What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art known mostly in the West for its application in interior design, but there’s so much more to it. At its essence, it’s about creating harmony and balance, within your space, your outside environment and yourself.
This article will explore some famous schools and concepts of Feng Shui and how you can incorporate them into your life. Ultimately, you can decide which is best suited to your unique needs.
Table of Contents
Feng Shui’s History in “Form School”
Feng Shui is a term most of us have heard used to describe a style of interior design, meaning “the way of wind and water.” Though Feng Shui is used frequently in design and landscaping, there’s so much more to it than a design trend.
Feng Shui is a theory involving how and where someone chooses to locate their home and then arrange their living or work space to achieve balance and harmony. Not only that but Feng Shui can also be used to achieve balance and harmony within yourself through the use of Chinese astrology.
Feng Shui practitioners focus on creating a positive and productive space. It has everything to do with an area’s energy, including how a room is decorated.
The art of Feng Shui is an ancient and complex one that not just anyone can harness its full potential. Feng Shui experts who’ve spent years perfecting and honing this skill and their understanding of balance and harmony are the most equipped to help others do the same.
The foundation of Feng Shui is built on the idea that the world is divided into Five Elements with corresponding inner planets that manifest themselves in different colors, shapes, objects, numbers, and more.
This understanding is used in conjunction with the Chinese Zodiac, which is beneficial for understanding personalities and relationships between people. As many know, the Chinese Zodiac also helps us to understand a grander picture of balance in the universe and within ourselves.
The Five Elements that form the foundation of Feng Shui are:
• Wood
• Fire
• Earth
• Metal
• Water
Collectively, these five elements form the driving force of the universe. Each represents a unique quality that’s manifested in a physical form in the world around us. For example, the flowing form of Water represents change, relates specifically to your career, and is crucial for work prosperity.
Reading the Flow of the Terrain, Wind, And Water
In Feng Shui, Form School is about how a landscape shapes the flow of Wind and Water, allowing them to enter and exit a space to avoid Chi becoming stagnant. The goal is to enable Wind and Water to accumulate in areas that attract them.
The Four Form School Elements
Form School has four key elements:
• Wind
• Water
• Landscape, and
• Fire or Spirit.
The first three are pretty transparent, but the fourth is trickier to understand.
The landscape is the support system of your home or space 一 given how secure and stable it is and the “hills and valleys” inside the architecture. This is a must-have to support Wind and Water. Without a solid Landscape, you can’t have balance.
The landscape of your home or any space where you’re applying Feng Shui principles must be laid out so that there is a natural flow and balance between Wind and Water. Wind represents air movement through space, and Water is where this air pools and settles.
You have achieved balance when the Water (the air that accumulates) only holds for a short period and then can move on and exit your space naturally.
Fire is not something found within your space; it’s your essence and what you bring to an area. If you mismanage the three elements, it will affect you negatively in your personal life. If you maintain balance, you will be balanced internally.
The four elements all rely heavily on one another. If any of them is missing or neglected, the system crumbles, affecting your life negatively.
The Four Form School Animals
The Form School Animals represent the four elements. However, they also represent facing directions in relation to a building. Everyone who has searched Feng Shui on the internet has probably seen an image of the Feng Shui ‘perfect arrangement’ like the one below.
Image courtesy of Chen, Kou-Huang & Chang, William Li & Chih, I-Liang & Liao, Chin-Nung. (2015). Framing the decision-making model of the Chinese business with Feng-Shui concept. Human Systems Management. 34. 225-232. 10.3233/HSM-150840.
As you can see, the Black Tortoise is the supporting hill at the back, the Azure (or Green) Dragon is on the left, the White Tiger is on the right and the Red Bird (Phoenix) is at the front. You’ll notice too that there are additional features required to create the perfect formation, such as connecting ridge lines between the ancestor mountains and the Black Tortoise, and additional rules such as the White Tiger cannot overpower the Green Dragon.
