado Ryu class in my teens and was generally very drawn to the tranquillity and wisdom of Japanese and Chinese culture. At age 14 I was writing poems about world peace, heavily influenced by the Haiku style. Dad would bring us back silk paintings and silk dresses from his travels. My brother Stuart was also very influenced and attained a black belt and First Dan in Shotokan and Dad helped my cousin who went on to become a European Gold medallist in women's Judo. These days I prefer meditation, yoga and soft Chi-Kung to keep me flexible, relaxed and protected. Going to people's homes or offices involves negotiating a massive energy field and you can pick up all sorts of negativity if you don't know how to protect yourself energetically.
2. There are many eastern philosophies and disciplines; what was it about both Shiatsu and Feng Shui that appealed to you?
Even as a kid around the age of eight I was to be found reorganising my bedroom, experimenting with lighting and moving my bed around until it just felt right. On family holidays to beautiful national parks in places like Yosemite, Arizona, Canada and Maine, I was always the one wandering off and found quietly staring into space, naturally tuning in, wanting to linger the longest and loathing the idea of getting back into the new smelling rental car and going back to the cities. I was always really aware and in awe of nature and am probably a pantheistic soul! So, the Five Actions made perfect sense to me. At the end of the day, all these systems are just models, and we need to take them seriously enough to understand them, but not so seriously that they control us! Of all the various ancient worldviews I resonate the most with the Chinese philosophy because the models are not only simple and elegant but also startlingly accurate and dynamic.
I was fascinated by the idea that meridian lines of energy could affect our psychological, physical and emotional well being. In my early twenties I happened upon a pamphlet on Shiatsu at a friend's house - well, that was that - I booked on the course immediately after graduation from university, without waiting to experiment with the introduction course - I just knew it was right for me. I experienced a lot of personal growth during the course and am still in touch with a few people I met, who I hold very dear. Initially, I really enjoyed the physicality of Shiatsu, as I was quite "heady" and it was good for me to become grounded! But I did not enjoy being a practitioner - I had a lot of successes with helping people, but I didn't like being in the same place at the same time each week at my two clinics in North London and Greenwich. It was also a real challenge back in those days as people were very unaware of Shiatsu, so the marketing was relentless and took the joy out of it to some extent. Change beckoned again and it was a real surprise for me to let go of Shiatsu, as I had really identified myself with the persona of a practitioner I had created at that time. But, I had always known since age 14 that I would do Feng Shui. While I have every respect for Shiatsu, it didn't offer me the bigger game that stimulates me the way Feng Shui does. Whether I am carrying out a consultation, design project or horoscope, Feng Shui really opens my eyes all the time. A simple example would be the other day I was walking around a familiar town taking some photos for a Feng Shui project I am doing, and I would usually follow my groove so to speak, do my banking, check out the health food store etc. whereas, when wandering round specifically with Feng Shui in mind I discovered many parts of the town that I previously hadn't noticed. Feng Shui is one of the most dynamic and engaging professions I have ever experienced, which is why I love it so much.
3. Why did you choose to study Chue style feng shui in particular?
I loved all the intuitive style Feng Shui but felt a real need to delve further into traditional style and it was Ced Jackson at FSS who recommended Imperial (or Chue Style) Feng Shui. I was really drawn to learning the Chinese characters and mastering a technical style to balance my intuitive side. After completing my first year, I remember attending a Chue graduate dinner before proceeding with my second year because I wanted to "check out" Grand Master Chan a little. I immediately sensed his good heart and his naturalness appealed to me too - he has a lack of pretence that I find invigorating. I could tell he was reading my face a little which made me feel a little exposed, but I decided he was someone who was very much on his path and any accolades were brushed aside. He doesn't court the media, though sometimes I wish he would! Anyhow, I embarked upon my second year in the knowledge that these people were definitely worth learning from. The Chue family is very strong and has a presence in many countries overseas. In every organisation there are inevitably political challenges and I have heard on the grapevine that Chue people have a snobby reputation - what a shame! Lets set the record straight here! I don't know who has been propagating this image, but it isn't true of us all! Come on my courses! My multi-disciplinary background helps me offer a very broad minded, practical and humorous approach.
