Your house or your apartment has Feng Shui, whether you believe it or not!
An Introduction to XuanKong - Time-Space-Feng Shui

Just as each human being has a personality, ancient Chinese people believed that each house has a “personality”. The study of Time and Space Feng Shui can diagnose the personality of buildings by means of an energy map. This energy map offers solutions, methods and recommendations on how you can work, live and regenerate optimally in the spaces you live or work in.

Feng Shui is a centuries-old study of energy and space use. It is based on the theory that everything around us is permeated with and created from energy or qi (often spelled chi). Feng Shui practice recognizes that this qi has an influence on our luck and health, and that by properly balancing and using the qi around us, we can improve our health and prosperity.

Let’s take a quick look at terminology and history. Feng means wind and Shui means water. Originally it explained how to bring wind and water to the house, retain it there, use it and benefit from it.

Xuan Kong means time and space. Actually Feng Shui is the study of space and time; how time affects the place we live and work in and how to make the best use of it. In other words, it means doing the right things at the right time. That is why time and space Feng Shui is a much more appropriate term than Feng Shui alone. The origins of this school date very far back.  The principles began about 200 BC and the technique was well explained in Chinese classics written in the Song dynasty (960-1279).

Time and Space Feng Shui consists of two systems: the so-called Flying Stars and Dagua. While Dagua is used for the precise positioning of a house to be built, date selection and the exact placement of water fountains, swimming pools and ponds, the Flying Stars give you the basic energy map of the house which is then used as a guideline of space use in your house.

The system of the Flying Stars is based on the assumption that as soon as house is built, different energies settle down in the house. They are called stars, because it is believed that they come from the universe.

These energies come from the 8 directions: north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest. Each of them has a different quality. To be able to define the quality of the energies you need two basic data: the time the house was built, and the exact degree of the magnetic direction the house faces, which has to be measured with a precise compass or a Chinese compass called Luo Pan.

With these data you can calculate the numeric energy map of the house according to certain formulas which is then drawn on the floor plan of the house like a pie chart.

As you can see in this sample chart, each sector has a combination of numbers. The left number tells you the nature of the yin energies. The right number tells you the nature of the yang energies. The two numbers in the middle refer to the time the house was built and the current annual influences.

While yang energies come in through doors and windows and are responsible for activities and the way you do your job, yin energies settle down in the walls and are responsible for personality, character, health and relationships.
 
In order to be able to determine the effect of the energy on the occupants, we have to study the environment, the traffic, dwellings in the neighbourhood, the position of doors and windows.
Finally we have to find out the birth year of the occupants, calculate their personal energy and see how compatible it is with the energies in the house.

The meaning of numbers
In classical Feng Shui, numbers express probabilities: the probability an event may happen within a given space and time. It could be a good event like a promotion or a wedding, or a bad event, suggesting misfortune or illness. The combination of numbers generated by a Flying Star chart represents probabilities. In the house in the above example, there is a tendency towards tensions and disagreement which may even lead to divorce if not treated accordingly. People living in this house might also make wrong decisions, be forgetful and suffer from a lack of concentration. On the other hand, there are strong money making energies, and if people know how to use them, and if the corresponding corners are decorated in certain colours and shapes, they will have a good life, especially if the inauspicious energies are taken care of.

When we do an audit, first of all we look for which of the yang energies can come into the house and benefit the occupants. For example, if you need competitive energy because you want to be better than your competitors, you can use the energy and your behaviour will be more offensive. If you don’t need this energy it can bring you harm like unwanted fights, law suits, arguments or robbery.

Or, if you need creativity in your job, you can activate the corresponding energy, if it is available in your house. Then you will be a creative and productive software engineer, hairdresser, chef and so on. If you don’t use the energy but it is in your house, there may be a tendency to extramarital affairs.

Good yin energies are important in your bedroom. If you want to be able to regenerate optimally, you need the corresponding energy and you have to be compatible with it. It depends on your birth date, which determines your Ming Gua or personality energy, if you match the energy of the wall where you sleep. If you do not, your sleep may suffer, you can’t regenerate so easily and you may get sick more often.

If two energies are in conflict with each other and they are not cured, there may be problems on the way which may lead to disharmony and in the worst case to financial troubles, sickness or accidents.  

How do Feng Shui cures work? What benefits will you feel?

If you get recommendations to use and decorate certain areas in your house in a particular way, und you apply these, changes can be quick and dramatic.

