feng shui

- Chinese Feng Shui -

Chinese Feng Shui - Landscape and Surroundings Explorations with Heluo Explorations with Heluo is a series of articles by Heluo on the subject of Time, Space and Destiny

This article is a compilation of several chapters out of Heluo's Xuan Kong Feng Shui workbook (650 pages)

- Please read disclaimer on last page -

Mountain and Water Qi The primary focus of the ancient peoples was in dealing with the environment, especially so when nomads chose to settle down around the times when agriculture became a technique and animals domesticated. The natural environment may bode all kinds of challenges and threats, from animal attack to floods and storms. Man’s relationship with the lands and the environment became more important with urbanization and a lot of today’s Feng Shui techniques simply stem from common-sense needs. It is only obvious for villages or any populated areas, to be situated around natural water bodies, because water is essential to life. Water gives us the necessary fluids to maintain life and health, we can wash our cloths and food with it, irrigate the land and feed our animals from whom we receive milk, meat and clothing. Water gives us salt and seafood. Water is the number one prerequisite to sustain human, animal and vegetable life. Water furthermore ensured wealth and prosperity for countries close to seas or for villages and cities along river banks, for reason that water can be used for transportation of people and goods over greater distances. Water as a vehicle to travels can bring in people, goods and knowledge from afar and therefore water gives access to wealth and power. Water can also carry our expeditions to far and unknown continents, so that we can colonize and settle in new areas, exchange knowledge, collect valuables and import food. Water therefore is a most powerful tool, not just to auspiciousness, but it is also a tool used in suppression and spreading diseases. Water carries the essence of life, but it also imposes the threat of destruction by floods, carrying the essence of death. Therefore, living in the vicinity of water was one thing, not living too close to fast running waters (white water) or river banks that would regularly flood was another. The Chinese soon found that Water Carries The Wind – Qi – and should therefore not run too fast. Soft meandering waters and slow waters can accumulate Qi, bringing wealth and sustained abundance to a community, whereas fast moving waters could just as well dissipate and carry away Qi, dissolving its essence and thus leaving a community poor. A house should not be too high up a mountain, because of lack of water and exposure to strong winds, nor should it be too low on a mountain, because of an obvious water threat. Water and wind are essentially the same, as water and wind both do not travel in straight lines, say from point A to point B. Water may run to a low point and choosing the path of least resistance, but essentially water is just moving wind. So, it was only natural that man should be focusing on regulating the path of wind and water first, and intelligibly arrange Mountain and Water, hence the term Feng Shui. The single most important task for a Feng Shui master was to recognize where Qi in a landscape is accumulated. It was essential to have a house or city near the bend of a river and having established this, we could then declare that with this feature the condition to have

an open and active area was met, so that we now needed support – Mountains - at the back and preferably at the two sides. The direction in which the water entered was considered the Shuǐ Kǒu -

水口 , or water mouth.

Around 600 AD the Book of Burial - ascribed to Guo Po - was formulated and it dealt with location, direction, forms and formations of waters. It is debatable whether the illustrations used in the book are at all to depict water and waterways, or just presented as a Red Herring, but even so, illustrations would not appear to be very practical, because most diagrams used would be just illussionary in case they were to actually point to water or waterways and virtually non-existent in real landscape. Once more, the water patterns shown, may not even be to depict water. While wind is invisible to the eye, water can become invisible too, e.g. by running underground, which is regarded highly unfavourable if it runs underneath a house. It was essential also to locate the Mountain Dragon. A mountain can block Qi. Without a mountain a site would be exposed to harsh winds. Apart from a blocking function, a mountain also accumulates Qi and emits Qi to the environment. A mountain prevents Qi from being dissipated. Sometimes, in flat lands, there are no mountains. Then, instead, the Feng Shui master would look for the Water Dragon. The Mountain Dragon would be then located exactly opposite the Water Dragon. Sometimes, from a geographical standpoint, there seems to be no water, only mountain, or sometimes there seems to be no mountain, only flat lands. From a Feng Shui perspective there is always Water and there is always Mountain as it is said that ‘between two mountains there must be water and between two bodies of water there must be mountain’. Relative to a body of water, even flat lands can be regarded mountain. Relative to an elevation, any flat land or valley can be regarded water. Mountain can be discerned from water and water can be discerned from mountain, much the same as in Xuán Kōng Fēi Xīng Pài determining Sitting.

玄空飛星派 – we can establish Facing by

Here we will be studying Xuán Kōng, which is sometimes translated as Mysterious Void. More popularily Xuán Kōng may be referred to as Time-Space Feng Shui and it is a branch of Sān Yuán Jiǔ Yùn Pài School. Xuán Kōng Fēi

-

Xīng

-

Pài

-

玄空飛星派-

三元九運

-, or Three Cycles, Nine Periods

Mysterious, black, dark, profound, abstruse Empty, void, hollow, sky, space Fly, hoover, flutter in the air Star, Heavenly body School, group, faction, style

Mountain ranges were studied, because a Mountain Dragon was not just a single mountain on its own. Your house could be near a mountain, but the Mountain Dragon’s origin could be thousands of miles away, bringing in different types of Qi. Soon cosmology came into use in the form of Trigrams and Hexagrams.

Dragon lair

形式派 – (more popularily Form School) considerations, Lóng Xué or Dragons Lair - 龍穴 - is regarded the ideal place for a house or city, or in

Within Xíng Shì Pài -

its most original understanding and application Xué is the ideal grave site location. It is the spot were a mountain comes to rest to accumulate and emit its most abundant Qi, along then also with acquiring a superb Water (H2O + open plot) area. Xíng Shì Pài can be translated as Form School. Xíng Shì

-

Pài

-

形 式 派

- Form, shape, body, appear - Form, model, pattern - School, group, faction, style

Lóng Xué – or just Xué - can be translated as Dragon Lair. Lóng Xué -

龍 穴

- Dragon - Cave, den, hole, grave, acupoint

A mountain range branches out into many directions. These branches again branch out into many directions, sometimes over thousands of square miles. One of the most persisting criteria for selecting an ideal site is for the site to have a Dragon Mountain at the back, the Dragon spreading two sloping downward arms to embrace and protect the site. It is important to note that to the Chinese, a mountain is a living creature. The mountain has a body, a spine, claws, a head. A mountain therefore moves, it spreads, it emerges, it submerges and it comes to rest. A mountain can be healthy and a mountain can be wounded. Whether below surface or for anyone to see, a mountain carries Earth Qi shows Dragon Lairs at different locations. The bottom may be the father mountain, the middle one the grandfather mountain and the top one the ancestral mountain. This principles was first established in Yin Zhai (graves, grave sites) Feng Shui to find best burial sites according to hierarchy within families. In our times Yin Zhai principles can be just barely or not applied any longer for simple reason that land became a sparce commodity, especially so in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and local regulations may not permit it.

We recognize the Armchair Setting, where for Yang Zhai (buildings) the bottom may present a house or village with water in the Ming Tang or Red Bird and a

distant mountain (Zhào Shān complete ultimate Feng Shui.

