The Five Principles of Qi Planning
The five principles of Qi planning are the tools of my trade. They are the basic building blocks of using correlated aspects of time and space to predict life, wellness, growth and decay. All together it comprises a personal life manual that we can refer as we journey through our decades of change, from life to death.
What is Qi
Qi is a life force that is found in all living things.
Qi (chi) is a natural life force with male and female polarities. Qi cannot be scientifically quantitative, measured or proven but it can be felt by the human body. It is influenced by the Sun and Moon and other planetary orbits. It flows through mountain ranges and stops and accumulates in water sources. It is affected by wind.
Qi is found in all living things. Without it there is no life. In people, we acquire our natal Qi from our parent’s DNA. Qi is absorbed into buildings, mountains, and waters and can manifest in actions, and phases of growth and decay.
Correlated Qi types can then be used to classified non-living things using the Eight Trigrams.
Maybe Albert Einstein already discovered Qi without giving it a name as he was aware that we are all under an influence. It’s an influence that sets boundaries and has great power over us. Einstein shared his thoughts on the subject in the Saturday Evening Post, on October 26, 1929 when he said:
“Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as the stars. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust – we all dance to the mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible piper”
Einstein also knew as part of his Theory of Relativity that mass is just a different manifestation of energy. It is simply a form of energy at rest. He was aware of a fourth dimension, which he called time and space. In Feng Shui it is called Heaven and Earth. The study of Feng Shui was originally called Kan Yu, or time and space.
The study of Feng Shui includes astrology, astronomy, geology, physics, mathematics, philosophy, and intuition. It is an art and science of analyzing nature’s forces with the intent of benefitting. It is the study of the effects of time (heavenly forces) and space (earthly forces) on the wellbeing of an individual (man).
Yin and Yang
Yin and yang are the major ingredients needed to produce Qi. Separate but together Yin and Yang illustrate the polarity of all things. The combo was initially portrayed as the shady yin and sunny yang sides of the hill, but now we recognized it as the basic building blocks of all nature. It is the two primal forces of male and female, or positive and negative charges that are required to create.
Yin and Yang and the Five Phases are used to explain the structure, order and change within the universe. The concept of Yin and Yang are firmly embedded in Chinese philosophy, science and medicine. And found in many ancient texts going back to 200 B.C.E.
Yin and Yang in Feng Shui
You are Yang and your space is Yin. Every wall in your space is yin and represents one of the Five Phases. Depending on how the wall Yin Qi affects your Yang Qi can impact your relationships, health,
Ancients watched, monitored, compared and catalogued which elements occurred in nature and which was made to manifest in our bodies and our lives. Over time this accumulated knowledge produced the principle of the five phases. The principle offered a predictable and systematic solution to how Qi moves through the changes of Yin and Yang. Qi planning and Feng Shui studies the interaction of the five phases to enhance the positive and correct the negative Qi in your space.
Each phase is associated with a season, direction, 
weather condition, colour, number, trigram, body part, a health condition, a type of character, a type of profile, a shape, person type, etc. Everything can be identified as one of the five phases. This is done exhaustively with the categorizing of the eight trigrams.
The phases are labeled as elements Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. These elements behave like actions or phases and they are constantly moving. Qi planning is the movement, transformation and interaction of each phase. The interaction of the five phases creates all that exists on the heaven, earth and human planes.
Each phase has its own character and movement:
- Fire qi radiates out
- Earth qi compact in
- Metal qi spirals forward
- Water qi flows down
- Wood qi shoots up
How the Five Phases Interact
The three ingredients of Qi Planning include time (heaven), space (earth) and action (man). Each play a part in feng shui and without accounting for all three of these ingredients your Qi planning results will not be as favourable.
Time – Heaven
Time plays a role in Qi planning in many ways – the time when you are born impacts your personal Qi and the present time and date impacts decisions you make and the outcome of events.
Time is measured in cycles and as a result, there are specific years, days and times of the day that will best support specific events in your life. There are longer cycles (we are currently in a 20-year cycle) and there are also annual changes. Using calculated information, along with the other principles of Qi planning, we can predict reasonable annual projections for your health, relationships and wealth.
Using this information along with the other aspects of Qi planning will allow you to enjoy life to the best of your abilities.
Space – Earth
The space you use daily can impact your well-being. Feng Shui studies the earth and land to help find the best location for you to meet your goals. Qi planners and Feng Shui practitioners will observe and study a property looking for:
- The dragon’s lair (metaphor for the place where Qi pools)
- Mountains or structures that create an ideal “arm chair formation”
- Water (roadways or people flow) and how it passes your property
Once the ideal location is found, the interior also needs to be assessed for best use of space. A Qi map is created using the time of build and facing direction. These calculations are then used in combination with forms and timing to determine compatibility for your career, relationship, health and other life goals.
Action – Man
Action is the practical application of Qi planning. If the timing is right and the location is best it is still necessary for you to take the necessary action to see the best results. Feng Shui does not do the work for you, it can only provide you with the tools required to make the best choices and to spot future roadblocks and make plans to avoid them.
The eight trigrams are a classification system used in Qi Planning to categorize the eight basic types of Qi. It comes from a 5000 year old book, still in practice today, and still being discussed at length by sinologists. Some even use the book as a life manual.
It is a tool used to help us know what is what and to identify which Qi type is which and to correlate it into a specific profile. For example, we know a round table is metal and is dynamic and a square table is earth and is stable.
With this system everything on the planet can be classified into one of the eight Qi types; including your personal Qi type and the Qi type of a space. In a way the eight trigrams are a Qi planner’s greatest resource. It is our reference library.
In modern language, we can say that the eight trigrams represent the first eight binary numbers. As a matter of fact it was from the Book of Changes where Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz, the mathematician responsible for discovering the binary system, got his idea. The Book of Changes represents the binary poles of reality as Yin and Yang. Like 1 and 0, these are abstract concepts and in Qi planning we discussed them as male and female.