Introduction for feng shui readers

The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology offers an important scholarly resource and essential reading for feng shui practitioners and for anyone interested in spirituality, religion, wellbeing, and the human relationship with place. Although the handbook does not focus specifically on feng shui, it addresses many of the questions that sit at the heart of traditional practice: how people experience connection between self, place, nature, meaning, consciousness, and transformation.

Classical feng shui understands human life through the dynamic relationship of Heaven, Earth, and Human. This trinity is reflected in the traditional framework of Heaven luck, Earth luck, and Human luck: the conditions into which one is born, the qualities of the environments one inhabits, and the choices, conduct, cultivation, and relationships through which one participates in life. From this perspective, places are not merely physical settings. They are lived environments that may support or constrain health, relationships, purpose, belonging, attention, and wellbeing.

Transpersonal psychology provides a contemporary language for examining these concerns without reducing feng shui to either superstition or interior psychology alone. It investigates consciousness, spiritual experience, contemplative traditions, human transformation, ecological connection, exceptional experience, and the meanings people attach to their environments. Its relevance lies in taking seriously the possibility that homes, workplaces, landscapes, and sacred places can be experienced as psychologically, symbolically, spiritually, and bodily significant.

For feng shui practitioners, the handbook is particularly valuable because it encourages a careful balance. It recognises wisdom traditions and spiritual practices as important sources of knowledge about human flourishing, yet it also calls for cultural sensitivity, methodological rigour, and caution about claims that cannot be empirically demonstrated. This creates space to explore feng shui as a rich tradition of Heaven, Earth, and Human relationship: one that can be respected in its own terms while also examined through environmental psychology, wellbeing research, design, and lived experience.

For the wider public, including those interested in spirituality or religion, the book raises an enduring question: how might people understand experiences of harmony, connection, awe, sacredness, transformation, and belonging without having to choose between uncritical belief and dismissive scepticism? It offers a serious invitation to study these dimensions of human life with openness, intellectual discipline, and respect for cultural and spiritual diversity.

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Invisible Cities: A Feng Shui Summer Reading Guide

Italo Calvino’s imagined cities, read through memory, movement, energy, desire, and urban life.

Invisible Cities is an ideal summer read for a feng shui-minded reader: short, luminous, and easy to pause over, yet full of questions about how places hold memory, channel movement, shape desire, and either nourish or exhaust the people living in them.

Italo Calvino did not write a feng shui manual. But his book becomes extraordinarily rich when read through that lens because it is deeply concerned with the relationship between inner life and built environment.

What This Book Is

Published in 1972, Invisible Cities is framed as a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. The aging emperor governs an empire so immense that he cannot truly know it. Marco returns from his journeys and describes its cities to him.

Yet these are not ordinary travel reports. The cities are compact fables, often only a few pages long, about places governed by one strange principle: memory, desire, mirrors, signs, trade, the dead, waste, the sky, or endless growth.

The central ambiguity is deliberate. Are these actual cities in the Khan’s empire? Are they inventions Marco uses to communicate? Are they variations on one remembered city? Are they all, in some sense, Venice?

Calvino’s answer is never simple. A city is not merely streets, buildings, property, infrastructure, or a point on a map. It is also the stories people attach to it, what they long for there, what they fear, what they buy and discard, what they remember, and what they fail to see.

A place is not healthy simply because it is beautiful, expensive, old, orderly, or new. Its character emerges from the relationship among people, landscape, circulation, attention, and time.

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How tiny pollinators, local honey and natural geometry can nourish our homes, bodies and the wider field of life

20 May is World Bee Day, a reminder that the tiny bodies of bees hold up a remarkable amount of our food system, our landscapes and, arguably, our collective wellbeing. The day was created to honour both the ecological importance of pollinators and the long relationship between humans and bees. For anyone interested in feng shui, environmental psychology or simply living well in place, bees offer a rich, tangible way to think about qi, reciprocity and design.

World Bee Day and why it matters

World Bee Day highlights the fact that bees and other pollinators are under pressure from habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and disease. Without them, many fruit, vegetable, nut and seed crops would suffer serious declines, and wild plant communities would lose an essential source of pollination. The day is also about empowerment: we do not have to be beekeepers to help bees. Small actions such as planting bee-friendly flowers, buying local honey, supporting organic farming and reducing chemical use all contribute to the larger web of support.

From a feng shui perspective, this is a reminder that qi is not confined to the inside of a house. The quality of energy in our homes is inseparable from the health of the wider landscape that feeds us. When we improve conditions for bees in our neighbourhood, we are indirectly tending the qi that eventually arrives on our plates and in our lungs.