照山 ) – also known as mirror mountain - to

We need the Ming Tang to receive and retain Sheng Qi and we need the mountain in the distance to emit Sheng Qi back onto the site again, so Qi does not dissipate. According to Guo Po in the Book of Burial (Zang Shu) the Turtle should have the head, the Bird should soar, the Dragon should move like a snake and the Tiger should be tame. The Dragon mountain is Yang and it embodies the male principle and teaching has it that the Dragon should be taller, higher and just a little more protruded or prepotent than the Tiger mountain that is Yin and which embodies the female principle. It is wrong teaching that says that Dragon is a male and Tiger is a female, as we will never find indications to gender in Yin and Yang attributes. It is clearly meant to read male principle and female principle and it must therefore then also be understood that Yin is not negative and Yang is not positive in a psychological sense. Yin and Yang are two poles of the same magnet, so positive merely implies the plus pole and negative implies the minus pole. Yang is the male principle and we find the male principle in both men and women. Yin is the female principle and we find the female principle in both men and women. Contrary to some persistent teaching that would claim that the Four Celestial Animals should be found fixed into certain directions, it is not pertinent at all to have a Green Dragon to the East, a White Tiger to the West, a Red Bird to the South or a Black Turtle to the North. Instead, irrespective of actual directions the teaching says: “Dragon to the left, Tiger to the right’. However, it seems this needs to be applied differently for Yang Zhai than for Yin Zhai and furthermore, even if we located a seemingly appropriate mountain to either side, the Flying Star chart may still be against that, as nothing overrides the Flying Star chart. For Yang Zhai we must stand outside and facing the house (looking outside-in) in order to find the Dragon on the left and – as introduced recently by master Eva Wong – for Yin Zhai we must stand with the back of our head towards the head stone of the grave (looking away from the grave) in order to still find the Dragon on the left and the Tiger on the right. It is pertinent to find the Dragon to your left hand side, it is not important to then find the Dragon particularly into the East, West or into any other specified direction. This holds true for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere, and we must understand that the Armchair Setting is merely a first and general Xíng Shì Pài observation, still to be closely examined against the Flying Star chart that may yet prescribe Mountain and Water into other directions, relative to factors of Timeliness. Whether Mountain or Water are at all desirable with respect to their directions depends on the Flying Star chart. Again irrespective of actual directions, the Turtle should be then located at the back of a site, whereas the Red Bird should be located into the Ming Tang, or to the front of a site and this for both Yin Zhai and Yang Zhai. The above shown representation of the Armchair Setting shows two water courses joining together to become one river which would be regarded an auspicious feature in itself, but again this is a basic Form School observation that still needs to be checked against the Flying Star chart of the built structure or – for open land,

countries and cities – be checked against the Time Chart (Tian Pan) and the Earth Chart (Di Pan). Zhào Shān can then be located beyond the Ming Tang and is meant to prevent auspicious Qi from escaping a site. Zhào Shān can be therefore somewhat smaller for as long as its magnitude and distance are proportionate to the main site to ensure Qi to be retained for the site. Dragon Lair can be only given out once. All structures that move farther away from the Dragon Lair can only receive weaker Qi emitted by the mountain. That is why even in the old days it was hard to come by a good Feng Shui spot and today it seems almost impossible.

Shanshui - 山水 Mountain and Water (Landscape), also referred to as Shānshuǐ - 山水 is a principle of environmental Mountain and Water requirements pivotal in Feng Shui dynamics.

山 -, Shuǐ - 水 - and Shā - 沙 - to select and monitor a site for Yang Zhai en Yin Zhai. For houses - Zhái 宅 - we need to locate the Dragon Den - Lóngxué 龍穴 - to the front of which we then need to find a Míngtáng - 明堂 - again beyond which we would appreciate to find a distant We use basic principles of Shān -

mountain, referred to as Zhào Shān (Mirror Mountain) which must prevent Qi from dissipating. The so-called Dragon and Tiger mountains or hills are not considered Shān, but rather Shā, i.e. elevations or small hills that we find in the surrounding landforms and that we need locate for support. Shā features in this sense are much less important than Shān.

水 Water and

山

Water ways

Mountain

宅 House

照山 Zhào Shān

沙 “Sand” Supportive Landforms, small hills

http://www.oup.co.uk/images/oxed/children/yoes/earth/landforms.jpg

In assessing landscape, we need remove all barriers between our body and the land. Then, through physical awareness of Qi, we may appreciate how for urban settings, buildings can hardly function as ‘mountains’, and roads can hardly function as ‘water’. We would conclude that real Mountains carry Qi from afar and had accummulated Qi over vast periods of time, whereas real Water would be waterways as shown in above representation, rather than roads. At best, buildings can give support – perhaps function as Shā -, but they cannot be viewed as surrogate Shān. Whatever blocking properties can be projected on buildings, inside they are hollow and they accommodate human activity. Buildings have a much shorter life span than mountains, and they cannot regain power as mountains can. However much modern 'mountain and water' (buildings and roads) is basic to us, these should be taken with a grain of salt.

The three properties of a Feng Shui site It was the first task for a Feng Shui master to select a site that would protect from harsh winds, because Qi can be scattered by wind. Then, also, water was needed in order to retain Qi. A good site is needed to ensure the thriving of people. Still not looking at a Flying Star chart: - A good site should be open to one side, so as for it to receive Sheng Qi. - A good site must have water to collect, retain and accumulate Sheng Qi. - A good site is protected from harsh winds and Sha Qi. Interaction between Mountain, Water and Stars - Placing a Mountain Dragon on a mountain activates the Mountain Star. - Placing a Mountain Dragon in Water nullifies the Mountain Star. - Placing a Water Dragon in water enforces the Water Star. - Placing a Water Dragon on a Mountain dissables the Water Star. The ultimate adjustment If we were to approach our choice of Feng Shui adjustments, we would best travel along a spiral and move outside-in, or from the big bucket to the smaller buckets. Most important in our understanding of an appropriate living environment is assessing the quality of earth energy. Other beneficial features perhaps still available, and for whatever reason, it can happen that the overall Qi of the site is just simply unfit. Whatever the source – environment -, soil and vegetation can breath what we may call contaminated Qi and such a site must be proclaimed unfit for people to settle. Examples may be natural hostile features such as too low or too high temperatures, but it is also true that people have shown an ability to adjust to harsh environmental influences and learned to survive and thrive. It becomes different in those cases where contaminations are man made, such as contaminated soil or water, which we should not want to adjust to and stay clear from. Before a land can be proclaimed fit for people to settle, we must establish health of the environmental surroundings as well as health and fertility of the soil itself. We must ensure healthy waters. For an existing settlement we may be able to assess appropriateness by observation and interpretation of events. But we can also rely on our physical ability to sense quality of Qi at a location. What is the overall quality of the people, are they friendly or hostile. Are they struggling to survive or is there a smooth flow of exchange between incoming and outgoing necessities. When good soil and otherwise favorable surroundings have been established, then first and foremost, the Yin and Yang – or the male and female Principle – must be checked, both where we need examine Yin and Yang in the tangible and intangible. There needs to be found equilibrium between topographical aspects of Yin and Yang, geographical accordance between Heaven and Earth forces, where there is not just Yin and Yang properties between Mountain (Yin) and Water (Yang), but also between mountains themselves there would be further distinguishments made between more Yang or more Yin Mountains. The same is true for water and waterways, where moving water would be regarded as Yang water as compared to still or deep waters that would be regarded more Yin waters. This is done by examining the Shānshuǐ and Shā Principle, that proclaims that the environment must not only produce a dominant Shan (Mountain), healthy waters (Shui) and

supporting elevations, hills or mountains (Sha, also referred to as Sand), but also we must establish the locations and incoming and outgoing directions of Mountains, Waters and Sand. The Mountain, Water and Sand must be in accordance with a prosperous life at the site, and so they must provide the projected fate for the people dwelling there. Shan is the Host, Sand is the Guest, the visitor. Up to this point, the assessments done are fairly mundane, as they come from either visual observation or knowledge from directional and seasonal influence. In order to assess cosmological or intangible influences upon a site, and both revealing Time and Space occurrences, the Feng Shui master would project ancient diagrams such as the Hétú - 河圖 - or Xiāntiān Guà - 先天卦 - on a site, eventually also incorporating the 9 Stars and include these in the survey. Hétú -

河圖

– River Map.

