Feng Shui Ultimate Resource

Why Architects Hate Fengshui

2011-08-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

Some architects have seen the value of feng shui, and would like to include a feng shui consultant on their team. But they hesitate because of the experiences of their colleagues. Willing architects have many questions and concerns that need to be addressed.

Feng shui consultants have everything to gain from working with architects.

Larger projects. Consultants no longer worry about decorating apartments, they apply feng shui to redevelopment projects, shopping malls, apartment complexes, and resorts.
Respectability. Rather than being relegated to the fringe with the psychic hotlines and dowsers, feng shui consultants can step forward as professionals.
Collaboration. Share ideas, concepts, and techniques with building professionals.
Save the planet? Institute the use of feng shui techniques to combat global warming and promote biodiversity. (And use carbon offsets to cover the damage caused by all that air travel.)

Why do so many feng shui consultants not work well with architects?

Many deny the importance of architects — and resent their respect in the community. Many feng shui consultants seem to believe that feng shui practitioners should supplant, not complement, architects. They resent the education, and have scant respect for the science behind architecture. Most frightening for customers is how little feng shui practitioners understand the profession of architecture, especially due diligence and legal liability.
Many feng shui consultants prefer being frauds. Architects have years of stringent education; they also have licenses and certifications from their governments. The profession has a strong code of ethics. Most feng shui consultants have very few hours of instruction and advertise as "experts." They are famous for inventing histories, philosophies, types, techniques, and trinkets to sell as "feng shui." They are experts at rationalizing chicanery. Most feng shui people prefer the fringe where there is little scrutiny, a silent acceptance of fraud, and cheerful encouragement of the most outrageous lies and quackery.
Visibility means accountability. Working on a team with other professionals means that feng shui consultants have to follow the rules and regulations like other businesses. If they perform their usual histrionics and frauds they will be out of work, and possibly party to lawsuits.

Geomagnetism

2011-08-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems perplexed about geomagnetism -- including feng shui professionals!

Current Conditions

From n3kl.org

Solar X-rays:
Geomagnetic Field:

Geomagnetism and Orientation

All living creatures have a strong affinity for the magnetic aspects of Earth.

Bacteria and algae follow magnetic lines of force.
Sea turtles use a two-way coordinate system based on magnetic dip and intensity.
Birds use the Earth's magnetic field as a compass ("magnetism geography").
Magnetite is found in the brains of dolphins, whales, certain fish (including salmon), green turtles and homing pigeons, and it seems to interact with their brains.
Bees rely on the magnetic field to find their way from flowers to the hive. Honeybee dances are tuned to the sun and the local magnetic field direction, as are salmon migrations.

Humans are not exempt from these facts. Research shows a correlation between mental illness and disturbed geomagnetic field conditions, as well as correlation between convulsive seizures, myocardial infarction, and geomagnetic activity. (W. Campbell: Introduction to Geomagnetic Fields, pp. 241-243)
Too bad McFengshui practitioners think that compasses are irrelevant! They could be tracking this activity just the way we do in real feng shui. You see, feng shui compasses (luopans) were the first geomagnetic field-sensing devices. (Campbell: 175)

So how is Earth's magnetic field perceived?

By using a compass.
By electric induction.
By chemical reception. (This is what probably works in birds and insects.)

You'll notice there's no listing for intuition. That's because humans cannot detect a magnetic field except by the previously listed means. Without a compass or similar detection device, humans have repeatedly been proven incapable of detecting any kind of geomagnetic field or fluctuation via innate (that is, "intuitive") means.

Any Feng Shui book or practitioner who professes an ability to "intuit" energy fields is a medical anomaly and should be offering themselves to scientists for study -- thus to better our knowledge. Or perhaps the practitioner is merely waiting to commit fraud.

Reference

A primer on geomagnetism from New Scientist.

Wound up like a cheap alarm clock

2011-08-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

During the Renaissance and Enlightenment a dramatic change occurred in how humans observed and perceived the universe. The new paradigm was in large part created by Rene Descartes, who advocated a mathematical description of natural phenomena and the use of analytic thought to study nature.
The Cartesian system aspired to create a precise and complete account of natural phenomena with mathematical precision.
Descartes' paradigm of nature was a mechanistic one — he even drew parallels between a sickly human and a poorly-manufactured clock. Cartesian reasoning works on what Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition called

the implicit assumption that the mind can only know that which it has itself produced and retains in some sense within itself.

Alfred North Whitehead called it "the outcome of common sense in retreat."
Sir Isaac Newton synthesized the work of Copernicus, Descartes, Galileo, and Kepler to create a mathematical formula for nature — Newtonian mechanics.
Cartesian "reductionism" gave rise to the notion that physics would explain chemistry, chemistry would explain biology, and biology would explain psychology. This system worked so well over the years that by the end of the 19th century it was widely believed all natural phenomena would eventually be explained by reducing them to the sum of their particles, so to speak.
Well-oiled machinery was a fitting metaphor for the Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm, the Industrial Revolution and the cultures which grew out of it. The beauty of the mechanistic universe was in its concepts of rational order and equilibrium, and the loveliest symbol of the paradigm is always to be found in the static structure of crystals.
Reductionism and Newtonian mechanics did explain everything — until the early part of the twentieth century. The work of Maxwell, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and the rest of the new physics exploded the myth of the Cartesian-Newtonian universe. There was, in the words of Paul Davis,

an explosion of ideas which shattered the cozy notions of reality that had endured for centuries. Many cherished beliefs and unquestioned assumptions were swept away. The old world view of a rational and mechanistic universe, ordered by rigid laws of cause and effect, collapsed into oblivion ...

Science is dead — long live science!

Einstein said in his autobiography that the upheaval in science seemed like

the ground had been pulled out from under one; with no firm foundation to be seen anywhere, upon which one could have built.

It has been difficult for many to move from the Cartesian-Newtonian model to the Eastern-flavored world of the new science. (The furor over Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics is a spectacular example.) Laurie Fitzgerald says that

even scientists, who as a group pride themselves on their ability to maintain objectivity, have found it enormously difficult to give up the sense of certainty, constancy and control once derived from the view of reality formed by the 'old' science.

Modern scientific perceptions of the universe have more in common with ancient Chinese philosophy than they have with Western scientific thought of the last several centuries. In the new science, everything is determined by perspective and relationships, not cause and effect.
Humans are intrinsically incapable of impartial observation of natural phenomena because they are natural phenomena.
Lynn Margulis reminds us

Independence is a political, not a scientific, term.

Atomic matter could not conceivably exist in the world of Newtonian mechanics. It took the new reality of quantum mechanics to show us the atomic level, where objects dissolve into wavelike patterns of probabilities and correlations. The new universe is a "complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole," wrote Werner Heisenberg.
Neils Bohr told Einstein in their famous discourse that one cannot assume that the universe has separate and independent units; Bohr practically invented the modern scientific concept of the absolute connectivity of the universe.
Out of the collapse of the old science came the fluid, Daoist world of the new science. No more order, rationality or equilibrium (except at death).
Science recognized four fundamental forces at work in the universe:

Gravity. This is the dominating force in the universe.
Electromagnetism. This is what works at a planetary level. Most of our planet's energy is supplied to us by our sun in this way.
Weak nuclear force. This works at the atomic level.
Strong nuclear force. This also works at the atomic level.

It was Einstein's goal to put these four forces into one mathematical theory — the unified field theory.

New Age is Not New Science

Some of the key differences in the old scientific mindset and the new are outlined below. Cartesian thought is underlined. The new thinking appears after it.
Thought is a product of brain activity. In Santiago Cognition Theory, the brain is not necessary for mind to exist. Mind is the process of cognition, the process of life itself. As Maturana and Varela explain,

Consciousness is essentially a social function.

