Sunday, September 28, 1997

Feng Shui seeks harmony of elements

By BRIAN BETHEL / Staff Writer

Its name means "gentle wind and flowing water."

For 3,000 years, its practice has aided the lives of Eastern kings and commoners.

And now, it has come home to your living room. Or your office. Or anywhere you live, work or play.

Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese study of how to dwell in harmony with natural elements, is catching on nationally in a big way -- and Abilene is no exception.

With bookstores stocking up on titles devoted to the topic, information exploding on the World Wide Web and even a genuine Feng Shui consultant in town, the ancient art is moving rapidly into public notice.

"I think there's a growing awareness about it," said Gary Walker, book manager at Hastings, which stocks numerous titles on the whys and hows of Feng Shui. "I don't know that there's an intense demand, but I do think it will continue to gain awareness around the country."

Walker said it was evident publishers saw an interest in the discipline, hence the increasing number of books available on the topic.

THE BASICS

Originally the providence of emperors planning their kingdom, the discipline has now come to be applied to any home or business.

The principles composing Fen Shui (pronounced "fung shway") are simple:

-- There are five elements: water, fire, wood, metal and earth. This is the foundation of Feng Shui's philosophy of balance.

-- Everything is alive. Your home, for example, is a living entity, with the house itself considered the body, those who dwell within the organs.

-- A vital, living energy flows through your environment called "Chi," which translates as "God's Breath." It is in all things.

-- A free flow of Chi energy, created by a balance of the five vital elements, is essential to harmony in one's household. Thus, it becomes essential to consider everything in one's environment to create that balance.

An important component is making certain you are living with things that you love in your surroundings, said Maxine Cockrell, a local Feng Shui consultant.

Although this sounds like common sense, lots of us keep things we don't really want, especially gifts.

"It's a really neat way to learn how to consider the things around you and how they influence you," she said. "Basically, what it's about is changing your environment, your home and your workplace to improve your quality of life."

THE FLOW

Central to Feng Shui is the Bagua map. Each home or workspace has eight different areas corresponding to areas of the owner's life, defined by symbols from the I-Ching, the Chinese method of divination.

Although the map is designed on a square grid, most homes are not square. Thus, one of the first and most important things to do in Feng Shui is to determine if your home or office space is "missing a corner."

"If you are missing a corner, then you can correct it by marking that corner with an appropriate symbol or object," Cockrell said. "That helps the Chi flow."

Chi energy flows clockwise, so you need a square perimeter to make it move properly around your chosen space.

"There are a lot of ways to do that," Cockrell said. "You can use fencing or shrubbery or bird feeders or any of a number of methods."

The eight areas govern career, knowledge and self-cultivation, health and family, wealth and prosperity, fame and reputation, love and marriage, creativity and children and helpful people and travel

At the center is the earth element, which has no corresponding symbol. Each section has an associated element and colors that go along with it. For example, the knowledge and self-cultivation area, located in the front left of a particular property, is associated with mountains and black, blue and green shades. It is also considered part of the "entrance quadrant" on the Bagua map.

The center, or earth, area is associated with yellows and earth tones.

Certain objects and animals are associated with various elements -- too many to go into here.

But by placing items in a room, such as using mirrors for the water element or animal figures to represent fire, you can balance out all of the room's elements to let Chi flow freely.

Long hallways should have windchimes or similar items to help slow the flow of Chi, which is considered to "speed up" and become potentially harmful.

Places where many doors meet should have round, ornamental crystals hung to help scatter and direct the energy.

In windows that receive lots of sunlight, the same crystals make excellent Chi enhancers because of the uplifting rainbows they produce.

Clutter is generally not considered good in Feng Shui, but it depends on the type of clutter as to whether or not that holds ultimately true, Cockrell said.

"There's active clutter, which will be removed soon, and then there's passive clutter, which can stay for months or even years," she said. "Passive clutter is not good. Active clutter? You don't really need to worry that much about it."

THE BUSINESS

Naturally, as in any art, some money can be made from Feng Shui. Cockrell has so far done consulting for more than 50 homes and businesses, mostly homes.

