Feng-Shui – pagan house decoration
This whole system of Feng-Shui is tied up with pagan magic practices and with false faith focused on a number of absurdities through which man is deceived, bound and promised false happiness and false prosperity. It does not say a single word about eternity, conscience or morality. One only speaks about spirituality, about harmony with so-called “ch’i” energy, and that according to yin and yang philosophy. It is a whole system of lie. Certain objects are attributed spiritual power. Those who are just superficial Christians let themselves be deceived by these massmedia-advertised practices.
The root of paganism is an effort to find favour with “a deity” or to get harmonized with so-called energies – demons. However, who meets with Christ’s Gospel, the life of the one undergoes a radical change. The one transforms one’s mind and believes in the Gospel (cf. Mk 1:15).
Nowadays paganism is carrying out an effective mission in Europe which has fallen away from the living Christianity.
We quote from Feng-Shui literature:
“Agate wind chimes are designed for space decoration. Agate is a stone of good luck, a talisman of artists, it cleanses all chakras.” All this is a lie and nonsense. No chakras exist. This term is connected with the pagan religions of buddhism and hinduism. A Christian does not believe in some talismans, but in the help and guidance of God.
“A horse for success is a symbol of persistence, a favourite talisman of students.” Another nonsense. What is a horse to do with success?
“Ba Gua mirror is used as a home protector against negative energy and influence.” This too is a nonsense and superstition.
“Dragon headed tortoise attracts support, wealth and good luck in business leadership. It is a symbol of longevity, power and resistance.” This reminds of the interpretations of divination practices and dream-books. Such fables are believed by people who let themselves be deceived by absurd theories and enslaved by false philosophies. This is basically idolatry and sins against the First Commandment.
Next quotation: “The aim of Feng-Shui is to reach harmonization among the individual elements of yin and yang. The tendency is to yang the space at the house entrance. Yang energy is desirable in Feng-Shui because it brings prosperity.” These are all fables and loads of nonsense. It brings no prosperity, but rather the loss of common sense and demonic obsession. “The bearers of the ch’i energy primary qualities are five elements – water, earth, fire, wood, metal.” In Feng-Shui everything is turning on so-called cosmic energy which is called “ch’i” in China, “prama” in India and “ki” in Japan. These are not cosmic but demonic energies – demons.
“Feng-Shui seeks harmony of the inner world and the physical environment.” However, this is no harmony but a deceit. Following these philosophies, every particular thing must have its specific place, starting from kitchen up to WC. It is supposed that in all these places so-called energy is radiated, and poor man who lets himself be bound by these absurd theories. A piece of advice they give us is to place a cactus plant over our head in the toilet so that it may, as they say, suck all the negative. Probably all the negative, that means all stupidity and idiocy, would be sucked only after this cactus plant would fall on the head of the concerned. Perhaps he would then sober up and come to his senses. The whole Feng-Shui system is a load of nonsense and myth and a false faith opening the soul to demons (ch’i energy).
Another stupid advice: “Keep the lid of the toilet seat down lest you should flush away your fortune.” Such words of advice may be published in a comic magazine and not rule our practical life!
“It is desirable that you should place a little statue of Buddha, or some other Oriental god, in your entrance hall as a sign of a friendly welcome and good fortune in your home.” Here one can already clearly see that this pagan decoration leads to sinful idolatry and to total apostasy from Christianity.
In Feng-Shui animals possess nonsensical attributes: a toad of wealth and abundance, bats of longevity, a broom sweeping away troubles and worries, an elephant supposed to represent wisdom and strength.
This is indeed a pack of myths which have nothing to do with true life. It is a realm of superstition and nonsense leading to the loss of senses, to superstitiousness, fear and finally into the slavery of demonic possession and under a curse. Is it at all possible for Christians to open themselves to such nonsense and to put their faith in it? It is. Painful experience of religious sisters bears witness to it:
“One day a young man visited our community and asked for a prayer for his wife who suffered from cancer of the internal organs. Before we started the prayer, she wanted to talk with us.