Most of the universe is dead.

We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves.
— Norbert Weiner, founder of cybernetics

Scientific descriptions are independent of the observer and the process of knowing. Epistemology is essential in the description of natural phenomena.

What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." — Werner Heisenberg

We are separate from nature. According to Francisco Varela, et al, this "Cartesian anxiety" is a harmful construct:

A separate individual self is an illusion and to cling to this notion brings suffering and frustration.

The differences between the old and the new are essentially this: in classical mechanics the properties and behavior of the parts determine those of the whole, while in quantum mechanics the situation is reversed — study of the whole determines the behavior of the parts. Laurie Fitzgerald says

All 'things' are absolutely connected to each other and to the whole of which they are part. Units have no meaning in a chaotic system and, therefore, do not exist.

Mommy Earth and Me

It took years of forcible repression to replace people's original conceptual framework of the world as a holistic system (a so-called "primitive superstition" even in recent memory) with the rational Cartesian one. Scientists were faced with the old universe they worked so hard to eradicate — and which had been exiled to the province of creative types and indigenous cultures at the fringes of Western civilization.
Scientists participate in the "conceptual infrastructure" of classical physics disintegrating as a result of evidence obtained in their investigations into the nature of the universe.
There had always been reactions against Cartesian-Newtonian thought in segments of the population, of course, but most were marginalized populations with little or no influence. The most famous antireductionistic and antimechanistic group was the Romantic Movement.
From Blake to Goethe to Kant, all fervently believed in the extremely ancient worldview of the planet and its creatures as a holistic living system. It was aptly expressed by a medieval alchemist, Basilius Valentinus, as well as any Kabbalist or Romantic:

The earth is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul. All created things, minerals included, draw their strength from the earth spirit. The spirit is life, it is nourished by the stars, and it gives nourishment to all the living things it shelters in its womb.

Modern Gaia Theory also echoes the ancient worldview, but uses the new science in its exploration of the mythos.
Dorion Sagan and Lynn Margulis call it "symbiosis as seen from space," the holistic world as "the nexus and nest, the global life and environment, the planetary surface seen as body rather than place."
Aldo Leopold coined the environmental and ecological scientist's version about 20 years ago:

Land is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals.

More about Feng Shui and Color

2011-08-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Feng shui must be customized for each person and situation.

There are no standard colors that are good for business or corporations.
There aren't any standard colors for directions -- that is, all walls to the north should not be painted blue, black, or indigo, for example.
There are no colors that are inherently good for children, career, or romance -- or any such nonsense that McFengshui enthusiasts would have you believe.

People who claim such colors exist are actually proclaiming their ignorance of feng shui, physics, and human physiology.

Color vision is in the eye, and mind, of the beholder

Color is not a universal quality of the world. Color is not a uniform experience in humans, and human vision does not provide us the real colors of any object. We experience the world through bodies that interpret what is around us. The human interpretation is one possible version of the world. Our interpretation is not necessarily more real than another creature's.

There is no 'absolute' color. What I call 'red' isn't necessarily the same color others experience as 'red.' -- Patrick Cavanagh, a Harvard professor of psychology

There is no evidence that the colors you see are part of the "real world." An object may, in fact, have no color except that generated by our brains. A human born without eyes or blind from birth can see colors if an electrode is used to stimulate their fusiform gyri. People who cannot experience colors (achromatopsia) can still see the world, because this ailment is often caused by damage to the area of the brain that processes colors -- and each eye has its own area.

Color information goes to areas concerned with motion, shape, texture, etc., and helps people to experience these other parts of vision. --Patrick Cavanaugh

We do not need to have a color-generating ability if color exists in the world. We need to have this ability if we're interpreting the world and that interpretation helps us survive.
When babies look at the world, they process colors in areas of the brain that are older (in terms of evolution) than the human acquisition of language ("prelinguistic" areas of the brain, in the right hemisphere). When the babies become adults, they process colors through sections of the brain that are used for language (in the left hemisphere). In essence, adults have narrowed their vision to accept only those colors they have names for.¹
For example, native speakers of Russian can identify shades of blue that native English speakers see as one color. Perhaps a Russian family would not want to hire a native speaker of English as an interior decorator -- but this also raises important questions about the ability of color to influence your surroundings.
It is unikely that a color can influence anything except you. Consider the effects of fifteen minutes of exposure to Baker-Miller pink.

There is no "color" it seems

There are others who don't let language get in the way of their color experience. Some can identify more colors than the limited selections our brains allow. Birds, tropical fish, spiders, bees, and some women see in the ultraviolet range (they are tetrachromats or pentachromats). Colors and qualities exist that the rest of us simply cannot imagine.

I have a very hard time even giving names to colors because I see so many other colors inside them.— Mrs Hogan, a likely tetrachromat

You may be surprised to learn that I think the McBagua color spectrum suffers from tritanomaly, or low blue color blindness.
Feng shui consultants can advise clients on color schemes, but only in a limited way. Someone with colorblindness or who is aged (and whose corneas have yellowed) would be frustrated and annoyed if I insisted on my "purple" (or red, or blue, etc.) instead of what they experience. And a tetrachromat would see other colors even in the most common "purple," "blue," etc.

References

A. Franklin, G. V. Drivonikou, L. Bevis, I. R. L. Davies, P. Kay, and T. Regier. Categorical perception of color is lateralized to the right hemisphere in infants, but to the left hemisphere in adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105: 3221-3225; published online as 10.1073/pnas.0712286105

Why Flutes and Mirrors Can't Fix Your House

2011-07-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

… the inhabitants of Neolithic and Shang China consistently ordered themselves according to some kind of cosmo-religious grid. —David Keightley The Ancestral Landscape (2000:81, 82)

