THE DRAGON, THE TIGER AND THE PHOENIX

by Orsolya Péntek

THE MOST COMMON PERCEPTION OF FENG SHUI AMONG EUROPEANS IS THAT IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE CHINESE ART OF SPACE ARRANGEMENT. THIS IS TRUE, BUT BEHIND THE METHOD LIES THE ENTIRE CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND WORLD VIEW, THE HARMONISATION OF THE OPPOSING FORCES OF YIN AND YANG AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE EIGHT CHINESE TRIGRAMS.

According to Chinese mythology, feng shui, which literally means “wind” and “water” in English, is derived from a turtle that carried the description of the world on its shell. Not only did the system of symbols found on the shell become the basis of spatial arrangement and I Ching, Chinese “book of divination”, but it also told of the continuous shaping of the world by opposing forces.

According to the Chinese – which is of course a somewhat broad concept, let’s say rather according to the Chinese philosophy of existence, which is also influenced by Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism – the world was originally inhabited by a kind of primordial force, the dragon’s celestial breath, which is referred to as chi, life energy, and the term may also be familiar to European readers in this form.

Chi works in all beings, bringing harmony, peace and happiness; it is an active energy that can also become stronger and weaker depending on where it passes through.

This is where the feng shui method comes in: when designing spaces, care must be taken to ensure that the vital energy is not dispersed or trapped, as in the case of arrow-straight paths or valleys.

Where the chi is weakened, feng shui practitioners say that there appears the sha chi, the harmful energy associated with the image of stagnant water, heavy soil, cold.

In the Chinese art of spatial arrangement, all five elements are represented in some form: wood, fire, earth as the centre, metal and water. These elements are in constant interaction with each other.

While real feng shui experts often make complicated calculations – the two main schools are the space-form and the compass school, the latter using the lo-pan compass, which is made up of concentric circles – it is generally true that if you’re struggling with challenges in any area of life, it’s good to look at the right corner of your home to see if there is a spatial arrangement cause for stuck energies...

The author is fine artist and writer