Different Schools of Feng Shui
The philosophy of Feng Shui is that living in harmony with the universal energies will offer us our greatest support. There are several schools of feng shui with very different foundations - each school has its own unique approach to harmonizing the environmental energies. The oldest schools are the Form and the Compass Schools.
Form Schools
This school is the oldest teaching. The historical purpose was to determine the most auspicious burial site to afford the best advantage to descendants. Present day application studies mountains and waterways as these will have a significant impact on people living there.
Traditional Compass School – Flying Stars
This method evolved through the study of nature's cyclical trends over the centuries. The philosophy behind this teaching is that energy is in a constant state of change, but is yet predictable as periods of time repeating in patterns.
This ancient science relies heavily on yin & yang balance, the 5 elements, 8 trigrams and the 24 mountains of the special compass called the Luopan. Construction date and orientation of the building (time and space) are considered along with the birth dates of the family members to make this a very specific analysis. Calculations and formula applied will reveal very individual qualities to the building which are not possible to determine with the other feng shui methods.
Compass School – Eight Mansions
Everyone can be classified as either a West Group or East Group relative to their year of birth. This method also applies the eight compass points to a house to determine how compatible it is with the individuals living there.
Life Aspiration School
This simplified method places a 9 square grid over the floor plan to identify the eight directions according to the facing of the house. Each direction is assigned a specific Life Aspiration in regards to wealth, fame, children, mentors, career, education, health and family. These areas may be enhanced with the placement of specific cures. It also considers the individual favourable and unfavourable directions.
Black Hat (Western/New Age) Feng Shui School
These teachings were brought from Taiwan to Berkeley, California in 1986 by Professor Lin Yun, a Tibetan Tantric buddhist. This method encompasses several of the above teachings but the energy map placed over the house floor plan does not take into consideration the compass directions, nor time factors. This method relies heavily on creating a positive environment through working with the Universe Creators and Chi.