Feng Shui has spread almost all over the world over the past 25-30 years. Despite the fact that it is practised by more people all over the world if often happens that Feng Shui does not work. The purpose of this article is to explain why this is so.
What is Feng Shui
I must point out that, by Feng Shui, I mean Classical Feng Shui aka Kan Yu. Kan Yu studies the interactions of the forces between the Way of Heaven and the Way of Earth. Said another way, Feng Shui studies the quality of life through observations and analysis of one’s living environment. Feng Shui is a very complex science that is at least two thousand years old and that requires not just years of study and practice. Not only that but the practitioner must also have some knowledge of geography, architecture, mathematics, how to use a compass, how to draw, etc. This is the scientific part of Feng Shui. The art part is actually more difficult as it requires the practitioner to unify all the elements together as well as how to “read” the land and its forms.
I want to reiterate that by Feng Shui, I NEVER mean the pseudo modern type of Feng Shui, like interior design, Black Hat, etc which is a few decades old, has no foundation whatsoever and, of course, does not work in a tangible and measurable way. Thus, when I ask why Feng Shui often does not work by itself, I mean the real/classical one. In Classical Feng Shui, the practitioner uses a compass, the external environment is more important than the home, he/she makes floor plan drawings to scale and uses formulas.
Whether those that claim they practise the authentic type actually do that
Nowadays there are so many organizations and teachers claiming to represent authentic Classical Feng Shui. Their students have spent a lot of time and money in gaining some of the ancient knowledge. Some of them are good at marketing, sales, and self-promotion. Owing to a much larger extent to this reasons, they are making a lot of money through the aggressive offering of their services.
Where is the problem, one may ask? “What do you have against people applying proven ancient methods?” Well, first of all, let me deal with the unspoken stuff. Few practitioners, in any profession, like to admit that, despite their years of training and practice, their method failed to work in some cases.
Now, this degree of “failing to work” could range from:
- only failing to work
- not just failing to work but giving additional negative results, and even the severity of these negative results varies
Thus, to get to the title of this article, why does Feng Shui by itself often not work? The answer is because Feng Shui, no matter how potentially powerful, is only third in importance. Why then, do these teachers and organizations not teach the full picture to their students? All the masters in the past were trained in BaZi/Four Pillar of Destiny or Zi Wei Dou Shu/Emeperor Astrology. Why? Because Astrology takes both first and second place in importance in the hierarchy of factors. Because without Astrology, there is no Heaven Luck – the most powerful of the three factors.
Then are these teachers and organisations not teaching the full picture to their students? Why are they charging thousands of dollars when, at least the more knowledgeable of them, know that Feng Shui cannot stand on its own? Could it be because their goal is not to give knowledge but to enrich themselves and increase their reputation? Ego titles like “Master”, “Grandmaster” etc have no place in the infinite field of Chinese Metaphysics.
What Feng Shui consultants ignore
What is the other part of the picture then, that those practitioners, some of them well-meaning but understudied, ignore? Well, I will answer with a question: would you do the Feng Shui of a house/flat/property where no people live? The answer is, of course, no.
Why?
Because this is the second element of the picture, namely the people. In other words, Feng Shui, when ignoring the people, is very, very incomplete. The reasons for this point to the third element of the picture, namely one’s fate. Without taking into account that everyone has a different fate, Feng Shui, when used by itself, would not differentiate that people having pretty much the same Feng Shui (living in the same entrance, in a house next to each other, etc) will experience the influences of Heaven and Earth differently.
So to sum it up, without taking into account the Holy Trinity of Chinese Metaphysics, namely Heaven, Man and Earth (Feng Shui), even practising the most ancient types of Kan Yu WILL often lead to unsatisfactory and, in some cases, even detrimental results. If you read some of the available Chinese Classics, you will see that Feng Shui is never used by itself but always with Astrology/BaZi or ZWDS.
Said another way, a Feng Shui practitioner MUST also incorporate Destiny readings (Four Pillars of Destiny, Zi Wei Dou Shu, etc) if they are to practise in the way these sciences were meant to be practised. Or if he/she claims they are practising classical/traditional/authentic Feng Shui.
Another reason for this is that by reading the client’s fate, the practitioner will know their character, their strong and weak spots. This is very important because it will show them to what extent the client really wants the change.
The importance of the client’s horoscope
Let’s face it: we practitioners are overwhelmingly called when people have problems. Well, some clients, even after paying and being told what changes they need to make, why, what the result will be and when they expect this, are still reluctant to go ahead with the changes. This could be due to laziness, apathy, arrogance. In other words, people having pretty much the same Feng Shui, but different horoscopes, will react differently to the advice given. As such, the practitioner must take that into account and word the message of the advice in a slightly different way.
Failure to incorporate Destiny readings often leads to after-the-fact-excuses/justifications. This is especially the case when the Feng Shu consultation not only did not bring beneficial results, but the health and fortune of the client and their family drastically worsened. Some of you may have heard the famous excuse/justification told by some such greedy Feng Shui consultants who charged thousands of dollars of more for some wealth activation formulas.
When the client came back to them and asked why their life were turned upside down, the Feng Shui practitioners responded that the client’s destiny, as shown by their BaZi chart, could not absorb/take the wealth. In other words, the wealth activation formula strengthened the wealth so much that it backfired and client’s horoscope was weakened and could not take it. The ancient Chinese have a saying for this: “Too much wealth deteriorates the health”.
Rare cases when Feng Shui does not work, even when combined with Astrology
One last very important thing to keep in mind, and something that not many BaZi practitioners take under consideration. It is about the fact that with Feng Shui dealing with the individual’s response to the environment, as shown by the 5 phases/elements, in some rare cases when the native’s Four Pillars of Destiny chart has no useful elements or a highly conflicted chart, Feng Shui will not be able to help this person. What will help him/her is beyond the scope of this article but is something I will be dealing with in my future posts.
In conclusion: whenever you hear someone who speaks of Feng Shui but ignores Astrology/Four Pillars/BaZi, Zi Wei Dou Shu, my advice is to keep away from such consultants. The reason for this is because, intentionally or not, you are being deceived.
My usual thanks to this website for the free pictures:
https://pixabay.com/en/box-open-top-package-packaging-550405/
https://pixabay.com/en/compass-directions-north-south-159202/
