Summer adventures are about to begin when vacation time becomes official with Memorial Day weekend. Whether you’re traveling or staying close to home, there’s no difference to your search for scavenger hunts and summer memories. Feng shui is especially helpful in creating lasting impressions and iconic meaning because feng shui speaks to you in a language that has basic patterns and principles.
A staple pattern is a security blanket when you’re looking to collect special moments and significant events. One such pattern among many can be found in the world of gardens. Summer is a wonderful time to investigate and explore a variety of gardens. You can take tours of the gardens at home or abroad and discover all sorts of unusual features. In the context of feng shui, we would like to introduce you to Chinese garden patterns and specifically the unforgettable experience of a moon gate.
The moon gate conforms to the basic patterns of pathways and gates, but is iconic in that it makes a strong statement of tradition and symbolic value. As a simple shape, the moon door is a circular opening in a wall, however once you discover that it is an ancient portal design full of meaning, you will learn how and why it is a living structure that has more than just a ornamental value. Our living memory, therefore, is based on a number of important features that inform the pattern language of lunar gates.
• Traditionally, the moon door is a round opening in a wall.
• It can be a portal between gardens.
• It can be a portal between the external public world of everyday life and the internal private world of a home.
• Create a transition from one place to another.
• The door of the moon, by its name and shape, tells us about connections with other planets and other worlds.
• Due to its shape, the moon door symbolizes the cohesion of the family.
• In feng shui, the circle resonates with the metallic element which is dense and pulls towards the center.
• The circle and the metal element have strong focusing and finishing characteristics.
• With circles, more than with any other shape, we must distinguish between seeing and being.
• Circles are powerful equalizers, as being in a circle erases boundaries and hierarchies.
• The moon gate also symbolizes birth and renewal, beginning with the new moon in the cycle and then celebrating the continuing cycle of life.
• The moon door creates a frame for the view beyond.
• In Chinese culture this framing ability was carefully selected to optimize the distant object in a Chinese garden.
• The painterly quality of a Moon Gate is a perfect example of what it means to select and create a living memory.
Stepping into a circle is a powerful experience. You are surrounded by a positive space that is the framework, but you enter the negative space that is the void, and in your visual field you find the selected view that is created by the geometry of the circle. This is the basic pattern of the moongate. It becomes a living structure due to repetition, variation and differentiation. A unique icon of Chinese gardens, the Moon Gate is instantly recognizable in its basic form, but it comes to life in its many variations on a theme.
Collecting our vivid memories of summer vacations thus becomes a search for basic patterns that, once identified, survive in a wide variety of materials, shapes, and colors. Feng shui encourages awareness of the senses and how we experience our world, but relies on focus and readability for our purpose and role in life.