Water pools and exits from the Red Phoenix. This is the heart of wealth where all Chi flows into, accumulates and then flows out of your space. When you begin to study advanced Form and Compass school techniques, you’ll learn that there are particular water exit points in the Red Phoenix direction that can boost your wealth chance greatly, and others that can take it away very quickly.
In essence though, your space should end up with a formation that resembles an armchair. The backrest (Black Tortoise) is the highest point, and surveys the area in front from a commanding position.
The left and right armrests (Green Dragon and White Tiger) are higher than the entrance but lower than the back, with the right being lower than the left. In the end, a slightly asymmetrical armchair is the visual we are left with. These principles were first applied to the external environment, but can be just as easily applied the Feng Shui in your office, bedroom, living and dining rooms, and even the kitchen, although the placements here should take the Fire Mouth and sink into consideration.
Each of these, as well as representing a direction and having a purpose in a space, has a symbolic meaning in some schools:
• Red Phoenix: Collaboration, transformation, and letting go. The Red Phoenix is also synonymous with success and abundance.
• Green Dragon: Achievement through diligence and planning, business and financial abundance, and wealth.
• White Tiger: Determination, dignity, fearlessness, and protection characterize this animal.
• Black Tortoise: This animal is known for health, endurance, consistency, wisdom, and support.
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This is great for people living in regions that have hills and mountains, but what do you do in the case of cities and flatlands? There is a little known secret set of writings that are relatively easy to get in Chinese but difficult to find in English. You can download some of them translated and analysed by Michael Paton, PhD in his thesis “Towards a scientific understanding of fengshui: the Burial classic of Qing Wu Esquire, Secretly passed down water dragon classic and Twenty four difficult problems.”
Encouraging Chi Flow in Your House
Chi flow doesn’t only depend on where your main entrance is. A massive part of Chi flow involves the location of a space’s doors, windows, and hallways. These are crucial elements to encouraging a healthy Chi flow.
There are two kinds of Chi flow: Lung Mei and Lung Chi. Lung Mei means Dragon’s Breath and flows from the front to the back of a house. Lung Chi means Dragon’s Veins and flows from the top to the bottom of a home.
You can utilize these types of Chi flow to transform the energy of your space and delegate which areas you want Water to accumulate in for productivity, rest, or any other values you want to instil in a room.
Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang were created from one WuJi source, and are two complementary forces that make up every phenomenon of life. Yin is the dark feminine, and Yang is the bright masculine but despite being exact opposites, they aren’t opposing forces. The essence of Yin and Yang is that they combine to create total balance and harmony in the universe.
This duality manifests itself in what’s known as the Eight Trigrams, and from there the 64 Hexagrams of the I-Ching. The Trigrams which are most utilized in Feng Shui consist of three horizontal lines read from bottom to top depicting a combination of yin and yang energy.
It is interesting that this Taoist concept of “from one comes the 10,000 things” is at odds with the USA’s original motto E Pluribus Unum or “Out of many, one”.
Duality of Life and Formation of the Trigrams
The Eight Trigrams of Feng Shui represent duality 一 Yin and Yang, or Tai Ji, meaning “to excessive or extreme limits.” The Trigrams consist of three lines each, and certain lines are broken or unbroken, depending on what aspect is in excess.
The Eight Trigrams are:
• Qian Trigram: Three solid yang lines.
• Dui Trigram: A broken line on top with two solid yang lines below.
• Li Tigram: A solid line on the top and bottom, with a broken line in the middle.
• Chen or Zhen Trigram: Two broken lines above one solid.
• Xun Trigram: Two solid lines above one broken one.
• Kan Trigram: A broken line on the top and bottom with a solid in between.
• Gen Trigram: A solid line followed by two broken lines.
• Kun Trigram: Three broken lines.
Each of these Trigrams represents a state of being, elements of nature, a familial relationship or role, or an action. Let’s take a look at each of these in greater detail.
