Can Life Be Made to Imitate Art?
Altars of Power and Grace – Create the Life You Desire

by Laurel Airica

How much influence do we actually have over the events in our lives?  If we move the furniture around and hang sacred symbols from the ceiling, will we experience a shift in energy that brings our dreams in its wake?

These sorts of questions used to be conversation stoppers whenever “New Agers” and “realists” mingled at social gatherings. But in just a few short years, the idea that we can design interior spaces to make our dreams come true has gone from relative obscurity to a prominent place in the cultural mainstream.

But though classes and books on Feng Shui abound and draw a wide and varied audience, not everyone has the time, resources or talents to totally transform their home or office so as to gain all the possible benefits.  Fortunately, this is no longer a problem.

In Altars of Power and Grace – Create the Life You Desire (Balanced Books, 2004), authors Robin and Michael Mastro distill the principles of an even more ancient art of energy orchestration down to a few potent symbols that act like a magnet to attract your heart's desire. By following their step-by-step guide for creating and activating charming altars in strategic places around your home and office, you can experience greater health, wealth, love, wisdom, spiritual awareness, personal transformation and professional success in your life – according to the Mastros and the many clients they've inspired.

In their beautifully illustrated book, the Mastros introduce Vastu Shastra, the mystical art and science of sacred architecture that incorporate the laws and forces of nature into human habitations to create the beauty and energetic harmony we need for our optimal health and well-being.

Arising from the same Vedic tradition as yoga and meditation, Vastu has been practiced in India for at least 7,000 years and possibly far longer. It was introduced by Buddhist monks into China approximately 3,000 years ago, where it was adapted to culture and climate to become the art of placement known as Feng Shui (meaning wind and water).

Over the last thirty years, Michael Mastro has become one of the leading Vastu experts in the West. He is also a prominent environmental design consultant, an award-winning architect, and a real estate developer/contractor. He has designed spiritual centers in India, Europe and the United States – at the request of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – using Vastu principles. He has also incorporated this sacred art of environmental harmony into the many public and private, government and corporate buildings he has designed around the world – including Microsoft's first office building.

Robin's background is in fine arts, education, publishing, environmental design and alternative healing modalities.  A student of Feng Shui as well as Vastu Shastra, she received her graduate degree from Antioch University in Whole Systems Design, an innovative program that teaches “how to think systemically, operate holistically, and design creatively” for a sustainable future.

She knew the subject of her graduate project would be Vastu Shastra but she didn't know at the time how to make the benefits of this complex yet potent system – that enables us “to harmoniously align our personal space with the powerful energies of the Universe” – available to busy and possibly skeptical Westerners without their needing to undertake extensive study, home remodeling or major room re-arrangements.

The solution came unexpectedly when she and Michael accepted an invitation to travel through India with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.  “Wherever we went in India we saw altars: they were placed at roadside rests, in people's homes, and in meditation halls. By using altars, there was a tangible connection with the Divine apparent and this was the essential piece I had been looking for to define my graduate work.”

Given the holographic nature of reality – in which the whole is contained in each of its parts – the Mastros found that a small altar can serve as a highly charged metaphor for an entire home. “The altars you create with the system presented in this book can influence your environment in ways very similar to making larger changes,” they explain.

Thus, by placing a token of our specific aspiration on a small table, counter top, or window sill that faces the most beneficial direction, and then surrounding this token with symbols for the five elements of the material universe configured in harmony with the eight directions of the compass – they claim that we can magnetize the necessary energies to bring our dreams into reality.

The Mastros make it easy to do this. Using the basic charts and time-tested formulas they provide in Altars and Powers of Grace, readers can express their unique creativity in conscious concert with the ultimate creative forces of the Universe.  “One thing is definite, – they write with the conviction that comes from experience” “You will begin to see changes occur in your life that are fulfilling and supportive.”

By going to the Mastros' website, www.vastucreations.com, visitors can access free, downloadable yantras for their altars – the ancient, geometric designs that embody subtle energies that exert a favorable influence on the environment. Site visitors can also learn more about Vastu Shastra – including how it differs from Feng Shui. And they can purchase sacred objects that help to balance energies, activate altars, and manifest dreams.