~by Angi Ma Wong

Feng shui – literally, "wind-water" in Chinese – has become one of the hottest design trends and conversation topics going around.

But while feng shui is suddenly in vogue, it is nothing new. Its history began in the fourth century B.C. when the Chinese invented the compass. During the following century, they began using the device to aid in the proper placement of grave and home sites.

Finding the optimum final resting place for ancestors was to ensure health, harmony and prosperity for their descendants, because we are all connected by cosmic, universal energy – called "chi."

Today there are as many forms of feng shui as there are practitioners. These are the three main "schools" of feng shui:

Form School
This school of feng shui began in southern China. It is based on looking at and evaluating land forms, waterways and geography.

Compass School
The absence of geographical and geological features and the relative flat topography of northern China necessitated the development of the Compass School, which dominates throughout most of the world. This is the traditional, classical feng shui practice which uses either a Chinese (luo pan) or Western-style compass to determine the eight compass directions in a room, office or home. Because those directions govern various aspects of your life, you place the corresponding colors, animal symbols, numbers and elements in the areas that you wish to activate.

Black Sect Tantric Tibetan School
In this school, which has gained popularity in the United States, you disregard compass directions. Instead, you stand at and use the entrance of the room, house or office as your main reference point. Then you place objects and other enhancements according to what you aspire to and wish to accomplish.

Basics
Want to make your home feng shui-friendly, but don't know where to start? Here are the basics.

Regardless of the school you choose, feng shui is based on these fundamental concepts:

• Flow of energyL
• Balance of yin and yang
• Interaction of the five elements

A classic feng shui site, located halfway up a hill, sheltered on three sides with a wide view in front – preferably of water.

Avoid sharp, straight edges to keep energy flowing
In nature, we find perfectly straight lines in only very short segments, as in the canes of sugar and bamboo. Even the tallest redwoods and pines have irregularities. It is a natural law that energy flows in wavy lines like the breezes, mountain ranges and streams. In the land, chi moves in dragon lines along the topography; in people, its paths are called meridians. This undulating flow is beneficial and natural.

Freeways, tunnels, bridges, buildings, corners of building and lampposts have straight edges, which are considered conduits of negative energy – called sha ch'i or "killing energy."

In feng shui, such are to be avoided.

Balance the "yin" and the "yang"
The duality of the universe and the world around us is expressed in the "tai chi," a circle created by a light and a dark droplet, positioned end to end. "Yin" is the female: soft, passive, nurturing, fluid, even numbers and the right side.

"Yang" is male: bright, hard, active, aggressive, odd numbers and the left side.

Notice that in each half, there is the presence of its complement, in the form of a dot. This has been accepted for several thousand years in Chinese philosophy, but the acknowledgment that every male has a feminine aspect, and every female has a male side, is new to the Western mind and medicine.

Together, yin and yang comprise a whole, and yet there is an element of each in the other.

But sometimes we have too much yang, and other times, we have too much yin. It is up to us to find and maintain the balance between the two in our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual and intellectual selves. Achieving this balance helps us become grounded or centered, much like a rock that is pounded by the elements and still remains unyielding.

Use the elements in generative ways
Each of the five elements – fire, earth, metal, water and wood – relates to the other in two different ways.

• The first relationship is generative or creative. For example, water nourishes wood, wood makes fire, fire creates earth (as in volcanoes), earth creates metal, metal creates water.
• The second relationship shows how each can be overcome or destroyed by the other. That is, water puts out fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood, wood displaces earth, earth dams water.