THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509160033
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Long : 244 lines
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
- Chinese proverb
TO EXPLAIN HOW the art of feng shui works, James Allyn Moser told this tale to a Virginia Beach audience one day this summer:
The story goes that a village in China produced three times as many sets of twins as other villages its size. The locals were amused when curious scientists arrived to test the water and land. To explain the phenomenon, the villagers simply pointed to the hills in the background, which were crowned with two knobby formations.
We have so many twins because our minds receive the image of twins from the hills. It's as simple as that, they said.
Feng shui is as simple as that. The Chinese art of placement is based on the uncomplicated observation that people are affected, for good or ill, by their surroundings. The location and interior layout of a workplace and a home have a profound impact on the success of a business, the happiness of a family and the destinies of its members.
At the heart of feng shui is the belief that life often imitates the nature that surrounds it. When the environment is urban rather than natural, life may imitate a cluttered or organized desktop, dirty or clean stove, leaky or efficient plumbing.
``I see a strong correlation between divorce and clogged garages,'' said Moser, in his lecture.
The Chinese realized that ``like produces like'' thousands of years ago and they practice feng shui to this day. In their country, feng-shui masters are still called upon, just as their ancient predecessors were, to select a burial site or bless a new building.
Recently Westerners have begun to use the discipline that blends mysticism, architecture, astrology, psychology and interior design with what Moser calls ``uncommon sense.'' Intuition and plain old common sense also play a part in feng shui, say many who have used it.
American fascination with this Eastern approach began in California in the early '80s. Since then feng shui has moved through our culture slowly and gracefully, much like the dragon that is one of its vital symbols, arriving only recently in Hampton Roads. But the mysterious dragon has quickly commanded respect here.
Forty people paid $150 each to attend the two-day August workshop at Virginia Wesleyan College given by Moser, a master feng shui consultant from San Diego. Moser, who owns an environmental consulting firm called Feng Shui L.A., has tentative plans to return to Hampton Roads for a workshop next spring or summer.
A local practitioner, Bert Willard, a former student of Moser, gave his first class in July at The Heritage Store in Virginia Beach, where feng-shui books sell out as soon as they're stocked. Willard, who has done 24 feng-shui consultations in private homes since May, plans three more local classes through October.
A traditional interior decorator until she learned about feng shui several years ago, Kathy van Elburg has been giving workshops in her Williamsburg home once a month since May. Her classes fill as soon as they're announced, with architects, astrologers, decorators, landscapers, but mostly with ordinary folks who simply feel the time is right for a lifestyle change.
Joanne Kennedy of Williamsburg came to van Elburg's August workshop because she and her husband are ready to move into a smaller home now that their eight children are grown.
``I came to this class strictly on intuition,'' she said. ``The older I get, the more I realize how much environment matters.''
The time is right for feng shui, says van Elburg.
``Our culture has become so technical,'' she explained to the nine students in that workshop. ``We've lost touch with the wisdom that comes from deep inside all of us, with what we really want or need as individuals. We tend to dismiss or deny our own energy and intuition.''
We cannot do that, say the teachers of feng shui, because that is our chi, the vital essence or energy that connects us with the rest of the world. When our personal chi blends harmoniously with the chi of the environment, health, happiness and prosperity reign. When the energies clash, feng shui provides theories and therapies to smooth the rough edges so that peace will prevail, and profits will increase.
Ronald Mertz and his three business partners traveled from northern New Jersey to Moser's local workshop in search of therapy for their Bergen County martial arts studio, which was not blessed with good chi.
``The location is bad,'' Mertz said. ``We're on a hill near a railroad track. We need to find ways to get people in and keep them there.''
The masters would agree that the location is far from ideal. The chi that travels a railroad track or straight down a hill moves so fast it becomes killing chi. People move so quickly past the studio they hardly see it.
To capture the good chi in addition to customers, Mertz said he will use traditional feng-shui remedies such as hanging crystals, wind chimes, mirrors and live plants. These are some of the antidotes recommended through the centuries to heal less-than-ideal settings.
According to Sarah Rossbach, author of ``Feng Shui, The Chinese Art of Placement'' (Arkana, 1993), a house in China ideally ``should be built in a commanding but well-sheltered place: midway up a hill facing south to the sea is classic.'' The protective armchair hill formation that cradles the house should have animal shapes, one of which should be that of the dragon.
This just makes good sense, says Rossbach in her book: ``Facing south, safely above floods and sheltered from the north wind, man and his flocks thrived among warm sun, water and abundant plants.''
The powerful, life-giving forces of ``wind and water,'' which is the literal translation of feng shui, should flow through a setting. Water, crucial in growing rice, is a symbol for money. It should not be stagnant, a metaphor for tainted money. Nor should it flow so fast it carries away the family's fortune.
Most of us do not live in this ideal setting, but then again most of us don't grow rice for a living. Only some of us live in the best-shaped houses, which are, according to Rossbach, the most regular shapes - rectangular, square or round.
No need to move, if your habitat is less than feng-shui perfect.
When the home or workplace is lacking, ``feng shui is just what needs to happen,'' says van Elburg. ``There is always a way to achieve what you need.''
One way is for the newcomer to read Rossbach's book, an introduction to the subject that neatly relates feng-shui traditions to modern-day life. A beginner could then apply the basic principles and a few tangible ``cures'' to a dysfunctional house or office.