Qian Trigram
This Trigram means power and leadership. It represents both Heaven and the role of leader or breadwinner of a family, typically male.
Qian is symbolic of power through clarity and coherence of thought: when we clear our minds and focus on our goals, we are in charge of our own outcomes. Where power is concerned, this Trigram relates to influence and control over our own goals with how well we can shed our doubts and move towards our goals in a confident and unrelenting way.
Dui Trigram
This represents the youngest female in a household, smiling and speaking, and lakes. Symbolically, the Dui is heavily linked to perception: the way we perceive the world around us and vice-versa.
Dui Trigram focuses on merging the two perceptions of the self (our own view of ourselves and how we are perceived), allowing us to express ourselves more freely. Its premise is that we feed off external forces’ energy and become internally empowered and inspired.
Li Trigram
Li Trigram represents the middle daughter in a family, Fire, and the ability to distinguish between internal and external emotions and influences. You can only make this distinction through solitude and inner quiet, also represented by this symbol.
This Trigram is built on the belief that we need to remove influences, emotions, and facts that aren’t important to focus on the ones that are. This is the only way we can act on crucial things.
Chen or Zhen Trigram
Zhen Trigram represents the eldest son in a family, and change, thunder, and decisive action and movement are all associated with it. Zhen symbolizes decision-making, flexibility, determination, and the ability to accept and enforce change.
It says that we have to be receptive to forces around us to change in the first place. It also holds that we must take what has developed from our unconscious minds and adapt them into conscious thought and decisions.
Xun Trigram
This represents the eldest daughter and the Wind and sky. Their association with Wind means they are travellers with an affinity for change, even more so than the Zhen Trigram.
Kan Trigram
This represents the middle son in a family and the water element. Kan mainly involves intuition and the subconscious ideas and thoughts we don’t realize exist. This sometimes creates sudden impulses and is considered to be more volatile.
However, Kan is not volatile: this perception comes from a need for control and continuity and a fear of change. Without these fears and limitations, we can embrace Kan and become more inspired.
Gen Trigram
Gen symbolizes the youngest son and mountains. It also represents letting go of the old and opening yourself up to the new. This includes letting go of objects, thoughts, feelings, and everything else that doesn’t serve our pursuit of happiness.
Letting go of these and our need for control will ultimately be a freeing and beneficial experience, bringing about renewal and positive change.
Kun Trigram
Kun is the mother or eldest female, the body and our life force. Like Gen, this Trigram involves renewal, letting go of the old, and entrusting ourselves to the universe.
The change and renewal allow us to reconnect with our spiritual selves, connect with our subconscious thoughts and feelings, and consolidate them with our conscious ones.
The 5 Elements in Feng Shui and Ancient Chinese Astronomy
The natural forces of the universe come into play in Feng Shui, theoretically and in practice with the five elements are part of the theory that describes the interplay of life on Earth.
Below is an in-depth look at what the five elements represent, how to utilize them in your space, and how astronomy plays a role in Feng Shui.
The Five Elements of planet Earth
Five fundamental Feng Shui elements govern all aspects and are incorporated into creating a positive space. The elements 一 Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water一 represent different aspects of life.
The table below lays out what each of these elements signifies and what objects, shapes, and colors they’re associated with.
We need to incorporate all of these elements into our lives and spaces. It’s up to you or your Feng Shui practitioner to decide which elements you need most, which you lack, and which don’t align with your aspirations and circumstances.
The Invention of the Luo Pan Feng Shui Compass
The Luo Pan compass is an essential tool in Feng Shui if you decide to practice Compass Feng Shui styles. In essence, it’s a divination tool that Feng Shui practitioners use to guide them to their destination within the cosmos using Chi and planetary bodies.
The Luo Pan compass guides practitioners based on directions they can’t necessarily see 一 the alignment of stars, the direction of the sun, and, most importantly, the Earth’s electromagnetic field.
