What Feng Shui Is and Isn't

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice dating back thousands of years to the East Han Dynasty. It is based on the Yin/Yang theory and is considered a natural science that includes the environment, the solar system, a person’s birth date and the date a house or building was built and its facing direction. Feng Shui is also said to be the science and art of placement. The principles of Feng Shui take into consideration the imbalance in all living things created by time, space and weather. These imbalances are cured or remedied by combining chi with the Yin/Yang theory along with the Five Elements. Imbalances are also cured or remedied with the use of colors to symbolize the elements.

There are many misconceptions about Feng Shui. Some think it is a religion, a cult, superstition or even magic, all of which is untrue. Some mistakenly think Feng Shui is all about interior decorating and landscaping which is quite untrue. Feng Shui isn’t something you do, it’s something that is already all around us in the form of good or bad energy. Good Feng Shui is all about balance and harmony. It’s all about what makes you feel happy, safe and secure. Bad Feng Shui makes you feel sad, vulnerable and insecure. Good or bad, Feng Shui is all about you! We can change the Fung Shui by curing or remedying imbalances in and around our homes and offices, rearranging furniture, adding accessories and/or changing color schemes. We can also change the Feng Shui by changing our attitude and outlook on life.

The principles of Feng Shui can be complex and are often misinterpreted. There are several schools of Feng Shui. The Compass School, the Form School, the Black Hat Sect, and the Western School are a few of the more popular schools. In my practice, I follow the Compass School principles, but utilize knowledge and principles from each of the schools when preparing a consultation.

The Yin/Yang Principle—the Yin/Yang is the two basic energies in the universe. Yin is black, passive, cold and female in nature while Yang is white, active, hot and male in nature. The Yin/Yang represents the differences and the constant changes that are continually happening throughout the life of all living things and the universe.

The Five Elements are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Everything in the universe is influenced by these elements and their interactions. The five elements have a productive cycle, a destructive cycle and reductive cycle. In the productive cycle, fire produces earth, earth produces metal, metal produces water and water produces wood. In the domination cycle, fire melts metal, metal pierces wood, wood draws from earth, earth blocks water, water diminishes fire. In the reductive cycle, fire reduces wood, wood reduces water, water reduces metal, metal reduces earth and earth reduces fire. We use these productive, destructive and reductive cycles in Feng Shui to correct any negative chi to create a positive energy flow.

Each of the five elements has a color or colors symbolically representing it for correcting a negative energy flow. If you don’t have access to and object made of one of the elements, you can use one of its representative colors, however, you should only use one color, not a combination of colors.

The representative colors are:

Metal—white or gold
Water—blue or black
Wood—green
Fire—red
Earth—tan, beige, or yellow

Each of the five elements also has an associated direction. These associated directions are:

Metal—west and northwest
Water—north
Wood—east and southeast
Fire—south
Earth—northeast and southwest

Good Feng Shui is all about balance and harmony. It’s all about what makes you feel happy, safe and secure. It’s all about you!

So, in a nutshell, Feng Shui is the science and art of placement for balance and harmony. There are several factors that determine the Yin/Yang. The constant change of Yin/Yang is remedied by use of the productive, destructive and reductive cycles of the five elements. Used correctly, good Feng Shui can help you to have a prosperous, happy, healthy and successful life.