Its purpose is to align the energies of place, meaning our environments both at home and where we work, in order to enhance our personal chi or energy. When properly aligned, our environments enable and support each of us to live richer, fuller, happier lives as we more enabled to actualize our fullest potentials in life.

When Feng Shui principles are correctly implemented, we can increase the energy in those areas of our lives that we wish to enhance, minimize non-supportive energies, while at the same time being able to experience a greater sense of overall balance, harmony, and contentment. It is, however, not a magic bullet. Feng Shui is only one component in life. It cannot overcome all challenges in life but can give us greater awareness to change the things in life over which we do have control.

There are different schools of feng shui and different levels of understanding of feng shui. Classical or traditional feng shui has it roots in the understanding of Forms and Shapes of the land, the I Ching, Yin/Yang Theory, and Five Element Theory. Some classical feng shui methods rely heavily on mathematical formulae that have developed over thousands of years based on understanding the cycles of time and how they relate to people and their environments.

All schools of feng shui are based on similar universal knowledge but have developed different approaches and techniques for identifying and balancing chi. The two oldest traditional schools are the Form School and the Compass School.

This is the oldest form of feng shui. It concerns understanding the energy of land-forms, and waterways,  based on their shape, size and relative positions, as to how they will affect the people living on the land and in the buildings on the land. The orientation of homes and burial sites is a part of Form School. This is a more visual approach, relying on analysis of the specific energies of the land, buildings, waterways, and roadways and then recommending proper placement of buildings and burial sites in relation to the physical surroundings.

Classic Landform Feng Shui

This school is based on the eight directions of the compass. Every person has four good directions and four bad directions, as does every building. People belong to either the West Group or the East Group. This is determined by the year you are born. Buildings belong to either the West Group or the East Group, depending on its sitting direction. By knowing and using your best directions for sleeping, working, studying, and negotiating, you will be more supported in your life. This school enables you to understand your compatibility or lack of compatibility with other individuals, as well as buildings. There is no time factor in this school in the East-West School.

Eight Mansions or East-West Life School

The Flying Stars School uses the Eight Trigrams of the I Ching, and the Lo Shu magic square (used to divide a house, building or room into nine sectors. Each trigram is related to compass directions, an element, a season of the year, various parts of the body, members in the family, a color and specific shapes.

This school encompasses a thorough understanding of yin-yang theory, five element theory. It is very computational, relying on the use of formulae to understand the energetic qualities of an environment.

A special compass is commonly used, called a Lou Pan, is used to take a directional reading of the home or building. A person’s date of birth and the construction date of the building are also important factors in Flying Stars calculations, as these relate to the unique time factor in this school’s mathematical calculations. This school recognizes that everything is energy and that all energy is in a constant state of change and operates according to specific cycles of time. It is based on scientific observations of energetic patterns that are consistently repeatable over time.

The information that can be gathered and calculated using Flying Stars Compass School can reveal some very personal aspects to the house or building that can not be determined by any other feng shui method. This method can’t be learned from reading books or taught to an individual in a short period of time. It takes a lot of serious study and experience.

Feng Shui evaluations based on the East/West School, along with the principles behind the Flying Stars calculations and an understanding of Form School, produces a very comprehensive form of feng shui analysis.

Luo Pan Compass

This school is a very simplified form of feng shui and easy to learn. The Pa Kua or BaGua is used as an energy map and is broken down into eight directions. Each direction is responsible for a specific life aspiration and has an element and color associated with it. The different directions can be activated by different types of cures. When these cures are put into place, they increase the luck associated with the aspiration of the direction. The aspirations are wealth, fame, marriage children, benefactors, career, knowledge and family and health.

The PaKua is placed over the floor plan of the home or building based on the direction the front door faces, therefore true directions are being used. Another important aspect of this school is determining a person’s best and worst directions. Everyone has four favorable and for unfavorable directions. By knowing and using your best directions for sleeping, studying, working, etc., you will be more supported in your environment.

The Ba Gua Life Energy Map

Over time people have come to believe that having good feng shui in their home or business is a way to attract and have prosperity, good relationships, health, etc. This is true.