New Age Feng Shui	Traditional Feng Shui
New Age Feng Shui has a very short history and spotty evidence. The Nine Basic Cures of Faux Feng Shui were invented by Lin Yun. Bright or light-refracting objects \| Moving objects \| Heavy objects \| Electrically-powered objects \| Bamboo flutes \| Colors \| Miscellaneous	Traditional Feng Shui has a very long history with extraordinary evidence. Feng Shui began as astronomy manifested in the landscape and used alignments for more than 2,000 years before the five phases (elements)— Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire — were developed. The diagrams of Preheaven (Hetu) and Postheaven (Luoshu) predate Chinese written documents on the subject. Early oracle bone characters related to yin and yang and to precursors of the five phases (wuxing) can be linked to early astronomical and geographical information. In turn, this information links to later written documents regarding the practice of Xuan Kong (one of the many "schools" or techniques of Feng Shui). With Preheaven and Postheaven sequences and mathematics, the five phases form part of the theoretical basis of Xuan Kong.
What They Claim	Reality Check: Mirrors and Crystals
Bright or Light-Refracting Objects Light is considered an important asset, symbolic of the sun, and an energy disseminator. In BTB theory, light-refracting objects — mirrors, crystal balls, lights — cure a host of Feng Shui woes, create the illusion of light, and reflect intruders back onto themselves with threatening energy. Thought to increase business profits. Sources of positive power and "energy."	Mirrors were originally part of Chinese science and evolved into elements of Chinese folklore. Ancient Chinese knew that light travels in a straight line and conducted considerable numbers of experiments using concave and convex mirrors. Their efforts were part of a compilation of work on optics which determined the truth about real and inverted images, focal points and centers of curvatures as well as refraction. Westerners not seeing clearly Euclid was the only Western contemporary of these Chinese studies (his Optics was written c. 300 BCE), but his ideas about light and optics were completely wrong. Yet the wrong information was used by Western civilization until someone stumbled upon the correct information in the work of a medieval Arab scientist who was repeating ancient Chinese experiments! In the *Huainanzi* (c. 120 BCE) mirrors are considered at length, particularly the yang "burning-mirror" and the yin fangju that was used to collect nighttime dew via condensation: When the burning-mirror sees the sun,it ignites tinder and produces fire.When the square receptacle sees the moon,it moistens and produces water. (3:3b:11) Huainanzi also describes the mountain-mirrors (shanzi jing) of the late Warring States—Early Han era, which depict on a round (round=heaven) mirror a central square (square=earth). In the center of the mirror is a bump where a silken rope attaches (how the mirror is picked up, but it also represents Dao, or here). Outside this symbol is a larger square indicated by four figures—the character for mountain, shan (a well-known character for Feng Shui practitioners), looking like its written in italics — which represents the mountains at the edges of the earth. On some mountain-mirrors the outer square depicting the edges of the earth (the celestial equator projected into space) is set at 90 degrees to the smaller square, which is meant to portray the known world. A mirror was generally divided into eight or twelve segments like the celestial circle. If divided into twelve segments it was for celestial/calendrical measurements. If divided into eight segments it depicted the cardinal and intercardinal directions. The bronze Tang Dynasty mirror in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History contains the astronomical and geographic data mentioned above plus the bagua, Five Elements, and concentric circles denoting the cosmological order. Mirror magic Chinese mirrors resemble the ancient bi atop a square liubo board (or even a cong) and echo the markings of the shi (one precursor of Feng Shui compasses). There must have been a lot of speculation about the use of mirrors among the uneducated; consider the old belief that mirrors capture your soul. Perhaps that is why, during the Zhou era, many people thought that mirrors were magical devices. Mirrors gained popularity as magico-religious versions of the universe in miniature, a way of calling upon the heavenly powers to bless the mirrors owner. An old legend says Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, kept the people in the mirror from conquering Earth by casting a spell. According to the story the spell may have been a good one, but it was not meant to last forever. As the magic weakens the Mirror People begin to stir. At first the differences between their world and ours won't be discernible. But eventually the changes will be profound and the Mirror People will attack again. We have to conclude that ignorance of Chinese discoveries in optics, and ignorance of Chinese culture and folklore would account for ideas like using a mirror to create profit or scare bad people away. A disturbing thought In the practice of Feng Shui, some practitioners consider mirrors as perpetual disturbances, in the words of Master Lam Kam Chuen, and constantly at work. They are responsible for disrupting sleep patterns and creating emotional disturbances. A long-term study of a Swedish mental hospital, found in E.O. Wilsons *Biophilia Hypothesis* showed that mirrors were the first objects attacked by the mentally agitated and unstable; no one attacked pictures of natural settings. Competent Feng Shui practitioners remove mirrors from bedrooms and entrances and advise clients to confine them to bathrooms and the insides of closets. Back
	Crazy About Crystals? Faux feng shui applies crystals to manipulate so-called "energy" in a building. As Barbara Walker says in her wonderful book on crystals, proponents of crystal energies might inspire more confidence if they did not seem so abysmally ignorant of basic anatomy and physiology, not to mention other sciences, even at the grade-school level. (Walker: 63) No Chinese connection Crystals and feng shui have a very short and peculiar association. There are no Chinese treatises on precious stones before the third century CE, although scientific works show interest in crystalline forms of certain materials.(Needham 2:321) Victorian whimsy Three books written in the 1980s by Katrina Raphaell started the crystal fad. She based many of her ideas on absurd notions concocted by Victorian occultists regarding the mythological land of Atlantis, and on odd ideas fabricated from a poor understanding of a lot of things. People who believe crystals are some form of power source are usually confused about the technology around them, and they are too lazy to acquire an education that would increase their understanding. Increased knowledge would also interfere with this very lucrative scam. Not a new product Crystals are common objects in our everyday lives — as the faces on LCD (liquid crystal display) watches, computer screens, TVs, toys, and calculators; as timing mechanisms in clocks (quartz crystal movement); as electrical parts in loudspeakers, microphones, radios, computers and telephones. If small crystals could affect so-called "energy" in our homes, product manufacturers would have already capitalized on these properties. Piezoelectricity is a fairly old science based on the knowledge that crystals only vibrate and generate voltage when pressure or an electrical charge is applied to them. In the case of LCDs, liquid crystals are sandwiched between transparent electrodes that change the crystals from clear to dark, from transparent to opaque depending on the amount of electricity pumped through them. Hanging a crystal or a mirrored ball somewhere in your house is not going to change "energy" flow, no matter what the Feng Shui books say. Crystals and stones do not create energy fields! On Earth, the minerals that give off energy are radioactive. Crystals are inert substances. They work in primitive radio receivers, but operate only within low megahertz range (in the bandwidth of ship radios and police scanners). A crystal transmitter can disrupt low-band transmissions of anything within its range, but like a crystal receiver it wont have any other effect on a house. Mirrored balls offer wonderful nostalgic effects for disco revival parties, but no other measurable environmental enhancements should be expected from them. Traditional Feng Shui doesn't use crystals as a cure-all for alleged "energy problems." Because they use compasses, traditional practitioners generally understand the electromagnetic properties of certain kinds of rock. The application of rocks in Feng Shui is measured in pounds and kilos, not ounces: a mass of rock quartz weighing 350 pounds and installed in the yard is much more likely to have an effect on a 2,000-square-foot house than a four-ounce crystal hanging in the hall. Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 2: Sounds Bells and wind chimes dispense malignant energies and summon positive ones. They also act as alarms. William Spear, in Feng Shui Made Easy, claims that wind chimes used inside a house moderate or change the flow of qi and mark a spot where different energies converge.	