Recently a couple of articles have crossed my desk trumpeting a graduating class of Feng Shui majors leaving major interior design Institutes. Think, feng shui is going mainstream even if at a snails pace. And while it might be trendy to include Feng Shui on the curriculum, the deeper truth is experiencing how effective Feng Shui can be. Those of you who keep up with this blog, already know that I find the principles of Feng Shui being used under other names. If you want absolutely contemporary feng shui, learn Permaculture.
Tag Archives: editorial
Widening the Field
The more I study Feng Shui, the more I understand that what began “how to site your ancestor’s graves,” has important implications for the troubled world we live in today. I just finished teaching an introductory course, the sort of thing retired folks might like to hear so they knew the Chinese were not sending voodoo into the US. It went very well until the final session, when I wanted to use some video about Permaculture.
After all, good Feng Shui comes from observing how nature works and then augmenting it, letting it be even more bountiful than it usually is. It was an excellent way for my seniors to start to grasp a bigger concept. Several of them were bothered that ‘this isn’t Feng Shui.’ They certainly are to be honored for their choices, but I would like you, dear reader, to consider that Feng Shui can widen and widen. May you find new uses, and when you do, let me know? Thanks.
Thoughts on the Year of the Tiger
It occurs to me that yesterday’s posting was strong. And well it should be, as this is a Metal Tiger year. What does that mean? In its simplest form, each sign is affected by the system called Five Elements Theory. Each element either moderates or strengthens another element.
Wood feeds fire. Water douses fire. One element supports, the other moderates or negates. When we look at a Metal Tiger, know the following: metal will moderate or stop growth (seems we already know that – look at the world’s economies.) That stifling effect ripples out into other parts of our world. But metal supports liquidity and flexibility.
So the message is clear: one needs to remain supple but grounded so if things go awry, you can shift as needed. Don’t expect huge development and growth, but, like the hippies say “Go with the flow Man!”
Is Feng Shui Satanic?
The Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon is not known for it’s progressive leanings (outside of the bubble called Ashland.) And newspapers need to try to keep readers by sometimes going a bit far afield from news and features. But here’s one for the books, which appeared in Grants Pass Daily Courier October 16, 2009. This from their “business journalist” Kathleen Alaks:
As an Interior designer, Catelin Hoover knows that the right placement of an object or color can make for a pleasing, comfortable, attractive home.
But as a devout Christian, she also believe that giving the placement of that object or color mystical or spiritual significant can be outright dangerous.
Hoover, who moved to Grants Pass a year ago and cares for her elderly father, has written and self-published a book, “Unmaking Feng Shui – A Christian Perspective,” in which she evaluates the ancient Oriental practice of feng shui and elaborates on how it is neither innocence or harmless.
“It is mostly base on superstition and divination, consulting the stars, the earth or some other force for direction,” Hoover says. “And God forbids divination. So this cannot be from the Lord. It’s from Satan.”
Feng shui is an ancient system of aesthetics believed to help one improve life by receiving positive chi or life force. In the traditional practice, specialists use compass-like instruments to determine the cosmic forces affect on a site and then align the construction of buildings and the placement of their contents with those cosmic forces.
Hoover first heard about feng shui in the 1980s while she was teaching interior design in Simi Valley, Calif.
“I saw this trend coming up which I couldn’t pronounce, got some books and read about it and thought it was strange,” she says. “It never made sense to me. I mean, just from an interior design sense, it violated everything I had ever been taught. It’s just not sound decorating theory.”
She thought feng shui was a trend that would soon fade. But as she heard more and more about it, she did more and more research. And what she found was a philosophy that she saw as a subtle form of the occult and a theat to her religion. (underlining added)
It’s all passed off as innocent, but it isn’t,” Hoover says. It started as a form of Buddhism, then pulled in ideas from Taoism, the I Ching, Confucianism, transcendental medication, which came from Hinduism and draws from the demonic world. Many things have touched it. There’s also a strong basis into paganism, holistic medicine and alternative therapies.”
Hoover contents that the practice of feng shui is dangerous to Christians and Jews because it brings the occult into the church and influences people to forego their faith.
“People read a magazine article or get a book about it and think, ‘oh, this will be fun.’ But if you do it for awhile, it becomes a habit. And you begin to believe it instead of your faith,” she says.
Hoovers book also attacks many of the practitioners of feng shui as untrained and deceptive.
“There are no credentials for practitioners. They have no background in interior design. That doesn’t make too much sense,” she says. “And some devotees of feng shui are quick to denigrate Christians and Jews and twist Bible passages to their own meaning.”
Whew! That’s a full frontal assault. Suzanne Chavez of Grants Pas then wrote to the editor:
What credentials does feng shui critic have?
Thank you for printing the interviews with Catelin Hoover, the interior designer whose self-published book educates us about the satanic roots of feng shui.
I now know that Buddhism, Taoism, confucianism, transcendental medication, holistic medicine and alternate therapies are dangerous and evil. I will now avoid my Hindu friends because I have learned they are closely linked to the demonic world. Hoover says she is available of talks and seminars, so perhaps I should invite my Asian friends for a meeting with her.
I also leaned from this interview that all practitioners of feng shui are uncredentialed and have no background in interior design. Maybe reporter Kathleen Alaks can interview Hoover again and ask what Hoover’s credentials ares, since the article did not make that clear.
