Feng Shui is a practice centered on harmonizing and balancing personal environment or space with those who occupy that space. Feng Shui is often used in promoting, stimulating and supporting prosperity and luck. When you are choosing a location for, constructing or designing your home or office, Feng Shui is a great practice to apply.
What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui (pronounced “fung schway”) is one of the 8 rays of Chinese Medicine and is the Chinese art of placement and the arrangement of space. Feng Shui is rooted in the concept of a physical and spiritual connection linking heaven, earth and humanity and has been practiced continually for more than 4,000 years. It is about harmonizing and balancing personal environment or space with those who occupy that space. Similar to acupuncture of the body, Feng Shui can be considered the acupuncture of a space: promoting, stimulating and supporting prosperity and luck.
Feng Shui Practices
There are two schools of feng shui here in the west: Classical and Black-Hat. However, in the far east they use all methods of Feng Shui.
Classical Feng Shui: Classical Feng Shui has been used for thousands of years in the far east and takes all approaches/tools into consideration when looking at a space. Some approaches include Lo Pan Compass, Bat Zu & Ming Kwa – Chinese Astrology, Flying Star, Form School, Lo Shu – Magic Square, and so much more. It’s connected to Chinese Medicine and its approach is similar to “Treating the Patient and Not The Illness”. In doing so, you create a more specific, personal and dynamic consultation and solution. Classical Feng Shui looks at the occupants AND the space. Not one or the other.
Black Hat Feng Shui: Black-Hat’s approach, promoted in this country by students of Professor Lin Yun, utilizes more of Ba Qua (the colors and 8 point method aligned to specific areas of the house). This approach deals only with the house and not so much with the occupants within the house. In this method, components such as the ‘money corner’ and our ‘relationship area’, as well as others, are in the same position for each space.
Benefits of Feng Shui
Feng Shui is used to balance and harmonize the space you are living or working in, through the proper flow of Chi. For the good or the ill our environment effects us and although being watchful and committed to your health and workout program is beneficial, the benefits may not be fully felt without that same approach to your space. Practicing Feng Shui in your environment may provide the following benefits:
- Balance and harmony in your life and in your environment
- Promotion of health, wealth and peace
- Encouragement of positive change in money, career, relationships and much more
Use of Feng Shui
Feng Shui can be used in three ways.
| Way Feng Shui is Used | Explanation | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Selection | Feng Shui can be used for choosing or selecting a space:
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Using Feng Shui in the selection process of a property or space will start you off on the right foot by incorporating it into the base of the project, making the end result much more holistic and meaningful. |
| Construction | Feng Shui can be used during the construction or building process of a space as it applies to you, the owner, personally and the property’s occupants. | Using Feng Shui during construction allows you to effectively match specific goals with the direction you would like the space to reflect. |
| Interior Arrangement | Feng Shui can be used when designing, creating and arranging a space once it’s built. This level of practice is used for the promotion of health, healing, prosperity, luck and so much more. | Using feng Shui during the interior arrangement of a project allows for an overall sense of harmony and peace that is immediately felt when the space is properly balanced. |
Founding Principles
The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with good qi (pronounced chi). The “perfect spot” is a location and an axis in time. The following are the main priniciples behind Feng Shui.
| Principle | Description | Its Influence in Feng Shui | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qi (Chi) | Chi refers to energy. All things have energy, and energy is everywhere. Even a rock or solid matter has Chi. | Chi is the foundation of feng shui since it is all about balancing the Chi in one’s home or office. | |
| Polarity | Yin and Yang are like two sides of a coin. You will never find one with out the other. Yin and Yang are the negative and positive phases in the cyclic flow of Chi. | Yin | Yin represents the following: Gender reference: feminine Characteristics: receptive, casual, intimate, quite, calm, restful, small and cozy Colors: Darker colors, more muted In Space: carpeting, intimate space, connected to bedroom, bathroom, storage rooms Element Connection: Metal and water |
| Yang | Yang represents the following: Gender reference: masculine Characteristics: active, public, formal Colors: Loud bright colors In Space: connected to living room and kitchen Element Connection: wood and fire |
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Elements used in Classical Chinese Medicine and Feng Shui
Elements are moods or qualities of yin and yang. They are connected to so much in Chinese medicine, including emotions and moods, parts of the body and organs and descriptions of personalities.
| Element | Associations | Why it is Pertinent | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinal Direction | Shape | Colors | Time on Clock | Season | ||
| Earth | Middle, southwest and northeast | Square | Yellow and Earth Tones | Afternoon | Late summer | Elements are particularly relevant in feng shui because they are used for design, layout, diagnosis of illness and direction in your home and office. |
| Fire | South | Triangle | Reds and Purples | Noon | Summer | |
| Metal | West and Northwest | Oval or Round | Silver and White | Evening | Autumn | |
| Water | North | Undulated | Navy and Black | Midnight | Winter | |
| Wood | East and South East | Rectangle | Green, Light Blue (Aquamarine) | Morning | Spring | |
