Classical Feng Shui

I love Feng Shui and have been studying it for over a decade now. My training began with a short course taught by a Chinese master who worked with a compass and spoke about trigrams and East / West schools and pre-heaven and post heaven. It was fascinating, intense and a bit incomprehensible to me. After that class I turned to the western schools that taught modern day Feng Shui: I studied from sincere, wonderful teachers who were generous in their sharing of their knowledge and experience. I became a teacher, had a successful practice and published an on-line newsletter for approximately two years. And then I stopped.

I stopped because it was no longer working for me and if it did not work for me, how could I in good faith counsel others in their Feng Shui. Still, my belief in Feng Shui was not shaken – I have seen it work, I know it worked so why was it not working now.

When you are faced with this, the best thing you can do is to go back to the source and see ‘where it all went wrong.” This I did and my path led me back to the previously incomprehensible Feng Shui.

And this I discovered: If you are not applying classical, compass based Feng Shui it is not true Feng Shui. And the proper use of classical Feng Shui is incredibly powerful because it can truly enhance the beneficial energy patterns and neutralize the energies that can and do sabotage all your efforts.

How can this happen? Think of the Feng Shui energy patterns like gravity. You cannot see gravity, but you know it exists. You cannot see the underlying energy patterns of Feng Shui, but they are there.

Modern or Western Feng Shui may touch on this but their emphasis is on what one can see. Classic, traditional Feng Shui also has eyes for what can be seen but goes way beyond to that which cannot.
Imagine this: When you observe a tree in summer, it looks large, voluminous, layered with leaves and fruit. In winter you see the same tree but without all its dressing. You see the branches, the twigs, the dead limbs and the limbs that are beginning to grow and branch out. You see the structure of the tree- you know what lies beneath the leaves. You know where to prune and how to train the tree for better growth patterns and to optimize its harvest.

Or, visualize this. You are house hunting and find what you believe is the perfect house. It is so cute, homey and feels right. And then you hire an experienced home inspector – he tells you that the new bead board walls were put up over moldy drywall and the new carpet is covering weak floorboards. Good to know- if you want this house you know you will need to replace some walls and floors and make sure the foundation is strong.

To improve the tree and to fix the house you must go beyond which is seen. This then is like classic Feng Shui.