FENG SHUI

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taoist cosmology

Feng Shui (風水) literally translates as wind-water and is an ancient Chinese geomantic practice interpreting and using energy forces (Qi and the five phases) to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment.

A lot of my illustrative back catalog is related to Feng Shui and other Taoist traditions. This body of work included not only prints, paintings and vector stock files but also written works like symbol descriptions and blog posts. Recently I reworked some of the designs and started to add new prints and paintings related to this interesting field.

To present all of them would go beyond the scope, so I confined myself in presenting the print series available here on this site and its related blog posts.

Five Elements

Chinese, Taoist cosmology knows five elements and five cardinal directions (including center), represented by the five heavenly beasts, also called the five celestial animals. This fundamental, fivefold conceptual scheme is described as Wu-Xing (五行) and can be seen as a fundamental concept for many Asian traditions. This series covers prints of the five heavenly beasts, the five elements and a chart illustrating the cycles of the five phases.

> Read more about Wu-Xing and the heavenly beasts in my blog post.

Bagua Life Areas

Bagua (八卦) literally means “eight symbols” and refers to the eight trigrams, the basic modules of the I Ching and Taoist cosmology. In Feng Shui the relationships between the trigrams and the cycle of the five phases is represented in the so called bagua map, a magic square with a 3 × 3 grid. Each of the nine squares (areas) within that Bagua map represents a life area, and is related to a specific element, energy, theme, color, shape, cardinal direction, season, and many other qualities. This series covers symbolic illustrations to every life area as well as Bagua and I-Ching related prints.

> Read more about the use and history of the Bagua map

and about the individual Bagua Life Areas:

> Career and Life Journey (1)
> Love and Relationships (2)
> Health and Family (3)
> Wealth and Prosperity (4)
> Wholeness and Spirituality (5)
> Helpful Friends and Travel (6)
> Creativity and Children (7)
> Knowledge and Wisdom (8)
> Fame and Recognition (9)

Symbolic Feng Shui

In the Western world, Feng Shui is widly known for its symbols, lucky charms and decoration tips to cure a specific life area; the so called Symbolic Feng Shui; and less for its use of the bagua and geomancy. This preference naturally lead to the integration of new symbols, coming from other traditions. This series covers classic, Taoist symbols along with suitable symbols from other traditions.