Expressing Energy

Feng Shui is an ancient system that attempts to fit human beings into their environment with the least impact on the rest of the ecosystem. Anthropology studies hint that this goal was part if not most, if all, early human cultures. But these cultures had oral traditions and the Chinese wrote it down and they did that about 4,000 years ago.

The ancient Chinese observed that there were five types of energy, up, down, inward, outward and deep.  They named these energy types for natural elements in their environment, Wood, Earth, Metal, Fire and Water. Lest we moderns look at this and think, “primitive, superstitious or naive, consider a modern metaphor. Haven’t you ever heard, “there are 250 horses under this hood, baby?”  And have you ever been tempted to take a peek?  Anyway, using understandable metaphors for these differing energy types gives us an easy tool to best visualize and use energy.

Understanding these five elements and the relationships between them allows us to understand the interactions of human energy and the energy of the Universe. We can use our understanding of these five elements to manipulate the flow of energy in our spaces. Depending upon what issues we are addressing we can enhance or mitigate one or more of these elements.  For instance Wood energy symbolizes growth it is associated with the color green, columns and the direction, east. If we wanted to encourage growth we would add the color green in the east to stimulate growth energy. If we wanted to slow growth we would add the element that weakens wood, which is fire.  Fire is symbolized by the color red, triangles and the direction, south. Colors and  shapes have powerful symbolic meanings that affect our emotions and energy levels. Through conscious  intention  we can create spaces that support our life goals.

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