Electromagnetic fields bind matter together and create a link between Earth and beyond. This may sound like a regular compass used for finding your bearings on the ground, but the Luo Pan has been a Feng Shui tool longer than a navigational one.
There are three primary types of Luo Pan compass, but some Feng Shui masters create compasses that suit their needs and allow them to harness the flow of Chi in a way unique to them.
For now, let’s look at the three standard types:
The San Yuan Luo Pan:
This is typically used by those who practice the Three Cycles System, which includes time, space, and Flying Stars. It consists of one 24-direction ring.
The San He Luo Pan:
The San He incorporates the Three Harmonies, has three distinct rings, and is used in four Feng Shui combination systems: 8 Mansions, Mountain Dragons, Water Dragons, and the Five Elements.
The Zhong He Luo Pan:
The Zhong He Luo Pan: A combination of San Yuan and San He, this compass contains 64 hexagrams and 24 direction rings. It accommodates both the Three Combinations System and the Three Cycles System.
These may look identical to the untrained eye, even when compared side by side. The Luo Pan is a complex tool that usually only masters can read and interpret, a skill they pass on to those who study under them.
Every concentric ring holds certain information. This includes information about constellations, the eight trigrams, yin and yang sections, the 24 directions, water dragons, mountain dragons and much more.
The most important considerations when deciding which to buy are how accurate the compass is and how good the build quality is.
Bagua Map Directions
The “Black Hat” Bagua Map is a modern tool for layout and floor plans based on the Lo Shu and form school. You usually decide whether you want to use a compass to do this or not.
This version of the Bagua grid is separated into specific qualities:
• South: Fame and Reputation.
• Southwest: Love and romance.
• West: Creativity and children.
• Northwest: Travel and support.
• North: Career.
• Northeast: Knowledge and learning.
• East: Family.
• Southeast: Wealth and prosperity.
• Center: Health.
In this school, you create a layout of your home or the home you want, mark out all entryways, windows, utilities, and furniture placements, and then lay the Bagua Map over this floor plan. Remember to include structures like staircases and patios.
From here, you can adjust your Bagua Map layout to fit the dimensions of your home, especially if you have an irregularly-shaped house. Once your plan and map are overlaid, you can figure out how and where to activate Chi. For example, if your living room falls in the center of your map, Health, you can use an activator like crystals and comfortable furniture with good back support.
If you are going use this school, you must align it with Form school at the same time. Black hat sect used in isolation will not work.
The Chinese Zodiac Feng Shui Directions
Everyone is familiar with astrology in one form or another, and many of us are familiar with the Chinese Zodiac and what animal we are based on what year we were born.
This goes much deeper than simply identifying who you’re most romantically compatible with. Different zodiac combinations create other elements which determine or explain the kind of relationship you have with someone.
For example, a bad combination can cause tumultuous spousal relationships and negative work partnerships and friendships.
There are four main categories for how these compatibilities or clashes are determined, namely:
• Six Harmony Combinations
• Three Harmony Combinations
• Three Seasonal Combinations
• Six Branch Clashes
Let’s take a closer look at each category.
Six Harmony Combinations
These are relationships with people that you click with. They’re positive and easy, but not overly personal. This applies to colleagues and acquaintances that you get along with well.
Three Harmony Combinations
In the Three Harmony Combinations, three animals combine to create an element:
• Rat, Monkey, and Dragon form Water.
• Horse, Tiger, and Dog form Fire.
• Rooster, Ox, and Snake form Metal.
• Rabbit, Sheep, and Pig form Wood.
These combinations refer to close and positive personal relationships, like siblings, best friends, or romantic partners. These are generally easier to create connections with than Six Harmony Combinations because you can have “half combinations.”
Three Seasonal Combinations
Seasonal, or Directional combinations entail taking the main Cardinal Branch, or animal, and then combining it with the branches to its left and right. The Earth element is the most versatile and flexible.