Traditional Feng Shui uses sound very sparingly. In some cultures, bells are thought to drive away evil beings like dwarves. In China and other cultures, people ring bells and make noises at death to frighten away evil spirits. During the Middle Ages, Scottish clergy believed that they could remove the devil from their churches by ringing bells. Ringing bells thwarted demons trying to abduct St. Anthony. In Punchinello, Toby the dog wears a frill with bells to frighten the devil away from his master. The Chinese word for bell (zhung) is a homonym of the word meaning to pass a test, and images of bells in ancient texts are often a punning reference to bureaucratic promotion. Chinese bells were not assumed to be able to summon anything, but some of them were known to fly like Catholic church bells imbued with the power of flight on Good Friday. Weighty tone Harmonies constituted a mathematical science in ancient China and the scale was derived by means of mathematical ratios. See the sixth chapter of Lushi chunqiu, and Huainanzi 3:22a:2 and 3:22b:11. Weights and measures were derived from numbers associated with the musical tones. As stated by Guo Yu, rulers regulated the tuning of bells to ensure the security of the state. The preservation of peace and the integrity of the state corresponded with the concept of standardized measurements. Without consistent measurements there would be widespread corruption, leading to social unrest and civil war. In Manchu tradition the shamans and shamankas wore percussion bells suspended from their waists while performing clan ancestral worship at the Qing imperial court (1644-1911) or while worshiping nature spirits. In earlier dynasties, because of its strongly yin connotations, a musical wind chime made of black stones was played in the appropriate room of the Mingtang during winter. Consider the over-reliance on wind chimes in faux Feng Shui In Chinese science, qi is the very activity of life; it is dispersed by wind, and it cannot be summoned like a dog or invoked like a Western demon or spirit. Nor do chimes attract so-called energy, or delineate energy change. These ideas generate from medieval and Victorian occultism. Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 3: Living Objects Real or artificial plants, aquariums, fishbowlsPlants symbolize life and growth and conduct energies around a room. Thought to lure customers into stores. Fishbowls and aquariums are considered microcosms of the earths ocean, and are considered most effective when artificial aerators are installed in them. Fish absorb accidents and bad luck, and must be replaced when they die. Water symbolizes money. Interestingly, modern Feng Shui classifies water fountains as moving objects, though they artificially aerate the water and can contain fish.	Authentic Feng Shui reveals a great deal of American urban folklore in this cure. Here is a cure that consists of modern commercial products siphoned from traditional Western folklore, marketed and sold back to Westerners as ancient Asian wisdom. How can plants "symbolize" life and growth when they are alive and do grow? It is as if someone said, That symbol symbolizes a symbol, and expected you to accept that circular logic just because they said it. In Five Element Theory the plant kingdom is represented by the Wood Phase or Element, which symbolizes expanding energy (and isn't necessarily represented by a plant in real Feng Shui). Isnt it interesting that a remedy titled living objects includes human-made objects like artificial plants! These would not have been available before the use of plastics and other artificial materials used to construct them. Plastics were not in widespread use before World War II. What about silk plants? Although silk is ancient — Julius Caesar caused a stir by appearing in public in a silk garment — it was not widely available to even the richest people in Europe until the fall of Constantinople (1453) because Byzantium controlled the market. Silk also had limited employment in China, where sumptuary laws prevailed. But this is still bad feng shui Stephen Kellert, a professor at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, looked at a great deal of research before concluding that plastic trees, stuffed animals, and their fabricated kin seem but a meager substitute more likely to result in a stunted capacity for symbolic expression, metaphor, and communication. That is the scientific way of saying it stunts your thinking and intelligence to surround yourself with artificial versions of animals and plants. Theres no solid evidence to indicate that plants can woo customers into stores except in the case of nurseries or floral shops, but plants do have an important feature that most of us can recall learning in grade-school science: they absorb air pollutants through their leaves and roots and convert them into breathable air. EarthSave mentions a two-year NASA study that concluded some plants can remove up to 87% of toxic indoor air within 24 hours. Depending on the plant species, one plant can clean every 100 square feet of space. Between 15 and 20 golden Pothos and spider plants can refresh the air in an 1800-square-foot home. This should have been what the cranks meant by the idea of conducting energy around a room. Water and Fish Water has an ambivalent image for the Chinese, as it does for other humans. Kan, the image of water, is Abysmal, Destructive, according to the Yijing. Dui, Joyous, is metal (like the image of the glint of sun on a body of fresh water). Dui also suggests capital punishment, for the Metal Element served as a sort of shorthand for the Ministry of Justice in premodern China — just as Kan suggested the Ministry of Works. Daoist beliefs in the sanctity of life prompted one Chinese emperor to abolish capital punishment and institute humane treatment for animals — yet here Feng Shui considers fish to be scapegoats for humans! In Chinese folklore fish symbolized happiness, serenity, wealth and abundance. It was also believed that fish, like rats, could change into birds at certain seasons and that their brains shrank with phases of the moon. The combination of water and fish was an old Chinese metaphor for sexual pleasure. (Faithful as a fish is an old expression.) A pair of fish were often presented as a betrothal gift to the fiancees family. On the Footprint of Buddha, a religious object, fish symbolize a charm to avert evil. However, Feng Shui developed several thousand years before Buddhism came to China. Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 4 Moving Objects(water fountains, mobiles, windmills) Thought to stimulate energy indoors. Water fountains and geysers are considered energizing and money-producing, are used by businesses to stimulate profits.	There is no historical precedent in traditional Feng Shui for a moving objects remedy. Each object could be made of a different substance and therefore not have a consistent numerical value in the formulas, which would lead to arbitrary results. Moving water (or anything else, for that matter) can have productive capabilities or a destructive effect on peoples lives. Everything depends on the situation. Windmills have a lot to do with aesthetics but arent typically related to Feng Shui. (The amazing sculptures of Kiyoyuki Kikutake may be the only exception to this rule.) Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 5: Heavy objects (stones or statues) Considered a stabilizing influence in unstable situations.	Heavy objects is a nod to authentic Feng Shuis regard for mountains or other substantive objects and how they are used in siting and calculations. However, theres more to this cure than is suggested by the term, whose use is generally haphazard at best and reflects an unfamiliarity with authentic Feng Shui. Ancient Daoists used rocks in their gardens to symbolize the physical world and the human skeletal structure. In authentic Feng Shui, boulders and rock gardens are used to denote a buffer or neutral state between other elements or activities, and as an aid to structures determined to have been sited incorrectly. They adjust the microclimate, which is one scientific way to explain the purpose of authentic Feng Shui. This acknowledgment of earth activity can be seen in the archeological remains of the most ancient human campsites in Africa. Richard Leakey and his associates note that protective natural features such as mountains or rock outcroppings were located as a buffer between hominid encampments and the savannah, and offered protection from animal and human predators. A practical safety measure may have evolved into the concept of boulder as earth buffer. Master Lam Kam Chuen believes rocks are a metal element (numerical value 6 or 7), extremely powerful, disruptive and completely undependable — but other schools interpret rocks as Earth Element (numerical value 2, 5, or 8). Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 6 Electrically-powered Objects (air conditioners, stereos, TVs, computers) New Age practitioners of Feng Shui believe that electric-powered machines stimulate their surroundings and that computers, considered enlivening and stimulating, uplift wisdom and knowledge.	