People usually don’t like change, but there is a welcomed change among us called Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway). This ancient Chinese art and science of creating balanced and harmonious environments is now becoming almost a household word, with even Donald Trump talking about the use of Feng Shui for his towers. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books abound with this hot new art. But how „new” is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui has been around since the Bronze Age. Its first mention in text is reported to be 220 B.C. It is, however, relatively new to non-Chinese speaking Americans. So let us explore what Feng Shui is exactly.

Feng Shui teaches us how to create harmony and balance around us. Literally translated from Chinese, Feng Shui means wind and water. Put simply, Feng Shui is the art and science of capturing chi with water and moving it with wind. As we delve a little deeper into Feng Shui, we can see the oneness and interconnectedness of all things on all levels and dimensions. As we begin to grasp this concept, we find that it is possible to look at our environments with larger eyes. We can see if an entrance is constricted and dark, or open and light; if the colors inside are dark and not very balanced, or light and complementary; if the wall is too close to the entrance as we walk in and it is compressing our energy field, or if it is open and expanding. We might also notice the earth, metal, fire, water, or wood energies are depleting our Chi on one side but on the other side of the room, we sense that the same energies are much more supportive.

As we continue on our discovery into this space, we tune in to the electronic pollution emanating from the electric power line and transformer just outside the wall, and it makes us feel somewhat irritated. Additionally, we are now conscious of the quality of the air. We can also determine the atmosphere, whether happy events have occurred here, or perhaps there is some energy that makes us feel like there was an argument in the house recently. A lot of this awareness is intuitive, and some of it comes from some training we have received.

Feng Shui gives us clear distinctions to determine the causes of these energies and how to use this information to arrange our environment in more harmonious ways. Over time, different schools of Feng Shui have developed. Although the basic principles remain the same, each school has a slightly different approach to the subject.

Form School: Focuses mainly on the physical landscape, the shapes, sizes, watercourses, water views, and the relationship between the physical landscape and the buildings. Here you will find information about the four animals and how they relate to the directions, „secret” arrows, and the best placement of a house, town, office, etc.

Black Hat Sect: In 1986, Professor Lin Yun developed a hybrid of Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism and Feng Shui simplified for Western tastes. This system has a huge following in the U.S. Rather than using the traditional magnetic compass to determine directions, each house or room is judged from the position of its door.

Intuitive Feng Shui: Individual practitioners may be more perceptive than others, but Feng Shui changes must be based on the rules and not just a ‘feeling.’ Feng Shui follows very definite guidelines that have been developed over thousands of years. Intuition is a great asset, but cannot be relied on entirely for accuracy in this case (just as it cannot be relied on entirely for accuracy in the case of mathematics, geometry, or physics).

Traditional Chinese Compass School Feng Shui/Time-Space School: This system has been developing for approximately 3,000 years. It uses the Eight Trigrams of the I-Ching, the eight-sided pa kua symbol, and the lo shu magic square that is used to divide the building into nine sectors. In this system, the life aspirations are located according to direction. Included in this system you will find the Flying Star technique that is the most sophisticated system in Feng Shui, along with the Eight House System. There are many Feng Shui secrets to be uncovered in this school, such as the Castle Gate, Secret Door practices, Divine Dragons, Wang Shan Wang Shui, Shang Shan, Xian Shui, Shang Shan Xia Shui, and many others. The effectiveness of this school makes it well worth our time and energy to learn. The practices have been so well thought out (over 3,000 years) that we can utilize them with much less effort than is imagined.

Myriam Maytorena is a professional spiritual development coach. She is a trained counselor, astrologer, and consultant for many different organizations. For more information, see http://www.manifestreality.com.