TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS

Form School

This is based on the shapes, contours, and environmental conditions of the soil and plants. Not lastly, it uses the four symbolical animals in order to identify a given land property. This method is very well used in conjunction with the compass school method. It’s easy to understand and it uses instruments to enhance the Chi in your home.
Form school is the oldest school of Feng Shui. It was first explained in the Classic of Burial dating from the end of the Han Dynasty (190-220 AD). According to this book, it is said that the spirits of the dead have a direct influence on life. Thus the Chinese believed that gaining fortune or losing it depended on the location and facing of their ancestors’ tombs.
As we said before, form school deals with the study of land shapes, specifically the impact that a place has on a human being. Here we come across shamanic visions that tell us all things are thought to be animals. This is because animals played an important part in depictions, as they were associated with spiritual qualities and traits. Consequently, the sages of those times would recognize the shapes of animals which appeared in the geomorphology of the earth surface in order to gather information about the respective place and the beneficial or evil impact it could have on a human being.
The elements of nature, the rocks, and man-made things – all of these can represent certain animals.
Knowing all this, we can infer which shapes of nature can influence us in a positive or negative way, and we can ascertain if there are any structures creating negative or destructive energies.

School of the “Black Hat” Sect of Tantric Buddhism (Prof. Lin)

This is a modern version of Feng Shui that was developed in America, a hybrid between Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Feng Shui. It retains the use of the Ba Gua, which is placed on the front door of the house in order to determine the sectors in the home. Its underlying principle is interior design, which is greatly influenced by logic, intuition and mystical procedures.

Flying Star School

This is a successful union of numerology and astrology, as it is based on mathematical and logical calculations which help determine the annual influences or a person’s destiny. It uses the 9 numbers in the Lo Shu magic square that was discovered in China hundreds of years ago, on the back of a tortoise. Each row of this square has a unique arrangement. Each number represents a different energetic pattern that exists as such in the Solar System. The numbers’ overall harmony is due to the fact that their sum in any direction – in each row, column or diagonal – is ultimately the same: 15. As time flows, the numbers’ arrangement in the magic square changes; and this can happen every hour, day, month, or year. When we try to mark out the auspicious areas in the home with the help of the flying star square, we need to know how to delineate the areas through the pie-chart method, rather than the grid method. There are 9 different types of flying star charts, depending on the central number known as the Kua number. This can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The 8 Kua numbers are divided into two groups. The numbers 1, 3, 4, and 9 make up the East group; while 2, 6, 7, and 8 make up the West group.

9 Star Ki School

This is an astrological system that uses a person’s birth date in order to determine their personality type or behaviour. However, this system doesn’t help determine the personal element or any auspicious direction. In the 9 star Ki system, there is the so-called Ki energy of movement, which can tell us whether a direction to which we are travelling is auspicious or inauspicious for the Ruling number of that time period.

If we examine the above square of the 9 Ki stars, it’s important to remember their movement from one cell of grid to the next. We begin with the number 3, because this is Chen in the Bagua, and it represents a “young forest” or “early spring” – in other words, new beginnings. We move on to Hsun (4), which is the “fully grown forest”; then to the Tai chi (5); then to Chyan (6); to Dui (7); to Ken (8); to Li (9); and then to Kan (1); and finally to Kun (2), which symbolizes the mother, or nurturing, or recharging. This is the way ki moves every second, minute, hour, day, and year. It always starts with Chen and ends with Kun, the place where we stop to recharge before we march again. 

The 8 Mansions School of Feng Shui

The eight mansions school uses people’s birth dates in order to personalize their individual Feng Shui analysis. We need to know our personal Kua number, which is the key to unlocking our auspicious or inauspicious directions and locations. Even though this method is very simple, it is also very potent, since we can use it anywhere and anytime we are in need of good luck.

The Compass School

This school studies the effects that time and space inflict on a person’s status by using the compass. Today the compass school reunites techniques such as Flying Star; the Three Harmonies; the Mystical Gates; the Changing Trigrams; and the Eight Mansions/ the Eight Houses/ the East-West System.
This is a method based more on calculations than on intuition.
It uses the 8 trigrams in the I-Ching.
The origins of I-Ching lie in mythical antiquity, and it takes the shape of a book of divination and wisdom. The I-Ching hexagrams are made up of (up to 6) lines that are arranged one on top of the other and can be solid (-) or broken (- -). Broken lines are known as Yin lines, while the solid ones are Yang lines. Both may be moving or stationary (a Yin line may change into a Yang line and vice versa). Thus, to understand I-Ching texts means to interpret/understand solid or broken lines as they relate to each other.
The hexagrams originated from the trigrams, which make up 8 possible combinations of three lines (either solid or broken). There are a total of 64 (8x8) hexagrams.
Each of the 8 trigrams bears different meanings, and the place where they’re positioned may indicate either auspiciousness or bad luck.
The hexagrams contain symbols and ideas taken from nature, society, or the individual human being. The six lines of a hexagram include three elements: a symbol, an event, and a judgement. When we consult the I-Ching before making a decision, the hexagrams offer us wise advice, warnings, and other specific predictions of what is to come, including guidance on whether it’s a good idea to act, to wait a while longer, or to abandon a project completely.
Each hexagram contains four trigrams (two primary and two nuclear trigrams), each of them possessing an attribute, a symbol and a trait; and also referring to one of the five elements: water, wood, fire, earth, or metal.
A very important thing in Feng Shui practice is symbolism. Houses and buildings in China are decorated with prosperity-bringing (auspicious) motifs; huge statues of protective celestial creatures safeguard the front doors of very large buildings; and even paving stones are carved with luck-bringing symbols.

The Four Pillars School

From the Chinese calendar perspective, any moment can be expressed in the terms of four elemental pairs: two elements for the year; two for the month; two for the day; and two for the hour. This is what we call the art of the Four Luck Pillars.
Each of the four luck pillars corresponds to two elements, which are termed the “heavenly stem” or the “earthly branch”. The four pillars and the two elements corresponding to each of them give us a total of 8 elements; but usually one element is either missing or in short supply. Enhancing this element is what we call enhancing a person’s Feng Shui.

We can use this technique when we want to see the big picture of a person’s life and to offer some advice regarding the actions they should carry out during their lifetime. By using the four pillars, we can find out what kind of relationship that person has with their parents, with their friends, or with their spouse; what work field they should choose in their career; whether a certain moment is auspicious or not for starting a new venture; what we can predict regarding their health and many more things.

What can each of the four pillars teach us about?

- the year pillar: family and society
- the month pillar: early childhood and the relationship with one’s parents
- the day pillar: that person and their relationship with their spouse
- the hour pillar: career, relationship with children, and old age.

The Seven Colours of the Rainbow School
This is a less-known school that is used mainly for creating inner harmony, for one’s personal chi or for developing the Yin aspect of the triangle and psychic qualities.

The Five Element Colours School
This school is used to create harmony in the outer environment, the outer chi, or the Yang aspect.

The Six True Words’ Colours School, or the divine essence of the forthcoming nature of things, is used to create harmony between heaven and earth, spiritual chi, or the Tao aspect.