These combinations are the trickiest of the three and easily the most temperamental in terms of how quickly they can break apart depending on similarities or differences between charts.
Six Branch Clashes
• Rat and Horse (Water vs. Fire).
• Ox and Sheep (Earth vs. Earth).
• Dragon and Dog (Earth vs. Earth).
• Rabbit and Rooster (Wood vs. Metal).
• Tiger and Money (Wood vs. Metal).
• Snake and Pig (Fire vs. Water).
These are the simplest alignments to figure out and are on the very outer ring of the Luo Pan. They’re more opposing energies than clashes because differences can be positive.
Learn more about the combinations and clashes here.
What does this have to do with Feng Shui?
Well, each of the Zodiac signs have their own direction and the year you were born can tell you how well the house suits you.
For example if you were born in the year of the Rabbit, you would prefer house where the back aligns to the Sheep/Goat, Pig or Dog directions because all of these animal signs combine with the Rabbit. You would not like to sit in the Rooster direction because it would clash you, or the Rat direction because it would penalize you.
The image below shows the Three Harmony combinations and the Six Clashes. As always South is at the top with the Horse, North is at the bottom with the Rat, East is at the left with the Rabbit and West is at the right with the Rooster.
Visit Be Well Qigong to learn how the Chinese zodiac applies to the times of the day as well as to Feng Shui and Chinese astrology.
Other Feng Shui Compass School Theories
There are many Feng Shui schools, including 8 Mansions, San Yuan, San He, and Xuan Kong Da Gua. These all feed into and influence one another, but they also have distinct and unique characteristics.
8 Mansions, or Ba Zhai, is based on our surroundings and what effect those directions have on us. They’re determined by the sitting direction of the property and have four primary good and bad directions.
The 8 Mansions Four Good Directions
• Sheng Chi: This is linked to the element of Wood and is a place of great abundance and vitality.
• Tien Yi: This is related to the Earth element and promotes focus and overall wellness.
• Yien Nien: Linked to the Metal element, this is an excellent direction for the family, harmony, and good communication.
• Fu Wei: This also has Wood’s element, promoting stability and creating a suitable environment for self-improvement.
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The 8 Mansions Four Bad Directions
These are areas in a home where misfortune and negative energy are likely to exist, so never build or place important rooms like bedrooms and studies here. They diminish productivity and lead to disharmony.
• Wo Hai: This direction’s element is Earth, a place of mishaps and accidents.
• Liu Sha: The element here is Water, and if poorly balanced will lead to arguments, especially amongst family.
• Wu Gui: This is linked to Fire and can cause health and even legal misfortune.
• Jue Ming: Linked to the Metal element, this direction can cause adversity and distress.
You mustn’t place the most important home areas in these bad directions. If you do, it will promote negativity and misfortune within your home and yourself.
The most important areas in your home are as follows:
Area | Position and Direction |
|---|---|
Main Entryway | This can face any direction, but you must ensure you accommodate the element linked to the direction the entryway is falling. |
Stove or fireplace | Designate this to an area and direction where the Fire element is supported. |
Bedroom | Always situate in a good direction and face towards a good direction. |
Bathroom | Situate in an area that accommodates Water. |
The entryway is the home’s most important feature in many ways, as it’s the part of a building where all Chi enters and exits. Depending on the construction and layout of the building, your entryway could face any direction.
Even though your entryway could face any direction, you need to incorporate the necessary elements associated with that direction. For example, a north-facing entrance includes aspects of the Water element, such as black paint.
As you can see, Ba Zhai is interconnected with the Five Elements and is based on the 8 Trigrams. To understand Ba Zhai, it’s crucial to understand and appreciate the Five Elements and know which of them you are aiming to dilute and which you want to strengthen.
Watch Master Edgar Yung’s video series on the 8 Mansion system and how to use it correctly.
