With the Lunar New Year less than a week away, Feng Shui experts reveal there's one particular item you should be paying particular attention to ahead of the Year of the Horse.
Prosperity bowls are designed to attract wealth, abundance, and good fortune into your home, but curating yours with powerful items such as citrus fruits is only half the job – you'll also need to know exactly where to place it for the best results.
Here, our Feng Shui pros explain exactly what a prosperity bowl is, what to put in it, and where to place it at home to harness the Year of the Horse Feng Shui.
What Is a Feng Shui Prosperity Bowl?
As Suzanne Butler, a Feng Shui practitioner at Harmonizing Energies, explains, a prosperity or wealth bowl is a prominent reminder or intention to bring wealth into your life, and is used to create good Feng Shui in your home.
'It represents having resources in an abundant reserve, rather than living in a state of constant cash outflow,' she says. 'When styled thoughtfully, it can sit seamlessly within both contemporary and classic interiors, functioning as both an energetic anchor or refined design element.'
Katie Brindle, Feng Shui expert, Chinese medical practitioner, and cosmologist, adds that these are typically curated with items that symbolize wealth, abundance, luck, and positive energy, and that each element inside the bowl is chosen for its purpose and frequency, working together to enhance your home's financial qi, or energy.
'Simple yet powerful, this tool, when used correctly, can help draw in positive financial energy,' she assures.
Where to Put a Feng Shui Prosperity Bowl
'Placement is where Feng Shui becomes particularly important,' advises Suzanne Butler. The most supportive locations for your prosperity bowl include:
- The south-east area of the home or a main living space, traditionally associated with wealth and growth, and Feng Shui wealth corners.
- The west area of the home, for new beginnings.
- The North area of the home, for career.
- A home office or study, for good office Feng Shui, especially if income is tied to decision-making or creative output. This easy Feng Shui tweak for your home office is also thought to boost focus.
- An entry console or sideboard, positioned to symbolically welcome prosperity into the home.
Ideally, continues Suzanne Butler, the bowl should be placed somewhere visible yet uncluttered, to reinforce the idea that abundance is acknowledged and respected, rather than hidden away.
However, adds Suzanne Roynon, Feng Shui consultant and interiors therapist, 'If you don’t feel comfortable having a bowl of money visible to guests, place them in rooms which the family uses, but visitors don’t see.'
Where to Never Put a Feng Shui Prosperity Bowl
Knowing where to never put your prosperity bowl is also equally important.
For example, highlights Suzanne Butler, your prosperity bowl should not be placed in your bathroom ideas or near toilets, where energy is associated with loss and draining, in your kitchen ideas near sinks or stoves, where water and fire elements can clash and destabilize financial energy, or used for bedroom Feng Shui, where prosperity symbolism can interfere with rest, relationships, and emotional balance.
'Feng Shui is not just about what you add to a space, but where you place it,' she adds. 'Even the most beautifully styled bowl will struggle to work if positioned in an energetically unsuitable area.'
What Should Be Placed in a Feng Shui Prosperity Bowl?
Emilia Guasconi, certified Feng Shui consultant and founder of Your Abundant Space, advises, 'Prosperity bowls are usually filled with meaningful items such as coins, citrus fruits, crystals like citrine or pyrite, red envelopes, and symbols of growth – each item chosen to represent prosperity, vitality, and opportunity,' and makes easy energy shifts for your home.
'For a modern approach, I recommend using a beautiful ceramic or glass bowl filled with fresh mandarins, gold-toned coins, and crystals like citrine or pyrite for both energetic and aesthetic impact.'
We'd recommend using one of your best bowls for this – the Vietri Incanto Large Serving Bowl, available at Anthropologie, is perfect.
Suzanne Butler adds that you may also want to add a solid written intention or affirmation, discreetly placed, to anchor personal meaning, and you can also place your bowl on a mirror, such as the Karrina Accent Wood Round Mirror, available at Wayfair, to multiply the riches you wish to receive.
Alternatively, Katie also shares that she adds Green Aventurine stones to hers, which are believed to attract financial abundance and bring great wealth (jade can also be used as an alternative), bay leaves, to offer protection against negative energy, and Pyrite, to protect against loss while drawing in wealth and abundance.
Most importantly, warns Suzanne Roynon, don't confuse a prosperity bowl (open top) with a 'wealth jar.'
She explains, 'Wealth jars have a lid to protect the contents, which might include seeds, rice, and other dried foodstuffs, and are tucked away in the backs of cupboards or wardrobes to denote hidden wealth.
'These are never reopened. Putting edible items into an open-topped bowl can attract vermin.'
All prices were correct at the time of publication.
What to Shop
This beautiful serving bowl is crafted from 100% acacia wood and will look stunningly understated styled as a prosperity bowl anywhere around your home.
These citrine crystals are natural and high-grade, and are known to have a good calming, healing effect – perfect for placing in a Feng Shui prosperity bowl.
Gingko leaves are a universal symbol of hope and peace, and are particularly symbolic in Feng Shui, so this mirror is perfect for placing your prosperity bowl on.
Rolling your written intentions and tying them with a red ribbon can increase your prosperity and will add a pop of color to your prosperity bowl.
This large decorative bowl is versatile, stylish, and refined. Metal is a core symbolic element in Feng Shui, making this ideal for curating your prosperity bowl in.
These Chinese red envelopes are made of high-quality, thick, durable, and colorfast paper, and represent auspiciousness and blessing.
Meet the Experts
Next, perfect your Feng Shui furniture placement for improved energy flow at home.
