Question: I have a wind chime that is made of clay. It has birds attached to strings. I hagn it at my balcony door (Balcony door is face to face with my main door). Does it have any adverse effects?

Frankly wind chimes have TWO main uses:-

1. If say a particular corner of the wall is `radiating' poison arrow or sha Qi, some Feng Shui Masters advice the householder to place a wind chime to negate this effect.

Alternatively, they would ask the householder to place a potted plant at the corner to absorb `sha ch;i.' I mentioned earlier in another message in this forum that potted plants are mostly used by Taiwan trained FS practitioners.

2. If the corner is of the metal element and say under the Pillars of Destiny, the owner of the house is a "Weak Metal" person, he may add e.g. a metal windchime at e.g. the West area to enhance or strengthen his Metal element.

These are the two main uses of using a Windchime.

There are a few " cautions " here:-

1. As wind chimes do `vibrate' and give off a certain pitch. it may inadvertently attract `spirits' into the house or that location. One view here is that when a person dies, buddhist monks use to " call " the dead during the last rites for the person using cymbals or two metal claps . making `noise' in the hope of attracting the spirit of the person.

2. Wind chimes can be made of many types of materials or even a combination of both and if one is not familiar, may inadvertently cause more damage than good to yourself. For example, if say the North is an auspicious location for someone and this owner decides to hang windchimes (triangle shaped and red) representing the " Fire element ". Under the destructive process of the 5 elements, Fire destroys Water thus this clearly shows that more harm than good may come out of it.

The best advise I would like to give is that if you are not sure whether to hang a windchime or not, please don't do it.

In your case, try not to hang the wind chime until you can be certain that it will `help you'.

The reason I am unable to tell whether it is good for you or not is that:

1. I am uncertain of what type of element and strength you are. Eg. Neutral Earth, Weak Earth or Strong Earth person.

2. Where is your front door facing? If say the front door is facing West, then overall, your house's main element is " Metal ".

3. Which corner are you placing the clay wind chime? As clay represents earth, by right, it could be used to enhance the earth element provided e.g. you are a " Weak Earth person" under the Pillars of Destiny.

Cecil Lee
Center for Feng Shui Research
January 1999