What bovine excrementalizing. Authentic Feng Shui does not recognize electronic or electric devices as a remedy. There are serious environmental issues raised by this cure. Despite the marketing that Feng Shui is some kind of Asian environmental cure-all, the fake variety caters to American consumer obsessions and encourages their environmental excesses. Its obvious that a cure based on electrical devices was designed to take peoples minds off their environmental accountability. After all, Americans own the most electric and electronic devices on the planet, while more than two billion people in the rest of the world still do not have access to electricity. Electrical consumption for someone in Africa is the equivalent of one light bulb burning just a few hours a day. Look at the research conducted by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: the result of all those computers and devices that this cure promotes. Consider the number of cellphones tossed into landfills, just like old computer equipment. Barely 10 percent of computer equipment and cellphones are recycled. Think about how many more electric and electronic gadgets you own. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Cellphones, computers, and other equipment are full of lead, mercury, and cadmium. These chemicals pollute water and poison the planet. California is one of the few states addressing the urgent issue of eWaste. The Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 makes it a felony, with potential fines of up to $25,000 per incident, to dispose of consumer or office electronic devices in undesignated areas, such as landfills. But that just pushes the damage out of your sight, and in this case out of sight should not be out of your mind. Consider this report on Guiyu in Guangdong Province, China, just northeast of Hong Kong: ...about 100,000 poor migrant workers are employed breaking apart and processing obsolete computers imported primarily from North America. The workers were found to be using 19th century technologies to clean up the wastes from the 21st century. The operations involve men, women and children toiling under primitive conditions, often unaware of the health and environmental hazards involved in operations which include open burning of plastics and wires, riverbank acid works to extract gold, melting and burning of toxic soldered circuit boards and the cracking and dumping of toxic lead laden cathode ray tubes. The investigative team witnessed many tons of the E-waste simply being dumped along rivers, in open fields and irrigation canals in the rice growing area. Already the pollution in Guiyu has become so devastating that well water is no longer drinkable and thus water has to be trucked in from 30 kilometers away for the entire population. High-Tech Toxic Trash from USA Found to be Flooding Asia. News release: Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, February 2002 You can download the report here. This cure is New Age greenwash It conveniently sidesteps the fact of global warming and the sober pronouncements of the Kyoto conference (December 1997). It dismisses all responsible environmental policies. It aids and abets our environmental wastefulness and irresponsibility. The fact that it also disagrees with traditional Feng Shui barely registers next to its overall environmental insanity. A study published by the Sierra Club in 1996 says that a personal computer that is on but ignored for three hours a day (left on, we assume, for those enlivening and stimulating wisdom benefits only an unattended computer can give) is responsible for some 200 pounds of CO₂ pollution each year. Thats about 2 percent of the annual CO₂ emitted by a car thats actually doing something! Air conditioners, which consume more energy than any other household appliance, are responsible for 2 or more pounds of CO₂ pumped into the atmosphere every operating hour. They also have a litany of health-related complaints associated with them. A dirty filtration system in an air conditioning unit harbors biological agents that can cause anything from allergic reactions, asthma, and flu to deaths from Legionnaires Disease. Air conditioners also account for one-sixth of the insatiable American appetite for electricity. Yet by simply following the principles of traditional Feng Shui (which echo sound environmental policy), planting more trees, and using lighter colors for roofs and pavement, cities would suffer less air pollution and would be cooler than the surrounding countryside. Americans could reduce the need for air conditioning and create less energy brownouts. By following traditional Feng Shui we could effectively reduce our pollution problems, our energy consumption, and drastically cut global warming. We could live more equitably and sustainably on the planet that such faux Feng Shui cures are working so hard to irrevocably damage. Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 7 Bamboo Flutes In BTB theology, bamboo flutes have been provided a fake history as reporters of peace and good news. Today the flutes are believed to introduce peace, stability and safety to an indoor environment. They are believed to increase a structures energy room by room, and to symbolize swords in the protective sense of driving away evil.	Bamboo constitutes one of the eight traditional musical instruments and is not a Feng Shui remedy. Chinese bone flutes from 9,000 years ago were played on ceremonial occasions, according to archaeologists. There is no evidence in all of Chinese history that flutes were used as messenger devices. They were used that way in premodern Africa. Joscelyn Godwin in Harmonies of Heaven and Earth (1995: 9) reminds us of the sacred history of musical instruments like the bone flutes: In most musical instruments the resonator is made of wood while the actual sound generator is of animal origin. In cultures where music is still used as a magical force, the making of an instrument always involves the sacrifice of a living being. That beings soul then becomes part of the instrument and in the tones that come forth, the singing dead, who are ever present with us, make themselves heard. Bamboo instruments were traditionally invented by Nu Gua (of the Wind clan) and correspond to the eastern compass point and the season of spring. They form one of the legendary eight types of musical instruments invented during the Mesolithic and Neolithic in ancient China. The original written radical for flute portrayed panpipes, just as pai xiao represents panpipes. Panpipes are regularly depicted in ancient Chinese sculpture and painting. Hollow tubes, branches, and bones share a long history as shamanic devices used (it is hoped) to alter natural processes via sympathetic magic using the shaman or shamankas own qi. This technique forms a connection with early Chinese acoustic theories, which is why the celebrated Zou Yan (ca. 400 BCE) played his pitchpipes to his crops. Because the Chinese thought of qi this way, they made every effort to turn qi-funneling into a refined science. Military diviners employed pai xiao and humming tubes to gather intelligence about enemy morale. Ancient Chinese scientists saw a clear relationship between notes, winds, and compass points. Around 1100 CE they invented a bizarre idea called The Blowing of the Ashes. It will seem eerily familiar to proponents of New Age Feng Shui. Eight pitchpipes (each attuned to a compass designation) were stuck into the ground at a 45-degree angle and stuffed with ashes. They were sealed in a room against any possible drafts. As the qi of the month appropriate to each pitch/ compass point/ resonance arrived, supposedly the qi would blow out the ash. Of course this wasnt exactly helpful in determining pitch, but it did lead to the concept of the hermetically sealed laboratory. Another bizarre claim of faux Feng Shui is that a bamboo flute symbolizes a weapon. Weapons were made of metal in China, except for the fire lance or huo zhang which was made of bamboo. Its the original ancestor of all barrel guns and cannons. Perhaps we should suspend cannons, rifles, and handguns from the ceiling to drive away evil and introduce peace and safety! The fact remains that theres little logic in having a musical instrument symbolize a weapon. This is not the sort of sophistry a traditional culture would expect people to endure. But if that's your whim, why not hang up a bagpipe instead?
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 8 Colors View the color correlations available on the Color Comparisons page. There are apparent correlations with the traditional colors (and aspects) of each house in Western astrology as well as Western color traditions.	Authentic Feng Shui employs the ancient color system found in the Huainanzi and other texts. Each of the Five Elements has colors that are traditionally associated with it but also correlate with modern color theory. View the color correlations available on the Color Comparisons page. Back
What They Claim	Reality Check
Faux Feng Shui Cure 9 Miscellaneous This generic cure is where practitioners are their most creative. Lin Yun says these are the most mystical of his cures — perhaps in the sense of it being a mystery why people would believe any of their ideas will work! Aaga Stanley Bartlett strings teddy bears from exposed ceiling beams to cure sha. Tony Cuneo sticks red Avery Label dots everywhere to defy the laws of physics and common sense in his attempt hold energy in place or attract it. William Spear uses wind chimes inside a house to mark demarcation points between two types of energy (another classic piece of western folklore that denies physics and Chinese science). And the list of oddities never ends.	Authentic Feng Shui does not have a miscellaneous category for its remedies. Authentic Feng Shui remedies fall within the scope of (most anciently) precise orientations and (more recently) five phases or elements.

