The media, as well as poorly trained practitioners and authors, have done such a good job of misinterpreting Feng Shui, that many clients end up totally confused about why they have hired a Feng Shui consultant.
I have experienced this myself, as well as fellow consultants, where we are sitting with the client trying to explain the cosmological significance of their surroundings, and the client just wants to know what color drapes to install in their living room.
As the mutual frustration mounts, the client reveals that they are on the verge of re-decorating or remodeling their home and they just wanted some Feng Shui input before doing so. Or, in some cases, they hire someone in my field as a form of “low-budget” interior decorating.
This is not to say that we don’t give advice on color, design, furniture placement and landscaping. We absolutely do. But we do it for entirely different reasons than designers.
We are concerned with qi flow, matters of energy and health. Or we might give advice on how to manage the energy in a certain area to attract more financial success, where using interior décor items for the power they emit (like a fountain) might just be a means to an end. Though this may seem far-fetched to the uninformed, some of what we suggest to clients is for the sole purpose of preserving family harmony and relationships. There are even some adjustments made that are hardly visible or noticeable in a room, and yet they can still have a powerful impact.
In several media instances, I have been asked by magazine writers or television producers to provide “before” and “after” pictures, as though Feng Shui were just an exotic form of interior decorating. Think: Extreme Home Makeover mentality.
In Feng Shui practice and theory we are of course concerned with aesthetics too. No one should have to endure living or working in an environment that is just plain ugly, in ill-repair or dysfunctional. This is where we have a common ground with designers. We know that if a person has a subjective displeasure with their own home or work space that eventually it will trickle down into an objective health issue for them, since a chronically negative situation can affect the immune system.
Still, the Xuan Kong Flying Star School needs to do a better job in educating the public about what our goals and purposes are, as distinct from a design consultation. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that I have toured homes that were architecturally stunning, and even award-winning. But the basic qi of the house was still causing the occupants any variety of problems related to health, relationships and finances. The untrained eye cannot even detect these problems, as much of the information revealed on this level has to be calculated based on when the structure was built and its precise compass alignment. Qi is powerful, but invisible to the naked eye.
In contrast, one very smart decision a home owner or business owner can make is hiring a Feng Shui expert before they do their remodeling or landscaping. This is when the client understands that the advice given will go way beyond aesthetics. Creating boundaries or guide lines for the designer or architect can be extremely important and the client may know this from having worked with a Feng Shui professional in the past. For instance, a client might be craving a big color change in some parts of the structure, but they know that this could affect the health and well-being of all the occupants.
The client may intuit also that opening up a room to enlarge it might allow the good qi to dissipate, so they know to check in with their Feng Shui advisor first. The best timing for a demolition or construction is also the domain of a classically trained practitioner, since some directions and times combined could make an area very accident-prone and those projects should be delayed or scheduled with a lot of care.
To conclude, in a classical Feng Shui analysis, we are trying to determine how the occupants are being influenced by their immediate surroundings, in all important areas of life. We then use physical measures to strengthen the areas that are deficient or enhance further the areas that are already deemed positive. We work to maximize personal compatibility with the space, as each individual has their own personal best directions and each person has their unique relationship with the space based on their age, gender, marital status, and occupation. And it is actually amazing that we can effect change in those areas, even with the limitations of physical objects, be they natural or man-made.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Architecture and Design Blog Series