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FREE WEBINAR
Feng Shui Application in Bedroom and Workplace Designs: A Scientific Study of Personal
and Transpersonal Preferences
Study 2 (Online survey)
by Jan Cisek

I’m speaking at the 2025 Feng Shui Summit on Sunday May 4, 12:00-12:50pm All times noted are Eastern Daylight Time / US+Canada (5:00–5:50 pm UK time)
Presented by the International Feng Shui Guild
https://www.ifsguild.org/feng-shui-summit/

How we design our spaces directly shapes our lives. As Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” In this free session, Jan Cisek will present findings from the second phase of his scientific study exploring how feng shui principles preferences apply for to bedroom and workplace design. The study investigates how individuals relate both personally and transpersonally to their environments, using online surveys as part of a broader research programme which will employ Virtual Reality (VR) and psychophysiological measures in the Study 3.

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Understanding Time in Feng Shui through the Lens of Greek Mythology

Feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of harmonising with one’s environment, often intertwines with various aspects of time. The concept of time in feng shui is multifaceted, integrating cyclical patterns, the flow of energy, and auspicious moments for actions. To deepen our understanding, it is insightful to compare these notions with the Greek mythological concepts of time: Aion, Chronos, and Kairos. These three deities embody different aspects of time, offering a rich framework for understanding how time functions in feng shui.

Aion: The Eternal and Cyclical

In Greek mythology, Aion represents unbounded, eternal time. Aion is depicted as a serpent biting its tail, symbolising the cyclical and endless nature of time. This mirrors the feng shui perspective where time is seen as a continuous cycle, influencing energy flows and environmental harmony. For instance, the Chinese zodiac operates on a twelve-year cycle, each year associated with a specific animal that influences that year’s energy.

In feng shui, Aion’s influence is evident in the use of the Chinese lunar calendar, which guides the timing of activities such as renovations, relocations, and even daily routines. The Bagua model, a central feng shui tool, also reflects cyclical patterns, with each section corresponding to different life aspects that must be harmonised cyclically.

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A personal account of Jan Cisek*

Let’s go back to a cosy Tuesday evening on cold November 9th, 1993, at Gina Lazenby’s flat in London. Gina, me, Mark Beakhouse, Graham Gun, and a cuppa or two, chatting about the charming wisdom and promise of feng shui. It’s here that Gina (with her genius of marketing) threw in the idea of starting the Feng Shui Society (FSS) – an easy-going gang to spread the cool vibes of feng shui. And, just like that, the rest, as they say, is history!

Zooming 30 years forward (blimey, how time flies!), I find myself pondering about the grand old times of the FSS. This society has turned into a beacon of knowledge and wisdom, spreading the essence of feng shui far and wide.

The FSS has grown into a treasure trove of ancient know-how, connecting age-old wisdom with our bustling, modern lives, making sure that the magic of feng shui is a piece of cake for everyone to grasp. It’s brought a wave of harmony and spark to numerous homes, offices, and lovely little corners of the world, optimising the flow of energy and rejuvenating spaces with happy vibes.

“feng shui is a physical affirmation, a ritual”

The FSS has been the heart of a vibrant community of feng shui buffs, offering a mix of workshops, friendly chats, and reads to anyone eager to learn and grow personally and spiritually. It’s woven a tapestry of people who are keen on living a balanced life filled with good vibes and prosperity.

The commitment of our society to uphold the real-deal principles of feng shui has made it a trusted brand name. It’s stood strong against the watered-down and commercialised versions, ensuring that the profound teachings of feng shui are passed down with respect and true spirit to the future chaps.

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In popular feng shui discourse, the Metal element is often reduced to a few trite recommendations: hang a wind chime, paint a wall grey, or place a few gold coins in a bowl. Whilst these are valid applications, they barely scratch the surface of what is arguably the most powerful and essential of the Five Elements (Wu Xing).

To truly understand Metal is to understand the power of refinement. In a world obsessed with accumulation (a Wood and Earth trait) and frenetic visibility (Fire), Metal is the discipline of elegance and precision. It is the autumn wind that strips the trees bare, not to diminish them, but to redirect their energy inward for restoration. It is the difference between a raw stone and a cut diamond.

This guide moves beyond the superficial “lucky charms” approach to explore the physiological, psychological, and spatial dynamics of Metal. We will analyse why, as we settle into Period 9 (the age of Fire), cultivating a healthy relationship with Metal is no longer optional; it is a strategic advantage.

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Michael Y. Mak’s and Albert T. So’s study explores integrating traditional feng shui principles into the preliminary building design process using a knowledge-based expert systems approach. This interdisciplinary research combines ancient Chinese geomantic techniques with modern technological methods to enhance the design and evaluation of building environments.

Michael Y. Mak is a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia. He has co-authored a book titled Scientific Feng Shui for the Built Environment: Theories and Applications with Albert T. So. This book aims to integrate historical feng shui theories with scientific data and practical applications. The book offers an in-depth view of feng shui by combining traditional knowledge with modern scientific approaches, likely covering:

• Fundamentals of scientific feng shui
• Case studies demonstrating practical applications
• Integration of historical theories with scientific data

For the full content list, go to Google books: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Scientific_Feng_Shui_for_the_Built_Envir/TX_tBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Scientific+Feng+Shui+for+the+Built+Environment+-+Fundamentals+and+Case+Studies+by+Michael+Y.+Mak+and+Albert+T.+So&printsec=frontcover

Objectives

The primary objective of Mak’s and So’s research is to evaluate the application of feng shui knowledge within the context of building design through an expert systems approach. The study aims to develop a systematic framework that leverages feng shui principles to improve the quality and performance of architectural designs.