What are Feng Shui Colors?

2011-07-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

Color spectrum in Western and Chinese science

This graphic shows the color spectrum used in traditional Chinese philosophy and science (authentic feng shui, medicine, etc.). It is based on wuxing (Five Element Theory).

Color spectrum from science (Chinese & western)

This is the same spectrum you learned in grade-school science. In Chinese science, the spectral colors are arranged as follows:

yang chi — From red to yellow and orange (760 to 575 nanometers)
yin shui — From green to violet-black (575 to 380 nanometers)

McFengshui color spectrum

The color spectrum used in McFengshui is based on the bagua invented by Lin Yun. The spectrum is radically different for several reasons.

The McBagua flows counterclockwise
The color scheme defined in the McBagua does not follow science (Chinese or otherwise)
The color gaps suggest tritanomaly (low blue color blindness).

McFengshui color spectrum

Read the following table to understand how McFengshui relies on Western color symbolism and theory, along with the New Age fraud of Color Therapy. The science of color is missing from McFengshui -- just as Chinese color symbolism and theory is missing from McFengshui.

Scientific research suggests that color affects human performance based on mood and the value assigned to the color in a particular culture.

Direction	Color	Lin Yun's Version	Western & Chinese Traditions
South	Red	Fame	Western > Traditionally, red is the color on the shields of heroes and famous achievers, such as Hannibal. In European blazonry it means generosity. Red ochre has always suggested life and warmth, vitality, and strength. In the Eurowest red is a symbol for alertness, aggression, and sexuality. This Old House Magazine (2003) identifies red as intense, high energy, and representing passion with a touch of danger and aggression. Red was the Celtic color of death and the otherworld. In Western Color Therapy it is courage, self-confidence, vitality.
			Chinese > Marriage, and the birth of sons ("happiness red" is a fairly specific hue). The Chinese emperor wrote his edicts in vermilion. In Chinese science and philosophy red denotes spice, vitality, and energy at its maximal state about to begin decline.
			Science > Red is for sports uniforms and for memory enhancement, if you are a Westerner. A recent study published in Science showed that Westerners performing tasks with words or images displayed on a red background did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, such as spelling and punctuation. "If you're talking about wanting enhanced memory for something like proofreading skills, then a red color should be used" as the background, said Juliet Zhu, one of the researchers. In 2004, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that athletes in the 2004 Olympics who wore red for matches in boxing, tae kwon do, and wrestling won 60 percent of their matches. The researchers theorized that red may convey dominance to some animals, including humans. In a study of Western creative people at cocktail parties, people in red bars frequently complained of being hungry and thirsty.
Southwest	Pink	Partnership, Marriage	Western >Ancient Romans believed girls were born inside pink roses. Tints of red, such as pink, have gentle associations in Western culture with Cupid, love, truth, beauty, and health. Pink is the official color of Valentine's Day, a Christian festival adapted from the Lupercalia. The pink triangle was used by Nazi Germany to denote homosexuals. In Color Therapy pink is friendly, compassionate, faithful.
Southwest	Pink	Partnership, Marriage	Chinese > Designers think color mixtures (such as mulberry and red-orange) are ugly colors.
West	White	Children, Pleasure	Western > People believe this color symbolizes innocence, and few things are more innocent than the young. In European heraldry it signifies purity and truth. In Western art, Magi and Druids wear this color, as does Jesus after his resurrection.
West	White	Children, Pleasure	Chinese > This color is the absence of life — death, mourning, ancestral spirits, ghosts from the land of the dead. It's also yang chi, and energy on the decline.
North	Black	Career	Western > Dignity, aloofness, solitude. The all-time favorite color of medieval European nobility because of the expense of its manufacture. In Color Therapy black is stability, earthy, reliable.
North	Black	Career	Chinese > The color of bruises, therefore a sign of evil and extremely unpopular. On Taiwan this is considered an unlucky color and is associated with death. In Chinese science it's yin shui, energy at its maximal dormancy, about to begin activity.
Northeast	Blue	Knowledge	Western > The traditional color of the European Great Goddess and Divine Wisdom (Sophia, Chokmah), from the deities of the Neolithic to the blue robes of the Virgin Mary. Used by Western ancients to ward off evil. In Color Therapy it is knowledge, health, decisiveness. In This Old House magazine (2003), blue is considered tranquil, calming. The color promotes relaxation.
			Chinese > In premodern China, brothels were painted blue (and thus blue film = pornography). Indigo blue was the favored color for peasant clothing. It's close to the ultraviolet end of the spectrum and therefore yin shui, energy on the decline.
			Science > Blue is for creativity, if you are a Westerner. A recent study published in Science showed that Westerners performing tasks with words or images displayed on a blue background did better on tests that required invention and imagination. For "a brainstorming session for a new product or coming up with a new solution to fight child obesity or teenage smoking, then you should get people into a blue room," said Juliet Zhu, one of the researchers. In the cocktail party research, people at blue bars stayed the longest. Interestingly, the positive emotional associations of the color blue are not as consistent as the negative emotional associations with the color red.
East	Green	Family	Western > The traditional color of life, vigor, fertility, resurrection, and youth. Christian church vestments are green at Easter, the festival of renewal. In European blazonry it signifies joy, love, and abundance. In recent studies, certain colors of green left college students "angry and confused." In Color Therapy green is balance, love, self-control. Green is the color of Islam. In This Old House magazine (2003), green is said to represent nature and renewal. It is considered soothing. Dark green is associated with money and prestige and considered to promote concentration.
East	Green	Family	Chinese > Green was the color used for the sedan chairs of minor officials. Also the royal color of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). In science green is yin shui, and emblematic of the growing phase of energy.
Southeast, Northwest	Purple	Wealth, Helpful people (patrons)	Western > In recent studies, a shade of purple that inspired spirituality in mystics made college students feel "sad and tired." In general purple signifies wealth and royalty, patronage, dignity, richness, mysticism and power to Westerners. In ancient times, the dyes used to create purple were so obscenely expensive that only the very rich — like royalty — could afford the color. During some reigns even selling it was punishable by death. From this grew its association with the powerful elite and their patronage. In Color Therapy it is intuition, mysticism, inspiration, creativity. In This Old House magazine (2003), purple is considered to stimulate creativity and is associated with royalty. Pale shades like lavender and lilac are considered soothing.
Southeast, Northwest	Purple	Wealth, Helpful people (patrons)	Chinese > Recent color studies in China show that high school students despised purple the most. In ancient China, purple was the color worn by the grandsons of the emperor and by the literati. It's at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum and yin shui or energy very near its maximal dormancy.
Center	Yellow	Health	Western > Caution, information, stimulation. In Color Therapy it is wisdom and clarity. In This Old House magazine (2003), it is said to stimulate creativity, make people happy, and increase attentiveness. However, if the color is too strong it can increase anxiety. It is said to brighten north-facing rooms.
Center	Yellow	Health	Chinese > Yellow was preferred by religious people and served on garments to bury the dead. The national color of old China -- the royal color of the Qing era (1644–1911), sacred to the emperor and assumed only by him and his sons or the lineal descendants of his family. In science and philosophy it is yang chi, energy in balance, a buffer between the other phases.

Comparing McFengshui to Real Feng Shui

2011-07-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Why do people make such a fuss about different styles of feng shui? There are good reasons, but they are not usually apparent to the public.

Here is a comparison of feng shui — New Age ("McFengshui") and traditional ("authentic") — using one house chosen at random from real estate listings.

One House, Two Kinds of Feng Shui

In April 2007 a house was for sale in Irvine, California, in one of the planned communities. The asking price was nearly $900,000 US.

For the sake of this exercise assume the following:

The house was built in 1985. (This information is not required for New Age feng shui.)
The garage door faces due south. (This information is not required for New Age feng shui.)
The house is not occupied.
The house has no furnishings and the walls are painted white. The flooring is a neutral color throughout the house (whether tile, marble, or carpeting).
Two families saw the house on the Internet.
Each family sent a practitioner to see if the house would be worth purchasing.

The first practitioner uses New Age feng shui ("McFengshui"), including the "bagua map" ("McBagua"). The second practitioner uses traditional feng shui.

Using the McBagua

The practitioner laid the "bagua map" on the wall of the entrance. This shows the entry in the Career sector.

The master bedroom is to the left, in the Knowledge sector. Helpful People contains the kitchen.
How do they know whether this arrangement is good for their client or not? That's a very good question. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an answer.

Maybe that's why people rely so much on psychobabble.

Here is one interpretation of the house:

They are sleeping on their knowledge
Their career is in the closet.
Their family cut off, half in one place, half in another.
Part of their wealth is missing.
All the helpful people work in the kitchen.

Anyone can develop rationalizations like these. You can probably think of some. Do they tell you anything useful, or are they entertainment?

Now the traditional practitioner arrives.

Using the traditional baguas (2 are used in traditional feng shui)

After compass readings and a calculation, the practitioner notes the following:

Good property for making money, but at the expense of close relationships. There would be conflict and bickering from the time anyone moved in.
It's not uncommon for this type of house to cause so much strife that the occupants divorce.

At this point the practitioner would probably advise the family of their options.
This is an example of the minimum amount of information that a traditional practitioner can provide about a structure.
Suppose the family decides to buy the property as an investment. They might want to use feng shui as a risk assessment tool.
The practitioner can offer advice on

The most likely problems encountered with renters
Where problems are more likely to occur, and when
How to prevent or temper the effects of the most serious problems

If you were spending nearly US $1 million on a house, which practitioner would you hire to look at property?

2011-07-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

Xia Calendar

February 4 is the beginning of spring, when ecliptic longitude is at 315 degrees. However, if you look at a current readout of ecliptic longitude you realize that some dates on the calendar need updating for ecliptic precession.

Here are the Xia calendar dates in agreement with 2009 astronomy, based on calculations for 18:00 (6 pm). That is because Chinese astronomers typically made observations at sundown.