Xiāntiān Guà -

先天卦

- Former Heaven arrangement of Trigrams.

Thus, if the landforms are found correct, we then investigate directional Qi and assess under which basic directional cosmological energies a site comes. We determine the Trigrams and Hexagrams governing a site. A good example of Yin and Yang requirements in landforms, incorporating both tangible and intangible influences, are the principles of Zhèng Shén -

正神 - and

零神 - better known as Holy I-Holy 0, added with requirements for Zhào Shén 照神 , or Mirror Image God. See separate chapter for description. Líng Shén -

Zhèng Líng Zhào Shén

正 零 照 神

Upright, pure, fundamental Zero, nil Mirror, reflection Spirit, deity

Feng Shui logic Most basic of all, Feng Shui requires adjustments pertaining to the following logic: -

Counter Counter Counter Counter

a a a a

Yin intangible force with a Yang tangible Yin tangible force with a Yang intangible Yang intangible force with a Yin tangible Yang tangible force with a Yin intangible

force. force. force. force.

Holy I This is illustrated best with the Holy I-Holy 0 technique that says that the Yang and most Vibrant intangible Qi of the Commanding Star needs to find a Yin tangible factor in the shape of a mountain into the Hòutiān - 後天 - Palace of its origin. Hòutiān is known as the Later Heaven formation of Trigrams, or just Luoshu. The Commanding Star is just the current Period Star, carrying the currrent most Noble Qi. An example for Period 8 would be to then find an exterior physical mountain to the Northeast of a site, the Northeast being the home of the Prominent Star 8 in the Hòutiān Guà -

後天卦 , or Luòshū - 洛書 .

Holy 0 If we set up the Time chart for Period 8, the Time Star 5 would be found in the Southwest and it is an intangible Yin force, which we then counter with a body of exterior water, which represents a tangible Yang force. The exterior body of water is to prevent Star 5 from surfacing and 'biting' the house. All considerations done in Classical Chinese Feng Shui come with establishing and assessing the correct landforms, surroundings, geography, topography and timing. Further, we must not read the above paradigma and conclude that we can counter a Yin or Yang intangible force with a Yin or Yang tangible - or even intangible adjustment taken from the realm of mere (physical) Wu Xing technique as it is said that: “Qi heals Qi, Objects heal Objects: things within the same group move each other”. Stars are codifications for vast Heaven and Earth forces, their frequency simply beyond the capacity of things that resonate in too small a frequency to be able to reach or even move Heaven and Earth Qi, which must be then countered first by their equal, before we adjust with physical objects.

Modern Mountain and Water

Modern Feng Shui teaching has it that ‘buildings are Mountains’ and ‘roads are Water’. Let us look at this more closely and see if this is true or to what extend it is true. We need to understand that nothing can replace a real Mountain, seen from its ability to block, accumulate and emit Qi. It is only natural because a good Mountain seen from the perspective of Feng Shui is a living, moving creature. Not only are some mountains a million years old, their origin can be traced back thousands of miles from the site sometimes. All in all this will ensure a superb transportation, accumulation and settling of Earth Qi, and a healthy Mountain Dragon can transmit fertile Qi, or Sheng Qi, a capacity that we will hardly be able to project on any building. We need only reflect on the Life Cycle of a real Mountain and the Life Cycle of any human built structure, to appreciate that a human built house deteriorates on a much faster – even astonishingly faster – scale than we would see any real Mountain deteriorate. Even the intrinsic function of Blocking Qi is not to be understood in identical terms, because the blocking capacity for a building would be much limited to the capacity of blocking wind, and wind is just part of Qi, wind is not Qi. You can extend this and wonder if the capacity of a building to accumulate and emit Qi is equal to a mountain’s ability to accumulate and emit Qi. A mountain is solid, whereas the building will be mostly hollow inside, another consideration to ponder on the difference between a real mountain and a built structure. The same is true for roads. We need to seriously reflect on the difference between actual H2O on the one hand and virtual Water of either an open landscape or a road on the other hand. It goes without saying that in a Feng Shui sense, actual H2O will be charged with an entirely different quality Qi than any road could handle. We can accept that “Qi rides on the wind…” and we can partly extend the capacity to function as a vehicle to Qi to roads and pathways, but we must at the same time agree that nothing can override actual H2O where it comes to its capacity to transport Sheng Qi, to retain Qi or to bring fortune. There is a difference between a dry road and a road wet from the rain. Summarizing, we should be careful to expect the same influence and effect from built structures and roads as we might expect to come from actual Mountain and Water. Also, master Jiang Da Hong pointed out how a house depends on Water Qi, Water Qi here understood to not be just H2O, but Water Qi incorporating roads, intersections of roads, exterior roads, interior roads and even the Water Dragon arriving at the door.

Earth Qi

Surveying and judging the environment for both tangible and intangible Qi was one of the tasks of the early Feng Shui masters. The quality of Qi could be readily descerned from the shape and form of mountains, the mountain’s vegetation, the quality of soil and the presence or abcense of water. One of the basic tasks of Form School was to ensure good and abundant Earth Qi by tracing the Lóng Mài - 龍脈 - or Dragon Vein, as scholars soon found that Qi travels underground as much as it does above ground. So, it was not just a matter of finding the best Qi spot, but a matter of finding and tracing the source of Qi and trace back its path, even where this would require long travels and extensive periods away from home. It goes without saying that tracing the Dragon Vein and locating the Dragon Lair might in some cases have taken any Feng Shui master many years. Even then, with a Dragon Lair having been finally selected, one would be reluctant to immediately establish a village. Closer assessments would be yet needed and this would come from planting trees, vegetables and inviting cattle to the location and examine their behavior and health. It is known how the masters would not just only smell but also actually taste the soil, categorize soil into different qualities and examine the Livers of animals who had been eating from the grounds for an extended period of time, in order to assess the suitability and before a location would be declared fit for humans to live and thrive. Food, cloth, even human remains would be buried in the soil to examine the speed and type of deterioration. Mountains are Qi, and they are looked upon like Dragons having surfaced from underground. Sometimes the Dragon disappears underground, only to surface somewhere else again. This can be seen when we see an island appear in the sea or in a lake. The island is just a Dragon emerging from the waters. Where it may be sufficient for the average modern Feng Shui student to perhaps learn from books or through live classes, the serious and more profound student and therefore the moreso any professional Feng Shui practitioner - must simply follow in the footsteps of the ancient Fēngshui Xiānsheng -

風水先生 - and

actually move outside in the field with his Luópán - 羅盤 - to trace the Dragon, even if this is just in the vacinity of your own home, but preferably, once the opportunity arises, even in mainland China or other regions that you know would give you a sensation of abundant earth Qi. I actually appreciated much better why Feng Shui had evolved in mainland China once I spent time walking through the Guilin mountains and became physically aware of the abundant and warm Earth Qi. It was apparent how energy from the soil actually entered my body in upward fashion and walking around there felt like being ‘carried’ by the earth. Comparable sensation of Earth Qi I had experienced in Brazil. There may be a difference with earth Qi in the Netherlands, since most of the Netherlands territory has been reclaimed from the sea, producing flat lands, fast and shallow energies, rendering people that are equally fast. Earth Qi is understood to be produced by the centrifugal forces of our planet. Earth Qi is Yin as compared to Heaven Qi and Earth Qi is spiralling clockwise, inside-out and ascending.

