Almost every year I receive a bulk email with a Feng Shui superstition attached to it. Some clients send it to me directly to get my opinion on it and if it is for real. Well, it’s not.
It is also annoying and disheartening for me, as a serious practitioner, to see these mindless number games being passed off as Feng Shui edicts, when they are not, and they only perpetuate the tarnished image this natural science has had to endure.
In 2011, there was a calendar being sent through cyber space, showing how a certain month had 5 Saturdays and Sundays in it and stating how this only happens every 823 years and that people should pass the email around in order to receive a surprise financial wind fall. Back in the 1970’s we called this a “chain letter” and if you didn’t pass it along, something awful would happen to you. Well, apparently 2011 wasn’t so special because there was another occurrence of 5 Saturdays and Sundays in 2012 and succeeding years also! Completely lost on the unknowing public is why the Chinese might even have a fascination with things that total the number 5.
The reason some people are intrigued with number games is because there are actually some pretty interesting number combinations which we take note of in legitimate Feng Shui calculations. Originally, various number calculations were codifications for actual energy patterns and cosmological realities. Don’t take the number just at face value, in other words. The number might actually represent a moment in time, or space, or sound or light.
For example, some calculations resolve to numbers that are significant in astronomy, such as distances between planets. Not only is the math involved impressive, but stunning actually when we realize that these equations were computed thousands of years ago with no telescopes or space technology like what we have today.
If you do a web search just on the term “magic squares” you will find that mathematicians and astronomers from every ancient civilization have been trying to unlock the keys to the Universe since Time began, by observing number patterns and their possible connection and relevance to laws of physics. There was also a time in history when astronomers and astrologers could sit down at the same table and share notes. Just the Fibonacci or Solfeggio sequences alone are enough to ponder the perfection and hidden secrets of our world.
Ying-Yang Theory as it is presented in the Yi Jing (I Ching) is a sophisticated binary system which can explain continuous patterns in the natural and man-made world as well.
Even the compass is filled with meaning through numbers, such as each of the 360 degrees, each representing 72 years. When we multiply 72 x 360, we arrive at 25,920. In astronomy, a Great Year is roughly 25,920 years. Numbers can often represent either time or space. One needs to be fluid in this understanding, like a person who speaks several languages.
Early Feng Shui masters were scholars. They included men who were well versed in astronomy, mathematics, engineering, geology, geography, map making, and calendar making. Many worked under the scrutiny of the Chinese emperors, with the same weight and responsibility as a cabinet member in our government’s administration. Some even advised on military strategy. For thousands of years, the information available in classical Feng Shui was understood to be so powerful, that the emperors often juggled around the teachings and formulas (and numbers) in order to consciously disseminate misinformation.
The goal was two-fold: keep your political or territorial enemies at a disadvantage by dispensing erroneous calculations to them and also keep your own people oppressed and powerless, by tinkering with the accuracy of the information they could receive also.
Side bar: Does anyone, even in current times, trust their government to be really looking out for the individual citizen’s best interests and health?
Among all Chinese metaphysicians and Taoists, there is a code of ethics which would prevent one from saying that if you don’t pass along an email, that something bad or unfortunate will happen to you. This goes against the grain of all authentic spiritual practices. It perpetuates the misconceptions about Feng Shui and trivializes the principles.
And if you read or hear anything that is supposed to affect all of the people, all of the time, it is probably not true.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R) Since 1992
From the Myths and Misinformation Blog Series
