How To Give Your Vision Board the Best Possible Energy

Illustration by Witchy

“Envision possibility. Don’t worry who else believes in it; the universe is only looking for instructions from you.” 

— Marianne Williamson

This morning, the warm spring sun pushed through my lace curtains and splashed itself across the floor. I knelt in the path of the dappled light, a mess of magazines and printed internet images scattered around me. In the middle was a large sheet of red poster board.

Witchy’s familiar knock preceded the creaking of the cottage door opening and then closing as my little blue friend let herself in. 

“Good morning, Liberty!” she almost sang, twirling into the parlour. 

“Good morning, Witchy! You’re up early!”

“I know. Mornings are so stupid.”

“Yeah, they’re not my favourite either,” I replied, cutting out a photo from a magazine.

“Oh, boy! Are you doing crafts? I love crafts!” Bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, Witchy rubbed her hands together and giggled.

“I know you do!” I grinned up at her from my position on the floor. “I suppose it’s crafts. More like crafts with a purpose!”

Witchy knelt beside me and picked up a bottle of glue. “Oh, my, you get to play with glue! I love glue!” Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. “And cutting out! I love cutting out!” She gasped as an idea came to her. “Oh! Do you have sparkles, too?”

“Yes, I have sparkles, although I wasn’t planning to use them for this project.”

“What? You have sparkles and you’re not going to use them?”

“I don’t think so.”

She stared at me, blinking and obviously dumbfounded.

“I don’t get it. You are so lucky. We never had sparkles in the Transylvania Forest. If I had sparkles, I would use them.” She looked at me as though I’d just had a perfectly healthy puppy put down.

“Would you like to make something, too, Witchy? You can use all the sparkles you want.”

“Really? Oh, yes, please!” Leaping to her feet, she twirled around the parlour. Well, twirled, danced…I’m not exactly certain. “What are we making?”

“You can make whatever you want but I’m making a new vision board.”

“A vision board?” Anxiously, she sat on the floor next to me and took my face in her hands. “Is there something wrong with your eyeballs?” She stared intently at them. 

“No, my eyeballs are fine! A vision board refers to the future and envisioning what I want in my life.”

Quickly, Witchy turned her attention to the pile of pictures I’d cut out, flipping through them and scanning the remaining sheets of paper. “Oh, dear.” It was barely a whisper, but I heard it.

“What’s the matter, Witchy?”

She stared at me as if she were a lost child. A couple of blue tears perched on her eyelids. “Um…well…I’m…there’s no picture of me in your pile.”

“Oh, my, Witchy!” I leaned sideways and gave her a hug. “You’re already in my life! And you’re such an important part of it!” 

“I am?”

“Yes! I’ve told you before, you’re my family now.”

“Yes…you did…but…”

“But what, Witchy?”

“Well, you know what happened in the Forest…I thought everyone there was my family, too, and then…well, they weren’t.”

“I know. That was different. Don’t worry, Witchy. I’ll never do anything like that to you. I promise. You must know by now that I’m nothing like everyone who was so mean to you.”

“Yes. That’s true. But why don’t you have a picture of me in the future? I’m here now, but don’t you want me there, too?”

“Of course I do! The vision board is for things you don’t have yet, or that you can feel starting to grow and you want to increase that energy. Like, if I were married, I might put a picture that represents a happy couple to represent wanting that to continue into the future.” I glued a picture of an airplane on the lower right corner of the poster board. 

Witchy stared at me in silence for a few moments. And then, “Don’t you want to make sure I continue into your future?”

“Oh, yes, Witchy! I cannot imagine my life without you in it! Tell you what, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll be happy to put you on my vision board! You’ll go right here, in this area,” I added, pointing to the middle section of the left side. 

“Yippee! I get to be on your eyeball board!”

“My vision board.”

“Yes! That thing! Yay! Why are you putting me over there?”

“Because that’s the ‘Family’ section of the Bagua Map.”

“A bag of maps? What maps? Are we going somewhere?”

“No, not that kind of map. It’s used in Feng Shui. It’s an ancient Chinese practice that balances and harmonises the energy in your home and — well, in your life, too. 

