Thursday, July 17, 2008

Water in FengShui

Water plays a very important part in fengshui assessment. What often comes up as a topic is the incorporation of water features in gardens. This often takes the forms of fish ponds, water fountains and swimming pools.

Before we talk about the impact of these features, a little knowledge of how the olden masters look at water is good.

From the treatises written by illustrious masters like Zhang JiuYi, Zhiang DaHong, LaiPuYi and the like, the water that was mentioned refers to water courses and natural lakes. Where it comes to homes, there are references to aquariums and wells but this is in the context of the application of qi rather than as water.
The theories and applications may appear different but essentially they apply rules of harmony. Master Zhiang stands out in that he tells of fate in connection with time cycles as well. If we carefully examine each method, we can conclude that they all work on harmony of the primal forces of yin and yang and the natural forces.

When dealing with water, there are two major aspects that are considered. The first is the direction and proximity. The second goes into more detail and calls for the accurate analysis of orientation and features present.

Delving a little, a lake 50 meters from a house will have a totally different effect from one situated 300meteres away. Taking that a little further, the same house with an imposing hillock or structure nearby will add on to the complexity of the fengshui qualities.

When it comes to orientation, it is crucial that the house itself is dimensionally and angularly sound for fengshui (and nature) abhors irregularities. An example of this would be a house with odd shapes and angles, a house built out of ninety degrees and doors positioned at odd angles to each other.