What Is Feng Shui 风水?

Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese art and science which aims to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment.

The most common Feng Shui methods are 8 Mansions 八宅 and Flying Stars 飞星. These two popular methods within the compass school of Feng Shui, focus on directional energies and time-space changes, respectively. Many of the new students of Feng Shui will start to learn either one of the two, by memorizing the fixed formula of where the lucky energy sectors are and locating the lucky stars.

This is why some homeowners are changing rooms to sleep every year to chase their lucky stars. Some choose to sleep in the living rooms because their bedrooms are in the unlucky sectors. If I were to follow, I would feel very confused and sad to leave my comfy bed and sleep on the sofa instead. 

We can't just follow formula blindly, right? 

For example, your dining table is in the auspicious sector of the house. It will bring great harmony to your family relationship and have desired results in work and school. What if the family spends most of the time dining out? Or during meal times, some grab their plates and watch TV on the sofa while eating, and some bring the foods back to their rooms to play games on their device. 

Will this still achieve all the positive results as stated in the Formula? Your guess as good as mine. Without any interactions in the good energy sector, will the family still get uplifted by the strong vibrant lucky stars?

What we do and don't has direct impacts and consequences. For example, we can do an office layout based on good Feng Shui layout and energy sectors. But if we work from home all the time, does it still matter?

This leads us to the final F -the Form method.

While the formulaic approach can offer personalized auspicious directions, the Form School 形象派 advocates for a more holistic balance with the environment that emphasizes the natural landforms, road network, and the flow of qi, or life force, through the shapes and contours of the physical space. It is not always clear-cut and definite, and it needs personal judgment and accumulated experience. 

To better understand the form or the flow of qi, we can use the example of having one of the lucky sectors of the house in the store room. Without any window and barely enough space to place a proper bed, do you think it would still be wise that you simply followed the 1st 2 Fs? Utilizing the lucky sector and sleeping inside every night? I do not think anyone can have a good sleep, let alone feel energized after that. 

Another classic example is to follow the auspicious bed direction, but ignoring the fact that the bed is just next to the toilet bowl on the other side of the wall. What kind of qi will the person be absorbing every night?!

That is why during my on-site Feng Shui audits, there are many considerations to be made and think about how to merge all the 3 Fs together, or which F should be used in different situations to achieve the optimal good Feng Shui layout. In other words, to achieve the best energy flow balance within time and space.