Rituals, Affirmations, & Modern Interpretations There are no rituals, affirmations, or blessings in Feng Shui. We can use rituals, affirmations or blessing ceremonies if they endear us and comfort us, but we can not call it Feng Shui. Why? Feng may literally mean "Wind" and Shui may literally mean "Water", but apart from their translations these terms were traditionally used to point out specific techniques used in Traditional Chinese Feng Shui. Feng means "Mountain" or "to close" and Shui means "Water" or "to open". Some modern systems, whether or not they are actually branched from teachings of Feng Shui, use the term "Feng Shui" to point out their involvement in environmental matters and may apply intuitive techniques to improve well-being, but they do not work with the concepts of Mountain or Water techniques. The imaginative strength of the human mind is recognized and there may certainly be no doubt that affirmations can have significance, power, and impact. However, we hope we have demonstrated that Feng Shui is really only concerned with Qi flow. When we conduct rituals, nothing is either closed or opened. The color green can never replace the Wood of a tree. Blue can never be a substitute for real water. How can strong environmental qi be influenced by the frequency of color? Where is the Mountain or Water when you hang your certificate in a certain direction? Many geomancers are disturbed by the many different systems or dissapointed by the subjectivity of rituals in some branches of modern "Feng Shui". How can all houses have "Career" in the same spot, seen from the door, when we know that Career is in the North? Not all houses have their main entrance in the North. Career, Fame, Marriage, etc., are not concepts of Traditional Feng Shui and only appeared around 1986. One of the modern systems was invented by Professor Thomas Lin Yun around 1986. But, to his credit, he never said that his system was to replace real directions. On the contrary, in his last book with Sarah Rossbach he clearly states that "my ba gua is an internalized ba gua". His ba gua merely shows an intuitive approach of time and space and follows our path through life from baby to adult and through maturity.

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It is said that there are 120 different schools of Feng Shui. To claim that one of them is the true school and that another is false may limit our search for the truth and close our minds and hearts to all the undiscovered Time and Space systems before they were even revealed to us. It is vital to understand that each system has its own merits and legitimacy. We are all different and so different systems emerge and different methods appeal to us. Intellectual masters produce intellectual systems, to which people with an intellectual interest are drawn. Intuitive masters produce intuitive systems, to which people with an intuitive approach are drawn. We may all be intellectual and intuitive enough to see that one cannot go without the other. The styles and techniques of different systems may be greatly influenced by culture, geography, climate, diet, philosophy, religion, sociology, and multitudes of other factors. Understanding and appreciating different approaches may unify the different peoples of the world. Let your choice or preference for a certain system not be based on the rejection of something else. Professor Lin Yun himself does not discard any other system. Rather than by Heaven Luck and Earth Luck, his approach is from Human Luck. His is an intuitive approach of Time and Space. Study anything you can obtain, analyze, evaluate, integrate that which works and discard that which does not. Both reason and intuition are valuable assets of human perception.