Have you ever been to a business where you've noticed a friendly-looking cat waving its paw? Usually the cat is placed right next to the register or in the store's entrance, waving at customers and beckoning them to do business.

This is Maneki-neko. His name in Japanese means beckoning cat, and he is a Japanese good luck talisman, although is use has become popular in feng shui, the Chiniese art of placement as well. His waving paw is actually a beckoning paw, inviting all to come in to the business where he is displayed to bring prosperity to the business owners. 

Maneki-neko originated in Japan's late Edo period, probably around the mid-1800s. One of the most popular myths about the cat is that a stray cat one day appeared in a merchant's shop. Although the merchant had barely enough to feed himself, he fed the stray and made it well. The cat was so grateful, he sat in front of the store to beckon customers inside, bringing the merchant prosperity.

The paw Maneki-neko is beckoning with tells you what he beckons. His waving right paw attracts monetary prosperity and luck, while his left paw welcomes success in the forms of clients or customers. While Maneki-neko is most commonly seen in businesses, he can beckon other types of energy you'd like to cultivate in your life based on his color.

• Red beckons positive relationships and romantic love.
• White beckons positive energy.
• Green beckons health.
• Gold beckons monetary wealth.
• Calico beckons all of the energies.
• Black protects and wards off dark energies.

The cats often hold something in their non waving paw - usually symbols of wealth such as gold ingots or gems. These items further invite wealth and luck. 

In your home, place Maneki-neko in the prosperity sector, which is in the southeast. You can also place him in the southeast sector of your home office. In a business, you can place him in the window to beckon customers, in the prosperity sector, or near your cash register. At the register, face him into the shop (away from you) so he beckons the prosperity towards you. 

Image by Tania Van den Berghen from Pixabay ​

Want to bring more prosperity and abundance into your life? Try adding money tree, which is the plant Pachira aquatica, to the southeastern sector of your home or any room. You can also add them to the southeast sector of your office or small business for work abundance.

The money tree pictured is one of mine (I have three because I think they're cool - I love the braided trunks and the structure of the leaves). It sits in the southeastern sector of my home and of my living room in an eastern-facing sunny window. I have another in a south facing sunny window and a third with southwestern exposure but away from the window. You'll notice I've also tied a red cord around the braided trunk. The cord has three feng shui prosperity coins tied with a mystic knot on it to further reinforce the theme of abundance.

Pachira aquatica are relatively easy to find and care for. I've seen them at floral shops, online, and even at Home Depot in the plant department. Look for a specimen with healthy olive green leaves and braided trunks without any obvious wounds to them. The trunks are braided when the plants are young and pliable so it doesn't harm them. 

To care for your money tree, place it in well-drained soil in indirect indoor light. Too-bright direct sunlight can burn the leaves. Water it until water runs from the bottom holes once or twice a week when the soil starts to dry up. I tend to water mine every four to five days. Money trees also love humidity, so spritz it daily with water or place it with other plants grouped around a humidifier set on low. Make sure the plant never sits in standing water, which can cause root rot and kill the plant. Empty water from the water tray when it collects after watering. Transplant into a larger container every few years. This is easy to do because the root system of the tree is very close to the trunk, and it doesn't root deeply into soil. Fertilize three to four times each year, but don't overdo it.

That's it. These plants are wonderful and they can bring plenty of abundance juju to your home. They also help improve interior air quality, and they're lovely to look at. Mine have flourished in my home. Expect to pay about $30 to $50 for a good-sized tree or about $10 to $20 for a smaller plant.

Feng shui uses the bagua to determine the most auspicious areas in your home for creating certain energies. In traditional feng shui, the energy centers for the home are determined by compass direction while in western feng shui, they are determined by standing at your front door facing into the home and overlaying the bagua map over the blueprint of your home from this position. 

In traditional feng shui, the prosperity and wealth corner is the southeast corner of your home (from approximately 115 degrees to about 157.5 degrees on a compass) in your home, workspace, or any room. In western feng shui, the wealth corner is the back left corner of the home, workspace, or any room.

In my house, I use Western feng shui, so my prosperity corner is in the closet of my bedroom. In my living room, however, the back left corner (from the entrance into the living room) happens to also be the southeast corner, so it is here that I set up my primary wealth corner since it meets the criteria for both traditional and western feng shui and has the bonus of being the location in my house where I spend most of my waking time. 

While I attend to my back corner closet in my bedroom with a citrine crystal, which is a crystal of prosperity, I have made my home's primary prosperity corner the southeast (also back left) corner of my living room because it also serves as a visual reminder of my intention for success and prosperity.

