A wealth bowl is one of the most distinctive home decorative items synonymous with feng shui.
In fact, many homeowners who don’t practice feng shui instinctively build their own wealth bowls to place in display spaces to symbolize and attract good luck.
If you have a container of some sort containing money or valuables on display, this set up is similar to the concept of the wealth bowl.
They don’t just remind us of our pursuit of money, but can also be quite a nice decorative item for the TV console, library desk, or even the coffee table.
But how do you design the ideal wealth bowl for feng shui?
Firstly, it is important to note that the wealth bowl is not the same as the wealth vase.
The former is meant for display while the latter is meant for safe keeping. Even when the wealth vase is place in a prominent location, the “wealth” that it contains is hidden from view.
It can thus be deduced that the bowl attracts money luck which is more suitable for those who have no qualms in flaunting their wealth. The vase would be more suitable for those who prefer to accumulate wealth without outsiders noticing.
Saying that, it is perfectly alright to have both the wealth bowl and wealth vase at home.
I’m sure most of us would want others to know that we are doing pretty well for ourselves… just that we don’t want them to know what we really have in the bank.
Choosing a bowl
While many homeowners make impromptu decisions on their bowls such as when a beautiful bowl shaped container seems too magical to dump in the trash, if you really want to harness the magic of the feng shui wealth bowl, more thought should be put into consideration.
The choice of a bowl really boils down to 4 factors.
- Shape
- Size
- Material
- Design
A plastic bowl leftover from the barbecue is not going to do a good job at bringing the luck of good fortune to the household.
Shape
Since we are talking about a bowl, the instinctive shape that naturally comes to mind is a perfect circle.
A round bowl is undoubtedly the best choice to go with. This is in part because the circle represents heaven which is the source of good fortune we are wishing for.
However, there are more and more unorthodox shaped bowls available these days.
Some are curved, some are moulded to resemble, some are other basic shapes, etc.
The only other basic shapes you should use is square as it represents earth.
This is common for improvised bowls originating from beautiful gift boxes and jewelry boxes that are too pretty to throw away.
Stay away from triangle bowls and rectangle ones especially when they have narrow breadths. A narrow breadth would mean a narrow range of wealth luck.
Then there are also those that are shaped like other types of items such as leaves, hearts, seashells, etc. These are sometimes be more akin to plates rather than bowls too.
These types of bowl shapes are acceptable as long as they don’t come with negative symbolism and don’t have any hostile looking sharp corners.
But don’t use plates as they lack the depth to hold onto wealth.
Size
Some people might feel that the larger the wealth bowl, the more money luck can be called upon.
In fact, that is what many feng shui practitioners suggest.
Yet don’t forget that that no matter how much good luck we can be showered upon, there is only so much that we would be able to harvest.
For example, when we pour water onto a sponge, it stops absorbing water when it’s full. Pouring anymore water would have no material impact.
The size of a regular rice bowl can be quite small and the size of a party punch bowl can be overdoing it.
The best size is that of a regular sized bowl.
Material
Glass bowls should be avoided as they are transparent. This allows the contents in the bowl to be seen from the outside. This is a sign of leaking wealth.
To tap on earth luck, the best material is earth-based such as porcelain, stone or even crystals.
A metal bowl is also a common choice among feng shui enthusiasts as it is a material associated with heaven luck. Popular metals include brass, bronze and gold.
Other natural materials such as rattan and bamboo can also be great choices especially when a house incorporates a resort-style interior design theme.
Design
Even though the trend for kitchen utensils these days is minimalist and plain solid colors, the majority of households still use bowls that are decorated with print designs like flowers, ornaments, calligraphy and other auspicious symbols.
Symbols designed on kitchen ware are generally associated with positive connotations.
So you are probably safe with most designs unless they are very clearly associated with negative symbolism.
Wealth bowl ingredients
Once you have decided on a bowl, it’s time to determine what are the ingredients to fill it with.
Firstly, you’d want to set up an earth base. This can be done by adding crystals and other gemstones.
After which you can fill it up with other auspicious wealth items such as Chinese coins, gold ingots, jewelry, real money, etc.
Something to note is that if you would be placing your wealth bowl somewhere with a lot of guest or strangers such as at the cash register at the retail shop, then it’s probably not a good idea to place items of high value inside.
In this case, faux diamonds and gold would make more sense than the real thing.
People who put the wealth bowl into practice often have a focus object that becomes the main star among the rest. These focal items would sit on the base of wealth attracting items with an elevated position above the bowl’s horizon line.
This somewhat resembles a flower pot where the ingredients represent the fertile soil and the focal object rising up being the plant.
For example, some popular items for the focal object include the golden rooster, cai shen, personal zodiac signs, maneki neko, etc.
The gem tree has become quite popular in recent years. By placing it in the wealth bowl, it symbolizes the plant taking root deep into the base of wealth items. Thus, enabling it to grow wealth gems for the owner.
Do realize that this focal item is not essential for a wealth bowl. It just sort of like the cherry on top of a delicious looking cake.
Wealth bowl placement
Because the wealth bowl is meant to convey the symbolism and manifestation of wealth luck, it’s placement at home or at work is undoubtedly at any of the wealth areas.
The primary wealth location is ideal. It would also be appropriate to place it where a water star 8 is located according to flying stars feng shui.
Otherwise, it is also generally fine to place the wealth bowl in any living area for decorative purposes.
After all, as discussed earlier, the wealth bowl is unlike the wealth vase in terms of exposes. The former is meant to display in it’s full glory.
However, the kitchen, washroom and storeroom should be avoided.
