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The Five Feng Shui Elements and Their Interaction

By James Brickman

The five feng shui elements (also referred to as keys) are the basis of this teaching. These primary keys are: earth, metal, water, wood and fire. The golden rule of feng shui is to achieve harmony and balance between these five keys through adjusting the space in which we live.

When the five elements are properly balanced both, indoors and outdoors, the person can expect to gain numerous benefits. These include health, wealth, abundance, and improved interpersonal relationships. Ultimately, this leads to happiness in life. If the elements are, on the contrary, in chaos and imbalance, a person may find themselves experiencing all sorts of issues, including missed opportunities, hindered interpersonal relationships, declining health, and financial hardships. In other words, it’s unhappiness.

So, let’s talk about the five feng shui elements, learn their symbols, and see how they may interact with each other (both, positively and negatively).

The keys can interact with each other in one of the three cycles: enhancing, weakening, and controlling. Some of these cycles are positive, while others are negative. Let’s take a look at the cycles:

The Enhancing Cycle: This is the most positive cycle where all of the five elements are in harmony, which results in happiness, health, and abundance. Here are the steps of this cycle: wood boosts fire, fire boosts earth, earth boosts metal, metal boosts water, and water boosts wood.

The Controlling Cycle: This is the worst cycle where all of the elements are in chaos, and clash with one another. Here are the steps of this cycle: wood controls earth, fire controls metal, earth controls water, metal controls wood, and water controls fire.

The Weakening Cycle: This is a specific cycle that is neither positive nor negative. It’s a tool that can be used to eliminate negative energy. However, if it’s used improperly it can drain the positive energy. Thus, its use requires skills and knowledge. Here are the steps of this cycle: fire weakens wood, earth weakens fire, metal weakens earth, water weakens metal, and wood weakens water.

In order to be able to match the elements into balanced and harmonious energies, we need to know the symbols, shapes, and colors of the five feng shui elements. Here they are:

Water (symbols): glass, mirrors, stained glass, crystal, aquariums, marine landscapes, roads, lakes, and waterfalls. Shapes: serpentine and wavy. Colors: blue and black.

Wood (symbols): flowers, plants, trees, wood furniture, woodcrafts, wicker chairs, rattan mats, cloth, paper, and paintings depicting nature. Shapes: cylindrical and rectangular. Color: green.

Fire (symbols): candles, lamps, incense, heating appliances, fireplaces, stoves, sun, animals, birds, children, wool, leather goods, articles made of feathers; paintings depicting fire, sunrise, and sunset; paintings depicting people and animals. Shapes: triangular and sharp edges. Color: red.

Earth (symbols): ceramics, bricks, crystal, porcelain, glazed tiles, stones, sculptures, globes, and pictures depicting terrestrial landscapes (mountains, cliffs, and desert). Shape: square. Colors: terracotta and ocher.

Metal (symbols): metal objects, bells, coins, swords, jewelry made of precious metals, and the pictures of metal objects. Shapes: oval and round. Colors: white, silver and gold.

As you can see, there is a lot that can be learned in order to harmonize the five feng shui elements, and balance your surroundings in the physical world. Balance your life, and you may become happier.

About the Author: James Brickman runs http://www.fengshuicrazy.com which teaches the ancient art of feng shui. Please visit his website to learn more about the five feng shui elements.

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Understanding The Five Elements Of Feng Shui

By Tom Dugan

When talking about this ancient art and science, there is usually mention of the five elements of feng shui. Just what are these, and how are they applied? This article will give you a very simple crash course on both these questions.

The Five Elements of Feng Shui Outlined

Fire, earth, metal, water, and wood are the five elements of feng shui. You will notice that these are all natural elements as well. All of these together form a circle of either construction or destruction, as follows:

Construction: Wood creates fire; energy from fire (such as the sun) is needed to feed the earth; metal is borne from the earth; water can be pulled from the elements that make up metal; water feeds the wood.

Destruction: Fire destroys metal; metal (such as an axe blade or other instrument) destroys wood; trees or wood feed from the earth; dirt from the earth absorbs water; of course, water destroys fire.