She charges $75 an hour for homes, $100 an hour for businesses.

"I would really like to get more into consulting for offices and businesses," she said. "In a way, those are places we really kind of abuse ourselves. There's nothing on the walls, no plants to nurture."

Since we're in our offices more than in our homes, we should naturally want to fix their Chi flow, too, she said.

Donald Trump is a big proponent of Feng Shui and is one of the movement's biggest supporters, Cockrell said. All his major constructions are now designed with the movement's principles.

Cockrell got her own start in the discipline by reading a magazinee article. From there, she got books through inter-library loan, then eventually bought them at the bookstore.

She was so impressed with one, The Western Guide to Feng Shui, by Terah Kathryn Collin, that she wrote the author, who eventually told her that she was forming a school to teach Feng Shui.

Cockrell said she had already experienced tremendous changes in the energy flow of her own life, and decided to enroll.

"The changes were really dynamic," she said. "And I felt in many ways called to this. It's something that can help people, which is something I've always loved to do."

And since she earned certification from the Western School of Feng Shui in California, she has been surprised by how much response she has received.

"This is something people are really hungry for," she said. "A lot of them have heard of this, but they really don't know what it is."

She admits the decision took some thought.

"Going and getting trained for this has probably been the scariest thing I've ever done," she said. "Now, I'm not so concerned. I feel like I'm an environmental healer, and I've seen it change people dramatically."

Feng Shui is not a religious movement, she said. Rather, it is in many ways a common sense approach to improving one's life. If you enjoy your surrounding, and the elements within flow together, then naturally, you are happy.

She said she has never had a dissatisfied customer and would like to move more into the area of helping architects build the principles of Feng Shui into homes from the start.

"There aren't any bad mistakes, but there are things you can do to help a house," she said. She has received good response from local architects she has spoken to about Feng Shui, Cockrell said.

The biggest problem in either a home or business is usually "environmental constipation," she said. Westerners tend to have lots and lots of possessions, which can sometimes clog the free flow of energy -- that passive clutter at work again.

"It's a pretty overwhelming process at first," she said. "But a lot of what I do is give people permission to let go. There are so many people out there with things in their home they just don't love, and that's one of the easiest ways to block the flow -- and one of the easiest problems to fix."

THE CONVERTED

So, the question surfaces: Does Feng Shui work?

Cockrell's customers think so.

"It's unbelievable," said local customer Roxie Harkins. "It has changed our lives."

Harkins said that she had heard of Feng Shui before Cockrell came to straighten out her home's Chi, and she even owned one small book on the subject.

But since her home's initial adjustment, she has gone in with Feng Shui completely, even going so far as to add crystals to every room and making a 300-pound fountain and an aquarium additions to her home.

"We've just seen a tremendous increase in our luck and in our wealth and prosperity," she said. "It really does work, without a question. I think everyone should" practice Feng Shui, she said.

She and her husband, a local architect, are planning to move to a new home soon, she said. They're planning to build their own home -- to the proper specifications of a Feng Shui dwelling.

"We'll have Maxine come look at the blueprints," she said. "We plan to integrate Feng Shui as much as we can into the design."

Tenna Yoes, another of Cockrell's customers, said that Feng Shui has a lot of common sense elements in it. But she is also amazed at how much the little changes she has made here and there have affected her life positively.

"I think the colors made a lot of difference," she said. "I started using the recommended colors and everything just feels so much better. There were some health complications that were resolved, too."

Yoes echoed Harkins' statement about increased wealth and prosperity for the family, also saying that adding a few needed balancing elements had improved relations with her husband, among other positive effects.

"I think everyone should do this, especially if there is something that doesn't feel right in their house or if they're frustrated about certain areas of their life," she said. "Once you see how your environment affects you, it's easy to how and why Feng Shui works."

Although neither woman said she felt persecuted in any way for practicing Feng Shui, Harkins said that she did on occasion have to explain all of the adjustments to her home.

"On occasion I get someone who'll come up and ask what's that quacky Feng Shui stuff all about," she said. "I've even had some people ask me if I still believe in God. It's not a religion, but I think personally it actually brings you closer to God. It works in so many ways."