How to Apply Feng Shui to Your Home

A decade or so ago, feng shui (pronounced fung shway) was seen – at least here in the Western world – as being a bit eccentric, more a joking matter than something to be taken seriously by anyone. In just a few short years, it has become not only popular, but fashionable. It’s trendy to consult a feng shui specialist when decorating your home, and it’s not unusual to see stories about feng shui fixes and tips in traditional women’s magazines. Put a mirror by your front door to reflect bad luck away from your home. Hang wind chimes to attract lucky chi. Place a frog near the door to attract money. Is that really all there is to this ancient art?

While there are a lot of generalizations about using feng shui in your home, it is most effective when it is personalized specifically for your home. Professional feng shui consultants use a variety of methods to make specific recommendations for each client’s home based on a thorough analysis of the geographical and structural features of the house, often combined with the birth dates of the owners and residents of the home. Most consultants start with an analysis of the site, and then construct a Flying Stars chart to help determine where the fortuitous patterns are and where the house needs “cures” to block or redirect the energies in the home.

What are the Principles of Feng Shui?

Feng shui is based on the belief that the land is alive and filled with energies. Natural landforms and artificial structures can affect the flow of those energies. In building a home, you want to place it so that the good energies can flow into it and remain there, while the “bad” energies can be directed around it, or at the very least hurried through it so that they affect as little as possible.

Feng shui recognizes two classifications of energy – visible, which is manifested in the landscape and surroundings, and invisible, which is the energy inside the structure. It is important to understand both landscape and building feng shui in order to understand the feng shui of a building completely and affect it most effectively.

Landform Classification

The exterior of your house can have an important effect on the energy flow inside your house. Often, those building a new house will employ a feng shui consultant to help them decide on a fortuitous building site and choose the orientation of their home. The landforms that should be considered include both natural formations and man-made structures. Start your survey of your home by looking at its surroundings from all directions. These are some of the things that you should look for:

• Hills, mountains and dragon veins

  Rock formations, mountains and hills can carry energy, and the type of energy that they carry is dependent on their shape and orientation. Generally, rounded hills and pleasantly shaped rock formations are believed to carry mature, stable energies, while jagged peaks and rock formations are believed to carry wild, unpredictable and creative energies.

• Water dragons

  Water dragons are formed when flowing water eddies and pools. They may also be invoked by patterns of fields or forests that show a dragon pattern, as when a pasture has distinctly different colorations resembling a pool of water. Flowing and bubbling water almost always brings beneficial energies to a home.

• Buildings and other structures

  Manmade structures don’t carry energies, but they can encourage, channel or restrict their flow. In general, narrow streets with tall buildings focus energy the same way that a steep valley does. Tall spires act like pointed rocks, attracting energies. Streets with fast traffic are like swift flowing rivers, and streets shaped like dragons act like water dragons.

• Protective Landforms
  Ideally, a building should be surrounded by protective landforms. These landforms can be simulated by other surrounding structures. In a residential or commercial building, the ideal would be:
  
  • A low ridge or low rectangular building in front of the house
    
  • A round-topped hill or taller building behind the house
    
  • Protective ridges, hedges or buildings to either side of the house

    Next Guide: Evaluating your Home's Architecture

    Tell a friend about this page