Feng Shui

The four Elements of Feng Shui: Fire, Water, Earth and Wood

While I've been reading articles and books about acupuncture and ancient Chinese medicine, I've come across a lot about Feng Shui, a part of ancient Chinese belief that has to do with ordering and arranging the physical environment (natural and also man-made) so as to best orient ourselves with the flow of Qi around us.  On the one hand, this field has become widely popular, especially in design circles both in the East and (recently) in the West.  On the other hand, this stuff strikes me as incredibly mystical and hard to accept.  But I know I need to be patient and learn more before I make any judgment.

The basis of Feng Shui, as I understand it, is that there are forces of Qi and other energies that flow through the world around us.  The ancient Chinese saw these--literally or symbolically, I'm not sure--as manifestations of dragons' breath, which is both positive and negative.  The idea is that to live a life full of health, happiness, and good luck, one must arrange his or her surroundings so as to channel the flow of dangerous, negative energies away from us and the flow of positive forces towards us.  This might involve building our homes in a certain relationship to a hill or local mountain; designing the main openings of our houses to face a certain way; placing the furniture in our rooms in certain positions; or putting plants in certain places to deflect a negative energy's flow. 

Of course, there's a lot more to it that this.  It's easy to dismiss this idea as silly mysticism, but that's too easy.  Again, lots of people--lots of smart people--are using these theories to direct the way they construct houses, buildings, and even entire cities.  I suspect that much of the way the West has embraced Feng Shui (as reported in magazines like the New York Times Sunday Magazine and others) has more to do with style than with substance.  That is, without understanding the underlying philosophical and historical roots, Western designers are adopting the sleek, simply look of some Chinese homes.  My own home is so full of clutter that ANY new aesthetic might help!  What do I have to lose.

I'll keep reading.  I'm more interested in the energies that flow within the body than the ones that flow outside, but perhaps I'm missing half of the picture.