Ecliptic Longitude	Date	Designation
315	February 4	Beginning of spring
330	February 18	Rains
345	March 5	Awakening insects
360	March 20	The vernal equinox occurs 11:44 UTC
15	April 5	Clear brightness
45	May 5	Grain rice
60	May 21	Small harvest
75	June 5	Seed planting
90	June 21	The summer solstice occurs 0:45 UTC
105	July 7	Minor heat -- aphelion on July 6, 02:00 UTC
120	July 23	Major heat
135	August 7	Beginning of autumn (Chinese seasons)
150	August 23	Limit of heat
165	Sept 7	White dew
180	Sept 23	Central division of autum (Chinese seasons) -- autumnal equinox occurs at 21:18 UTC on Sept 22
195	Oct 8	Cold dew
210	Oct 23	Descent of frost
225	Nov 7	Start of winter (Chinese seasons)
240	Nov 22	Minor snow
255	Dec 7	Major snow
270	Dec 22	Winter extreme (Chinese seasons)-- solstice occurs 17:47 UTC on Dec 21
285	Jan 5	Minor cold -- perhelion15:00 UTC on Jan 4
300	Jan 20	Major cold

Jieqi

The jieqi should also follow the astronomical year, as they are the "solar nodes." Here is a list of the jieqi according to 2009 astronomical calculations for 18:00 (6 pm).

Ecliptic Longitude	Chinese Month	Calendar Date	Western Star Marker (Cardinal Direction)
330	1	Feb 18
360	2	March 20	Pisces
30	3	April 20
60	4	May 21
90	5	June 21	Taurus
120	6	July 23
150	7	August 23
180	8	Sept 23	Virgo
210	9	Oct 23
240	10	Nov 22
270	11	Dec 22	Sagittarius
300	12	Jan 20

Ignorance is No Excuse

2011-07-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

Wind & Water, Inc. -- Candace Czarny -- is doing business as artofplacement.com.She has invented a wonderful marketing gimmick. But it works only if you don't know anything about science.

It's caled The Inaccuracy of Reading the Degrees on a Compass.

