Feng Shui

Traditional Chinese feng shui is based on compass directions. Based on gender and year of birth, each person has 4 "lucky" and 4 "unlucky" directions. Best choices for dwelling and furniture placement are determined based on these directions. Feng shui "cures" use the five elements to counteract, defuse, or correct unlucky combinations.

While these methods have many centuries of practice behind them, they are also layered with superstitions that are meaningless to a western practitioner. The reason the number "4" is considered unlucky as a house number, for example, has to do with Chinese language synonyms. The idea that the kitchen is best placed in the south part of the home has its origins in a particular geographic location; this advice does not hold true for many other locations around the globe. (If you live in a hot, dry location in Hawaii, the last thing you want to have in the southern area of your home is a kitchen!).

If you are building a new house to spec, it makes sense to fine-tune facing direction and room location according to the compass. Most of us are not so lucky, and have to find ways to improve our situation in an existing residence. Which is where problems arise.

For example, placing your bed or desk so you sleep or work facing a "lucky" direction, without considering other influences, may result in awful feng shui within the room. These guidelines developed in a patriarchal culture; when you have two primary wage-earners in the home, whose lucky directions don't match, what do you do? (In ancient China, mismatched lucky directions wouldn't be a problem, because your spouse would have been chosen for you based on his/her astrology.)

Contemporary western feng shui focuses on creating a nourishing flow of "chi" (life force energy) through the home using the bagua, and correcting intangible factors such as "predecessor chi". It puts strong emphasis on the client's intentions for change and growth, recognising that we are powerfully connected to our environment on a quantum level.