Feng Crochet

At its heart, Feng Shui is a very simple practice. It is the act of bringing your surroundings into harmony with nature—both our own, internal nature and the natural world. "Feng Shui" translates to "wind-water," highlighting two of the five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) that the art of Feng Shui holds in balance.

There are three core principles at work within Feng Shui: the elements, qi (which translates to "energy," or "life-force"), and the bagua, which is a map of your home, featuring principles like abundance, career, family, and so forth—all the things we negotiate in our homes, throughout our lives. When you dive into Feng Shui, it becomes quite complex—there's a reason there are certified practitioners offering guidance for those of us who aren't quite sure we understand all the principles. I make no pretenses about being one of those certified practitioners! This book offers only a small glimpse into the workings of Feng Shui, just to give you an idea of how to get started.

For all practical purposes, Feng Crochet focuses on just the five elements, giving you ideas, thoughts, and patterns for ways to incorporate those five elements into your home. But how you incorporate those elements depends on qi, and on the bagua, and each of those elements affects the others.

Everything has energy. That chair you love, even though it might be a little faded and ratty, because it's just so comfortable and comforting? That's positive energy, free-flowing qi. But that end table you inherited from your grandmother, that you ought to love but just makes you sad—its energy just isn't working for you. It's blocked, and the qi within your home is blocked by it. You want to balance these kinds of energies, as well as the energies of the elements and the bagua, so that the qi within your home flows gently, ebbing and flowing in a peaceful, natural rhythm.

Each of these sections represents an area in your home, and an area of your life to focus on in that space. Each section resonates with a particular element. The center of the bagua—and the center of your home—represents a healthy state, where all of your elements, and all of the different demands you place on yourself, are in balance.

Now, most of our houses are not octagonal, so this is a very rough guide. You can use the bagua in whatever way feels the most natural to you; if there is a room in a southeasterly part of your house that would make a good home office, terrific! If you can put your bedroom in the southwest corner, that's great, too. And if some of these parts of life feel less important to you than others—if fame is less important than health and creativity, for example—then feel free to minimize those parts. This is about your qi, about your home, and it should reflect you.