What She Says	Reality Check
Earth has an electromagnetic field. Our solar sun also has an electromagnetic field.	The American Heritage Science Dictionary explains electromagnetism: The behavior and interaction of electric charges and electric and magnetic fields, such as electricity, magnetism, chemical bonds, and all forms of electromagnetic radiation, including light. Geomagnetism (Earth's magnetic field) is produced by the geomagnetic dynamo (more on that later). The sun has many magnetic fields. Nasa saysMagnetism, or magnetic field, is produced on the Sun by the flow of electrically charged ions and electrons. However, the Sun's field is called the solar magnetic field, not the "solar electromagnetic field" or the "solar sun electromagnetic field."
Our solar sun goes thru 11year cycles of solar fluctuations called sun flares that create solar wind. In 2003 two of the strongest flares ever recorded flashed. National Geographic says that we are in the height of the sunspot cycle.	According to Nasa, the sunspot cycle results from the recycling of magnetic fields by the flow of material inside the Sun. The Schwabe cycle is 10 to 11 years; the Hale cycle is roughly 22 years. There are longer cycles as well. According to the physics department at the University of Montana, The most rapid changes to the Sun's magnetic field occur locally, in restricted regions of the magnetic field. However, the entire structure of the Sun's global magnetic field changes on an 11 year cycle. Every 11 years, the Sun moves through a period of fewer, smaller sunspots, prominences, and flares -- called a "solar minimum" -- and a period of more, larger sunspots, prominences and flares -- called a "solar maximum." A maximum and a minimum, taken together, make up one solar cycle. During the 11 years, the strongest magnetic fields (in sunspots) slowly migrate towards the Sun's equator from locations about midway to the Sun's poles. After 11 years, when the next cycle starts, the magnetic field poles are reversed. Solar maximum occurred in 2000-2001, as did a reversal of the sun's magnetic field (a Hale cycle). Solar minimum has been with us since 2004, according to Nasa. (Remember, solar minimum is "the lowest ebb of solar activity.") The next solar storm cycle is expected to begin in March 2008. The fractal signature in the solar wind helps scientists understand the cycle. You can look at movies and data from 1996 to 2007 to see whether the "two of the strongest flares ever recorded" truly occurred in 2003. Note that the BBC says a flare in October 2003 was the "third largest detected since regular solar monitoring began 25 years ago" and "the strongest flare since 2001 which itself was the most powerful since 1989."
The fluctuations from our solar sun have a major impact on the planet earth. This solar wind creates a vibration that disturbs the electromagnetic field of the earth. The greater the intensity of the solar fluctuations and the amount of fluctuations will determine the amount of disturbances of the earth’s electromagnetic field.	The solar wind is a continuous stream of plasma (mostly protons and electrons) flowing outward from the Sun's corona, its outer atmosphere, which is structured by strong magnetic fields. (Earth has a corona as well, called the geocorona.) Notice the word continuous: every few hours the Sun spews billions of tons of the electrically charged particles -- the wind. You can watch the solar wind and auroras. The Space Weather Center says Our solar system is a series of bubbles within bubbles – plasma within magnetic fields separated from each other by huge, flowing sheets of electric currents. It's a pattern that's repeated throughout the rest of our plasma universe. The Sun is enclosed in a magnetic bubble. As the solar wind streams outward, pulling the Sun's magnetic field with it, it forms a huge, teardrop-shaped magnetic bubble. This bubble, the heliosphere, contains the solar wind, the entire solar magnetic field, and all the planets (many with their own magnetic fields). Earth isn't the only planet to have a magnetosphere. Earth's neighbor Mercury has one, and all the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus – have huge magnetospheres. We don't know about Pluto, because no spacecraft have yet visited the planet. We do know Venus and Mars don't have planetary magnetic fields or magnetospheres – but we don’t yet know why. The solar wind contains magnetic clouds during solar eruptions known as flares and coronal mass ejections. Solar flares and CMEs occur whenever there's a rapid, large-scale change in the Sun's magnetic field. -- David Hathaway, a solar physicist at the Nasa Marshall Space Flight Center A solar flare is an explosion on the Sun, caused by magnetic field lines around sunspots crossing and reconnecting with an explosive release of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum (from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays). Flares are our solar system’s largest explosive events. In 2000 a massive flare was dubbed the Bastille Day Event. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a gas bubble with magnetic field lines. These can disrupt the solar wind and trigger major disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere known as space weather. Space weather begins on the Sun, disrupts the space between the Sun and Earth, touches the atmosphere above Earth, and sometimes reaches the ground. However, not all CMEs cause space weather. The Space Weather Center explains: All magnetic fields have a direction. The solar wind’s field can point in all sorts of directions: towards Earth, away from Earth, towards the north, towards the south, and even towards the east and west. The actual direction of the field when a mass ejection comes crashing into Earth’s magnetosphere is very important. If it’s directed southward, we have found that disturbances in the solar wind, like CMEs, can penetrate Earth’s protective shield and cause magnetic storms. If the solar wind’s magnetic field has some other direction, like northward, then conditions are mild. The direction of the field acts like an electric switch: northward the switch is off; southward it is turned on. You can watch a storm. You can listen to storms.
The history of these solar fluctuations can be found in the earth’s tectonic plates. It is believed that at one time all of the continents of the earth were connected. It is also believed that the effects from on solar system and galaxy have caused the shift to the separate continents.	How did the Schwabe cycle get mixed up with plate tectonics? Cranks and nutjobs! Czarny seems to have read some armchair pundits' anti-climate change sites and websites maintained by cranks (like this!), and arrived at the assumption that people look at the plates and see solar fluctuations, galactic influences, and more. Scientists haven't found any "history of solar fluctuations" in the plates -- they found magnetic striping. They haven't found solar system effects (or galactic effects) -- they know tectonics enable the magnetosphere here, and on Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn and Uranus. A primer on geomagnetism from New Scientist.
The Earth’s electromagnetic field is created by a solid iron inner core and a molten outer core. These two cores move in opposite directions. It is this movement of the cores that creates the energy that moves in the magnet pole that creates the earth’s magnetic field and magnetic north.	A better explanation from NOVA's program Magnetic Storm. Peter Olson says About half way to the center of the Earth we reach the true heart of the Earth, the Earth's core, an immense molten sphere of liquid iron, and that's where the Earth's magnetic field is generated. And there's more. … the liquid metal that makes up the outer core passes through a magnetic field, which causes an electric current to flow within the liquid metal. The electric current, in turn, creates its own magnetic field —one that is stronger than the field that created it in the first place. As liquid metal passes through the stronger field, more current flows, which increases the field still further. This self-sustaining loop is known as the geomagnetic dynamo. Energy is needed to keep the dynamo running. This energy comes from the release of heat from the surface of the solid inner core. Although it may seem counterintuitive, material from the liquid outer core slowly "freezes" onto the inner core, releasing heat as it does so. (High pressures within the Earth cause material to freeze at high temperatures.) This heat drives convection cells within the liquid core, which keeps the liquid metal moving through the magnetic field. The so-called Coriolis force also plays a role in sustaining the geomagnetic dynamo. Our planet's spinning motion causes the moving liquid metal to spiral, in a way similar to how it affects weather systems on the Earth's surface. These spiraling eddies allow separate magnetic fields to align (more or less) and combine forces. Without the effects caused by the spinning Earth, the magnetic fields generated within the liquid core would cancel one another out and result in no distinct north or south magnetic poles.
Magnetic North and True North (the Earth’s axis) although thought to be one in the same, are not. Magnet North moves an average of 40 kilometers every year. In the last 100 years Magnetic North has moved approximately 1200 kilometers.	Feng shui focuses on the local environment, and the feng shui compass was invented to read the local environment. All Czarny's blather about "magnet north," etc., just shows she's ignorant of what real feng shui does. And she is ignorant of two important scientific truths. To quote Magnetic Storm: The magnetic field … streams out near the South Pole, loops around the planet, and then runs back into the core … the Earth's magnetic field runs from south to north … By convention, the end of a dipole magnet where the magnetic field emanates outward is termed the "north" pole of the magnet; the end where the magnetic field goes inward is termed the "south" pole of the magnet (according to the Right Hand Rule in physics, which explains vectors in three dimensions -- in this case a vector associated with a rotation). The geomagnetic field flows out of the South Pole, and runs back into the North Pole (in this computer simulation of Earth's magnetic field, inward field lines are blue and outward field lines are yellow). On Earth, geomagnetic north is actually at the geographic South Pole. Yes, that's right: *the magnetic pole in the Canadian Arctic is really the south* pole of Earth*! The Western convention is to call this the North Pole, even though physics says it's not -- and feng shui compasses say it's not. The nonconservation of parity is important to understand when you are claiming to be a feng shui practitioner. After all, Chinese scientists proved nonconservation -- Chinese compasses have always been "south-pointing needles" (zhinan zhen).* The "North Pole" convention prevented westerners from making the discovery (and winning the Nobel in physics). Now that you know feng shui compasses point to *the real* magnetic north*, you can see that "magnetic north" in Czarny's statement is actually the Western convention. Physics and feng shui compasses are both outside her understanding. The second concept that Czarny has missed entirely is not the secular variation of the magnetic field, or declination -- these have been known since Chinese invented the compass for feng shui. Most ancient cultures used the polestar to know the direction of true north -- China was no exception.* Considering that both of the baguas are ancient star maps, looking at the stars would have been second nature. … the declination as well as the polarity of the magnet had been discovered, antedating the European knowledge of the declination by some six centuries. The Chinese were theorising about the declination before Europe knew even of the polarity … -- Joseph Needham: "Thoughts on the Origin of Chess," from Science and Civilization in China (1962) The feng shui compass known as the *Shipan* -- the original magnetic compass or zhinan zhen ("south pointing spoon") -- was shaped like a ladle because it was paying homage to the *Ladle or Bushel in the skies -- Beidou* -- which pointed to the polestar*. The navigator knows the geography, he watches the stars at night, watches the sun at day; when it is dark and cloudy, he watches the compass. -- Zhu Yu: Pingzhou Ke Tan (Pigzhou Table Talks),* 1117 CE Why were feng shui practitioners noticing declination? For the same reason that the Shang palaces at Yinxu are roughly ten degrees off north -- the feng shui people were siting the buildings, and observed over time that the magnetic field moved, just as they noticed precession moved the stars. More than one ring on a Luopan makes adjustments for secular variation. But that's a minor failing of Czarny's. The big one is not understanding how a compass works. NOAA says A compass points at the horizontal component of the magnetic field where the compass is located, not to any single point. … The Earth's magnetic field is actually a composite of several magnetic fields generated by a variety of sources. These fields are superimposed on each other and through inductive processes interact with each other. The most important of these geomagnetic sources are: a. the Earth's conducting, fluid outer core (~90%); b. magnetized rocks in Earth's crust c. fields generated outside Earth by electric currents flowing in the ionosphere and magnetosphere d. electric currents flowing in the Earth's crust (usually induced by varying external magnetic fields) e. ocean current effects These contributions all vary with time on scales ranging from milliseconds (micropulsations) to millions of years (magnetic reversals). A compass does not point to magnetic north (except indirectly). It indicates the local horizontal component of the magnetic field -- local magnetic field intensity and dip. Local magnetic field intensity and dip is a vector field, which is some vector at every point of space and time. A magnetic field exerts a torque on a magnetic dipole such as a compass needle, causing the needle to point in the same direction as the magnetic field. The magnitude of torque is proportional to the magnitude of the magnetic field.
If you are determining placement of furniture based upon magnetic north, the degrees are not critical, the overall direction is. However, if you are determining your property or site location based upon Magnetic North your compass reading will not be specifically accurate in reading the actual degrees of the location.	The degrees on a Luopan are important for authentic feng shui. They measure time as an angle -- which is why San Yuan is the Time and Space School (technique). They indicate the vector of geomagnetic influences. They indicate the vector of any local manifestations of space weather. For McFengshui, which is what Czarny does, whatever she means by an "overall direction" probably is all that's really necessary -- after all, she's working with the Placebo Effect.
The addition or subtraction of the Magnetic Declination to your compass reading will give you a close reading, however, it will not be accurate degree because magnetic north is in constant movement.	Declination is useful when you are going somewhere -- which is why airports have runways named for degrees of declination. Runway numerals are determined from the approach direction to the runway end and are equal to one-tenth of the magnetic azimuth of the runway centerline, measured in a clockwise direction from magnetic north. Nasa notes: The Earth’s magnetic field is used by geologists to determine subterranean rock structures. For the most part, these geodetic surveyors are searching for oil, gas, or mineral deposits. They can accomplish this only when Earth’s magnetic field is quiet, so that true magnetic signatures can be detected. Other surveyors prefer to work during geomagnetic storms, when the variations to normal subsurface electric currents help them to see subsurface oil or mineral structures. For these reasons many surveyors use geomagnetic alerts and predictions to schedule their mapping activities. In the old days, feng shui masters made compass readings shortly after dawn, and near sundown -- this is when the particle stream is less likely to disturb a compass. Today, a good practitioner should take advantage of space weather notifications, because a severe incident could exert a profound influence on the compass. The solar flare in October 2003 changed compass variation at the Lerwick geomagnetic observatory in Scotland by 5.1 degrees in only 25 minutes.
The rings and reading of the Lo Pan Compass, includes measurements as small as 1 degree. Two or more of the 36 compass rings are lined up to divine your fortune.	She has no clue how the thing works!

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