Yin, Yang, and Traditional Feng Shui

 

Yin and Yang

 

The energies of yin and yang refer to the essential qualities inherent in change and movement. Yang energy can be characterized as active, expanding, and creative, while yin energy is receptive, responsive, and contracting.

 

In nature, one hundred percent never exists. Everything contains a portion of yin as well as a complementary portion of yang. Within yang is the seed of yin, and within yin is the seed of yang.  Yin or yang energy, when pushed or expressed to its extreme, will reverse itself.

 

What is most beneficial is a balance between yin and yang. What is harmful is imbalance. The cyclic nature and rhythm of life often results in periods that may seem good or bad, and can be correlated with the traits of yin and yang. During a bad cycle, struggle and resistance often only deepen or exacerbate problematic situations. A person attuned to the processes of growth and change can use such periods for cultivating his or her development, until the balance shifts. Similarly, prosperous times of progress are inevitably followed by a period of decline.

 

When practicing Feng Shui, the complementary duality of yin and yang may be utilized to understand the workings of the natural universe, in which nothing is isolated and everything is related. There is an inherent order in all things, which is given by the elements of yin and yang. Imbalance creates problems. The task of the Feng Shui practitioner is to diagnose possible causes and generate appropriate solutions.

 

Traditional Feng Shui

 

The character Feng, wind, is composed of elements that represent the warm spring wind, which comes from above and causes the worms to come out of the ground. This symbolizes the intangible yang force, which brings about a tangible result. Shui, water, denotes the most dense, earthly force, condensed yin energy.

 

Traditional schools of Feng Shui use the distinctions of yin and yang to refer to ch'i types and conditions. Landforms were first used to interpret the ch'i of the area. Positive, yang ch'i, the rising ch'i of heaven, was more desired than the settling, coalescing yin ch'i. As Feng Shui moved to the flat central plains of China, practitioners added in use of the compass as well as the celestial influences. Within this approach, the energies of the site vary according to the compass direction it faces and the forms and objects it contains. If something can not be seen from the site, it is not considered to be a problem.

 

Straight lines are avoided, because evil influences travel on straight lines. Bad ch'i zeroes in on anything straight. Corners, tunnels, and edges attract and then radiate negative ch'i. Objects shaped in a predominant five element form or color similarly attract and radiate the same energy as the one they resemble.

 

Enclosed spaces, basements, and storage areas exhaust and stagnate ch'i. Yang ch'i ascends and moves outwards, while yin ch'i tends to settle, pool, and collect. It is the straight, descending force of yin ch'i coming down a stairway, which makes a stairway facing the front door so undesirable. Mirrors are used to reflect or redirect undesirable ch'i, and can solve a wide variety of problems.

 

© 1994 by Seann Xenja ~ all rights reserved ~ 707/249-2873