Heaven Qi

The ancient Chinese soon found that anything going on on our planet is pretty much mirroring cosmic realities, just like also the human body with its flow of Qi through the meridians resembles what happens on earth. Therefore, the Chinese view of Heaven, Man and Earth is much less rigid than the general western view. In fact, Heaven, Man and Earth are reflections of the same idea. Appearance may be different, applications of laws quite similar, as if this trinity was the embodiment of one Universal Life force. Heaven Qi pertains to heliocentric realities, Man Qi pertains to Egocentric realities and Earth Qi pertains to Geocentric realities. In fact, we cannot collect all Wu Xing properties that we are aware of and squeeze them into one endless list as instead we need to take all our Wu Xing knowledge and yet categorize each property into a heliocentric – or astronomic – branch, a Geocentric branch and an Egocentric branch. Wood as ‘expansion’ then becomes heliocentric as seen from the moving away of our planet farther from the sun after the event of Perihelion and Wood becomes the East in a Geocentrical perspective and finally Wood may pertain to Liver as seen from an Egocentric perspective. You may agree therefore that we cannot claim that Wood is green, Wood is East as it would depend on context. Apart from the initial common sense observation that houses should be build according to geographical features – surrounded at three sides by mountains, open at the front and with water in its vacinity – Chinese astronomers and scholars soon found that constellations had their own impact on the environment and on life’s events. The origin of Heaven Qi is unknown even to the greatest Feng Shui masters as it is accepted that Heaven Qi – or Universal Qi – is just the accumulation of trillions of stars, Heavenly Bodies, sun energy, electromagnetic influences. All come under the umbrella of Heaven Qi and Heaven Qi is understood to be Yang as compared to Earth Qi and Heaven Qi is spiralling anticlockwise, outside-in and descending. Heaven Qi is strongly related to the Time aspect. Heaven and Earth Qi are then understood to meet just above the ground, have intercourse and produce an energy most suitable for humans to live and thrive. Any space under the ground becomes more unsuitable for humans to live, as is true for any space higher off the ground, such as high rise buildings and apartment buildings that must be understood to carry inappropriate Qi for people to dwell. As a consequence, we may seriously wonder whether or not or to what extend Feng Shui adjustments will work for any setting beyond second floor. It has been my hypothesis that, where we need already strongly caution against using H2O for an interior – even if so prescribed by the Flying Star chart and however much so guaranteed by a master of Feng Shui – we should either be observant when using H2O for higher floors, or said differently – most probably even best refrain from using H2O for higher floors at all. We could argue that for higher floors, any prescribed Feng Shui adjustments would not be effective, whereas any wrong placements would have immediate and grave effect. Therefore, whenever you did H2O placements - and for whatever floor – I need ask you to be extra observant about any weirdness, either obvious or not. Once you start quarreling or even ‘noting’ that some ‘other’ entity than yourself may be now governing house and its people, you immediately remove the H2O.

Architecture and Feng Shui Chéng Shì Fēng Shuǐ – Dà Fēng Shuǐ -

城市風水

大風水

- pertains to Feng Shui for cities.

- or ‘Big’ Feng Shui would be Feng Shui for continents,

countries, provinces and capitals, while Xiǎo Fēng Shuǐ - 小風水 - or ‘Small’ or ‘Minor’ Feng Shui is Feng Shui for cities, villages, plots, buildings and graves. The subject is much bigger than we will discuss here. In fact, although encompassing, the Flying Star technique is just a fraction of a much greater

大卦風水 , as well as most of the Mountain Dragon methods, e.g. Shān Lóng Fǎ - 山龍法 - and Water Dragon methods - Shuǐ Lóng Fǎ - 水龍法 .

machinery that would yet involve Dà Guà Fēng Shuǐ -

We need first accept that most of the city planning proposed for Feng Shui would be actually regarded just ‘common-sense’ by most architects or city planners. Also, apart from functional architecture or aestethic architecture, it is not uncommon for architects to design buildings or cities around esoteric typologies also, in other words, one does not have to be involved in Qi studies in order to follow certain patterns in design that will be considered universal. Architects and city planners could project certain mathematical or even mystical ideas on the layout of a city. Architects incorporating esoterics, mathematics, physics, cosmology, astronomy and so forth, does not make them esoterics, mathematicians or astronomers. A city designed around esoteric or mathematical principles does not make it a Feng Shui city, as it may just point to a well thought out design, pertaining to an almost inbuilt inclination in humans to follow dynamics of order, logic, manifestation and survival. It is not particularly ‘Feng Shui’ to say that a house should have a good flow of Qi, where this is just common-sense and would be claimed by each and every architect, only now he would talk about air flow or turbulence instead of Qi flow. The difference between modern architecture and designs according to Feng Shui, is that Feng Shui may more or less subscribe to the same principles of design, but would add the Universe to the design in a way that Feng Shui design allows the Universe to be central and manifest itself in the entire project, rather than the human mind, the human ego or economics. Feng Shui recognizes the importance – and the central role it plays - of Qi in any design, rather than focusing on circulation of money (where do we locate shopping malls), or the convenience of transportation of people from point A to point B. Feng Shui is concerned with money only in later instance, because any sensible and intelligible Feng Shui feature installed will be just expected to generate money as a result of good design. Money is the effect, the underlying principles the cause. Where any architect would position a gate of a sports stadium in a certain direction, following mere logistics for example, Feng Shui would add three things that may perhaps point to another – more appropriate - location for this gate.

- Time

- Opposition

- Path and direction of Qi

A gate into, say, the Northwest would be tapping into a certain type of Qi, but for a limited period of time. Feng Shui can calculate whether or not and for what duration of time a certain gate will be tapping into a certain type of Qi. Here, Feng Shui avoids (future) Sha Qi. Feng Shui will reveal certain contradictions in placements that would otherwise have seemed logical. The Sitting Trigram and Facing Trigram of a stadium could reveal a hostile relationship, just as the location of a gate could render beneficial or inauspicious portents. As for dressing rooms, it also does not make sense to have our own sports team sit in a negative Star, while the visiting team is offered the best Feng Shui spot. Direction and flow of traffic will connect two Trigrams and this may point to an advantageous or unbeneficial situation, relative to the function of a structure, be this a country, city, compound or a building. Correct direction and good flow of traffic are emperative, as the 9 Stars may be transported from one to another location.

Ecological requirements for a Feng Shui treasure site There are certain conditions to be met in constructing cities, according to master Cheng Jian Jun also referred to as Fēng Shuǐ Bǎodì de shēngtài tiáojiàn -

風水寶地的生態條件 , or ‘ecological requirements for a Feng Shui treasure site’. Bǎo Dì

-

Shēng Tài

-

De

-

Tiáo Jiàn

-

寶地 生態 的 條件

Treasure site. Ecology. Grammatical particle. Requirement, condition, term.

The next diagram shows the basic build up for a city. It includes generally accepted features, but most important for a Feng Shui designed city would be the two mountains shown. The mountain to the back shows the idea that at least some feature should be protecting a city. This could be a mountain, but it can also be some other type of elevation, as long as its magnitude sufficiently does the job. Protection could also come from a wall or a forest. Apart from protection, a mountain to the back of a city will emit Qi of Stars back to the city. To the Facing direction of a city should be a mountain also, small and fairly distanced. This mountain is called Zhao shan, or the Mirror Mountain, its function is to mirror the Sitting mountain and emit Qi back into the site so that it will not be lost. Mountains are not just to protect, but they have the property of collecting Qi and emitting Qi back to a dwelling. This is the difference between Feng Shui and mere architecture, it is the understanding of how our Universe functions.

Ecological system including: - Good sun light. - Good wind Qi coming in from the Facing side. - Water to the front of a site, slowly flowing and meandering. - Mountain to the back of a site to ward off cold winds, emit Sheng Qi. - Mountain beyond the water to hold Qi, prevent from being dissipated. - good alignment for drainage of water pollution. Try look at the structure of your own city.