I can see from the photo, however, that her philosophy of design is based on plastic bins with books shoved askew in them, chairs with ripped vinyl upholstery and desks with scratches gouged deep into the faux redwood finish.
A friend who works ow of Grants Pass writes, “the last word? We’ll see.” What do you think?
Is Time Flexible?
Time is one of our most interesting concepts. Depending who you talk to about time, you can find opinions ranging from a) it is an illusion and does not really exist, to z) it is a fixed entity by which we measure all sorts of things.
Some folks say that time is ending (those who follow the Mayan calendar.) Others (i.e. Greg Braden) suggest it is slowing down. Those in some of the more esoteric studies suggest that multiple levels of reality exist simultaneously. All very curious, all sorts of inrigue.
From the world of Feng Shui, one principle held true always is that we have but one thing constant in our existence – and that constant is change. If change is all prevalent, then can we leave time out of it? No. So what is the answer – or is there one at all? If we look historically we see that our use and definition of time has changed over time. (Ah hah!)
My experience of time leads me to believe that time is flexible. How can time be flexible? Because my personal experience of time has shown this to be true. The prime example: When I worked in an art gallery, it took the same amount of miles to go from home to the gallery. Time of day was the same and almost always, the traffic was the same. Yet on those days when I would leave home in a foul mood, or angry, or dissatisfied because I was leaving a couple of minutes late, I would ALWAYS arrive late at the gallery. Yet on those days when I left the house late, and drove normally while singing a song, or just singing (in other words feeling good) I would ALWAYS arrive early.
I began to test this observation and in every case found it to be true. I suggest you try it and see how time fits into your life. It need not be mine, but you may find something very interesting about your stay on our planet.
The Feng Shui of laughter
This month’s free eZine goes into depth on the subject of laughter and the kind of chi created. Most of us do not associate Feng Shui and humor but there’s an interesting connection. If you like to read the issue and possibly get these tips and tricks delivered monthly, simply send an email with “humor” in the subject line and send it to info@fengshuicv.com.
Philosophy, mathmatics & Feng Shui
I recently saw a most amazing film, Between the Folds, a movie, I thought, that was about origami or paper folding. Taking a flat single piece of paper and with no cutting, no gluing, nothing but folding, changing it into a three dimensional object. Little did I realize this is only the surface, just as hanging a crystal from the ceiling in Feng Shui is just the surface of a profound subject of study. By the end of the film, one starts to grok that the implications manifested by the simple act of folding paper can affect our knowledge of the way the Universe works, offering profound changes in mathematics education, seriously influencing the development of new drugs. The possibilities are staggering – literally.
And how is this Feng Shui? Quite simply, the deeper I go into Feng Shui and it’s relationship to the natural world, the more profound I find it to be. It’s very much like music by Bach – seemingly pleasant and innocuous at first listening, then “unfolding” into the work of pure genius. The short preview online for the film (use the link above) gives only the most surface glance. Try to get a hold of a copy – you will want to introduce it to your local school system, you will want young people to see it, and you will have a new understanding of wonderfully complex seemingly simple things can be. I’d love to hear your comments.
Wikipedia has a couple of interesting articles on origami which you may also want to check out.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival
OK – so I left Feng Shui for the past 5 days and lived in celluloid land, working as a volunteer for 5 days. Great time. Nothing vey Feng Shui to say about it, but Bill Plymton, the animator, gave a neat presentation and I thought you might want to check it out, so here’s the link. Enjoy
Fend Shui Masters: plants!
That’s right, without taking one course, without years of study, without the blessing of the Master, plants are feng shui masters. Admittedly, they can’t get up and move over there where the wealth corner is, or pull out that noxious week that’s blocking their career light, but right now, you’re witnessing a live demonstration of feng shui mastery.
Consider: how do the crocuses know when to pop up through the snow and bloom their little heads off? How do the daffodils know to wait for a few more weeks before showing off their beauty? Or that tulips wait till after the forsythia has done its thing? The answer, my dear Watson, is elemental. Each one knows how to read the energetic signs of the earth and stars. Each one reads the magnetic fields and constantly is doing chemical analysis of the soil. And when it all comes together for that particular genus, bingo! And we are saturated with beauty.
Plant are aware of the climate changing. Correctly reading all the scientific measurements we so diligently pour over, they have been blooming earlier. Other species are dying out as the climate passes their tolerance range. EPA said nothing to them, they know. So if they read Nature’s energies so well, what happened to us?
Simply, we lost out contact with Nature. Every client I work with will demonstrate their fledgling knowledge of Feng Shui, but dismiss it as ‘nothing.’ Those of us who study Feng Shui and become more and more sensitive to the flow, or lack thereof. And what we do is help people move the things that can’ help themselves (the chair, the sofa, the wall color) so that the chemistry is right and voila! Flow. How sweet it is!
Lucky Charms
Here’s a link to a story recently published inthe Phillipines.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/print/35379
I find this article illustrative of how much the Orient has altered Feng Shui into charms and spells and away from patient observation and intuitive sensing energies. Yet this aspect of some folk’s practice of Feng Shui does not mention one point – and that is what you believe in can manifest. The power of intention is discounted in American culture, but it is real and it is powerful. So if your gig is to beleive in crystals, power on.
But for those who pick up info like this, go of and buy some crytals and think their life is going to change – well, not too likely.