What is Feng Shui?
Feng shui is not a spiritual teaching or hocus-pocus. It is a Chinese art and science of living in harmony with the enviroment whose origins and roots are the same as in traditional Chinese medicine (e.g. acupuncture).
Feng shui is the Chinese term for wind (feng) and water (shui). Wind and water are elementary foundations of life and are seen as symbolizing the flow of energies that surround us. These energies in our spatial environment influence and shape us.
With Feng Shui, these energies can be identified and precisely analyzed in order to strengthen and harness the positive ones. At the same time, the negative forces can be weakened and reduced. Internal and external influences on the building are examined in interaction with the occupants and these are coordinated with each other.
Supported in this way, we have much more strength and energy in our everyday lives and in the tasks we set ourselves.
Where does Feng Shui come from?
More than 3,500 years ago, people in China began to study the influence of the landscape on people. It was originally used to plan burial sites for high-ranking personalities. It also found its way into the art of garden design. However, the benefits for people in the here and now were also recognized and the knowledge began to be used to determine favourable settlement sites.
Over time, however, it was also used in the planning of buildings and interiors. After many years of training, the Feng Shui master passed on his knowledge of classical Feng Shui exclusively to his students. With the beginning of the communist revolution in China, feng shui was banned, writings were destroyed and many feng shui masters had to leave the country.
As a result, the knowledge spread beyond China's borders into the world. In the 1980s, it came to Europe via America as Neo/Western Feng Shui and spread in this very abbreviated form. At the beginning of the new millennium, there was a gradual return to the original knowledge of classical Feng Shui. Now Europeans were also trained in this complex knowledge by Chinese masters and grandmasters.
Authentic - traditional Feng Shui
Authentic - traditional Feng Shui is a complex and profound theory of experience.
In order to correctly apply, evaluate and analyze the individual areas of the various schools and formulas, it requires extensive knowledge and a precise way of working.
As the orientation of the house or property in relation to the landscape and the earth's magnetic field plays a central role in the evaluation, a measurement with the Luo Pan (Feng Shui compass) is a basic requirement for every consultation. Every person, every family, every room, every place and every day is different.
This is why authentic- traditional Feng Shui does not have THE formula that can be used to depict everything, but there are many different systems and formulas that, when correctly combined, represent the energetic patterns of the house and the people.
The following parameters are examined in classical Feng Shui:
- Location and integration into the landscape
- Alignment in the earth's magnetic field
- Time quality for the construction of the house
- Current temporal quality
- Energy flow outside and inside the house
- Form and design
- Temporal quality at the time of birth of each resident
- Personal directions and elements of each resident
What methods are used in authentic - traditional Feng Shui?
authentic - traditional Feng Shui is made up of the Form School and the Compass School.
Form school: In the form school, the amount of energy and its direction of flow within the surrounding landscape and in buildings is considered in order to harness or optimize it through targeted measures.
Compass school: The compass school, on the other hand, looks at the quality of energy. It is divided into the San He (The 3 Combinations) Compass School and the San Yuan Compass School (The 3 Cycles)
San He (The 3 Combinations): In the water dragon and mountain dragon formulas, the doors of the house are considered in relation to the surrounding landscape (mountains, water, roads or prominent features in the landscape) They are preferable for use in garden feng shui (setting stones in the garden or planning water courses) or for new buildings.
- San Yuan (The 3 cycles): In San Yuan, the temporal qualities of energies are considered. Not every energy is good to use at all times - it changes over time. The 5 schools of San Yuan focus primarily on the inside of the house.
- Ba Gua (Eight Trigrams)
- Ba Zhai (Eight Houses)
- Xuan Kong Fei Xin (Flying Stars)
- Xuan Kong Da Gua (64 hexagrams)
- Zheng Shen Ling Shen (direct/indirect spirit)
The results of the different formulas are superimposed on each other to see how the patterns of the house resonate with the people in the resulting grid.
From this, a Feng Shui master can then derive the right measures to optimally support each resident energetically. Authentic - traditional Feng Shui does not use symbols, figures, stones or talismans and is also independent of the residents' style of furnishing.
Western Feng Shui
After the Feng Shui masters had to leave China due to the Cultural Revolution, the knowledge also reached the West.
Esoteric and New Age influences gave rise to various "Western systems", which are also known as Neo Feng Shui or New Age Feng Shui.
The 3-door bagua is particularly well known. This involves dividing the floor plan of the home into 9 areas in relation to the entrance door.
Each area represents a life theme, which is to be supported with symbols, colors and aids. Unfortunately, this greatly reduced and simplified method ignores the relationship to the surroundings, the alignment in the earth's magnetic field, the temporal components and the residents and therefore only represents a small part of the original teachings of Feng Shui.