When I heard the topic of this month’s issue was “Home” I naturally got excited. What other “one word” would hit the core of Feng Shui more precisely? So I decided to start back at the roots and use this month’s space to help you sort through the overwhelming amount of Feng Shui information.

Many of us first heard about Feng Shui through a friend or maybe an article in a magazine. Something sparked our interest and we decided to find out more. We walked into our local bookstore and found ourselves in front of a shelf with a variety of titles, everything from “Feng Shui Design” to “Feng Shui for Love.” A more accurate title would read something like “Understanding energy patterns in a home or office and applying them for our benefit.” But that sounds too long and boring for a publisher to take interest.

Confronted with this confusing array of information we have to decide where to start. A typical approach would be to browse through a number of those books and begin with one we feel comfortable with. We have to start somewhere, right? After a chapter or two we feel ready to act, ready to try out some of the recommendations. So, here we are, pushing around our couch, hanging crystals in the window, or buying our first room fountain.

Some changes might make a difference, many will not. Time to go back to our studies. When we choose our second and third book we might find that the advice given there is different from the first one, perhaps the opposite of what we have read before and even had success with! This is where confusion sets in and unfortunately many get lost.

Here is my advice: There are numerous approaches to success. We have to learn more about the origin and the understanding behind the specific rules to integrate them into our overall solution.

People originally learnt about the principles of Feng Shui through observation. Houses of families who always were lucky and others who were not had specific characteristics. Over generations those findings were studied and finally put together in a set of rules. “Kanyu,” the Study of the Universe ("kan") and the Earth ("yu") later was called “Feng Shui“ the observation of Wind ("feng") and Water ("shui"), both energetic representations of the forces of "Heaven and Earth."

Two major schools developed over the centuries: the Form School being the study of Chi flowing in a landscape full of forms, such as mountains and valleys; and the Compass School, the description of Chi depending on compass directions and their energetic qualities.

If we open any of the books in a bookstore, we will find that the majority of them represent quite a different approach, originated in a much more contemporary form of Feng Shui. When Feng Shui became popular in the West, a well-known Feng Shui master, Professor Lin Yun, started teaching out of California. Professor Lin Yun is the founder of Black Hat Sect Feng Shui and, as an early representative, influenced the first set of students spreading this knowledge in America. He simplified the complex knowledge for Westeners and many of his students have written their own books now, such as Sarah Rossbach, Jami Lin, David Kennedy, Nancy SantoPietro and Stephen Post.

The basis of Professor Lin Yun’s teaching is that in a modern city it is of greater importance to consider the direction from where the energy enters a space than the compass direction itself. Therefore he took the Bagua, the 8-trigram overview, orienting it from the front door, with three possible positions for an entrance: left, middle or right. This system is called the “3-Door Bagua“.

The traditional 4,000 year old Bagua (often shown in octagonal form) is applied in the context of the compass reading of the house and is independent of its entrance. These two different ways of applying the Bagua alone will most likely leave us with two completely different outcomes.

But it can get even more confusing. Other systems, such as Flying Stars, take into account beneficial and less beneficial areas of a space depending on the precise measurement of the orientation of the house and the year a building was constructed. Pillars Of Destiny calculate the horoscope of a person over a lifetime with changing influences each year, month, day and hour, with the goal to correct any mis-match for the final benefit.

Our best sleeping directions, the orientation our home or business should face, are determined in the East/west System. But there is more: European influences of Geomancy and Dowsing explain about harmful earth energies (Geopathic Stress) and Spaceclearing.

How do we determine which system works best, which one to follow and in which order? Finally, how can we integrate them all into one common picture?

If we imagine the influence of all energies on a location we will find that each of the different Feng Shui systems is contributing valuable information. However, we need to recognize that only looking at one of these many approaches is like seeing the world in black and white. We need to understand that we deal with a multi-faceted/multi-layered color picture with a number of energetic levels and facets. Instead of forfeiting one system for another, my advice is to integrate them all. The challenge for a Feng Shui practitioner is to find out which systems contribute most, where to start and how to optimize the existing resources. We then work down the priority list to revitalize the most compromised areas.

Here is a diagram, which should explain my point:

At least half of the energetic impact depends on the Chi itself. Is there enough chi in the house to support good health? Are there any energetic drains caused by Geopathic stress or electrosmog/EMF’s and how freely does the resulting Chi flow through the rooms? In my opinion the quality and quantity of the Chi as generally described in Form School, make at least 50% of the final energetic outcome, often even more.

The other half is a summarization of several Compass School practices: influences of the Traditional Bagua, the 3-Door Bagua, the effects calculated with “Flying Stars,“ the best directions of the house and the inhabitants and even the color choices. They all have their share, not the complete answer as some proponents of one or another group likes you to believe—just parts of it. 

So if a book tells you that fixing your Bagua will miraculously solve all your problems, please stay focused and exercise a bit of skepticism. Start your personal experiments, watch and observe, and don’t be disappointed. If you don’t get the results you had wished for, you only need to broaden your knowledge and sharpen your skills.

In practice we never can expect to achieve a full 100% anyway. That would be the ideal case only.  We work with the resources we have and try to optimize and maximize the outcome. Instead of boosting the energies for specific Bagua areas, I suggest you bring the whole house into balance. Then we don’t need to worry which part of the Bagua is left out. Keep a simple, plain, rectangular shape, of the building, with a good overall balance of the whole space. Make sure there are no Geopathic drains and keep technology (and EMF‘s) at a minimum.

For those who think this sorting through is too overwhelming, a Feng Shui class might come in handy. Check out your local Adult Education program for classes or visit one of the health fairs and expos. Feng Shui is now much more in demand and lectures are available in many communities.