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What is Fengshui?
History of Fengshui and the different approaches
Fengshui means Wind and Water. It is putting your intentions into the physical environment in which you live or work to manifest what you are working on in your life.
The belief behind Fengshui is that everything has a spirit, and your living and working environments are part of who you are. This belief crosses many cultures. In India this spirit is called Pranna, in Bali it is called Manna, and in China where Fengshui originated it is called Chi, in North America we call it energy. There are many arms of Fengshui such as:
- Cleaning and consecrating buildings
- Reading earth energies and choosing auspicious sites for buildings
- Orientations-building position
- Astrology, colour, diet and medical diagnosis
- Fengshui enhancements and cures
- Interior Design and Furniture placement
There are also 4 main approaches to Fengshui:
- Land-Form Approach
Based on building shapes and arrangements of rooms in conjunction with the surrounding terrain.
- Cosmology Approach
Uses geomancy compass, called a Luo Pan, to see how home is situated in relationship to the solar system, the stars, the sun, the moon the elements and directions.
- Symbolic Approach
Looks for the meaning of objects and symbols with which a person surrounds him/herself.
- The Chi approach
The practitioner enters the home and reads the energy of the room or house. The Chi method stresses a more direct interface with the house, rather than reliance on specified rules. The house is likened to the body of a living spirit. The windows are the eyes and the door is the mouth. Energy is inhaled into the home and flows according to the interior structure. The layout of the rooms as well as the positioning of the furniture, will either be favorable to the flow of energy or will impede it. If the energy flow through a house is good, then the occupants will be healthy and have good fortune.
The Chi approach is the method that I work with. Usually a practitioner will train and specialize in one method. The Chi method is considered a modern approach to Fengshui. What is the difference? Let me give you an example, if a traditional Fengshui master came to your house using a Luo pan compass, he may tell you to move, as it is not suitable for you based on your birth date and the direction the home is built in. However if I came to your home using the Chi method based on the Black Tantric Buddhist Sect we would acknowledge that you cannot always move or structurally change your living space. We would look at adjustments and cures to bring harmony into the current space. The Chi method works with what is there and seeks to enhance it.
In the East, Fengshui is used before a building is built. A consultant will sense the earth energies for the right placement of the building, including the directions the windows face, based on who will occupy the building. In Western cultures Fengshui is often used after a building is built and is curative. We adjust living spaces that already exist; this is considered a very modern approach.
People are taking an eclectic approach to creating a sense of meaning and harmony in their lives, people are rebelling against formalized religion and being eclectic in drawing on different practices to create a personal spirituality in their home or life.
Fengshui is based on the principle of creating ease and harmony in your home to create ease and harmony in your life.
Four Levels of Fengshui
- Physical
- Mental
- Emotional
- Spiritual
Fengshui is a profound holistic system for examining our lives. Originally Fengshui was used to consecrate land, diagnosis illness, bring about balance in the body and in the living space. Only in the west have we picked up one branch of Fengshui that deals with interior design or furniture placement. Like everything in North America we want things fast, like our food. We buy a Fengshui book, read it, move our couch and wonder why we are not rich or in the perfect relationship.
Fengshui was designed to function on four levels: the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual. When we examine our clutter on all four levels of our being and decide to clear on all four levels of our being we are activating power to create what we truly want in our lives.
So when I teach my students I let them know that they need to do the internal Fengshui before they do the external Fengshui of furniture placement. Once you have done this internal work (mental, emotional and spiritual) and then make a physical placement in your home or office, it has true power to create change in your life.
Setting Your Intentions
Before you start to clear clutter internally or externally it is important to set your intention, otherwise the space you clear will fill right back up with what you just cleared. That is often why piles of clutter keep returning to the same spot.
The belief under Fengshui is that energy flows where intention goes. This means that once you set your intention, energy that you release from clutter clearing internally or externally naturally flows towards what you intend.
Every six months it is an important ritual to write your intentions for the next 6 months. Intention statements include those things that you want to have happen in your life.
Include anything else that affirms what is important for you at this time, such as clarity around what you want, or feeling deserving of good in your life, any affirmation that you think is important and vital and positive for you at this time. It is important that you handwrite this statement rather than print it on a computer.
Now that you have drafted some idea of what you want to have happen, there are some important guidelines to consider when you write your intention statement.
- It needs to be in present tense as if it is already happening in your life.
- It needs to be positive, (focused on what you want, rather than what you don’t want)
- The more specific you can be, the better.
- Once you feel satisfied with your statement, double check that it is in the present tense and focuses on the positive.
Last step: write the following sentence at the bottom, “May this or something better now manifest for the greatest good of everyone concerned.” This last sentence is an opening to the universe; it asks that whatever comes to you also benefits others. Sign it and date it.
Place your intention statement somewhere special and private.
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