Time chart and Earth chart

A city has no walls and roof and therefore it will not produce the Man Chart (Ren Pan), said differently, a city will have no Flying Star chart as it were a building. The Man Chart consists of Mountain-Time-Water Stars and is for built structures that have walls and a roof to contain Qi. In case of cities, the Time Star chart and the Earth Star chart apply. Perform a websearch and find a topographical map of your city and try superimpose the Time chart and the basic Luo Shu over the map. Look at the location and course of waterways and see where mountains are located. Highways can be regarded as waterways as they transport Qi. Select some of the historical events for your city and try to determine the relationship to Feng Shui, referring to the applicable Time and Earth chart. Most important is to note that a city has no specific physical center. Anything at all can be taken as the center, e.g. a governmental or financial building. Once you selected a building, you can of course produce the Man chart for this building and include this in your divination. Feng Shui cities are designed aroung the properties of Qi, more specifically on the knowledge of geomagnetism. Without the mountain to the back, a city would not just be unprotected, but it would leak Qi. A city requires this mountain to emit Qi back to the city so that it can benefit from Sheng Qi. We need to ensure therefore that the city actually receives a good Star from the direction of the mountain. Basically, San Yuan school of Feng Shui works from the twenty year Periods of the Nine Stars. It is understood, that in Feng Shui Period 8, the 8 Earth Star functions as Heaven Qi descending upon any built structure and this Qi becomes the prevalent Qi for the twenty year period, governing all other Stars and positioning their Qi into the eight directions. We would want to tap into this Qi by collecting it, but would like to benefit from it by retaining it for a dwelling. The mountain in the back collects this Heaven Qi and emits Qi back, to the benefit of the city. Once this Qi has been emitted back to the site, we do not want for it to be lost to the Facing side, so we would prefer a smaller mountain to the Facing side, which would again collect Qi and emit it back to the site. Heaven Qi will descend to a reference point, in this case a mountain. The mountain attracts, collects and accumulates Qi and emits Qi back to the site.

In order for Heaven Qi not to leak out, another mountain is required to emit Qi back into the site.

The ancients understood that Heaven Qi is pure always. They decided that, whenever Qi is to be considered unpure – perhaps malicious even – it must be therefore Earth Qi.

Based on gravity, energy will be pulled towards a point of reference. Beneficial Earth Qi will travel towards a geometric center also, but ancient masters identified malicious earth Qi and began to refer to it as 2 and 5. Here lies the basis for the Holy 0-Holy I technique in Feng Shui where it is understood that the Time chart 5 Earth Star should be stopped by a body of water before it surfaces and reaches the site. An exterior body of water into the direction of Time Star 5 can block the 5 Earth Star from reaching a site. This is then considered an invitation for wealth and prosperity. We need to look at the Time chart of a Feng Shui Period to locate the 5 Earth Star and have an exterior body of water into its direction. For Feng Shui Period 8, we find Star 5 in the Southwest, so we need to block Star 5 by installing a body of water, like a lake, to the Southwest. It is this understanding also, that had monks walk around a monastry, sounding bells or singing bowls. It was understood that evil Qi should be warded off with its counterpart Qi, rather than by physical objects. Qi resonates in a totally different frequency than any physical object does. Here, the combination of the sound of metal and moving metal could pacify the negative vibrations of 5 Earth, hence: Qi heals Qi. It is also the reasoning behind the continuous cleaning of floors in monastries, ashrams or dojos. This is also why the mere placement of metal objects to ward off the evil 5 Star is anything but practical, because its origin and force lie deep into the earth and the force of geomagnetism simply overrules the frequency of any physical object, however big. We need water into the direction of Time Star 5, so as to prevent this earth energy from surfacing. Installing any metal object, means the 5 Earth had already surfaced. Interior placements in order to ward off Time Star 5 are not only non-sensical, it would once more mean, the 5 has already entered the house. Water to ward off 5 Star of the Period chart needs to be taken to the exterior.

Qualities of a Fēng Shuǐ Xiān Shēng Feng Shui masters are sometimes referred to as Fēng Shuǐ Xiān Shēng – 先生 . A Fēng Shuǐ Xiān Shēng is able to find and recognize, select, diagnose and adjust Form and Qi wherever Form and Qi are encountered, in whatever shape or form, and however tangible or intangible. A most basic definition for Feng Shui is that it promotes Shēng Qì -

生氣 , while at

the same time it avoids Shā Qì - 殺氣 . The shortest possible definition for Feng Shui in my view will be then simply to say that it seeks to avoid Shāqì. A Fēng Shuǐ Xiān Shēng can read past, present and future Qi from any Time and Space aspect, be it a landscape, a plot of land, a built structure, a person’s face. Surely, their proficiency would have not been rooted in Feng Shui alone, as most of them would have been proficient also in cosmology, astronomy, astrology, face reading, medicine, politics, sciences, martial arts or whatever other systems needed to reach desired destiny in their clients. They would be scholars, trained in mathematics, physics, astronomy, cartography or geography and some masters devoted their time to Feng Shui after they had failed imperial exams, spending ample time training others to take exams. Having said that, we need to touch on what must have become probably the silliest – and in my estimation one of the most outrageous - of presumptions attached to the ancient Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng in our times, one also that was timely that we should strongly and firmly resist. It is the image of the ancient Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng being portrayed as having been some type of alternative, new age if you will – type of person, walking around longhaired and bare feet basing his observations on emotional and subjective perception and – using rituals and affirmations - basing his techniques on an otherwise highly developed skill to mold these subjectivities into whatever applicable technique. In our times there has been – however much we have meanwhile left it behind - a hype surrounding Feng Shui, based entirely on this type of assumptions, to the point even that the actual astronomical realities on which these masters based their formulae, have been pushed back entirely by the more modern outings, some of which have been pertinently wrongly presented as Feng Shui. As we trace back the origins of the traditional schools of Feng Shui, we cannot but conclude that many masters went separate paths and based their own interpretation on each others doctrines. But there is a problem with the modern Feng Shui hype. However two masters would perhaps differ in view and interpretation, their mutual reasoning would at least still be rooted in solid thinking, meaning that the grey area that would then emerge between two systems would still be verifiable. The grey area would still consist of solid Yin and Yang or Five Transformations considerations, and allow their respective schools to be compared or discussed against the Yì -

易

-, or Law of Change.

Today, even two interpretations of the same school seem to produce a grey area just as big as the many people involved in discussing this grey area. Meaning, it is not funny anymore how many interpretations of the same doctrine we have seen evolve in the last three decades, having said nothing still of the many alternative ideas produced in its grey area, and in itself this should at least raise some eyebrows.

