Feng Shui

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With friends and relatives there have been frequent discussions about "mystical" things like horoscopes, numerology, energy lines and so on. Lately the toppic of Feng Shui came around, and it was really surprising how people that I considered faithful Christians are beeing influenced by these Oriental fads. Do you know of some serious study about these things? Has the Church made some declaration on this topic? Thank you for your answers. PC

-- Piero Campani (pieropaz@excite.com), July 12, 2000

Answers

Thank you, Piero.
This is more than a fad. The turning toward these "mystical things" are a sign that many people in our society are not allowing themselves to be guided by a dependable teaching Church such as ours. These good folks are searching for God. Many of them are living in a lot of fear of the future, and they are seeking control over their lives, because so many things they experience give them feelings of insecurity and lack of control. I believe that this comes from the popularity of the multiple influences (many being Asian or pseudo-Asian) that gave rise to New Age paganism, something that began to make a comeback in the 1960s and has drawn many people away from Christianity.

If you go to the biggest Internet search engine and ask to have links to "feng shui" sites, you will get a bunch, and they will show up under the header "religion and spirituality -- divination.

One "feng shui" site [http://www.myfortune21.com/] calls itself:
The First Ever On-line Divination Website in the World!
It states:
"... find out what fate has in store for you and win the battle of your life! Feng Shui can ... influence your fortunes and career development. Whether your family will prosper, whether you will enjoy steady wealth and fortunes, and even your health are dependent on feng shui."

Now what are we to do? The Church guides us in her Catechism not to break the First Commandment, but instead to have trust in God, to surrender our lives to Him, and to stop worrying about taking full control (something we cannot do):

2115. "God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility."
2116. "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to 'unveil' the future.[Cf. Deut 18:10 ; Jer 29:8 .] Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone." 2117. "All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity."

Other than the above, the best Church-related source of information I can think of on this topic would be any writings or tapes (video/audio) that you can find prepared by Father Mitchell Pacwa, S.J.. He is an orthodox Catholic who has done a lot of research on such matters as these.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), July 16, 2000.

Thank You sooo much for writing this information on the Internet! I have started Feng Shi and started having convictions about it over the last few weeks. I have only been involved in it for 1-2 months. I am a very God Fearing Christian and some how fell into this Feng Shui thinking what harm could it do!...I now have the answer I have been looking for and will remove the Feng Shui items in my home. I do not want anything that will seperate me from the love of God!...More information needs to be available regarding FEng Shui...because it is advertised as "The Art of Placement" and really it is much deeper thatn that. Talking about Energies, Chrystal etc. Again Thanks!

-- Sheri Castaneda (sheric4jc@hotmail.com), October 30, 2001.

Sheri,
Your gratitude is appreciated more than you can ever imagine!
And may God bless and reward you for sharing your testimony about this. He has given you many graces to be able to resist evil and to use your strong will power for goodness.
John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), October 31, 2001.

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