The Chinese multi-tiered pagoda, the ‘chinese brush on a rack’, the brush holder and sometimes the mystic animal QiLin are described as a “literary pagoda’.
Does it really work?
Before we answer this, let us look at the methods. Depending on the school, the advice or recommendation offered are different. Here are some popular approaches:
A The eight mansions school will advice placing books or the pagoda at the living energy sector. As an example for a northeast house (which generally faces southwest), this position would be at the center of the front of the house.
B The flying star fengshui will determine the location based on when the house was built as well as its orientation. Many possibilities are possible.
C The purple and white flying star master may recommend base on the annual position of the star. For example this year, the star that will enhance your child’s studies would be at the west. Placing the pagoda there is said to enhance the energy of the literary star.
D Another favorite which stretches a long way back in history is to use the child’s horoscope and determine his literary position. This requires knowing the year or the birth date. For example a dragon child born in 2000 would have the north-northwest location as his literary star position. Placing a feng shui pagoda would be recommended to improve her studies.
(Each individual’s location can be calculated but charts make them simple. I hope to compile a chart and if you like, post them up.)
E The mystic school master would recommend that the child sleep in the room in the middle left of the house (as viewed from the entrance door) accompanied by having a bookcase at the front of the home for good measure. The master may also recommend wind mills placed at the ceiling as that is supposed to encourage “looking up”. In fact, there are other methods for the identification of the correct location.
The intention generally is to enhance the star called the Bright Literacy, Wen Chang. The line between astrology and feng shui are interconnected and really a little blurred.
Why use brushes and brush sets? The obvious reason is that brushes are symbolic of learning and knowledge. So is the lofty pagoda.
We can also see a connection for their use from the I Ching.
Hexagram 53, ‘Development’ or ‘Gradual Progress’ (Jian), symbolizes a brush and a table. It speaks that progress is made through gradual learning and acquisition of knowledge. Its image is that of a scholar writing or working sitting in front of a desk – the perfect image of studies and excellence. It also portrays the image of a brush and rack which may explain why feng shui masters recommend placing the rack to tap this energy which they hope rubs on to the kids.
But does the brush and rack work?
The answer is a big no and a small yes.
Why it is a no. Feng shui is strictly about the harmony of our place of work and play. If the racks were to work, as what some masters recommend, then placing ten such brushes on our work table should enhance our career or make us score in examinations. That would be silly, wouldn’t it? Very likely, cluttering our desk is all that will happen. No, definitely this is not feng shui.
The pagoda or brush alone is not going to improve anybody’s IQ. Neither will it make a person smarter. How successful one becomes is ultimately proportionate to the effort put in.
Good feng shui is getting the yin and yang right. Activating Literary Star through the directions and such are concepts adapted from astrology.
Why it is a small yes. One particularly crucial but often missed aspect of feng shui is the latent energy of a space or environment. In feng shui, the trigrams (gua) helps explains the qi. Trigrams are the most basic language code. These codes are just as important as the alphabet in our language for through them we give expressions to our thoughts and intentions.
The racks and brushes are codes. By placing them in one’s space, it is emanates its own aura of energy. In another way, a child looking at it, consciously or subconsciously, is reminded of the ideals of study and of course the kind nagging of their elders. At work, it reminds us of the call for excellence, quality and hard work. All these are positive thoughts and as the ‘secret’ reminds us, our thoughts shapes our universe.
Placing them in strategic positions is in a way an attempt to maximize the energy. Pagodas and brushes are used to generate the trigram energy we would like to have so that harmony is achieved in the living space. Such is the use of brushes and paintings. There is no harm in doing so.
In concluding, if you like brushes and pagodas, there is no reason why you can’t have one. However, I would not pay a bomb to get one in the hope that my career is going to skyrocket because of it.
