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Many animals are considered lucky in Chinese culture, so

consider them helpers around the house, bringing luck

and financial success. Once you know where the major

guas – areas related to money, love, career and such – are

located in your home, you can add lucky animals to bring

success and wealth.

Dragons bring good fortune and power to any gua, unless

you were born under the sign of the Dog, which is the

Dragon’s opposite. Also bringing power and luck are Fu

Dogs, which usually come in pairs – these should go on

either side of a doorway, so they offer protection, too.

The whimsical Three-Legged Toad brings wealth – they’re

usually shown sitting next to stacks of gold coins – so

place one in a Wealth gua to bring money. If you’re hoping

to bring more happiness into your home, decorate with

Bats. Two bats bring double happiness, so double up!

Cranes attract wisdom and long life, while Fish are extra

lucky – they attract money and all sorts of success,

and represent perseverance (after all, they swim

upstream!) while the magical .

For the best luck and prosperity, decorate with an elephant,

especially one with its trunk raised. The elephant represents

intelligence, strength and kindness – for extra luck, get a

statue that’s holding an ear of corn, which represents

abundance.

One fine ritual for attracting luck to the home is to use a

Dilbu bell to call Buddha and the other deities. The bell is

balanced to harmonically create certain tones that call the

outer world, usually done by rubbing it with a wooden

stick. A Dorje – a representation of a lightning bolt – should

be held in the right hand, symbolizing the masculine yang

power, while the bell is held in the left hand, to represent

the feminine power of profound wisdom. When both are

used in a ceremony along with ritual prayer, they form a force

of purity.

Many Chinese people swear by special “wish boxes” made of

porcelain, clay or some other earth-based material. Place a

wish, written on a piece of paper, inside the box, which has

a mirror on the inside of the lid. Make a prayer or do a ritual

to amplify the power of your wish, and then seal the box.

Many wish boxes have Lucky Cats painted on the lid, shown

with their paws raised to accept the good luck.

Another special luck ritual is done with three Chinese coins,

the type with holes in the center. The coins are tied together

with a red ribbon – red is a very lucky color – then placed in

a red envelope and carried with you in your pocket or

handbag. If you’re hoping for luck in business, tape the

envelope under your desk or computer, or attach it to your

cash register. This ritual brings money luck, and you should

see results in no time!

The New Year is a time of transition, and many people find

that it’s a good time to use a luck ritual for the year ahead.

Almost every culture has luck rituals for the New Year, in

fact, including the Chinese.

Feng shui rituals include cleaning the home thoroughly to

remove all dust and debris from the old year, getting them

out of the home and starting fresh – that means all the dust

bunnies in corners and bits of debris under the couch. Old

debts should be paid off whenever possible, to start the new

year with a clean slate.

It’s also a great time to bring new objects into the home –

appliances, linens, furniture, curtains and even clothes. You

should do everything in your power to start the new year

with a home that’s free of old energy. But on New Year’s

Day, don’t sweep your new luck away – in many homes,

brooms are hidden on the first day of the year, and no

one should be allowed to sweep the floor!

Some other new year’s luck rituals are to bring mandarin

oranges to friends and family when you visit (and you

should receive oranges from them in return), a New Year’s

Eve reunion dinner so that the entire family can see out the

old year together and, on Chinese New Year, the famous

“dancing lions” ritual to bless homes and businesses – you’ll

see a dancing lion in every Chinese New Year parade.