Another way is to hire a feng-shui practitioner, such as Moser, van Elburg or Willard, all of whom have studied at the New York or California temples of Professor Lin Yun, the Peking-born master of the art on this side of the Pacific.
This is how they work.
After walking through a home to get a sense of its chi, the consultant turns therapist. Guided by an octagonal diagram called a bagua that represents eight areas of life including career, family and wealth, the practitioner asks the customer to list the areas in order of importance.
``We do this to get an understanding of a person's internal bagua, to find out what is most important in their life,'' explained van Elburg.
The bagua shape is also a metaphor for the house, with the career area at the structure's front center.
If this is where the front door of your house lies, and that door squeaks, then no doubt your career is stuck. If the entranceway is poorly maintained or hard to get to, your message to the world may be that visitors are not welcome here.
That is just the beginning of the litany of insights that the contemporary consultant might make in the two hours, approximately, it takes to ``feng shui'' a house.
Some of those observations the homeowner no doubt has already made. As any expert will tell you, we all use some feng shui in our lives, whether we know it or not.
When a consultant sees a cluttered closet, she might say, ``How can the wind and water flow through here?''
The customer might have said the same thing many times another way. ``How can I think straight when my closet looks like this?''
Because good chi cannot flow through a cluttered house, the feng shui practitioner will make a client promise to straighten the house. That done, he might then make these diagnoses and prescriptions:
The kitchen stove is a powerful symbol of prosperity, because it is the contemporary version of a rice cooker, the symbol of health and wealth in ancient times. All its burners should be used, and they should be kept clean. Place a mirror behind the stove to double the good energy a stove emits.
The bed should be positioned against a wall so that a person lying in it can see anyone who enters. If this can't be done, a mirror should be used to reflect the entranceway.
In a home office, the desk should occupy a power position similar to the bed's. Ideally, it will be catercorner to the door with the occupant's back to the wall so that he can see the door. Again, a mirror can be used to make adjustments.
A flight of indoor steps that runs into a front door is not good. This makes it too easy for chi and money to flow away. Slow things down with a hanging crystal or wind chime.
A wall directly inside an entrance is a roadblock to chi. Hang a mirror on that wall to open up the area and let the chi breathe.
If the first thing you see inside a front door is a bathroom, inhabitants will suffer from bad health. Keep the door closed and hang a mirror on its outside. In fact, all bathroom doors should be shut and mirrored, so that the fast-moving water doesn't carry away the household's good chi or money.
A slanted ceiling or wall is a harbinger of a terrible, unforeseen occurrence. The evil line can be softened with the addition of flowers or plants, which are such a life symbol that they have the power to turn bad chi into good.
A house with too many windows, which is the symbol for children, means that the kids are in power under this roof. Doors (parents) must be more impressive than windows or the children will be too rebellious. A bell or wind chime on top of a door can make it noisier than a window.
A house with doors that open into each other usually means that the adults are at war. The Chinese might paint small red dots at eye level on each door. In Chinese, red is the most auspicious color, a symbol of happiness and strength.
A multilayered ceiling or one with heavy beams is a guaranteed ``career crusher.'' One cure is to hang two bamboo flutes from the beams; these will pump good chi through the ominous ceiling.
Long, dark hallways are freight trains for chi. A crystal hung midway down the hall will slow down the energy.
Beware a house with an extension that juts out from an original square or rectangle. If the space is the kitchen, the family may discover that they eat out all the time. If the extension is a child's room, that child may have a sense of not belonging. If that addition is the guest room, that's good: The guests will not overstay their welcome.
After all the mirrors have been hung, feng-shui practitioners often perform additional cures that involve mantras and mystical blessings, such as the cure that dissolves the bad chi of previous owners or the one that makes a house more saleable. Some Western customers request these spiritual cures, said van Elburg, while others just stick with the interior design suggestions.
Skeptics are quick to point out the commercial elements of feng shui. One American-born businessman complained, after hiring a feng-shui master to bless his Hong Kong bank, that the holy man earned more than the architects.
And anyone who attends a feng-shui workshop, Western-style, will be blinded by the glow of mirrors, wind chimes and crystals that are for sale after the lecture.
Kathy van Elburg has a cure for the skeptics:
``If you don't want to use the traditional tools like mirrors and crystals, you can create your own from things that you have already.''
Anything that reminds you of your goal - to improve a relationship, change jobs, sell a house - will work as a tool of this trade.
Added van Elburg: ``After intuition, the most important thing in feng shui is intent. If you want something to happen, it will.'' MEMO: Kathy van Elburg can be reached at (804) 220-2374. Bert Willard's number
is 425-0828. James Allyn Moser is the owner of the Feng Shui Warehouse
in San Diego, the central network for feng shui in this country and the
source for a catalog of traditional tools. The number is (800)
399-1599. ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI/Staff color photos
A red temple gate stands outside Kathy van Elburg's home, which
incorporates the principles of feng shui to bring peace and
tranquility to the occupants.
Interior decorator Kathy van Elburg gives feng shui workshops in her
Williamsburg home.
Van Elburg's home has a fountain and fish pond.
Graphic
THE NINE CURES
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Drawing
The bagua is an eight-sided symbol that represents eight areas of
life. In feng shui, the bagua is a blueprint to your home, the
career area coinciding with the center front of the house. If the
area of your house that matches up with a certain area of the bagua
is in disarray, so is that part of your life.
by CNB