How the Five Elements of Feng Shui Harmonize

The underlying principle of feng shui is that there needs to be harmony and balance; having too much of any one element in your home or in a particular room is counterproductive and can be overwhelming. Most rooms will have one dominant quality of the five elements of feng shui and need another element to bring in some balance. For example, think of an all-white bathroom. White is clean and pure and represents water. However, when a room, even a bathroom, is completely white, it can feel cold and sterile. By introducing another one of the five elements of feng shui, such as earth, this can tone down that sterile feeling. Towels, artwork, and other items that are a warm brown can do the trick. Or, imagine a living room that is all brown, which is a strong earth tone. You can feel closed in or overwhelmed, as this is a warm color but one that easily smothers you. Another one of the five elements of feng shui, such as fire, can do the trick. Red accents such as pillows or afghans can brighten up the warm brown.

You can apply the principle of balancing the five elements of feng shui in virtually every aspect of your life. For example, maybe your personality is strong and fiery. This can be a good thing, but too much of a strong personality can easily overwhelm people. A campfire is good, but a forest fire is bad. So, consider what you can do to tone down your personality a bit. Think of the earth as being warm and nurturing; your personality can have some warm and nurturing sides to it as well to make you a more balanced and harmonious person.

There are really no right or wrong answers when it comes to applying the five elements of feng shui to any room of your home or part of your life. You simply need to remember how these elements are meant to harmonize and balance one another, and try to imitate those fine qualities as much as possible.

About the Author: Tom owns Feng Shui Report which gives tips and advice on using Feng Shui in your home

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=246483&ca=Home+Management

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Achieve A Balance – Feng Shui All The Way

By Tim Lapkovski

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese belief that involves studying natural and the built environments. The arrangements of these objects affect the yin and the yang, as well as the energy of a room. Feng Shui has developed into many different versions based on religion, geography, symbolism and culture. One commonality of all Feng Shui practitioners, Of course, is the belief in energy. Different schools of Feng Shui have progressed into seven different forms.

1. The Compass School

The first school of thought is the Compass school. The compass school uses 8 trigrams of the I-Ching. These 8 trigrams are known collectively as Pa Kua, that is based on the eight main directions of a compass. Each of these directions is associated with a specific chi. A southern direction, for example, is vibrant energy and is associated with the middle of the summer.

2. Eight Mansion School

Another school is the Eight Mansion School, also known as the Eight House Feng Shui. This school of thought is based on the individual number of a person. The number of the man living in the home is used to bring harmony and balance to the home. Furthermore, people using this system have both lucky and unlucky numbers, with the west numbers being 2, 6, 7, and 8 and the east numbers being 1, 3, 4, and 9.

3. Form School

The Form school of thought is based on the landscapes shape and uses four symbolic animals. These animals are used to identify the type of landscape. The Form school is easy to use along with the Compass school to increase chi both in and out of the home.

4. Black Hat Sect

The Black Hat Sect is another school of thought. The Black Hat Sect used a fixed entry point for determination of the life areas. It is similar in philosophy to the Compass school, but the areas are different. In addition, the Black Hat Sect mixes psychology, Buddhism and basic design principles, as well.

5. Nine Star Key School

Another school is the Nine Star Key School. This form used stars to help identify lucky and unlucky days. Using complicated math formulas, this school can pinpoint when a person will get married and the astrological sign of the person to be married to. This form is very inflexible and is based purely on science. The Nine Star Key will also tell the practitioner what house he lives in and makes suggestions on how to live based on the house.

6. Flying Star School

The Flying Star philosophy is the most common Asian form of Feng Shui and is based on astrology and numerology. This form is difficult to understand and to learn. It, too, is based on mathematical principals and is used to determine a persons fate.

7. Four Pillars School

The final school of thought is the Four Pillars. This form is not very common and is based on astrology according to the persons date of birth, right down to the minutes. This form is also used to determine a persons fate.

8. The Five Elements

After determining that school of thought is best for an individual, it is important to also understand each element. These five elements are: Earth, Fire, Water, Metal, and Wood. The elements are capable of destroying each others energies and forming a continual cycle. Through the use of these elements, balance and harmony can be created in a home. If these elements are used incorrectly, Of course, the energy can be destroyed or lessened.

Each of the five elements is also associated with a color, direction, and number.

Earth (Brown/Beige) – 2,5,8 – Southwest

Fire (Red/Purple)