10/28/2016
1) Feng Shui started from a fire horse & a tortoise.
Fire Horse - 伏羲
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| Some important old texts |
The story of Fire Horse involved 伏羲 (FuYi), the man who is attributed to have founded the civilisation of the Chinese people and invented Yin Yang & Ba Gua thousands of years ago.
During 伏羲 time, a Fire Horse had also surfaced out of a river one day. Amazingly on the back of the Fire Horse, there was a tattoo ...
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| The story of Qi Lin (Fire horse) |
4 sets of white dots and black dots were dispersed towards 4 cardinal directions and one additional set stayed put in the middle ground. We now understand that the different sets of white dots and blacks at each direction also symbolized a particular element, among other secrets of the Hetu.
Giant Tortoise - 大禹治水
In the olden times, China and its citizens had been always fighting with natural disasters. Floods being one of them and had a devastating effect on China, because agriculture was a key economic growth drive of the old society.
According to the old text, a magical tortoise had emerged out of the raging waters and appeared to Da Yu who was standing on a river bank. And on its shell, ingrained the picture below.
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| The story of tortoise book |
On this turtle shell, there are black and white spots which are dispersed in 4 cardinal, 4 inter-cardinal directions and one set in the middle. This is the important formula of today with almost 90% of current Feng Shui Masters are using the Luo Shu Knowledge to change the Feng Shui energy everywhere and anywhere. The Luo Shu knowledge famously gave rised to the Flying Stars magic 9 squares.
Legend has it, Da Yu made used of the information on the tortoise shell, successfully controlled, managed the flood waters and becoming the greatest ruler in his time. Till this day, many temples near river, lakes and seas still worshiped Da Yu for his ability to manage floods.
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| Kachina2012 |
What is the magic 9 square?
Try this:
You can add up each lane of 3 numbers, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. No matter how, it will add up to be 15. Amazing much?
Ok now try this:
If you add up the numbers diagonally at the corners (the inter-cardinal directions), it will add up to exactly 10!
***Are you impressed?***
I mean who in the past, had thought of arranging the numbers this way right??
Through the important concept of this magic 9 square, the Feng Shui Masters had learnt to equalize and harmoize the energies of a physic space.
This is THE magic 9 square which 99.99999% Feng Shui Master will continue to utilize throughout their career. It is said this magic 9 square (Luo shu) holds the answers to all secrets of the universe, creation and destruction. Though the exact mechanism is controversial and there are a few variations of its interpretation in the world of Feng Shui.
Both Hetu and Luo Shu are the foundation of Feng Shui.
If Feng Shui functions as a computer, then Hetu will be the hardware and LuoShu will be the software … when it comes to processing the Feng Shui quality of a certain space.
河图 (Hetu) 为体，洛书 (Luoshu)为用。
2) Feng Shui is a combination of the words “Wind” & “Water” yet there is no element of wind in Feng Shui
Yep. Truly speaking, there are only 5 elements which we universally recognized as the building blocks of this Universe (though some say, our existence is just an illusion). Namely the Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.
Wind is not part of it.
Everyone’s bazi is also based on analysing the 5 elements. Wind has not been a part of it.
How does Wind comes into play though? Well in the Yi-Ching and Ba Gua, the wind is represented by the 巽卦. It also carries the meaning of the number 4, eldest daughter and the South East direction. On its own, is not a element per se but the representation of the wood element.
But wind is an important indicator which it comes to picking a burial site especially. As a rule of the thumb, "Feng Shui energetic site" is the piece of land converging at the bottom of a mountain and at the beginning of a river or lake.
3) Feng Shui is now more readily accepted in the Western countries as “useful” vs its oriental counterpart (where Feng Shui was invented and originated from)
This is self-explanatory and is a fact. In the past 20 to 30 years, the contributions of our grand masters in Feng Shui must be credited. This is a wholly good thing, because contemporary schools of Feng Shui had always included the mission of spreading authentic Feng Shui to the world in its manifesto.
4) Feng Shui is very precise with directions, potential error is within a razor thin of 0.5 degrees.
In short, a typical Feng Shui house audit will divide our living space into “24 mountains” which is a common technical term in Feng Shui and you can find this ring of “24 mountains” on every Feng Shui Compass (aka Luo pan).
If your Luopan has only 23 or 25 rings for this ring, sorry but your luo pan is probably as useful as a lemon.
By dividing our living space into “24 mountains” will allow us to know the exact direction say, the facing of your main door or the sitting of the back of your house. Each mountain is 15 degrees. But because of the placement of the various mountains on the ring (eg the 癸 mountain does not start at 0 degrees and stop at 15 degrees), there is always a 0.5 degrees difference between one mountain to the next. So Feng Shui is actually very precise …. down to half a degree..
Some information on the 24 mountains are depicted below.
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| Picture Credit to: Pure Class Feng Shui
5) The ancient founders of Feng Shui will not be able to audit a modern apartment today without advising you to move out of the buildings
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If the ancient founders of Feng Shui were to come alive now, walking around looking at our houses today. Most probably they would not be very happy, shaking their heads, concluding that high rise buildings are 独阳 or too much exposure to wind, energy cannot gather etc.
This is reasonable, as high-rise buildings of more than 20 floors high are relatively new inventions. So it is fair to say that our current living conditions were not the norm for the great ancestors of Feng Shui to audit upon.
Also modern apartments today have higher chances of odd shapes. To enjoy a house with good feng shui, first of all, the shape of the house must be regular and squarish. Otherwise you must pray that the Feng Shui Master has enough skills to analyse the odd shape houses, recommend suitable remedies or have excellent communication skills to persuade the owners for slightly more extensive home improvement renovations.
How come Feng Shui is still relevant today?
Fortunately, the foundation of Feng Shui had been very strong and Feng Shui has evolved to keep up with human population of today.
For "difficult" buildings or sites, many Feng Shui masters are able to use technology to efficiently scan a space for directions and map out energy distribution plans.
The spread of Feng Shui information is also very advanced today and there are many Feng Shui forums where people get together and discuss modern case studies.
After thoughts
Many different linages of Feng Shui had appeared overtime, sometimes with opposing views. But the point of contentation are generally along the lines of whose knowledge is the most superior and sometimes people fight about what is authentic (right) or what is not (wrong).
Some Feng Shui masters follow the old text to the letter.
Some Feng Shui Masters seem to "invent" things of their own.
Until we can find a unifying figure in our Feng Shui world, one who is truly free of ego and financial worries, truly dedicated at consolidating the Feng Shui experience of different Feng Shui Masters in different regions of the world, all we can really do is to continue to learn Feng Shui from masters, grand masters and also test it out for yourself and see what works for you (and your clients).
Feng Shui is a progression subject and so we must allow room for acadamic differences for only time will tell what is right.
Feng Shui as a whole is most definitely expanding today and more people are now more or less willing to consider Feng Shui as a “Maybe” instead of a flat out “No”.
I think this is something we must applaud our Grand Masters of Feng Shui for whom has dedicated themselves to spread Feng Shui everywhere in the world for the last 20 to 30 years.
