Feng Shui: The Power of Place

Have you ever walked into someone’s house and felt instantly at home? Was it the furniture that created a welcoming atmosphere? The shape of the room? The way the light came in the windows?

Perhaps you couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but everything just felt right. Maybe you felt “good vibes,” warm hospitality or a perfect balance between comfort and style.

Quite possibly what you experienced was good feng shui (pronounced “fung shway”). A home with good feng shui radiates serenity. The building, its furnishings and consequently its inhabitants are in harmony with nature.

The location of a building, the arrangement of its furniture and contents and the use of color within each room--all these factors contribute to an environment that is balanced or unbalanced, energizing or enervating, positive or negative.

By following the rules of feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of placement, you can work with these basic elements--color, furniture, artwork, plants, room shape and location--to create a balanced environment in any building, home or office.

Feng shui offers a chance to gain a little advantage in that celestial chess game known as destiny. Geomancy, as feng shui is also called, is the art of manipulating one’s physical surroundings for the purpose of nudging fate in a favorable direction.

The goal of feng shui is nothing less than achieving balance between the forces of yin and yang, the two opposite but complementary forces of the universe, through the proper arrangement of the objects within and around your home.

The literal meaning of feng shui is “wind and water”--a kind of shorthand for “natural surroundings.” Years ago, the Chinese were ruled by nature in their everyday lives; you’ll see that much of this ancient Chinese practice is drawn from basic rules for thriving in sometimes hostile environments.

For contemporary practitioners, feng shui provides a means of controlling and balancing surroundings in a way that brings happiness, prosperity and health.

There are many schools of feng shui and, within each, many methods of practicing this ancient art for modern times.

The oldest school, known as the Land Form (or simply Form) School, dates back to the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907). From its origin in the jagged mountains of southern China, the Form School uses hills, mountains, rivers and other natural land formations as a basis to evaluate the quality of a location.

As feng shui gained in popularity, it spread well beyond southern China, first to the north and eventually to other regions and countries. Gradually, the practice of feng shui evolved to accommodate these new, often urban, environs.

Today feng shui masters rarely rely solely on land masses to analyze a location. In fact, the adaptability of this ancient craft is demonstrated by the fact that its modern practice includes tips on the placement of televisions, computers and other electronic equipment.

But many of the Form School’s ideas were absorbed into theories that came later, and the Form School’s observations about the way pure geography influences quality of life remain at the core of feng shui as it is practiced today.

About a century after the Form School was developed, some students of feng shui began using a compass, along with complex astronomical and astrological calculations, to evaluate the feng shui of a site.

The Compass, or Fukien, School evolved in the flat plains of northern China in direct response to the problem of analyzing an area that had few major topographical features. This school introduced the idea that specific points of the compass exert unique influences on various aspects of life.

For example, the south, with its orientation toward the sun’s path and away from cold north winds, was declared a most auspicious direction, particularly conducive for achieving longevity, fame and fortune.

Rooted in the same natural world as the Form School, but allowing for easier use of feng shui in a variety of locations, the Compass School represented a step in the evolution of the feng shui that we practice today.

Another school of feng shui was developed in the last 50 years by feng shui master Lin Yun in Berkeley.

As the feng shui movement grew in the United States, Lin saw a a way to make the ancient practice accessible to more people, and he created the Black Hat Sect Tantric Tibetan Buddhist method of feng shui.

The Black Hat Sect uses the front door of a building or the main door of a room as a starting point for analyzing a location’s feng shui.

Whereas the older school requires a compass to determine which parts of a room represent important life issues, Lin’s method situates these critical areas in relation to the doorway. People new to the study of feng shui will encounter both methods and should choose the one they feel most at home with.

This column will rely on the compass method to offer practical, easy-to-follow advice on the art of feng shui. You will gain a good basic knowledge of the principles of feng shui and learn how to put them to work in your home or office.

You’ll also learn about common interior design mistakes that can cause bad feng shui, negatively affecting your attitude, your energy level and even the most intimate details of your personal and professional life.

Most important, you’ll learn cures that can neutralize negative influences and help you achieve health, prosperity and peace of mind.

Following the advice in this column, you can analyze and transform your home room by room. From the master bedroom to the kitchen to the study, you will learn techniques for creating harmony and balance in your surroundings.

Feng shui isn’t magic, but when used properly it may bring surprising and positive results.

Clutter Can Block the Energy in Room

Question: My house is kind of messy because I never seem to have enough time to get everything done. Is this a problem from a feng shui point of view?

MICHAEL SHAW

Lynwood

Answer: Yes, it is. Here’s why: Your messy house is actually a big part of the reason that you don’t seem to get enough done.

In a fairly tidy house, chi circulates freely and distributes its beneficial energy to every room. But when clutter interferes with this process, the “cosmic energy” of chi is blocked or becomes stagnant, and this takes a noticeable toll on the people who live and work in those rooms.

Their energy level is low, their creativity is inhibited, their ability to think clearly and focus sharply is diminished and they are generally much less effective at whatever they’re trying to do.

You can recognize this phenomenon in any room of the house. You won’t cook as creatively in a cluttered kitchen, study as well at a disorganized desk, read with as much concentration in a jumbled room--you won’t even sleep as well as you might in a disorderly bedroom.

How to Arrange Room to Facilitate Learning

Q: Is there a way to arrange a teenager’s room to facilitate serious studying?

JEN COCKBURN

Chico

A: Yes, there are several feng shui adjustments that can improve your teenager’s study habits, and I can suggest a few here.

But before you start, first make sure the room has a comfortable and well-organized study area. Then make sure he can see the door of the room when he’s seated at the desk.

If this isn’t physically possible, have him choose an interesting and attractive mirror to hang above the desk. This view of the door will make him much more powerful.

Next, use a compass to locate the northeast area of the room (if the desk can be placed here, all the better).

Put the northeast’s influence on knowledge and scholarly success to work by having your teenager create a feng shui enhancement with the color turquoise and the number 8.

A friend’s teenage daughter brought her grades up a full point about a year after hanging an eight-stone turquoise necklace on the northeast wall of her bedroom.

This simple arrangement looked beautiful, served as a constant reminder to study hard and put the forces of feng shui to work very powerfully on her behalf.

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Kirsten Lagatree is a Washington, D.C., writer whose books include “Feng Shui, Arranging Your Home to Change Your Life” (Villard 1996) and “Feng Shui at Work, Arranging Your Work Space for Peak Performance and Maximum Profit” (Villard 1998).

Today marks the debut of a twice-monthly column that will answer readers’ questions on the ancient Chinese art of feng shui.