4. Working with wilderness spirit teachers and shamans must have been fascinating. How did this come about and what did you learn from these experiences?
It was in my early twenties when living in Bristol that I came across the teachings of Tom Brown Jr, as transmitted by Thomas Schor-kon of Trackways in East Sussex. Unlike many spiritual traditions that can focus excessively on patriarchal style thinking and lofty "Heaven Chi" for want of a better term, these teachings constantly reconnect us to the Earth as a living entity, without which we can become really unbalanced and narcissistic in our spiritual development. We explored "veils" of consciousness and we experimented successfully with remote viewing, spirit walks, remote healing etc. This all takes place within the arena of nature and observing the minutiae of the physical world around us (animal tracks, human beings body language, bird call, night vision etc) really helps to ground our awareness in the here and now, very similar to the Feng Shui practitioners of old who were experts in observation of weather (knowing animal habits etc helps to understand weather prediction). I have also participated in tens of sweat lodges and ceremonies with various shamanic teachers both in UK and USA. In fact, my long-term goal is to get back to these basics as I miss it all very much. For the last 6 years my focus has been on understanding the world of business - very few Feng Shui consultants earn a full time living and it has taken me years to establish my company. When I first started out full-time back in 2003 I thought it would take 6 months to become known and have a full order book - how impossibly naive! The downside of being Sagittarius is that we can be pathologically positive to the point of foolishness - but then The Fool archetype is a powerful innovator, so it is best not to regret who we are and what we have done in life! Otherwise, I may never have started at all. Anyhow, as a result of my decision to go full time I have learned many things in addition to Feng Shui knowledge and applied skill, so I am very happy with how enriching my life is and how many different arenas I have access to - one minute I am looking at a two up two down terraced house in South London, the next day helping on the Feng Shui of a hemp block building, the next day I am lecturing at a design conference in Iran - it is never dull!
5. You practice yin Feng Shui and returned to China in 2008 to further your study. Can you tell us more about yin Feng Shui and what drew you towards it?
Yin Feng Shui is part of many consultations because it offers a deeper understanding of Form School. It is good to understand Yin Feng Shui for land selection and new builds, but not so relevant on a small terraced house, what I love about Yin Feng Shui is getting out and about in nature, walking in the mountains tracing the dragon lines and finding the "lairs" i.e. places of powerful earth energy. We are given illustrations of mountain shapes by Grand Master Chan, and to start with these seem inconceivable and irrelevant in the real world, but the more I have travelled and the more I have observed mountains/hills/topography etc, the more I notice these amazing shapes exist and how they really influence the vibrancy of a place. I would not want to limit myself to interiors and very simplistic techniques.
The most commonly held belief about yin Feng Shui is that it is for the dead only, or some sort of frightening and superstitious ancestor worship. For sure, Yin Feng Shui looks at gravesites - the position of the headstone, view from grave, depth of grave etc and inevitably that type of work can involve operating in the spirit realm if you so choose, but superstitions are best left to those who prefer to not take responsibility. Superstitions are a type of self-fulfilling prophecy based on fear. Feng Shui is more rational than people understand. Homoeopathy is proven to work. Acupuncture is proven to work. The theoretical principle is that ancestor bones are a homeopathic dose of the ancestral chi, so it is highly likely that the bones of my predecessors are still acting like a cosmic antennae and linked to my psyche. Quantum physics proves what the ancient cultures always intuited, that there is a web of energy connecting us all. This is why we sense who has left a message on our voicemail and sometimes even the emotional content of that message. I am not the best person to ask about the ins and outs of how ancestral chi works, as I am still learning, and need to involve Grand Master Chan for any gravesite Feng Shui work. It just makes sense to me that graves would be subject to the same influences as a house, and if they are aligned to negative directions or overlooking negative forms then they will be resonating with that type of chi pattern. If they are auspiciously aligned and overlooking good forms then they will be emanating more positive vibrations and that can only be a good thing! Feng Shui is not the be all and end all but it is an important influence and it is very worthwhile making it as good as it can be for you and your family. Everyone needs a little stress and challenge in life to grow, but relentless stress and difficulty is just plain boring and Feng Shui helps to reduce the strains and increase the positive chi, pleasure and joy in your life.
