Feng Shui This---Part One--QI

Do you know the difference between "Real" Feng Shui and "Psuedo" Feng Shui?  Lots of folks out there haven't a clue.  I've decided to post exerpts of my book "The Feng Shui of Mt Vernon".  In it I explain what Feng Shui really is, and how we can use it.

What is Feng Shui?

The art we call Feng Shui has developed from an ancient Chinese environmental study, Feng meaning wind...and Shui meaning water.  What once was the fairly simple study of the influence wind and water have on a home site has developed into a detailed examination and manipulation of the life force energy known as "qi" (chee). 

Different types of qi come from different directions in accordance with the year, month, day and hour.  It is attracted to and carried by people, gathered and moved by water, and collected and emitted by mountains.  It is affected by the shape and position of those mountain and water features, as well as by the climate and seasons.  Qi is useful according to its purpose and its timeliness.

Brigham Young, the Mormon prophet, had probably never heard of qi yet he gave a profound description of it when he said, "The elements with which we are surrounded are as eternal as we are, and are loaded with supplies of every kind for the comfort and happiness of the human race." Those "supplies" he spoke of consisted of qi.

He went deeper when he stated, "There is an eternity of matter.  Astronomers estimate that there is between us and the nearest fixed star matter enough to organize millions of earths like this. There is an eternity of matter, and it is all acted upon and filled with a portion of divinity.  Matter is to exist; it cannot be annihilated.  Eternity is without bounds, and is filled with matter; and there is no such place as empty space.  And matter is capacitated to receive intelligence."

That statement on matter, "filled with a portion of divinity" and "capacitated to receive intelligence", is to date the best, most precise description of qi I have ever come across.

Feng Shui can tell us many things about our homes and the homes of our ancestors.  We know our environments have a lot to do with our lives.  What we learn from Feng Shui is just how much influence our environment really has on us.

God sends our blessings to us, by wind and water, through the earth beneath our feet and the heaven above our heads. It is up to us what we do with those blessings.