I'm still in the process of setting it up. Until recently, all I had there was a citrine crystal, but I decided I wanted to do more, so I've been adding elements. Right now, I have a healthy plant there, some wood elements, a giant citrine crystal, and Mirias, my goddess of abundance. I am also bringing in a jade plant (the feng shui money plant), a citrine money tree, and some Chinese coins tied with red string, all to symbolize abundance.

If you'd like to use the principles of feng shui to bring the energy of abundance and success into your life, then it's time to spruce up your wealth corner (note: in this case wealth means more than money; it's an abundance of all you choose in life - wealth, joy, happiness, peace, health, etc.).

1. Decide whether you will organize your home according to the traditional or western bagua. If you're lucky like me, you can use both because the two correspond.
2. Give the corner a good cleaning. The first thing you want to do is clean your area. Wash windows, clear away clutter, vacuum, patch any holes where the energy of abundance might leak out (including nail holes), and cleanse the energy of the area using sound, sage, palo santo, or your favorite energetic method. I use a combination of tingshas for sound energy, palo santo, and Reiki.
3. Consider the color of the area. This corner is associated with the element of wood, so you'll want to bring in woodsy colors such as green or brown. You can also bring in the colors of water, which nourishes and feeds wood. Paint or bring in decor items in these colors.
4. Bring in live plants (particularly the money plant jade), which support growth. Don't use fake plants or dead plants because you want to have the energy of growth, not stagnation.
5. Try to bring as much light into the area as possible.
6. Add a citrine crystal for abundance.
7. If you have space for it, add a water feature such as a fountain or an aquarium with goldfish, which nourishes the growth of abundance.
8. Then, choose either traditional symbols of abundance such as Chinese coins and money trees, add things you personally associate with prosperity or do as I do, and use a combination of both.
9. Keep your plants alive and watered and the area cleaned up. Occasionally (about once a week to once a month) cleanse the energy.

You can do this in a single room's money corner, in the money corner for the whole house or building, or both. After you've done this, spend a few minutes with your eyes closed, breathing deeply and setting the intention to allow prosperity to enter your life.

Image by Josch13 from Pixabay ​

Being prosperous doesn't necessarily mean having material wealth (although it certainly can). Rather, it is feeling wealthy in the things you value, such as love, friendship, compassion, joy, health. One of our biggest blocks to prosperity, however, is tied up in our feelings about money, wealth, and having enough. Many people believe the desire for prosperity is counter to spiritual principles, which can create blocks to achieving it because our thoughts and actions lack clarity.

Many of us have been given messages throughout our lives that have caused us to believe a desire for prosperity is selfish (or there is nobility in lack - like the Biblical idea it is much easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God). Others may believe on some level they are not deserving of prosperity. I know I have struggled with both of these beliefs throughout my life. However, in order to truly be in a position to help others, we must first be in a position to help ourselves. Prosperity doesn't mean keeping everything for yourself. The more prosperous you are in all ways, the more you have to share with others. At the same time, it's okay to want things because you want them. There is no shame in desire. Desire does not have to equal greed, and you can choose to be a good steward of your prosperity so it doesn't cross the line into avarice.

If you believe - even on a deeply subconscious level - it is not okay to want "things" for yourself, then your thoughts, words, and actions won't align in a way that allows the universe to consistently deliver for you. Therefore, the first step in changing your mindset about prosperity is to notice thoughts that are counter to being prosperous as soon as they arise. Often, these thoughts are quite fleeting or just feel normal. So the first step in changing your mindset about prosperity is to listen deeply to your thoughts and words. Do you have thoughts or beliefs that are limiting what the universe provides?

Thought, word, and action are all creative. In other words, thoughts become things. The things we say, think, and do send messages to the universe, which then creates the exact conditions we have requested through our thought, word, and deed. So every time we think a limiting thought about prosperity, the universe responds in kind, giving us what we have created.
When you catch yourself thinking a limiting thought (or speaking of limitation) about prosperity, it is important to realign that thought (or word or action) right away. Here's a concrete example. You might catch yourself saying or thinking, "I'm broke!" Catch that thought and immediately cancel and replace it. When you hear this come out of your mouth (or pass through your brain), say to yourself (it can be in your head - doesn't need to be aloud), "Cancel that. I am prosperous. I have all I need to live the life I choose for myself," or something similar.
The point is to make it a positive statement that cancels out the negativity that passed through your mind. You don't even have to believe this to be the truth. You've probably heard the old saw, "Fake it 'til you make it." Changing your thoughts at first may seem unnatural, but consistent effort eventually brings a change in beliefs, attitude, and ultimately circumstances.