Ming Gua and How To Calculate It
Ming Gua refers to someone’s Destiny Number. This calculates which of the 8 Mansions matches their energy and is also used in the Flying Stars school. It also determines which of the five elements a person is a good match.
Using Ming Gua, you can also work out whether you will have a positive or negative relationship with certain people when compared with their Ming Gua. The way that Ming Gua is calculated is different for men and women.
For men:
1. Add every number of the year you were born.
2. If you get a two-digit number in step 1 above, add up the two digits to “reduce” it to a single-digit number. E.g., if you’re born in 1990, adding up the four digits would give you 19, which you can reduce to a single digit number by adding 1 to 9.
3. If step 2 above still gives you a double-digit figure (as is the case in our example), add up the two digits until it’s reduced to a single digit (in this case, we add 1 to zero to get 1).
4. Subtract this number from 11. In our case, that means 11 minus 1, which gives us 10 reduced to your Ming Gua 1.
5. If your Ming Gua is 5, then it becomes 2 Kun because 5 has no Trigram associated with it.
For women, do the same, but instead of subtracting your number from 11 as we did above, add 4 to the number you have in step 3 above. If you were female and born in 1990, you would calculate your Ming Gua as follows:
1. 1+9+9+0=19.
2. Add up 1 and 9 to get 10.
3. Reduce 10 to a single-digit number by adding 1 to 0.
4. Add 4 to 1 to get 5, your Ming Gua.
5. If your Ming Gua is 5, then it becomes 8 Gen because 5 has no Trigram associated with it.
Based on the result, you can determine whether you are in the East or West Group, and from there, which of the 8 Mansions directions align with your Ming Gua. There are a total of eight Destiny Numbers:
• Kan 1 Water, East Group: Focused, open to change, intuitive, and independent.
• Kun 2 Earth, West Group: Dependable, sensitive, steady and caring, codependent, sceptical, and jealous.
• Zhen 3 Wood, East Group: Insightful, passionate, creative, inflexible, temperamental, and tend to overanalyze problems.
• Xun 4 Wood, East Group: Adaptable, creative, compassionate, enlightened, impulsive, moody, and manipulative.
• Qian 6 Metal, West Group: Strong-willed, organized, trustworthy, controlling, and pessimistic.
• Dui 7 Metal, West Group: Bubbly, laid-back, cheerful, moody, and arrogant.
• Gen 8 Earth, West Group: Curious, pioneering, adventurous, persistent, suspicious, possessive, and obstinate.
• Li 9 Fire, East Group: Generous, charismatic, intelligent, over-sensitive, and tend to over think.
This is similar in a way to the astrological groups and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in that they all determine the likely characteristics and behavior of someone within a particular group or type.
However, like all personality tests and groups, you shouldn’t use this deterministically. If you are a 4, you won’t necessarily be manipulative. And if you do have manipulative tendencies, it doesn’t mean you can’t make positive changes if you work at them.
San Yuan Feng Shui
San Yuan uses two fundamental aspects to practice Feng Shui: direction and time. This school is often referred to as the Compass School because it’s closely linked to the use of the Luo Pan Compass.
One of San Yuan’s most widely used methods is Xuan Kong Fei Xing or Flying Stars, the most commonly used form of Feng Shui today. Check your own home’s Flying Star Feng Shui chart here.
The Flying Stars method basically entails drawing up the astrology of a house or a space and, from that, determining the future of a room and deciding how to change it by harnessing the flow of Chi.
Because this method uses time as one of its key elements, the movement of Chi and the future of a space can change daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. This is all mapped according to the Lo Shu Square and the Trigrams.
There are nine Flying Stars, each with its own symbolism and energy. Considering these unique characteristics and calculations, they’re placed at a particular position on the Star Map. They’re laid out to represent the position of the stars and consequently determine positive and negative areas on the chart.
Positive stars are called timely, and negative ones are untimely. Practitioners can determine which energies are positive and intentionally activate these.
