Anyone familiar with Feng Shui?

[Dream]

I have a friend who seems to believe it and has been talking about it. I became interested enough to google it. And was wondering whether anyone here is familiar with it or have followed it with good/bad experiance. I would love to hear your thoughts.

[codex57]

I follow some basics cuz it can't hurt, but I think it's generally a load of crap. There are some basic accepted principles, but if you really get into it, a lot is very subject to interpretation. You get one "expert" and some of his suggestions will be contradictory to another "expert". So, I say just stick to the basics if you want to do it. After all, for the most part, following the basics can't hurt and generally doesn't require too much.

[khm]

My MIL is big reader and got into a kick learning about it awhile back. I didn't really retain much other than the type of entry way we had had poor fen shui, so we needed to counterbalance that with a round entry way rug. I found an awesome rug at Tuesday Morning for a song.... and admit to being happy it was round!!

Our new house has the same type of entry way, same rug works here too!

[bubbaray]

Fung Shui is pretty big here. For example, Asian buyers will have a consultation written into a house purchase. They won't buy houses on streets with certain numbers, won't buy houses that are situate on a "T" street, etc.. When staging homes, there are fung shui consultants that will help with that.

[codex57]

1 = always
2 = easy
3 = birth (good)
4 = death
5 = not
6 = continuously
8 = money
9 = forever

If you see a string numbers on a personalized plate, likely with an 8 in there somewhere, it's prolly driven by an asian.

The T intersection thing is cuz all your good fortune will flow out into the street. For similar reasons, you don't want stairs leading out the front door. However, if you have running water (fountain, stream, etc) that's good fortune. Don't want a beam on the roof across the bed area in the master bedroom cuz it's "cutting the bed" and means you'll divorce.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. There are more "basics" but I'd have to ask. My dad feng shuied something (his office? his house?).

[calv]

I know/have heard about it. always wanted to do somethnig w/my house but never have done anything about it. Anyone want to teach me?

any good blogs out there that teach the basics?

[edurnemk]

I've read a couple of books about it. I agree you should follow the basics, also in very traditional Feng Shui a lot of "cures" are very specific to Asian symbols, which have no meaning to Western cultures, so you can just as well use something that has the specific meaning for you, YKWIM? For example, turtles are symbols of protection, but to you it may really mean nothing, and putting a sculpture of a turtle in your house just because, is pointless. However I like the ideas about the flow of energy (chi) and things like that, it's pretty universal. I feel our spaces do feel more inviting and comfortable since we rearranged out furniture according to FS

I have and aunt who's really into Feng Shui, she recommended a book called Feng Shui for the Western world or something like that. She wears FS works really well, she and her DH are doing very well professionally and financially, I don't know if FS had anything to do or if it's just a coincidence.

I agree it won't hurt to try it out. It's kind of fun even.

ETA http://fengshui.about.com/?nl=1 I used to read this blog before, however her method for dividing the different areas of the house is really complicated. I used the other methos where you just divide the home in 9 equal squares, I don't remember what it's called.

[tiapam]

I think a lot of it is common sense or a natural aesthetic/harmony thing. Like, a room feels better when it is not cluttered. A room feels more open when the door can open completely. I have read a little on FS, including that the door to a bedroom is supposed to be visible from the bed. That kind of makes sense, it would make one feel more secure. I think it can help space and people to take these things into consideration. I think another principle is front entrance facing east. That seems almost biological to me, KWIM?

A book I like on this topic is Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston:

http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Your-Clu.../dp/0767903595

[Dream]

Interesting.... we do have stairs leading out the front door. The house is above ground level so you need stairs to get to the road???

I'm becoming very curious.....

Codex57, was your father able to acheive what he intended to?

[bubbaray]

Interesting.... we do have stairs leading out the front door. The house is above ground level so you need stairs to get to the road???

I don't think those types of stairs count. Its the stairs from inside the home (2nd floor) -- they aren't supposed to point towards the front door. For example, our second floor stairs are curved so that they point towards the side of our foyer, not the front door (and yeah, our front door faces east).

The foot of the bed isn't supposed to point towards the bedroom door (death position?). The head of the bed is supposed to point in a particular direction depending on the person's year of birth. Unfortunately, DH and I are supposed to point in different directions, LOL.

I have a bunch of books on it and did employ some things in our home. Pictures of the couple are supposed to be "lucky" in the bedroom, but pictures of the children are not -- and if they are there, they shouldn't face the bed. For my birthdate, I have lucky bamboo in a West-facing window for "wealth" (still waiting on that, LOL).