Feng shui has become very popular. It may not have taken the world ‘by storm’ but it definitely has made some impact. Personally I hope that feng shui and feng shui theory would someday become common and everybody would be able to make use of it to get some benefit.
Along with its gain in popularity, many of the principles of feng shui have been incorporated and some re-invented in many unique ways. Some of these re-inventions are quite ingenious. For example, there are the use of salt lamps, the use of crystals, Tibetan singing bowls, Taoist symbols, calligraphy, numbers and so on. They are items which are used for health, wealth or marital harmony and such.
There are also new concepts that follow the LuoShu diagram like the feng shui garden, the feng shui bedroom and others along similar themes. The use of water gave rise to the placement of aquariums and fish ponds are derived from the old canons like the water dragon classics and others.
Obviously to me, most of these are borrowed ideas and their applications generally harmless. On the other hand, they indicate an awareness of feng shui which is good. It would be too harsh to judge and say these ideas are useless for underlying all these is the goal; of achieving harmony.
Most of the time, the incorporation of such feng shui do little harm other than making the wallet thinner. On the other hand there are some really bad applications where the applicant has gone too far overboard and the energy intended too forceful such that it disrupts feng shui harmony.
The simple rule I would say for DIY is to follow commonsense. By just simply checking that the overall theme of your design is not dominated by one single theme is the safest bet.
I hope to touch on some of the new ideas that are mentioned above. You may have your ideas to share too.