It concerned an apparent triviality. She renounced Feng-Shui and we suggested that in proof of her conversion she should throw out the objects tied to it, such as a fan with coloured peacocks and a small china tortoise. She answered: ‘I’ve already renounced Feng-Shui; I know that if I hung the fan on a specific place on the wall where the cardinal points and combination of colours play the crucial role and if I believed in their meaning, the occult powers would work through it. But I am not going to hang it there any more. And the same about the tortoise. I know that if it was on a specific place it would have an occult effect. However, if I no longer attach this meaning to them, it makes no sense to throw them out.’ The sister replied: “But that is dangerous!’ She said: ‘Yes, very dangerous.’ We brought the Bible and told her to read aloud a passage from the Epistle to the Philippians. Though she had no trouble speaking before, now that she was to read she started to choke. A concrete demand for repentance was regarded by her as incomprehension of the whole problem on our part. The system of thinking simply did not allow her to change the spirit. Formally she renounced everything, and she was convinced that the theory was sufficient. She claimed: ‘It is a nonsense to throw out the tortoise and the fan; then I would need to throw out everything. In Feng-Shui everything has a specific meaning: table, chair, wardrobe... Should I throw out all the furniture? And this is not all. I know exactly how trees influence us. Should I cut them all down? And I know too what each line on one’s palm signifies. I can just look casually at your hand and read at once. So should I then cut off all people’s hands?’ No, she will not throw out the tortoise, and the peacocks either, for this is a matter of principle. She would then have to surrender this system of thinking and start to make concrete steps of repentance and conversion; and this is what the intellectual ch’i spirit does not allow her to do.”
This philosophy as well as this demonic ch’i energy is not innocent. It is a way of apostasy, a way to perdition!
Christian house decoration
What should the Christian apartment and house decoration be like? Is there still any at all today? Television has become the centre of household. Perhaps somewhere on the wall there is a small cross or a small icon of the Holy Virgin but what dominates is rather landscapes or even nudes. In some Christian homes one can even find occult objects or signs of the zodiac. The latter are seen particularly with women and girls, who instead of a cross or a medal wear around their neck the signs of a scorpion, lion etc. Unfortunately, they tend to develop a superstitious relation to such pendants. Christians disposed in this way then very easily accept even the pagan decoration in the Feng-Shui style.
This fact must provoke us into doing our best to get truly converted. Then we should perform purification of our house from pagan symbols as well as purification of our library – books, film and music records etc. – and bring in Christian decoration. Pagan decoration fills the room with discomfort and lays it under a curse because it opens this place of our dwelling to demonic influences. The modern neopagans have already got experience with demons (with so-called negative energies). We have been witnesses to desecration of our homes. Now is the time for their sanctification and sacralization.
Icons and objects that remind us of holy things have their spiritual meaning, the more so if they reflect purity and sanctity and are blessed.
At the door there should be a small basin for holy water. Every time we return home we should cleanse ourselves through an act of faith and through making the sign of the cross with holy water.
The centre should not be television, through which especially our homes have been penetrated by the spirit of the world and impurity. The centre should be a prayer corner with an altar and the Holy Scripture on it. This corner may be separated with a curtain. In the evening or when we want to pray together or individually, the curtain may be open. The corner should not lack the cross or an icon of the Holy Virgin with the Child Jesus in her arms.
But note that not all icons dispose to prayer. The icon must awaken worship in us and dispose us to true love to Christ.
There may also be some other variant of decoration – instead of a prayer corner (Eastern Church practice) there may be a free wall with a big picture, e.g. of Christ’s face, and the cross with the name of Jesus on the side wall. In this name is our salvation, at this name every knee should bow and all demons flee. With this name in our heart and on our lips we should once die. It is desirable that before the icon there should be a little icon lamp, similar to altar eternal light.
One side wall might have the cross painted on it without the figure of Christ and another one might have an empty tomb hewn out of the rock and a rolled-away stone likewise painted on it as the symbol of Christ’s resurrection. There may be more variants of decoration, but the rule is that this all has to dispose to prayer and sanctify the place.
Those who want to build a family house may also build an underground chapel as a kind of a hermitage where they can cry to God even aloud and not disturb the neighbourhood. A lot of men let off steam by shouting in football matches, others through alcohol... This, however, will relieve them neither of the soul’s deep pain over vanity nor of the awareness of guilt nor of the longing for God. This pain and desire is fulfilled only in a deep inner prayer wherein one can intertwine inner and outer crying and in God’s presence realize one’s poorness, sins and God’s love. “The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rom 8:26) If there is no possibility for this underground chapel, one should at any rate place the furniture in such way that the centre of the house may be a sacred space suitable for prayer!
Apart from this home arrangement and reform it would be appropriate to fix concrete time for common prayer according to the promise: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Mt 18:20) Every day the time from 8 to 9 pm (‘holy hour’) ought to be sanctified through prayer, singing and reading of the Holy Scripture. Then our homes will be filled with the peace of the Holy Spirit. And there will be no more place for the demonic “ch’i” spirits!
In Christ,
the bishops of the UGCC
+ Samuel Oberhauser
+ Markian Hitiuk, OSBM
+ Eliáš Dohnal, OSBM
+ Metoděj Špiřík, OSBM
Pidhirtsi, 30th June 2008
Address: Monastery OSBM, 80660 Pidhirtsi, Brody district, Lvov region, Ukraine
www.community.org.ua
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