The nine stars are:
Star Number | Direction | Energy | Meanings |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | North | Individuality and new beginnings | Represents power, fame and money and is known as the ‘greedy wolf’. |
2 | Southwest | Duality and partnership | This is the star of sickness and can also indicate loneliness, and for women miscarriage. It also represents speech, eloquence, gossip and good things to eat (weight gain). |
3 | East | Creative expansion and growth | Indicates arguments, conflict, and nasty gossip. It can indicate wealth through work, but also can have sudden monetary gains. |
4 | Southeast | Stability | The star of the scholar, culture and attracting romance. This star can bring flirtation and is good for promotion and study. |
5 | Center | Dynamic change and disruption | The Fei Xing disaster star. In general it means trouble, legal problems, pain, accidents, death, relationship breakdowns, bankruptcy and unexplained illness. |
6 | Northwest | Balance and harmony | Represents power and authority. Wealth through hard work and intelligence. Over activation of the 6 star induces workaholism, and a strong competitive nature. |
7 | West | Retreat, soul unfoldment | Brings risk-taking and rebellion against authority. It can mean thieves, back-stabbing, fighting and legal problems. |
8 | Northeast | Material wealth and power | Indicates good fame, reputation and money during Period 8. If poorly supported, then injury to children is possible. |
9 | South | Achievements and endings | The helper/supporter star increases whatever star it is combined with. Celebrations, good organisational skills, instant wealth. If with a bad star then fires, heart and blood disorders, instant misfortune. |
The Flying Stars method is not the only method in the San Yuan school. The Xuan Kong Da Gua school is an intricate and complex extension of San Yuan methods.
Xuan Kong Da Gua combines the Hexagrams, BaZi, and San He and is another advanced guidebook to the Flying Stars technique. Note that Xuan Kong Da Gua makes use of the male Ming Gua only, whereas Ba Zhai and Flying Star utilize both.
Combining Architecture and Interior Design With Feng Shui Aesthetics
Feng Shui can seem too complex to the average enthusiast, let alone to someone doing casual research and hoping to get into it. But, at its core, Feng Shui is about making a space harmonious, thereby balancing your life.
The landscape your home is built on, the floor plan, and the plants and decor you use in your house play a role in adding balance to your life. Every detail 一 down to the shape of a mirror, the color of an accent wall, and the amount of natural light 一 plays a role in harmonizing a space.
We know that this has as much to do with Chi and the flow of Chi throughout a house as it does with aesthetics. Decluttering looks good, but it also creates more space for Chi to flow and settle in essential places.
Importance of Harmonious Landscape Feng Shui
The first step to identifying how to apply Feng Shui principles is splitting a space up into divisions. There are a handful of ways to do this, and different methods will work depending on the shape of your house.
The 8-piece pie shape is generally quite successful. It’s based on fundamental principles of Feng Shui living 一 i.e., wisdom, health, relationships, wealth, etc.
Home Layout and Floor Plan
Taking into account the Four Form Schools, Five Elements, 8 Mansions, and Bagua Maps, can help you to create a balanced home.
The Four Form Schools dictate which way a house’s main features should face based on the natural landscape and surroundings. For example, an entryway facing the East may have a Wealth sector in the South, depending on the year it was built.
This is where a bedroom, office, or other important room should be placed, as opposed to a less significant or relevant area like a laundry room or bathroom. You do this using Bagua Maps.
The second step is identifying where your primary activators should be in this floor plan. These are features that promote or help the flow of Chi, such as windows, appliances, furniture, and decor like water features.
A Luo Pan compass will probably be your best bet to do all this effectively by yourself. You will likely have the best luck with a Feng Shui expert.
Planning for and Placing Activators
Planning where to place Activators is the most critical part of the floor plan. Windows and doors must be situated where there is a free flow of Chi from the good directions, as they’re responsible for all Chi flow into and out of your home.