6. Is it true that in ancient China the yin aspect of Feng Shui was considered more important than yang?
As far as I know, Yin Feng Shui was and remains more important than Yang Feng Shui because land and form of the exterior is more powerful than the interior/building (yang Feng Shui). The reason why Yin Feng Shui had faded into the background is because in the West lots of Feng Shui teaching has out of necessity concentrated on apartments and homes in heavily urban environments. Also, mastering Form School and Yin Feng Shui is extremely difficult and takes years of observation and research to attain real proficiency and you need a competent teacher, of which there are very few. Consider that the Feng Shui masters of old were travelling for a large proportion of their time, mostly on foot, examining different terrains, looking for powerful areas to settle new cities etc. It is very self-affirming that the more I learn about them, the more I think, "hey that's what I do!" - I have always been a bit of a gypsy, moving house very frequently and travelling regularly. I also recently learned that they used to work in teams of specialists; I created Feng Shui Agency because I understood the need for collaboration and employing peoples strengths. This approach is very energy efficient - something else the shamanistic work taught me, which is also very similar to Feng Shui philosophy.
7. Is there a particular consultation that stays in your mind?
One of my favourites was when I was standing peering into the NE doorway of a restaurant the day before conducting a space clearing ceremony, taking the reading with my compass, when the manager came up to me, leaned over my shoulder looked at the compass then looked up at me and said in a heavily Antiguan accent "Seen any ghooooosts yet?" - I had to smile, because in our Feng Shui (and in many other cultures) the NE is the Spirit Gate! The locals kept making friendly jokes about my compass being "voodoo"...
8. Have you experienced any really transformational moments with Feng Shui, either for yourself or a client?
One of the more memorable ones was about 5 years ago - a case where a little girl stopped stammering after the Feng Shui changes. I noticed an exceptionally soggy area near the rosebushes in the back garden that was pooling very slightly. I asked the mother what this was, and she said it was either a spring that needed unblocking or some sort of "run-off" from the rainwater collection system and that she was already in touch with the council. Happily, it was not sewage, but even so, I could see it would not be helping matters, particularly as water is to do with communication. It was on the tiger side at the back, which relates to first daughter, so I encouraged them to dig into the area a little and get it as free flowing as possible. Internally, the form of the bed in the bedroom also needed improvement. After only moving the bed to a stronger position in the form and a better kua for the girl, teachers ran up to the mother in the playground saying its amazing, she has stopped stammering. If I could have done back flips in jubilation I would have done so when the mother told me this and sent me a thank you card. I encouraged the parents to permanently unblock the spring or whatever was causing the blocked water, but I don't know whether this was ever resolved or not. Sadly, I learned that the stammering did return within 6 weeks, but happily it was not so severe. This just shows that internal changes can be limited in their effectiveness and there may well have been underlying psychological issues that needed addressing too, who knows. I don't know whether the parents actually ever did everything I said because I lost contact with them as can sometimes happen despite trying to stay in touch. That can sometimes be hard to accept, because I genuinely care about my clients, and I want them to implement changes, because I know they will benefit. But, we are not gods; we can only do our best to help - if people don't follow through, then that is their own personal responsibility.
On a personal level, I use Feng Shui all the time, so it's hard to pinpoint any particularly transformational experience. I am constantly keeping my water feature well maintained, keeping my office space clear; making sure the desk angle is correct etc. I tend to look at the calendar mostly each day and plan important events accordingly, but I am not a slave to it by any means. Increasingly, I enjoy feeling what type of day is ahead and what approach to adopt and more and more I am right, so I am pleased to be returning to my "yin brain" after all my study using my "yang brain"!