“What’s that got to do with putting a picture of me in that exact area of your eyeball board?”

“The Bagua Map is nine squares, three rows of three. Each square represents an aspect of life, an element such as wood, water, or fire, a direction, a colour and so on. When you apply the map to your home, with the front door being at the bottom edge of the map, you can see which colours, elements and so on should be represented in each of those nine areas throughout your house. This section is for family,” I said, pointing again.

“That sounds like fun! I would love to put squares of colours on my floor and all through my cottage!”

“Yes, it’s fun — although in practice, it can be quite complicated and it’s not exactly about putting squares of colours on your floor. I suppose you could do that, but even if you did it’s about much more than that.”

“Oh, this is exciting! What else do you get to do?”

“Well, that’s a great attitude. Most people would look at it as what they must do — if they want it to work, which is the whole point of doing it. Feng Shui is wonderful and when you apply it to your home, the energy feels so good! Think about how many times you’ve said you love how it feels in my cottage. That’s largely down to the fact that I practice Feng Shui.”

“How long do you have to practice before you get good at it?”

“Hah! I mean, I’ve incorporated it into my life,” I chuckled. “My entire cottage has had Feng Shui treatment. You can even see it on my desk, my dresser, the tops of my bookcases — even in the placement, colour and type of every picture, ornament, piece of furniture and everything else in my home. Everything has a purpose. Everything is exactly where it is for a reason. Anyway, it is quite complicated because there are a lot of rules to be followed and sometimes you can run into problems.”

“Uh-oh. Rules are not my favourite.”

“Yeah, not so much mine either, but it’s necessary to follow them if you’re going to make Feng Shui work. Some are simple, like I’ve used a red poster board because this is an auspicious colour; it is the colour of wealth, luxury and romance. It represents good luck, success, happiness and lots of other loveliness. So if you use red in the right ways, it can be helpful. And in the wrong ways — well, not so helpful. As for the problems, some are easy to fix; others a little more challenging.”

“What kinds of rules do you mean?”

“Well, if you have water or drains in the wealth and prosperity section, you have to do things to counteract that energy. Like if you have a bathroom or kitchen in that section, it can cause financial trouble.”

“Oh, no! How do you fix it?”

“That’s a Wood section. Too much water will cause an imbalance of energy. It would be like energetically flooding the wood. You need to put things in that area that represent wood to soak up the water energy. So if it’s your bathroom, maybe a shower curtain with trees or leaves on it. Put a plant in there, even an artificial one. And put some purple objects in it, as that’s the colour for that section.”

“That sounds easy!”

“Yes, those are easy fixes. Also keeping your toilet seat down and your drains closed or covered. You don’t want your money energy to ‘go down the drain’ or be flushed away. And the bathroom door needs to stay closed at all times. And another challenging issue is you can have arguing doors.”

“Arguing doors? I’ve never heard a peep out of mine! Other than creaking because they’re so old! But definitely no arguments!”

“It’s not that kind of arguing, Witchy. It’s got to do with the placement of doors that are opposite or near each other and the negative energy they can create. They can cause problems with your physical health. They can also cause irritation and conflict in your home and family, or have other negative effects on your life.”

“That sounds terrible! How do you fix that? Board up the doors? Move to another house?”

Giggling, I replied, “No, nothing that drastic. It’ll depend on the size, type and placement of the doors. Maybe switching hinges, or getting a bi-fold door, or using tiny mirrors beside them. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“Okay, what’s all this got to do with your eyeball board?”

“My vision board,” I smiled lovingly at my sweet little friend. “Because the Bagua Map energy is balanced and flows harmoniously, that’s the energy I want to continue having in my life. And as you can see from the bit I’ve done so far, all the pictures are touching other ones and the sections are also connected. No gaps. Otherwise, you block the flow of energy.”

“Wow, this is so interesting! Will you help me make one, too, please? With the bag of maps?”

“Of course!”

“And sparkles?”

“Yes, Precious, with as many sparkles as you want. Although I can assure you, you’re so sparkly already, you couldn’t possibly attract any more sparkly energy than you’ve already got.”