No-one will deny that at a certain point in history some of the Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng would disconnect from the emperor to take their services to the benefit of some warlord. But, it does not mean that suddenly a windchime is to warn against intruders. Likewise, where his colleague chose to instead take his proficiency to a Daoist temple, it does not mean that a windchime is now suddenly used to appease the Gods, or that a windchime should not be touched in order not to aggrevate the Gods. The Feng Shui society has more or less grown into a crazy one, where it is often demonstrated that the one person in a group showing the greatest ability for affirmation or rendering the best demonstration for suggestive associations, becomes the teacher. I will give an example. Once during a Feng Shui pracitioner program in 1995, the last module included a practical tour at one of the student’s private homes. Having arrived at the top floor there was a room with slanted walls and a lot of overhanging beams. The roof construction was fully visible. The host then asked if she could at all use the space as a bedroom for her son. All agreed that this was a firm no-go and gave arguments and considerations, when suddenly somewhere from the back a voice said: “But don’t you all see? It is actually quite good. As the house is like a body, the beams are like a chest, a rib case, rendering support for the boy, so it is actually quite good as a bedroom”. Instead of disgust, the group responded in awe and within three months after this exclaimation the person was in front of a class teaching. Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng had been scholars, the Five Transformations having been based on sound observation of astronomical realities and geomagnetism. Some of the ancient Feng Shui masters had based their schools on astronomy, some of them had studied physics or had been mathematicians or were otherwise involved in sciences prevalent at the time. Some had based their formulae on the Yìjīng -

易經 - (Book of Changes), but least of all they would have been the hippies that they are sometimes portraited even today. The doctrine of the Five Transformations (Wǔxíng - 五行 ) bears no direct relation to the apparent sun path, or the seasons even, as the apparent sun path and thinking in seasons and seasonal change had come into play only much later after the masters found that farmers and commoners had a hard time understanding the vast astronomical implications of their systems and after they produced chewable analogies to educate the public. Today, however, it is hard if not impossible, to find a teacher or master that will not explain Wǔxíng along the lines of seasons, this link being circumstantial at best. Ancient cosmologies, astronomical insights and other exact sciences where at the base of these masters so much so, that I am convinced that would some of those ancient masters have lived today, they would have been Nobel Price winners. Besides technical skills, which would incorporate assessing Qi potential of a site in all its occurrences, also personal conduct and rules for etiquette would play a pivotal role in the life and work of the Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng. A good Feng Shui practitioner masters Time and Space as well as issues pertaining to the domain of Human Qi and destiny, offering his services to people of upright conduct and good intent only.

A good Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng not only makes the intangible tangible, he would demonstate profound cosmological awareness and select the right clients and students. To give you a non conclusive idea, a good Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng was supposed to be: - able to recognize Shengqi and Shaqi in any (in)visible phenomenon or circumstance. - able to reveal past, present and future events by examining a situation. - able to locate the Four Celestial Animals (Ming Tang) in any given situation. - able to work with a magnetic compass. - able to find correct twenty years Feng Shui Period or work from other time doctrines. - able to find the Qi collecting spot for Yin Zhai en Yang Zhai situations. - able to fly the Stars appropriately along the Luo Shu for any time period. - able to interpret a Flying Star chart projected on any of the nine Periods. - able to ascertain good Feng Shui for at least three consecutive Periods. - able to apply the Holy 0 and Holy I principles. - able to apply special charts having originated from one's own school. - able to recognize special charts having originated from other schools. - able to manipulate – present or absent - mountain and water, change the course of Mountain and Water using different Water and Mountain Dragon formulae. - able to recognize portents of Qi and its probabilities for events as mirrored against timeliness and surrounding landforms as well as assess quantity, quality, frequency, intensity, potency, volume, location, direction, temperature, moisture of Qi, context and probability (proportion). - able to mould Qi and change perceived future undesirable portents into favorable events. - able to simultaneously apply San Cai techniques (Heaven, Man and Earth). - able to draw an astrological chart for client and compare it against Feng Shui. - able to read into a Hexagram obtained from a question or situation. - able to recognize problems outside astrology and Feng Shui in order to help. - able to recognize other Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng. - able to recognize future Fēngshuǐ Xiānshēng (able to select the right student). - able to work efficiently and effectively, but from compassion and ethics.

How to become a diviner As you can see there is much more to Feng Shui than just assessing environmental features, diagnosing and adjusting a built structure, or juggling with Mountain and Water Dragons. Once you have established the Feng Shui situation of a structure, try to detect the Qi flow by means of your own physical and spiritual awareness. Develop your skills for transparant observation of the material world and look upon your living or working space and your body as being one organism, resonating with the Qi currents of earth and nature. Consider the eight 45 degrees sectors with their auspiciousness and inauspiciousness and 'massage' your way through your house, just as you would touch a loved one. Try to assess the quality of both tangible and intangible Qi, through physical awareness of Qi becoming aware of the external and internal environment - and realize that the barrier between the physical world and the spiritual world is nonexistent and illussionary. It is only natural that at the start of your dealings with Luo Shu, the Luo Shu may appear to you as a two dimensional pattern of yet ‘empty’ Stars and it is therefore only natural that your understanding of the Luo Shu – and its intrisic values – remains technical and intellectual during the cause of this stage. Even in case where most students will eventually accept that Stars are codifications for yet deeper archetypical properties, there is a stage where one can be easily captured by mere conceptual understanding and square applications. It is the stage of copying and parroting. It is easy – and only tempting - to move away from the basic Yin and Yang doctrine, the Five Transformations, the Yi Jing in an assumption that these are no more than the necessary tools to shoot ourselves into much more interesting studies and applications as in Feng Shui, Nine Star Ki, Four Pillars of Destiny. Many are tempted into their own professional Feng Shui practices fairly quickly. They may soon find themselves trapped. Our highly specialized society promotes that we focus ourselves on just one single profession which must provide for our economical needs and if this occupation happens to be Feng Shui it is easy to overlook the dietary principles, the exercise component, the breathing component, the health component, the cosmological pearls and the implications for our destiny or our incarnation. Teachers tend to not teach these aspects anymore and our clients will certainly not know how to ask about them. The first steps on the Feng Shui journey would be to adopt what we learned and perhaps copy techniques and follow a fairly analytical approach to Time and Space. This is only natural and a phase that all of us need to go through. If you are just slightly interested in Feng Shui or you are content with already a working knowledge of the basic applications, it is fine to remain in this domain and enjoy. However, in order to become a good diviner, you must dissapear. It means you can hold no position when you are gazing at the Luo Shu or the Stars, you can have no preference or pre-conceived ideas. You need to give up position and all preference. If you conduct a compass reading, you must be not present, i.e. you must have the magnetic needle tell you instead. It will tell you the story, once you let it. Gazing at

a Flying Star chart, you must dissapear also and have the Stars tell you their story, rather than projecting all that you seem to have learned on the subject of Qi and impose your expectations on the chart. As a diviner you will have therefore established this: “Take two steps back, to take in no position and have no preference”. In so doing, you may allow a more intuitive understanding of Qi patterns, still based on sound observation, so using your mind and its discriminative abilities, but your mind not forming a barrier any longer between you and what the Stars reveal. Also, it is very easy not to notice that I have just used the term ‘intuition’, or even if you did notice, it is quite difficult to understand that intuition is not sentimental. A lot of the claimed intuition in people may be coming under wishful thinking. Rather, true natural intuition is purely physical and to be obtained after you never told a lie – so-called white lies not excluded – never become angry, apart from spiritual anger, never give in to temptation, gained capacity to foretell not just danger but be able to tell from out of which direction this danger will arrive, into what direction to then flee as well as the time frame left to evacuate. True intuition means you have the ability to ‘sonar’ right through people, establishing the ability to select the right partner, the right Life Dream, while women must be able to feel ovulation or when pregnant, they must be able to tell gender of the baby. This description is not conclusive, its function merely being to at least focus your attention away from what seems to have become the generally accepted view on what intuition pertains to. It is only paradoxal how you will build a dynamic and profound relationship between yourself and the Stars, not so much as through knowledge, but by retreating.

Lǐ – Principle 理 Li points to the Pattern School. Seeing the patterns, the everchanging portents of interrelating landforms, is your first technical encounter with divination. It is merely the underlying principles of events surfacing and occuring before you.

Diving deep

To become more versed and to build your divinatory skills, you must drop your mere intellectual or conceptual understanding of Qi and its patterns, just as you can’t look at your partner just from a physical or conceptual point of view. In order to understand your partner, and love your partner even more, you must use your ability to surrender. Surrender and amazement will lead you deeper into your partner’s destiny. It is the same with your divinatory skills, where you need to drop the idea that there is a barrier between the visible and invisible world.

