Making space for fire: The invisible reason your home feels cold

I have a warm place in my heart for Israel Railways. I met my husband on a train. Found one of my favorite jobs on a train. And last week, I met a friendly neighbor on one.

We talked the whole way to Tel Aviv— he'd lived in China, knew feng shui, cared about the weekly parasha. One of those increasinlgy rare conversations where you don't check you phone. When I got home, there was a book by my door: Life-Changing Ideas: New Interpretations of the Weekly Parashot by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

This week's parasha is Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20–30:10). And Sacks' life-changing idea was heart warming again. God instructs Moses to command the Israelites to bring pure olive oil for the menorah's eternal flame — to burn "from evening to morning." The olives must be beaten, not pressed. Beaten oil burns cleaner. From that instruction, Rabbi Sacks draws this: suffering, when responded to with compassion rather than bitterness or stoicism, produces the clearest, most enduring light.

He also notes it's the first time in the entire Torah that the word tiferet appears. Splendor. Beauty. Not moral beauty or physical beauty, but the beauty of craft, intention, and sacred design. The kind you create on purpose. Which is, not accidentally, exactly what we're doing with our homes.

Your home is always teaching something. This week, it's teaching you about fire.

THIS WEEK'S CONCEPT: FIRE AND GUA 9

In feng shui, fire is the element of visibility, passion, transformation, and joy. It corresponds to Gua 9 — Fame & Reputation, located at the top-center of the bagua, your home's energy grid. This is the area governing how you show up in the world — your radiance, what you project outward.

Fire energy shows up through light, warmth, and movement: candles, lamps, glowing screens, the crackling aliveness of music and conversation. Its shapes are triangular and pointed, like flames. Its colors run hot — crimson, scarlet, magenta, orange, royal purple. Its spirit is expressive and a little wild: animal prints, dramatic art, anything that suggests passion is welcome here.

One more thing about fire in your home that might surprise you: your pets are living fire. Any living thing activates chi — but pets specifically carry yang fire energy because they move, make sound, demand attention, generate heat. They're not decorative fire like a candle. They're fire with opinions. If you have animals, you're already running a higher-fire household than you might realize.

Fire in excess looks like a home that's overstimulating — visually loud, exhausting to be in, where arguments seem to ignite easily. The chi is literally running hot.

Fire deficient looks like a home that's gone flat. People disappear into their rooms. No one lingers. The space doesn't invite joy.

Neither is wrong. Both are information. The experiment this week is to notice which direction you're tipping — and play with bringing it toward balance.

THE 7-DAY EXPERIMENT

You don't need to renovate. Just run a one-week experiment with fire in your home, and notice what changes.

Sunday (Yang/Sun)

OBSERVE your home as if you've never seen it before. Walk through slowly. Notice: where does it feel warm and alive? Where does it feel flat or gray? Just look. No fixing yet.

Monday (Yin/Moon)

LIGHT a candle tonight in the room your family uses most. Not for a reason — just for the quality of light it makes. Notice: does the conversation change? If you have pets, watch where they settle once the candle is lit — animals are instinctive chi readers, and they'll tell you exactly where the warmth wants to land.

Tuesday (Fire/Joy)

ADD one warm color to one surface. A red cushion, an orange bowl, a deep mauve throw. The fiery energy of this element asks: where in my home am I afraid to be seen?

Wednesday (Water/Flow)

LISTEN. Put on something dramatic — an opera, a flamenco piece, music that changes the air. Notice how sound shifts the energetic temperature of a space. Does the room open or contract?

Thursday (Wood/Growth)

INVITE someone in. Or make a plan to. Fire is inherently social — it needs witnesses, other warmth to dance with. Wood feeds fire in the creative cycle. A meal with a friend, a gathering, an evening that turns into something — these are fire practices disguised as ordinary life.

Friday (Metal/Structure)

BURN incense tonight. Metal rules the sense of smell, and fragrance is one of the most direct ways to shift a room's energy. For fire, reach for rosemary, ylang ylang, or tea tree — all fire-associated scents according to feng shui teacher Jon Sandifer. Light it, sit with it, and let the scent do the work. The structured energy of metal asks: what would it feel like to tend this space like a sacred space?

Saturday (Earth/Grounding)

REST in what you've created this week. Sit somewhere in your home that feels good. Notice: what's different? What became visible that wasn't before?

My dog Louisa - the ultimate source of positive chi!

CLOSING INSIGHT

Some homes feel warm without anything remarkable in them. No special design, no budget. Just attention paid to the right kind of fire.

Make space for the kind of warmth that lasts.