9. Do you have a favourite aspect of feng shui work?
This is really hard to answer because in all honesty I love it all, which is why my passion for the subject is inexhaustible! I definitely enjoy large-scale architectural projects and new builds and analysing cities and towns through Feng Shui eyes. Both these areas are very challenging, which is why I find them intellectually gratifying due to the collaboration with other experts from Feng Shui architects and Feng Shui urban planners to civil engineers, property developers, master planners etc. Happily, I have a good mind for assimilating multiple streams of information and naturally think in 3D, so I feel very comfortable on such projects even if they do stretch me now and then. I also really enjoy Feng Shui Interior Design because I love creating beautiful spaces. Once we have the Feng Shui ground rules established, it is a chance to play with gorgeous fabrics and eco materials etc. And it is such a delight to hear how much a client enjoys being in the space once we are finished. In the grand scheme of various Feng Shui responsibilities, it affords light relief for me!
Sarah McAllister FSSA
sarah@fengshuiagency.com
Conversation with a Friend Overseas - Rita Cave.
By Mollie Love
For the past 26 years Rita and her family have lived in the ‘steep and rugged' Sierra Nevada Mountains in Spain. As an earth ox and a Taurean it is not surprising she has lived close to nature and the earth all her life and together with looking after her own land made gardening
her career.
She and her family rebuilt a ruined cortijo which she describes as being rather like a Scottish croft. They did not set themselves an easy task, it being in a remote area up in the mountains.
1. Can you tell me what drew you to move to Spain?
In the summer of 81 my husband Hugh had a job carving a figure head of a Chinese dragon for an old sailing ship being fitted out for a film in Barbate, Cadiz. Our children and I drove out there a little later and arrived just as the film was cancelled and Hugh was laid off. We didn't have much money but didn't want to return home yet, so I asked the I Ching as it always seemed to give me the right answer in major decision making, and it said " Do not go to the north and east but stay in the south and west". We decided to find a friend who had moved to a region close by to us and he employed Hugh on his rebuilding of a ruin and we got the idea to find a place for ourselves as land was very cheap then and we were enjoying the life there. So we returned to England, sold our home and came back to Spain the next summer to look for our own dream.
2. It seems you are rather an adventurer and not one to take the easy path? Why live in such a remote area?
The next summer found us roaming around the south of Spain but not finding our spot, when someone told us about La Alpujarra, a very mountainous region more to the east, so we drove here and as soon as we came up into the mountains we knew we had found where we wanted to settle, it was so wild and rugged and awesomely beautiful with its terraced land and rushing mountain streams and its old white wash villages clinging to the mountain side. So we rented a cottage and spent the winter looking for the right place for us.
3. Can you describe the difficulties you had to resolve on taking on your house building project?
Firstly the fact that we spoke hardly any Spanish, and no one here spoke English! We had to learn a whole new language and a way of life.
Secondly I fell in love with my present home despite the fact it had no road access, and no possibility of putting one in! However mules were the thing here and I am a horse woman, so we got a mule and I set to work hauling about 10 lorry loads of sand, breeze blocks etc. plodding up and down the steep zigzag path to the cortijo, which is like a Scottish croft built into the mountain side with a flat roof which can be walked on from the terrace above.
The restoration work was accomplished over about 3 years including digging out and building an alberca, to store water from the mountain snow melt to irrigate the land in summer, with the big bonus in this hot climate of doubling as a swimming pool.
Like many people your interest in feng shui came about by chance. What was the catalyst for you?
My son gave me Lillian Too's book Feng Shui for Gardens for Christmas about 10 years ago, and as I am an avid gardener and also with its link to the I Ching, it got me interested in the subject.
Is there much interest in feng shui in Spain and how were you able to train.
I then bought Complete Idiots Feng Shui by Joseph Yu which really got me going . Wanting more I emailed Joseph and received a reply from Olga Garcia, a Spanish student of his, and attended 2 of her courses in Madrid and Barcelona, on form, compass and flying star feng shui, which was quite difficult for my brain to cope with as they were in Spanish, so the next year I decided to train fully by doing the correspondence course with the Feng Shui Academy in Britain.
