The Red Lotus Letter Free Weekly Feng Shui Newsletter

Feng Shui Schools

What is Compass, Form, Symbolic,

and Tibetan Black Hat Feng Shui?

©Kathryn Weber

COMPASS SCHOOL

Compass feng shui is also part of what is referred to as "Traditional Chinese feng shui." Each direction of the compass has certain elements and properties ascribed to it. (These can be seen by in the bagua.) The direction a house faces determines the directions of each corner of the house.

The house is then arranged, using colors, elements, symbols, etc., that are harmonious with that direction. This is a very powerful type of feng shui because it makes any space harmonious with the energies of the earth and its associated directions. To determine the direction of any space, a compass must be used.

FORM SCHOOL

This school of feng shui takes into account forms and shapes in the landscape as well as in interior design. Some of form school can also be called landscape, or traditional, feng shui because it looks at the way the building or house is situated in the larger landscape. In fact, the practice of form feng shui is where the definition of “wind and water” comes from.

Often, when feng shui is defined it is defined as meaning “wind and water.” Form school feng shui looks at the landscape and how the elements of wind and water impact a building.

Form school feng shui takes into account all of the surroundings, such as where water runs in relationship to the house/building, whether it runs from the front of the house to the back, from the NE to the SE, etc. It also looks at the impact of roads and other buildings on a house. Wind also plays a role.

Of course, a thousand or two thousand years ago, people lived in the landscape rather than being the creators of it. Nowadays we create landscape with the addition of skyscrapers and big office or apartment buildings, making the study of landscape, or form feng shui, to have to adapt to these new landscape considerations.

That means that today, a large building behind your house or apartment could be considered the “mountain” at your back… that is, unless it has a sharp protruding angle pointed at you.

For instance, neighborhood arrangements such as cul-de-sacs are considered bad feng shui because this is where energy pools and stagnates, or where roads often terminate directly in line with a house, creating a “poison arrow effect.” Counteracting this poison arrow can be done by planting shrubs or adding a fence to block the poison arrow.

What's outside can affect what goes on inside

Interestingly, there was once a beautiful home that couldn’t keep anyone in it. Renters and owners were constantly cycling through it. It was situated on a curve of the road that pointed at the house and had a graveyard diagonal to it. It wasn’t until someone very wisely planted a row of large shrubs that blocked both the road and the graveyard that the house finally got permanent occupants. It shows how what

The effect of the landscape is an important part of what I would call “complete feng shui.” In other words, taking a complete look at the house, including the landscape (form school), directions (compass school), personal (pa kua directions/8 Mansions school), and time (flying star feng shui).

SYMBOLIC FENG SHUI

Symbolic Feng Shui relies on the placement of objects as a way to foster good fortune or dampen ill fortune. The symbols can be animals, foods, symbols, decorative objects such as mirrors, figurines, and pictures, to symbols and objects such as horseshoes, crystals, statues, or deities. Symbolism is an important part of feng shui because of the meaning of the symbols.

Being surrounded by objects that are imbued with meaning and placed intentionally is vastly different than merely being surrounded by objects. This is one of the more powerful aspects of feng shui and probably one of the least understood. It is also an intriguing aspect of feng shui for me personally, because I am often struck how little meaning we ascribe to the things we display in our homes and offices, other than just liking the look of the object.

It often doesn’t occur to us to consciously place an object in our home or office with the intention of desiring it to produce a result for us. To do so can be very powerful. Imagine if everything we did had intention. By the same point, I also do not believe that every bit of our lives must have meaning to the point that we cannot place a plant somewhere just because we like it.

However, if you find that you are paralyzed by not wanting to place something in the “wrong” place, go on and put it there. Then see what happens. If it makes you feel good where it is, then it is good. And this is the point to symbolic feng shui: fill your home with images and items that promote wellness, abundance, and prosperity in all areas of your life.

Always decorate your home or office thoughtfully and with intention. Then, try aligning these objects, colors, and items, with the correct directions. If you do, you will have a very supportive, very powerful environment, indeed!

BLACK HAT SCHOOL

Tibetan Black Hat feng shui is the most popular feng shui practiced in America. Black Hat uses a bagua for a roadmap of how to prescribe feng shui changes. The bagua -- an eight-sided diagram -- is laid over a space, such as house, and is oriented off of the front door. Each side of the bagua has a different direction ascribed to it: N, E, S, NE, SE, SW, NW, etc. The front door to the home -- or any room -- will always be north.

Therefore, even though your front door, or the door to your bedroom, may face west, Black Hat says it is north. Traditional Chinese feng shui, like that practiced in Hong Kong and China, always uses the actual compass directions. This is the most critical distinction between these two types of feng shui.

FLYING STAR FENG SHUI

Because the world is constantly changing and evolving, and time moves on, the feng shui of any space also is not static. Kind of disappointing to hear, isn’t it? I mean, don’t we all just want to “fix” our homes according to feng shui and then forget about it? Well, according to “time,” or Flying Star, feng shui, we don’t have that luxury because each year and month there are parts of the compass – and our houses -- that will either be fortunate or unfortunate.

These areas are influenced by the date the house/building was built or by when it last had major renovations. Additionally, factors such as the facing direction and front door location also have a role in making accurate time dimension predictions. For this reason, flying star feng shui is more difficult and time consuming to undertake by the layperson. However, if you are interested in doing a flying star chart for your home, a consultation with a feng shui master practitioner would be advised.

According to time feng shui, there are three unfortunate areas that change direction each year. (There are others, but these three are the most critical as they have the most influence over a space.)

1.Grand Duke Jupiter

2.Three Killings Affliction

3.Flying Star Five Yellow

Each of these is indicated on the Lo Shu Square (that comes FREE with every subscription to The Red Lotus Letter), which is the roadmap of feng shui for your home. Be sure to print this out and keep it handy so that you can refer to it. Subscribe at the box at the top of the page.

Feng shui changes year by year and month by month. However, if you want to take the time to practice flying star feng shui you will see that the effort is more than worth it.

Would you like to use this article on your website or publication? You can. Simply include the entire, unchanged article with the blurb below with a link back to this site. A courtesy email would be greatly appreciated!

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter Feng Shui E-zine and certified feng shui consultant in authentic Chinese feng shui. Kathryn helps her readers improve their lives and generate more wealth with feng shui. For more information and to receive her FREE E-book "Easy Money - 3 Steps to Building Massive Wealth with Feng Shui" visit www.redlotusletter.com and learn the fast and fun way how feng shui can make your life more prosperous and abundant!