Back in the 1990’s, when Feng Shui started trending in the Western world, this mysterious practice of Feng Shui was commonly referred to as “the art of placement,” most notably by New Age practitioners. This description used to annoy me because it seemed to diminish or ignore the full scope of Feng Shui. A flurry of print articles left many readers with the impression that Feng Shui is little more than a quirky pseudo-spiritual form of Chinese design and décor practices.
But let’s dig deeper into the term “placement” and see if we can legitimatize the phrase after all. The word “placement” can refer to many things vast and small. Initially, we could characterize “placement” as the settlement of a town (or empire) in relation to the mountains, water sources or lack of them. Those who live near water are more affluent and the ports were the hub of trade and travel.
A mountain range to the west of a town will have a different influence than a mountain range to the east. A lake to the north of a town will have a different impact than a lake to the south. Here, placement refers to both the natural environment and surrounding man-made structures. We can also categorize placement of any natural feature or man-made feature for its unique aspects and whether it is close by or far away. The original writings on Kun Yu (later named Feng Shui), dealt with burial sites. The grave site could impact up to three generations of descendants, on top of influencing people living in nearby neighborhoods.
On a smaller scale, “placement” can refer to directional positioning, such as the house which faces northwest, compared to the identical floor plan facing southeast. The house has a “place,” and included in Feng Shui is the additional layer of timing. We all know the meaning of the phrase, “right place, right time” or “wrong place, wrong time.” The convergence of time and direction can reveal good outcomes or bad outcomes, fortune or misfortune.
Another example of “placement,” we can allude to the floor plan itself in relation to the placement of doors and windows, room locations, kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and all features of the design and architecture. Drilling down further, we can look at the placement of furnishings.
Furnishings can be placed according to concepts of Qi flow on a smaller scale, taken from Qi flow concepts for the exteriors. The winds blow through the mountains and trees, but the Qi also blows through the house in predictable ways. The air currents move on an unseen level, such as not placing a bed directly under an exposed beam or aligned directly with a door. The placement of a couch in relation to an entrance or the placement of a home office desk in relation to a window are just two examples of consequential placement of objects in space.
Placement of other décor items can influence the unseen magnetic field of a room, such as a predominately red rug, a metal sculpture or a live plant. Instead of just placing items around a house as cultural or religious placebos and folk remedies, we can practice “the art of placement” for ideal Qi flow and a balance of the “flying star” energy in any given room.
Finally, we can also personalize the placement of furnishings and location of specific activities based on the occupant’s birth data. For one person, they may function really well in the northeast sector of the house, while another family member could extract more positive energy out of the South part of the house. One extra room in your house might be better suited as an office compared to another room that would be a great home gym, often on a non-obvious level.
Ideal “placement” may also be further influenced by timing, where we place things differently and shift things around from year to year in order to accommodate the changing yearly influences, which are like temporary guests in your house.
After fleshing out the full scope of the word “placement,” I can concur that in fact, feng shui may very well be the art of placement when we put it all in perspective and can address the Big Picture as much as the Little Picture. It’s the details in feng shui which have gotten top billing and the most exposure, but the full scope of Feng Shui includes the natural landscape, climate and the influence of surrounding structures, not just what color pillows are on the chair.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
