Four feng shui myths we don't believe.
Feng shui has been around for centuries. Most of what's printed about it in magazines was written by someone who skim-read one book in 1998. Here are four common myths, with the honest reading on each.
Myth 1. A red front door brings wealth.
Sometimes. Not always.
The colour of the door depends on which direction it faces. South-facing doors traditionally work well in red because south is the fire direction. A red door facing north (a water direction) is fighting itself. There is no universal lucky door colour.
The practical version: paint your door a colour you like, that suits the house, and that you can see clearly from the street.
Myth 2. Put a fish tank by the front door to attract money.
A fish tank is a traditional wealth cure. Whether it works in your home depends on six things: the direction the door faces, the size of the tank, where in the room it sits, how clean the water is, whether the fish are healthy, and whether you actually like having a fish tank.
Most people place one badly, neglect it, and end up with a dirty tank that drains every other quality of the room. The traditional cure becomes the new problem.
The honest version: a fish tank is high-maintenance. If you do not love fishkeeping, skip it. A small healthy plant in the same spot does most of the job.
Myth 3. Mirrors double the energy in a room.
Mirrors are powerful in feng shui because they reflect. They are not always doubling something good.
A mirror facing your front door reflects guests (and qi) straight back out. A mirror reflecting clutter doubles the clutter. A mirror behind your bed creates the bedroom most consistently flagged as a sleep problem in both the traditional and the modern reading.
Use mirrors where you actually want to amplify what they are pointing at, not as a default fix.
Myth 4. There's a feng shui rule for everything.
There is not.
Classical feng shui has rules for the eight compass directions, for the front door, for the stove, for the bed, for the desk, for the centre of the home, and for some specific room functions. Beyond that, the tradition is much quieter than the magazine version of it.
A lot of "feng shui rules" you'll read about toilet seats, hallway colours, or the exact position of a houseplant are inventions of the last forty years. We mark them as such on every page.
Want the full twelve-myth list? It's on the way as a paid sidebar to the Home Harmony Map.
Free pages worth reading next: the methodology page, the five elements in plain English.