Feng Shui and Colors
Do colors really have any significance in feng shui and how does it work?
Studies on human behavior have shown that colors do affect our moods. Blues are quieting, green invigorating and yellow brightening. Morose colors are black and grey while red gets us excited. These are facts and we don’t really need any studies to tell us that. But what really is interesting is how feng shui makes use of colors to work on a level which we are not able to see and feel.
Colors are used in fascinating ways. The fengshui rationale is somewhat different. We could talk about, say, yellow brightens up a living room but feng shui may use the color to represent the qualities of earth or white to represent metal.
Let’s look at how feng shui would work with the color white. In flying and annual star feng shui, for instance, the stars 5 and 2 are said to be unfavorable in that they have the potential to cause accidents, injuries, illnesses and other such bad things. Both these stars belong to the element earth and to diminish or even completely remove their effect, the element metal is employed.
Let’s take a step back. Both earth and metal are two of the fivesome elements. The other three are water, fire and wood. They relate to each other and the two more important relationship is the productive and destructive cycle. In the case of earth (5 and 2), they are diminished or reduced by metal. You can say that their power is robbed by metal. (The purist would say they are reduced by metal.)
Thus, you could use a white color for that room or area where the 5 or 2 star is present. This tiger year, 2010, for example, the 5 is active in the southwest and the 2 is active in the northeast. Hence, most masters would recommend we use white in those areas. The feng ling or wind chime too has that effect in that the metallic sound produced would clear away the energy of 5/2 earth that is around.
This is also applied to the latent character of the house or office and is accomplished by plotting out the natal chart of the space. That explains why we see wind chimes hanging from the eaves and balconies.
The impact of color is subtle yet its effect is perennial. However, my advice is to use them in a moderate way which also means that they should not overpower your space. The keyword is harmony. This means that if everything is white, it becomes harsh and the feng shui would be overkill. Too much of a strong herbal tonic in the long term may make our body too heaty with is not what we want.
On passing, may I add a word on wind chimes. They are not cure-alls. Use them wisely. On a gross level, a soft deep tone wind chime is suitable. Too many and we get surrounded by a whole plethora of jangling sounds which are not the quality of metal that is required to do the work.
The most beautiful wind chime I have come across is the Woodstock wind chime which is tuned but they are quite expensive.
Woodstock Percussion DCB37 Earth Chime – Bronze
