There is as much enthusiasm about feng shui as there is confusion about it. From expecting big results after rearranging a few pieces of furniture to hoping complex calculations will assure some sort of magic, there are many stereotypes about this ancient art. People turn to feng shui for a variety of reasons: to find love, improve health, or simply make their home feel more peaceful. Many give up because the advice they receive is either confusing or makes no sense. Does all this confusion mean feng shui is a New Age novelty or an old superstition with no actual use? No. It simply means we are looking at a very old body of knowledge, over 3,000 years old.
Easy to misunderstand, easy to misuse.
What Feng Shui Actually Is
Feng shui is, first and foremost, energy work. The most accurate way to describe it is as acupuncture of your home. It opens up the energy channels and helps the home become more balanced. As the energy in your home becomes stronger and healthier, so does your own. Feng shui is based on a simple understanding: there is no real separation between you and everything that surrounds you. If you want to feel healthy and supported in life, your home has to support you.
In feng shui, your home is sometimes called your third skin. Your clothing is your second skin, and the space you live in is the third. We can also say your home holds your energy. When your home is balanced, it fits your life the way comfortable clothing does. It supports you and makes you feel good without you having to constantly think about it.
A home that is out of balance restricts, drains, and quietly wears you down, much like uncomfortable clothing does. (With bad, restrictive clothing, though, you can easily change it in a matter of minutes, while changing your home takes time, attention and work.) This is not about a specific look. A house can look stunning and still have weak, even bad energy. And a house can look modest and feel deeply harmonious. The difference is in what is happening beneath the surface; this is what classical feng shui works with.
The Three Core Principles
At its foundation, feng shui rests on three main principles:
- Yin and Yang is the dynamic tension (and the quest for harmony) between two opposing forces in any container, so to speak, be it a geographic location, a built space, a physical body, a human relationship, etc. It is the light and dark, the hot and cold, the active and still, the open and closed, the high and the low. Yin and Yang depend on each other because their very identity is defined by the presence of the other. Not able to ever fully merge while constantly seeking it, not able to create without the other, while needing to keep the distance, this is the eternal tension that created (and keeps re-creating) our physical world. At least this was the ancients’ view on it.
- The Five Elements are the primordial creative forces of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. They are different energies expressed in specific colors, shapes, textures, images, materials and more. A bit like Yin and Yang, they need each other, while also needing to keep their identities very separate. The five elements form very complex relationships between themselves, sometimes helping and sometimes destroying one another. When they are present in just the right amount, a location or a built space feels alive and harmonious. When they’re off, you will always feel it even when the reason is unclear. (I have a three-part series on the five elements here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)
- The Bagua is the energy map of any space. It connects specific areas of your home to specific areas of your life, from health to career to relationships. This is a complex ancient tool based on the Lo Shu square, it is not always easy or straightforward to apply in a home. As a concept, bagua is also used in specific Daoist martial arts, for example, so its use in physical spaces requires right understanding and discernment. There are two types of bagua used in feng shui, each applied in a different way. There is also a different application of bagua in the Southern Hemisphere, so this level of feng shui is complex.
What Is Universal and What Is Cultural
Here is something very important to understand. Feng shui originated in China over 3,000 years ago, as part of the Daoist healing arts along with acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi. Because Chinese culture developed and meticulously recorded this wisdom, many of its expressions are inevitably wrapped in culturally specific symbols. So you hear about Mandarin ducks, three-legged frogs and Pi Yao as part of feng shui and decide this is not for you. But these are just cultural expressions of specific energies, and the energy is neither Chinese, nor Japanese, nor Western. It just is.
This distinction really matters. When you read about specific Chinese symbols that you don’t know or resonate with, the best response is not to dismiss feng shui entirely, but to ask: What energy does this symbol actually represent and how can I bring that same energy in ways that are meaningful to me? You might not want Mandarin ducks in your bedroom, but an image that clearly speaks to you of devoted love partnership will express what you want. The energy doesn’t care about the packaging or how it is wrapped. It responds to what is real.
The same applies to color. Limiting blue in a pizza restaurant makes universal sense because blue carries the Water element, which weakens the Fire energy a pizza business needs. That’s not cultural, that’s elemental logic. But the Chinese associations of red as the most auspicious color or white as a funeral color are certainly culturally specific and may not apply to you at all. The deeper you go into feng shui, and particularly the work with the five elements, the more universal and powerful it becomes. Colors, shapes, images, textures and materials are all simply expressions of universal forces we are all connected to.
How I Work With It
I committed to this work over two decades ago. I trained with several teachers, including a gifted Chinese master who also held a doctorate in acupuncture. I chose him not only for the depth of his knowledge, but also for the brightness of his intellect and the lightness of his spirit. He understood that the wisdom of feng shui is universal, and taught the importance of focusing on practical results rather than on culturally specific representations.
I help people improve the quality of their lives by reading and rebalancing the energy in their homes. I know how energy expresses itself in a space, and I know how to work with it to achieve specific results. Do I use traditional feng shui symbols in my own home? No. Do I have deep respect for their use in classical Chinese schools? Absolutely. When I work with clients, I always offer a wide range of choices, including traditional cures for those who connect with them. But if you look at the three-legged money frog and think, How on earth is this supposed to attract abundance? I encourage you to trust that voice. Find an image or a symbol that genuinely feels abundant to you, and express it with the right elements. That’s the real wisdom of feng shui.
Why You Should Care
Your space is in many ways a very accurate reflection of your own energy. It will always give you honest feedback, because energy does not and cannot lie. So what is your home telling you? Are you participating in this conversation? Energy speaks to us constantly, always available to be worked with. It has no agenda, no boundaries, no conditions. It is just there for you. Notice I say “worked with” because this ancient wisdom implies a clear and consistent strategy; there are no magic wands or secret incantations. This work takes work. You have the power to change the direction of your life by working with your home because your space holds all your patterns and habits. In other words, your home holds your energy like no one else does.
I will leave you with words of Longchenpa, the 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist master and scholar: “Depending on the place in which you reside, your mind undergoes a change. There is either growth or decline in your efforts in what is healthy and wholesome. It is of utmost importance to examine the place or the locality.” I trust you have chosen a place that has all things healthy and wholesome, and that knows how to truly support your life.
Rodika Tchi works with private clients worldwide to create homes that support health, relationships and daily life. She is the author of two published books and has been interviewed by Psychology Today, Business Insider and Elle Décor.
Share