This concerns the yang energies, e.g. current conflicts cease all of a sudden, there are unexpected solutions to a problem, people don’t radiate aggressiveness any more and get along better with their fellow human beings; arguments between partners or parents and children stop;

children study better and get better results at school when academic energies have been activated and they do their homework in these areas;

people are more competitive or they gradually acquire a better reputation, if energies that enhance power and respect are used and strengthened.

Changes can also be subtle and take longer to be felt.
This concerns the yin energies which are responsible for regeneration, relaxation and good sleep. They settle in the walls and have to find certain conditions so that they can work to the benefit of the people.

Each occupant should sleep against a wall that fits his personal energy according to the five elements: water, wood, fire, earth and metal. If this is not done, the occupant will be more prone to stress and get sick more easily because his immune system doesn’t work optimally.

If cures are placed, and certain forms and colours are used in the bedroom - maybe the bedroom has to be rearranged and the bed put against a different wall as well - or even a different room is chosen, positive changes will gradually occur: pains and maladies will disappear, the person’s sleep will get deeper and more relaxing, they may develop a greater resistance to sickness, or develop strength to do things they have been wishing to do for a long time. All of a sudden life is not perceived as to be as stressful as before, and events like the yearly flu in winter don’t occur any more ….and other positive changes may occur. 

Some basic concepts that may help explain why we give certain recommendations:

Qi

The energy that we are dealing with in Feng Shui is not the kind of energy we know from physics, but here we study metaphysics, the philosophical aspects of energy which is called qi.

The original meaning is air. Without air nothing can live and survive, and without qi nothing can survive; thus qi is the source of life and without qi life is not possible.
Qi is a central concept in Chinese philosophy and the word energy is only a means to grasp the concept. Qi is the basic quintessence, soul and substance of things, a life permeating essence of life. In Feng Shui we strive to achieve a harmonious flow of qi.  That means we use auspicious energies and we avoid inauspicious energies. Conflicting energies are bridged and made to flow harmoniously. When this is the case, people feel better and are more productive.

Yin und Yang

In our lives there should be a balance of yin and yang. We tend to live a very yang-oriented life, but we need more peace and quiet to be able to achieve inner peace and balance.
In our houses there should also be a balance between yin and yang. Besides dynamic active areas in our homes, we need bedrooms which are in quiet areas.  Bedrooms should be well designed and decorated so that we can regenerate optimally while we are asleep. That is why we look for bedrooms with good yin energies and living areas with good yang energies.   
In Chinese metaphysics yin stands for the female passive principle and yang for the male active principle. Yin and yang each contain an aspect of the contrasting part. Yin changes into yang and vice versa. That means nothing is absolute or complete. Yin contains a germ of yang. Night becomes day, winter becomes summer etc.When we are totally happy, there is a sense of sadness. When we are very low, there is a sense of hope.

The 5 elements: Wuxing

Understanding the five elements and the relationships among them is the backbone of Feng Shui. They are used to strengthen auspicious qi and cure inauspicious qi.

Water, wood, fire, earth and metal aredifferent kinds of qi. Each elementis associated with a season, a direction, colours, shapes, numbers, body parts, organs and feelings.

By using the elements in specified ways we can activate auspicious energies and cure inauspicious ones.

• The productive cycle takes care of balance and creation, e.g. water produces wood or wood produces fire. If we want to strengthen the strongest wealth energy, often an earth energy, we decorate this area with red and yellow colours and place a water fountain there. What follows may be job offers or an increase in salary.
• The controlling cycle describes a fight between contrasting qi, e.g. wood controls earth. Conflicting qi results in an unbalanced life, sickness or other unwanted events. This can be prevented when these energies are blocked or bridged with certain colours and shapes.
• The weakening cycle is used to cure inauspicious qi, e.g. metal weakens earth. Metal sound is often recommended to soften unpleasant energies.

A note on „Black Hat or Bagua Feng Shui”

The system of Xuan Kong Feng Shui has nothing in common with Black Hat Feng Shui, a method that is very popular all over the world and was developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Here a house is divided into 8 sectors and they correspond to life stations of career, knowledge, family, wealth, fame, marriage, children and helpful people. Each of them is activated with the corresponding element. This method ignores both the time factor because the year the house was built is of no importance and the human factor, as compatibility between house and occupants is ignored. Thus this school is too superficial and can never yield the same effects as Xuan Kong Feng Shui.