Physical awareness

In this stage you are already able to ‘see’ the Qi movements as they occur around you. You are able to translate Qi into events and to translate events back into Qi. In this phase you will have built on a much more physical, rather than conceptual, relationship with the 9 Stars and emerging from this will come a new understanding of Qi, Yin and Yang, the Five Transformations, the Trigrams, as you can well descern these in the environmental energy. However, this stage is the most ‘dangerous’, in that it may very well still keep you locked in the horizontal plane. It means, your physical awareness (‘radar’) may still be circumstancial and momentary. You may be still tapping into dualism and engaging yourself in 'Qihijacking'.

Channeling

Point of no return. Gazing at the Luo Shu from an ability to observe environmental occurences, events, may already lead you towards proficiency in divination. There is a phase of channeling where the ancient masters would simply receive cosmic knowledge. It can be debated whether Lao Zi (the Dao De Jing is accredited to Lao Zi) wrote or ‘received’ the Dao De Jing. Forget about the Luo Shu for now, because it will only shoot you in your intellectual powers and lock you up in the world of concept. Don’t take in position and loose your preference. In doing so you will only gradually loose your fragmentaric thinking and you will no longer rely on mechanical or conceptual technique. In other words, take two steps back to take in no position and have no preference and simply become an integral part of what is the actual dynamic behind enlightment, divinatory skills or being able to channel information. Enlightment comes from your personal attunement to sun and earth magnetism, the forces that prevail in our cosmos at any given time. It is a matter of actively bringing your personal magnetism, your own Qi resonance, in accordance with the prevalent environmental Qi. As shown before, the tool is your blood, as it functions as an antenna and a mediator between the forces of Heaven (Yang) and Earth (Yin). Look at today’s diet and reflect on the diet of the ancients. They did not eat sugar, had no access to food other than from their immediate geographic region, did not – apart from certain natural techniques like salting the food (pickle) - have the ability to eat food that was out of season and they had no laboratories to take a perfectly natural food source and criple it into a highly dangerous chemical, synthetic, substance. There was no food technology, no microwave. The things we do to food in modern civilization are catastrophic. The vast majority of people today scratch the back of their heads while they read the news and see how people murder their partners, how parents murder their children, how airplanes fly into buildings, how soldiers go far beyond what they were set out to do and murder and rape, how children are becoming murderers at an ever earlier age and take rifles into class rooms to shoot whatever they encounter. Ask yourself the question what these people eat, how their food was being manipulated in laboratories and factories, and then ask yourself the question in what way your own food intake has at all been different from theirs. Take two steps back to take in no position and notice how this type of behavior started and prevails in the most industrialized countries. Also note how people perhaps once still thought how this type of behavior would be restricted to certain specific regions – for example - the US of America and how they believed it was just symptomatous for that region. Years ago I told my students that, no, this dynamic would not limit itself to certain geographic regions, but as food becomes more technological and with the global spreading of this food, this type of behavior will become the trend as it will spread over all continents. Human kind can do a lot, but changing the structure of food will not be without grave consequences that may still be beyond our imagination today. As shown in the chapter on Precession Cycle and extended to the belief that the next Earth Changes will be caused by fire, this catastrophy may not happen overnight. This ‘Fire’ will be slow fire, the slowness it takes to use fire to alter food – work on it genetically, include DNA of one species in the food of another species, the use of microwaves and other techniques to kill food Qi, the aggressive use of preservatives.

To take your involvement in studies like Feng Shui, Nine Star Ki and Four Pillars of Destiny far beyond your intellectual powers, you should understand the much forgotten link between food intake and destiny. Destiny here reaching far beyond your personal destiny, but touching upon our planetary destination, the regeneration or degeneration of human kind. Diet, exercise, breathing and selfreflection should therefore be at the base of studies for anyone who wishes to understand our Qi studies to their utmost. The trend is to seek enlighhtment. We go to Japan and see practitioners of Zen meditation. We then copy what we think lead to their salvation and so we start sitting on a cushion for hours a day, adopting physical postures and breathing techniques. A person who sat for a couple of years, will then soon lead a group of new seekers, forcing them into the same postures, the same breathing. The person who can maintain these postures the longest, perciflages the apparent lives of monks the best, has the best recollection of scriptures, that person will become the next teacher. Students will of course deeply concentrate on the copying of this new teachers' behavior, so they are sure they themselves will become good teachers and eventually these people will sit themselves in front of their own group of new seekers that will be then once more invited to go the same process. Enlightment will however never come, because we focused on what appeared to have happened in the dojo of the Zen temple, completely overlooking what happens in the kitchen of these temples. We should have copied the diet. In direct accordance with your true understanding of how your personal Qi magnetism simply had to be the missing link, your attempts to sustain your personal Qi resonance through diet, exercise, breathing (i.e. chewing each bite thoroughly) and selfreflection, will be most rewarding and will certainly come with a much deeper skill for divination. If you want to understand Shao Yong, then eat what Shao Yong had for a diet. If you want to write your own Dao De Jing, so to speak, study the diet of Laozi.

The Five Sacred Mountains - Wǔyuè The Five Sacred Mountains since antiquity host the Daoist Mountain Gods – Shānshén. Each mountain hosts a different God that will be honored and worshipped, even by the Chinese emperors who on their imperial pilgrimages used to visit the mountains to pay their respect to the Gods, just like anyone. The Five Sacred Mountains are: Dōng Yuè Tài Shān

- East Peak Mount Tài Shān Shāndōng province (1532 m).

Xī Yuè Huà Shān

- West Peak Mount Huà Shān Shǎnxī province (1997 m).

Nán Yuè Héng Shān

- South Peak Mount Héng Shān Húnán province (1512 m).

Běi Yuè Héng Shān

- North Peak Mount Héng Shān Héběi and Shānxī province (2017 m).

Zhōng Yuè Sóng Shān

- Central Peak Mount Sōng Shān Hénán province (1440 m).

The mountains are attributed to be sacred, largely because of their magnitude and size, as they hold commanding elevations above surrounding lands. From a perspective of Five Transformations it is interesting to note that the Five Sacred Mountains are geographically located in the East, South, West, North and in the center in case of the Sōngshān mountain in Hénán province. Of the five, Mount Tài earned its position as the most esteemed because it is said that for over 3000 years, 72 Chinese emperors of various dynasties had undertaken pilgrimages to perform grand sacrificial ceremonies in their own worship of Heaven. Most feudal emperors were either Buddhists or Daoists and went through great lengths to visit the Sacred Mountains to offer sacrifice to their ancestors. For this reason and for reason that most prominent religious sites in China are hosted here, these mountains are important. Some emperors, such as emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty and emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty planted trees on the mountain which is known for its many water streams hosting an abundance of fish, rich vegetation and medicinal plants. Even Confucius, who lived nearby mount Tai Shan in the village of Qufu, has left inscriptions in the form of prose and calligraphy on the mountain. Emperors, kings, scholars, celebrities and governmental officials left cultural relics like memorial objects, stone sculptures and mount Tai Shan hosts many archaeolgical sites, 22 temples, many ruins and artistic masterpieces, all planned in harmony with the natural surroundings and in line with Feng Shui principles. Mount Tai Shan is a good example how these mountains became huge and complicated complexes, rather than just mountains. They hold geological relevance and great cultural, historical and botanical significance. However, because they are also regarded for their scenic beauty and have been declared historic interest zones, through time the Five Sacred Mountains also became tourist attractions where people visit them just for leisure, sometimes

between 300,000 and 500,000 annually. The mountains will therefore host facilities like shops, restaurants and even offer overnight stay.

