The Ancient Art of Feng Shui

According to the ancient Chinese, the proper placement of objects can bring warmth, energy, good fortune and harmony to your home while the improper positioning brings bad luck and sickness. Is your home sick? Feng Shui has been called "acupuncture for your home". Many followers use the principles of Feng Shui to maximize the flow and accumulation of positive chi, or energy in their homes, offices and gardens.

It takes years to study and master the art of Feng Shui. This philosophy has been around for thousands of years and through those years many different schools of thought have developed. Let's take a look at a few of the most popular schools of Feng Shui.

The Compass: Think of a compass and its four directions, north, south, east and west. Pretty simple right? One Feng Shui principle relies on a similar notion, but with eight rather than four directions. Each direction is associated with a specific type of energy. For example the south direction is associated with an energy of light.

The Land Form: The shape of the landscape gives this school of thought its name. Four symbolic animals can be found in the landscape. A home surrounded by a tortoise, dragon, tiger and phoenix is considered ideal if the tortoise, a mountain, is in the rear and a dragon and a tiger, two hills, are located on the left and right and finally a phoenix, water, is in the front. This translates indoors as well. Indoors, a wall should be to the rear and to each side with a door in your direct sight. Feng Shui experts use specific techniques to define the animals in various environments.

Eight Mansions: This school of thought, also known as East-West, is based on a person's kua number. A kua number is a calculation of the person's birth day based on the lunar calendar. The calculation correlates it to one of the eight directions. Each person is considered to have four lucky and four unlucky directions. The person's kua number determines whether the person belongs to the East or the West. Someone who has an East kua number should live in an East house. Kua calculators can be found all over the internet.

Flying Star: This is more popular in Asia and one of the more complicated principles. Nine influences called "stars" reveal visible and invisible forces affecting living areas. The method uses a combination of astrology and numerology as well as meticulous measurements, calculations. It considers the environment, shapes, appearances, floor plans, positions of the rooms and entrances, colors and more. In addition, there's a time element factored in with nine cycles occurring within three sixty year eras. The stars' attributes change with the cycles so a star that was good in one cycle may be bad in the next. This method requires extensive training.

Black Sect: This spiritual form of Feng Shui focuses on two principles, sying and yi. Sying looks at the more tangible environmental factors and offers nine basic cures including bright reflective objects, sound, plants, bonsai and flowers. Yi, which basically means wish or intention, looks to correct personal chi that has been negatively influenced by environmental chi.

These are just a sampling of the many areas of this ancient art form. The foundation of Feng Shui is to create harmony with the environment and allow people to live happier, healthier and more prosperous lives.