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Divination: A Window into the Unseen World and Its Role in Feng Shui

Introduction: Divination, at its core, represents the art of seeking knowledge about the unknown—whether concerning the future, hidden truths, or present circumstances. Rooted deeply in the human psyche, divination has been practised across civilisations, from ancient Mesopotamia and China to Egypt and the Celtic tribes of Europe. It serves as a bridge between the material world and metaphysical realms, providing glimpses into the mysterious currents believed to shape our lives (Cornelius, 2003).

Throughout history, the allure of knowing the unknown has captivated people from all walks of life. Whether used to guide rulers in times of war, determine auspicious times for sowing crops, or bring clarity in times of uncertainty, divination has maintained an essential role in cultural narratives (Raphals, 2013). It is not merely an attempt to predict the future but rather a means of engaging with profound forces at work, seeking to harmonise human intention with the cosmic order.

Divination, derived from the Latin word “divinatio,” meaning “to foresee” or “to be inspired by a god,” refers to the practice of seeking knowledge about the future or uncovering hidden truths through various interpretive methods. The root “divinus” relates to “divine” or that which comes from the gods, reflecting the belief that divination is a way to connect with higher, supernatural insights. Historically, divination has been seen as a means of gaining access to divine wisdom, allowing humans to align their actions with the will of the gods or the forces that govern the universe (Cornelius, 2003).

Part 1: The Essence of Divination

Historical Overview: The origins of divination can be traced back to some of the earliest known human societies. In ancient Mesopotamia, priests, known as baru, examined the entrails of sacrificed animals or observed celestial patterns to predict future events, interpreting these signs as revelations of divine will (Bottéro, 1992). In Egypt, priests communicated with the gods through oracular consultations, using sacred rituals to receive divine wisdom. In ancient China, divination was deeply integrated into societal functions, notably through the practice of oracle bone divination, in which the cracks produced by heating bones were read to discern cosmic insights (Keightley, 1978).

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Creating Supportive Environments for People with Disabilities (ASD, ADHD, neurodiversity) through Feng Shui

Feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of arranging living spaces to create balance and harmony, can be a powerful tool in supporting individuals with disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), neurodiversity and similar conditions. By applying feng shui principles, we can enhance both physical and psychological well-being, creating environments that are not only more comfortable but also empowering for individuals who face unique challenges. Environmental psychology, occupational therapy, and design for accessibility provide the evidence-based backbone to this approach, ensuring that it is as effective as it is holistic.

The Importance of Environmental Design for Individuals with Disabilities

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face difficulties navigating environments that are not designed with their specific needs in mind. Unfriendly environments can lead to symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to acute pain, ultimately impacting the individual’s ability to engage in social, health, education, and leisure activities. Ensuring that an environment is adapted to the unique needs of each person is essential in creating autism-friendly spaces that are comfortable and accessible. The idea that our surroundings impact our mental and emotional state is at the core of environmental psychology. People are deeply influenced by the spaces they inhabit, and for individuals with disabilities, this influence can be particularly significant. Individuals with autism, for instance, can be highly sensitive to sensory stimuli such as bright lights, loud sounds, and cluttered spaces, which may lead to discomfort or distress (Scott, 2019). Research has shown that supportive environments—those that are visually clear, low in sensory overload, and easy to navigate—can play an essential role in improving quality of life and reducing stress (Evans & McCoy, 1998).

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Why “authentic feng shui” is a problem worth examining

Open a search engine and type “authentic feng shui”. The results show hundreds of consultants and schools proclaiming their practice the real or traditional version of feng shui. Some promise “classical” formulas dating back thousands of years, others advertise “authentic” certificates and claim to possess secret lineages. Yet most of these sites also display a basic mistranslation of feng shui: they define it as “wind and water”, suggesting two disconnected elements. Chinese‐language dictionaries and etymological sources translate the term literally as wind–water, and the earliest written sources emphasise a single relational concept rather than two separate things. This everyday misinterpretation captures a deeper problem: claims of authenticity often mask ignorance of history, language and practice. Read more about feng shui means wind-water, NOT wind and water

This blog critically interrogates the marketing labels “authentic feng shui” and “traditional/classical feng shui”. It asks: What does authenticity mean? When and where might “authentic” feng shui begin? What counts as “traditional” or “classical” in a practice with a long, diverse and contested history? Why is “wind–water” a better translation than “wind and water”, and how does mistranslation influence the politics of authenticity? In addressing these questions, the essay invites readers to look past superficial branding and instead consider lineage, scholarship, translation and evidence. The aim is not to dismiss practice or lived experience; rather it is to cultivate a nuanced understanding of feng shui’s history and contemporary uses.

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