Like the other Sacred Mountains, Mount Tai is regarded a protected national park and known for its many relics (Heavenly Queen Pond - Wángmù Chí, Red Gate Palace - Hóngmén Gōng, South Gate to Heaven - Nántiān mén and the Azure Cloud Ancestral Temple - Bìxiá Cí).

Huángshān - 黃山 Not one of the Five Holy Mountains, but still regarded as one of the most important mountains in China is Huángshān - 黃山 - mountain in Anhui near the East China sea - Dōng Hǎi. It is known as ‘The Loveliest Mountain of China’ and is subject of many poems and calligraphies. It is made of granite peaks and rocks and often covered in Dragon’s Breath. Its forests – with trees more than a thousand years old and tea plantations in its buffer - host Buddhist monastries with a thousand years of history and a number of other temples and places for worship. Its main peak ‘Lotus Flower’ at 1864 m, this drawing shows the lay-out of Mount Huang Shan, with its paved roads and stairways one of China’s natural monuments and consisting of a hundred peaks dating back more than a 100 million years back. Oddly shaped rocks are often individually named, like ‘Pig headed monk eating water melon’ and the mountain is covered with waterfalls, lakes, hot springs. Elderly people will go on a pelgrimage and walk the mountain by foot. They will take a few steps, then halt to kneel and bow and continue another few steps and kneel and bow once more and repeat this until they finally reached the mountain top where it is believed the God lives. They will do so to honor the God, for penance or just in search for some fortune. The God, honored and worshipped, will then grant forgiveness or happiness and richess onto the worshipper. Holy Pond Holy Pond

The title of this map reads (top right) Tiān Mù Shān Jǐng Diǎn Fēn Bù Shì Yì Tú, which loosely translates to ‘Heaven’s Eye Scetch Map for Distribution of Scenic Spots and Mountain Scenery’. It shows complexity of access routes: Toll-booth Bus routes Minor paths Steps, stairs Administration

Toll-booth

www.cntms.org/lm/tmsjs4.ht m Tollbooth

www.cntms.org/lm/tmsjs4.

South Main Gate

Scenic resources being graded on a scale of 1-3, each grade having its own set of conservation regulations, the well protected property is divided into 6 tourist zones and 5 protection zones. Hunting, grazing, constructions or mining are prohibited. Huang Shan means Yellow Mountain, although the hilly yellow remains below 800 meters, above which the color changes to hilly brown.

Its steps – carefully cut into the mountains and totalling 50 kilometers in length – connecting the public to the main scenic spots and the mountain’s 64 temples, two lakes, three waterfalls and 24 streams while on holidays and festivals visited by

ordinary people from within mainland China and from overseas to perform Buddhist or Daoist rites, for example in honor of Guānyīn - Goddess of Mercy. Most of the Sacred Mountains have Feng Shui significance. The main gate will be called Southern Big Gate, Nán Dàmén, by definition South Facing and sometimes referred to as the Gate of Heaven, as will the entrances of significant buildings of worship. As in all Form School, gates and buildings will Face South, although I have seen temples and monastries in Taiwan and mainland China who were North Facing, probably in order for them to tap into more quiet and pacifying religious energies, or perhaps for no specific Feng Shui reason at all. Inside the buildings you will find sanctuaries, thrones, seats all Facing South,. Mountains this huge and complex are not altogether fit for Yangzhai, dwellings for people to live and thrive, as their function should be viewed from a much wider topographical perspective and from their contribution to the entire country. Most of these mountains belong to a family of mountain ranges. They are further unfit to live on as they oftentimes contain too much minerals, their soil too acid and their flora and fauna unfit to develop villages. These mountains still host wild animals and many protected botanical species, amongst which are many rare and medicinal species. However, if you look at the shape of these mountains, refer to the diagram of Mount Huangshan, the Dragon’s body is easily descernable as are the Dragon Veins. These mountains are so huge that they would render support to large geographical regions, bringing in Dragon Qi, Lóng Qì - from afar.

Heluo’s website www.heluo.nl You will find class schedule, more extensive articles, book list, links, testimonials. Heluo’s Nine Star Ki group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NineStarKi Click ‘Join Group’ and be welcome to the first ever Nine Star Ki forum on www. Contact Heluo [email protected] Do the math and join 4-day master classes with Heluo We invite you to join our 4-day master classes in Classical Chinese Feng Shui, Four Pillars of Destiny and Nine Star Ki. Classes are intensive, with solid curriculum. You may have even considered joining classes with Heluo in the Netherlands, but since you are not in the Netherlands, you may be backing away from the very idea. We know this, since we have been in communication with foreign students all along and have welcomed them in class all the time. Time and money are always major considerations and besides paying high class fees, most hotel prices can be quite intimidating. Not here - we made particularily sure – so we know that you will find your decision to join us actually an easy one. Just follow our considerations here. First, as we have been teaching in a One Module Only style, you will not be required to return to class a number of times in order to obtain the teaching as our quite intensive 4-day master classes and the belonging workbooks particularily aim at your being able to independently apply the teachings to your own life or to the benefit of others. Our workbooks alone will keep you busy for a number of years. Simply, if you do some www browsing and take time to do the math, chances are that - even in case you were to travel to the Netherlands in order to join class your total expenses would be matching or come out to be even less than with any program in your own country, so that nothing will keep you from your adventure. All this because we feel quite strong about you only being worried with profound studies and enjoying your stay, so all we do has been literally arranged around this as you will find that we have been keeping class fees to quite a reasonable level and we have selected only affordable hotels and B&B (too expensive equals: they’re out). In fact, you will find that most hotels would easily charge prices per night against which you will be actually accommodated with us for your entire stay. That is how we meet you half way, the rest is a matter of you packing your bags and move here to acquire skill and find just solid - cold soil- class in honest atmosphere. Your workbooks are currently anywhere between 407 and 650 pages and growing. Apart from classes in the Netherlands, Heluo teaches in your country upon your invitation. We have instructed students in Brazil, Canada, China, Greece, Hong Kong, Poland, Portugal, Russia and United Kingdom. Please contact our office with any of your questions or suggestions or to help you do the math and make the trip. Four Pillars and Feng Shui software http://www.fourpillars.net/fpfs.php We would like to direct you to this magnificent Four Pillars program. Apart from Four Pillars it also includes a complete Nine Star Ki program (with directionology) as well as Feng Shui and Yi Jing. Soon also: Wen Wang Gua. Free trial download. Day Stars http://www.geocities.com/ninestarki / www.astro-fengshui.com We recommend ebook “Nine Star Ki and Nine Stars Calendar” by master Joseph Yu. Make sure you also join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/astrofengshui / http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chineseastrology

The articles series “Explorations with Heluo” is kindly brought to you by

Heluo Qi Explorations / Hèluò Qìxué

賀洛氣學

Center For Time, Space And Destiny Studies – Course Guidance – Existential Coaching. Established 1979.

Website: http://www.heluo.nl Office: [email protected]

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Any article appearing in the “Explorations with Heluo” series may be freely spread amongst your community – its copyright removed - , provided you leave it entirely in tact and it is published in one piece. Equally unaltered, the articles may be translated/published in your language. Translators may request to be sent the articles in their more convenient original Word format. HELUO’s MISSION

“Devoted To Your Destiny In One Peaceful World” - Harvest For All “Explorations with Heluo” is an ongoing series of articles on the subject of time, space and destiny and our attempt to make genuine teachings available to those on a quest to understand Yi. The articles have been published since 1999 and by far most have been derived from actual chapters from the extensive workbooks to our 4-day master classes in our practitioner program “Destiny Consultant”. Teachings find you, because I feel they should have reached us during early childhood, to offer deep gratitude for once having obtained the trust of my teachers and in an attempt to help improve fate and life on this planet. - Heluo -