I am fortunate to live in an alternative multinational community a bit like Totness, so people are open to new and different ideas. There is also a growing interest amongst Spanish people, with a few practitioners here in Andalucia.
6. Since building your first house you have built a second one. On this occasion you were able to use your knowledge of feng shui. How did it help?
As virtually all the roofs are fallen in on old cortijos, ( before they were only made of beams topped with cane and launa, a type of impervious silica clay,) in feng shui terms this means that this creates a new house, in which case flying star feng shui is very relevant to ensure the house has good fortune over the next 20 year time span. My new house is a qian house, sitting NW1 and facing SE 1, so has wang shang wang shui, or fortunate mountain, fortunate water, which will hopefully bring me good luck in health and relationships and in wealth and good fortune until 2024.
I also used compass feng shui on the design, working with the elements as far as possible to create a nurturing cycle rather than controlling or weakening cycles.
I did not know about the 9 life directions at this time, so didn't use them. The house has a natural form, as it sits in an armchair with the mountain behind, a river in front, a nice green dragon to the east, but a rather strong white tiger in the form of a cliff to the west.
7. You are very interested in geopathic stress. Living in the region in which you do, do you experience many earth tremors?
Yes, I have experienced a few over the years, including a couple of quite strong ones! I think we also had a small one in the middle of the night in February during a period of heavy rain, and the next morning awoke to find a rather large rock had broken off from my tiger cliff and was sitting on the old house patio! I dowsed the cliff and discovered that there was a strength 16 line running through where the rock had come from, with another line strength 12 crossing it at that place, so I asked the neighbours above if I could do some healing work on their land, as that was the most suitable spot, and then healed it with a rose quartz crystal, so hopefully I wont get any more.
8. How are you using feng shui currently?
Actually at the moment its mid summer, and too hot to do anything but flop in the pool and spend time with my grandchildren, I have a house full at the moment and they are keeping me pretty busy.
9. When you do a consultation what is the first thing you always do?
I don't think I have developed something that I always do first, it seems to vary according to the situation.
10. Are there any requests for a Consultation that you least like dealing with?
Not so far.
11. Can you give an example of a recent piece of work that you feel went particularly well?
Yes I have recently been asked for a consultation by a friend of mine who has a restaurant in town, which has been struggling a bit this year, and he wanted to change the energy around. I discovered that the entrance, in the east and south east of the building, had a lot of old metal work, a gate and window grills, which were quite rusty and unpainted ( the owner is an artist and sculptor as well as being an excellent chef) and he liked it like that. So I pointed out to him that to some of the poor philistines who dine there the entrance may look a tad scruffy and unpainted, but that more importantly this is the wealth corner of the building, and the wood element is being controlled by all the metal, and it would really help if it was painted blue, black or green, with lots more healthy plants, especially a money plant, and possibly a water feature.
I took my best friend there for her birthday last Saturday night and was very pleased to see it is all painted a nice forest green with lots more plants, and Wes assured me that trade had considerably improved. He is working on the water feature.
12. How do you wish your work to develop?
Now that I have finished training I want to consolidate all that I have learned and also decide where I stand between the different approaches, i.e. traditional flying star and modern 3 gate and life directions, before I go on to learn new techniques.
Probably I will take an advanced space clearing course next, as I live in an area which was very much divided in the Civil War and there were a lot of atrocities happened in the community at that time which are still felt to-day.
I am hoping to develop my business in this region and at the coast. I have written a small article describing feng shui for La Chispa, an alternative magazine on the Costa del Sol, which will be published in October, as I think people don't really know what feng shui is about.
Thank you, Rita, for talking with me and good luck in ‘spreading the word' in Spain. rita@ritacave.com
© The Feng Shui Society
The Feng Shui Society is an independent, non-profit organisation established in 1993, run on an voluntary basis by an executive committee elected from the membership. It administers minimum standards for education in feng shui to professional practice level and maintains a register of accredited consultants.