Feng Shui Online Courses
By Chris Shaul
Sr. Instructor at the American Feng Shui Institute
Feng Shui Online Courses are one of the hot topics for the last 15 years, really since the start of the Internet craze. At that time, I helped Master Larry Sang and the American Feng Shui Institute get their website started. It was 1996 and the web browser was fairly new. Netscape was one of the first browsers and the web was fairly clunky. The first website consisted of five pages and it was basically a bill-board to the world. But, it got the word out about Feng Shui in the US. At the time, only in-person classes were offered. We had not created Feng Shui Online Courses at the Institute yet.
That was soon to change. In 2000, we received an offer from a third party website to create some basic Feng Shui online courses to be offered on their website. We created the Beginning and Intermediate Feng Shui Online Courses. At the time, they were the first of their kind on the Internet. We then built the structure to host Feng Shui Online Courses on the American Feng Shui Institute’s website and completed the material for the Advanced Course.
In 2001, we launched the first complete series of Feng Shui Online Courses on the Internet. Soon other classes would be added, including the Chinese Stems and Branches Classes, and several Advanced Feng Shui Case studies. These Advanced Case Studies teach higher levels of Feng Shui knowledge and are directly from the case files of Master Sang.
What soon followed were classes on all aspects of Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology. Zi Wei Dou Shu and the Four Pillars classes are popular Chinese Astrology classes offered at the Institute. About the same time, we realized that the Internet has its own pricing due to the fact that there are people from all over the world and from all sorts of different economies wanting to study. What was acceptable in the US was not affordable in developing countries. People wanted inexpensive Feng Shui Online Courses, but with high quality material. The Feng Shui Online Courses had a price reduction that allowed students from all over the world to have immediate accessibility to the Chinese study of Feng Shui.
With this reduced price and with the additional Feng Shui Online Courses that were being developed, the Institute saw more and more students attend online. In fact, many students local to the Los Angeles area, where the Institute is located were now taking classes online. This is a testament to how the flexibility of Feng Shui Online Courses allow people to study at their own pace and at their own schedule.
Feng Shui Online Courses – Things to look for
The American Feng Shui Institute prides itself on presenting only authentic Traditional Chinese Feng Shui classes. If you want to understand more about Feng Shui, there is an article here on “What is Feng Shui?” There are so many misunderstandings about what Feng Shui really is. Let me run through a few of the things that make up authentic Feng Shui Online Courses, as well as what is and isn’t authentic Feng Shui.
Feng Shui was held closely by the Emperor of China for many hundreds of years. It was a source of power and a way of bringing prosperity to the land. As such, many people heard whispered theories of Feng Shui, but without the key, you often did not know the whole truth. For example, many people heard that the bagua was important as was mirrors. Well, hundreds of years ago a mirror was made of polished metal. According to the Five Element theory of Feng Shui (wood, fire, earth, metal and water), metal reduced earth qi sha. This means that there is a calculated energy or qi in a place and it relates to earth. Using metal, such as a metal mirror reduces that earth sha (negative influence). The bagua, is the eight palaces that are used in calculating the qi. Think of a tic, tac toe grid. There are 8 sections and a center. The bagua is important, but not as a decorative object, but rather as the calculation grid for the 8 directions. Eventually people combined these two theories and came up with a bagua mirror. This little wooden object is used to ward off evil qi. The problem is, that this is based on mistaken understanding of both the mirror and the bagua.
As you can see, Feng Shui has a lot of concepts that seem mysterious, but once you unravel the mystery, it all makes sense. For example, another misconception is that Feng Shui is about furniture placement. Well that is half right. What is true is that the furniture should be placed in favorable areas of qi. You want the home occupants to spend time in the good areas of qi and avoid the bad. It is not so much about the furniture moving to a certain area, it is to facilitate the occupants spending time in a good area absorbing the prosperity and well-being energies that are present. So the furniture supports this goal.
There are many Feng Shui Online Courses on the web that present interior design concepts passed off as Feng Shui. Additionally, there are courses that literally have been created by a person here in the USA and is not authentic Feng Shui. Without naming names, there is a fairly famous school that teaches a unique form of Feng Shui. It happened that they were teaching in the same building as we were during a remote class in New York. During their break, the Instructor from that school observed what we were teaching and was amazed at the content. He had no idea about the depth of the Yin and Yang, or the 8 trigrams. In fact, his class did not even teach these fundamentals. Point being, that not all Feng Shui Online Courses have the same depth of material.
When looking at classes that purport to teach Chinese Feng Shui, be careful of any school that recommends using any objects or chants, or practices other than using the five elements or environmental design. Authentic Feng Shui uses only the five natural elements, or changes in the interior or exterior environments to remedy the qi. Anything else is likely superstition or misunderstanding.
Feng Shui Online Courses – Summary
I hope that this has cleared up some of the misconceptions about the Principles of Feng Shui and given you some insight into Feng Shui Online Courses that would serve you best. If you are looking for a Feng Shui Certificate or for a solid background in the practice of Feng Shui to add to your design business, real estate business, or you want to pursue it as a hobby for your own home, then I cannot recommend any school more highly than the Feng Shui Online Courses at the American Feng Shui Institute. I am sure you will agree that these are high quality classes. Best of luck in pursuing your Feng Shui studies!