However, as I have explained, there are several different methods or schools of feng shui. Energy or chi is evaluated and interpreted differently by a feng shui practitioner, depending on the method or methods that they have learned and what they believe according to what they have been taught. Aside from Form School or Landscape Feng Shui, which is the basis of all feng shui methods, there is generally not a lot of consensus as to what is agreed upon in terms of how to analyze and interpret the energy of a place and the ways to adjust the energy of a place. If you have read more than one book on feng shui you have probably noticed some inconsistencies or conflicting information.

With so many different methods being used by practitioners with their clients, why do they all seem to get positive results for their clients when many of the methods seem to conflict with each other? The simple answer is Belief, Intention, and Resonance.

Everyone creates their reality based on both their conscious and unconscious beliefs. This statement is both a scientific and metaphysical fact. If you, as a client are drawn to and resonate with a particular practitioner who practices a particular method of feng shui, then there is an implicit agreement between the two of you, based on belief,  that the recommendations for adjusting the feng shui of a place will balance the energy and generate harmony and attract the things you are desiring. It is even more powerful if there is agreed upon intention behind the feng shui remedies. It is as simple as that.

Another way of looking at this is, the chi in your body acts very similarly to the way the energy in a magnet works, it draws to it the same type of energy it magnetizes out.

This is another way of saying that your consciousness is represented in your environment.  For instance, if your chi is sending out signals that resonate to a sense of harmony and balance, then it will draw to it things, events, and opportunities that will harmonious and balanced.  That’s why is so important to work with and balance the chi in your environment because it directly affects what type of relationships, finances, career opportunities, etc., that you will attract.  This is why you must make sure that your environment reflects what you want to pull in.  If you don’t like what you have or see, then change it.  But change it with conscious intention, positive beliefs, and attitudes and with an understanding of feng shui principles.

You cannot make changes to the external environment without having corresponding changes take place on the inside. These changes can be perceptual, emotional or spiritual.  In many cases, these changes confer growth and self-transformation. Conversely, you can’t make internal changes without corresponding external changes needing to be made to your environment. If you don’t make changes to your external environment to match your inner energetic state, then your environment can pull you back into old habits and old patterns. It is a matter of resonance. You want the inside and the outside to have a similar resonance.  It is similar to two tuning forks that are vibrating at the same frequency.

Simply stated, the majority of people are attracted to where they live and work as a result of their karma and their consciously and subconsciously held beliefs. It is this combined energy that they project out into the world. It is this combined energy that attracts all of their experiences in life. Fortunately, if we don’t like what we are experiencing, we have the ability to change this through conscious choice and focused intention and by creating a home or workplace with good feng shui.

On another level, if you have cultivated yourself through a spiritual practice and raised your consciousness and personal energy vibration, over an extended period of time, it is possible to get to the point where your environment does not negatively impact you. This is in the realm of saints, sages, and advanced spiritual seekers. In these situations, the person can positively affect the energy of the environment and those around them.

Know that feng shui works. When looking for a feng shui practitioner, ask questions about what method or school of feng shui they practice. If you resonate with them and believe they can help you, then consider using their services. If not, don’t. It is as simple as that.

Will LeStrange provides environmental clearing, sometimes called space clearing, with his Feng Shui. He has studied with Richard Creightmore, the Master Dowser from Great Britain and director of Landscope. Richard’s techniques for environmental clearing, using the ancient practice of dowsing, are simple yet powerful ways of bringing spaces into a clear and balanced state. This form of clearing is not part of traditional feng shui. However, I believe that it will support any and all feng shui recommendations that are given. To learn more about environmental clearing, click here.

Traditional feng shui does not address the negative energetic residue that is in your surroundings that is caused by previous occupants, sometimes referred to as predecessor energies. Nor does it address the less supportive emotional energies that have built up over time since you have been in the space, such as is caused by anger, conflicts, illness, etc.

Traditional feng shui also does not address disturbing earth energies, such as geopathic stress and electromagnetic fields, which can adversely affect you. The technique Will uses identifies these types of energies, and where appropriate, clears or shields the client from the negative effects of these types of energies.

Combining feng shui with environmental clearing are effective ways to transform and release what does not support your present intentions and to activate creative flow in your life. Will brings a loving heart, with refined intuitive and sensing skills to help clients live fully intentioned lives.

Will LeStrange provides Feng Shui services for clients across the USA, Britain, and Europe.