Place other activators like water features where you want to have an accumulation of Water or where you want the influence of Water to be more prominent. The same goes for the other elements.
You should place plants where you want a greater concentration of Wood, hints of red where you want the presence of Fire, and so on. Furniture placement, in particular, is vital for a good balance and flow.
Symbolic Feng Shui Changes With Cures & Remedies
Feng Shui is a versatile art used not only for design and landscaping but also for cures and remedies. This mainly involves matching your Chi, or energy, with the power in your home or workspace.
People have the power and agency to control what kind of Chi they take in and give out, and making sure your environment’s Chi complements you is one of the symbolic Feng Shui cures.
Six Types of Feng Shui Remedies
In the modern day, there are six types of cures or remedies that many people use to aid in achieving serenity and prosperity, these six remedies are:
• Elemental cures involve using items, colors, and other aspects of Feng Shui to enhance Chi in particular areas. For example, you would use crystals to heighten your Earth Chi.
• Activators: Activating is encouraging or calling to aspects you need in your life through objects. For example, many use water features as an activator to attract wealth.
• Blockers: This is, in a way, the opposite of an activator. Blockers are used to seal off areas to give us peace and quiet when we need them. This may involve closing a window or rearranging furniture to create a barrier.
• Feng Shui-related remedies: Using items and their positions to repel bad Chi and harm. These can be items like personal talismans, windchimes, or a Bagua mirror.
• Law of attraction remedies: These remedies allow you to attract things you want, similar to activators. Many people choose to create vision boards or affirmations that they say each morning.
• Law of karma remedies: This isn’t connected to objects or talismans. Law of karma remedies is created through how someone chooses to live their life: constantly seeking balance to overcome negative Chi.
Crystal Healing in Feng Shui
Many New Age belief systems incorporate crystals into their daily practices because they believe crystals have healing powers beyond the physical body.
Crystals are quite an essential element in some Feng Shui practices. As some New Age beliefs do, Feng Shui practitioners might use crystals for healing, meditation, protection, decoration, and uplifting the energy in a space.
The belief that crystals have healing properties comes from knowing that our nervous systems rely on electrical impulses to function, and crystals have vibrational frequencies that we can hone to help our bodies realign and heal.
Examples of healing crystals and their properties are:
• Rose quartz: This gem encourages emotional healing, love, passion, and relaxation.
• Jasper: Jasper has grounding abilities and is a way to create or improve connections with the Earth.
• Topaz: Topaz is good for abundance, success, and aid in meditation.
• Moonstone: The energy of the moonstone resonates with those seeking a feminine connection and enhances wisdom and healing.
• Amethyst: This crystal has a calming and cleansing effect and is often used for meditation and relaxation.
There are numerous forms these crystal remedies can take:
• You can make “potions” or elixirs by placing crystals in Water and leaving them out on a full moon. This Water is then imbued with the crystal’s qualities and can be used in rituals, meditation, or even skincare.
• Crystals with similar energy and frequencies can be used in tandem to boost the energy of the other.
• Crystals can be a part of Feng Shui by decorating and balancing a room and enhancing the energy in your space.
• Crystals can assist in Flying Star Feng Shui, as certain crystals complement specific numbers. For example, Tiger Eye can boost the 6 Metal.
• Certain BaZi pillars align with certain gems. For example, citrine and aventurine promote strong Wood, which brings wealth and prosperity.
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Which Feng Shui Method Is Best?
There is no one method or school that will give you 100% of your wishes all the time because annual Chi, landforms and even the Earth’s magnetic field change bring different energies over time. The best Feng Shui method is what you feel you need at a certain point in your life and what style you’re drawn to.
As you learn more advanced methods, you will have the opportunity to gain better and better results, but these skills can takes years or decades of practise. Hopefully, this article has given you a clearer idea of which Feng Shui method to practice or incorporate the most in your daily life and home layout.
Feng Shui Resources
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