Faber Optimé - Divine Earth

To bring you good chi!

This Travel Bug wants to visit as many beautiful homes, people, geocaches and places around the world as possible.

Feng shui (風水 or 风水) is an ancient (5000+ years old) Chinese method of geomancy (= earth divination, hence the name of this Bug!).

It literally translates as "wind-water", from the following passage of the Zhangshu (Book of Burial) by Guo Pu (Jin Dynasty):

“The qi that rides the wind stops at the boundary of water.”

Feng shui involves trying to capture the beneficial CHI (or qi or life-force), which flows through the earth's meridians, while at the same time deflecting the malevolent SHA, which brings adversity and misfortune.

Use

Whilst detailed coverage of interpretation is beyond the scope of this document, a feng shui analysis is very specific: there are eight directions (N, S, E, W, NE, SE, NW & SW). On a Lo Pan, or Chinese Compass, these directions are divided into three different sections. Hence there are 24 divisions on a Lo Pan of 15 degrees each.

You will note that on a Lo Pan compass, the arrow (or fire marking) always points South, the other side of the needle points North.

Directions are represented by the five elements, the eight trigrams, Heavenly stems and Earthly branches and the location of the Azure Dragon to the east, White Tiger to the west, Red Bird to the south and Black Turtle to the north.

The centre of the compass is called “Tian Jio”, meaning heaven pond. The succeeding rings having other distinct meanings.

The first ring represents the early Heaven sequence. The eight directions and trigrams represent heavenly fluctuations of ying and yang (Heaven (complete yang); Earth (complete yin); Thunder (strong yang); Wind/Wood (strong yin); Water (middle yang); Fire (middle yin); Mountain (lesser yang); Lake/Rain (lesser yin).

The second ring, known as Jiu-Xin or “the post heaven dragon”, defines the nine stars as in the legend of yellow river turtle creating the lo shu diagram. The nine stars are (starting with the water trigram): hungry wolf; heavenly doctor; longevity; six curses; disaster; destroyers of armies/end of life; five ghosts; fu wei; start.

The third ring defines the 24 directions of “Di Ji”, stars in the sky, mountains, directions and shens.

The fourth ring, known as Tian Xing, is used to find the direction of the site’s dragon.

The fifth represents the 24 seasons of the agricultural calendar. The seasons are divided into two halves of twelve as every half month represents a division.

The sixth ring represents the 72 dragons that penetrate heaven and is divided into three sections of 24.

The seventh ring represents 24 mountains which are divided up into five subdivisions each.

The fifth, sixth and seventh rings help interpret the third and fourth rings.

The eighth is known as the middle needle and represents the beginning of the human plate.

The ninth represents the human plate and is divided into 24 sections, each representing one of the mountains.

The tenth ring represents the sixty dragons that penetrate the ground.

Problems?

Travel Bugs need maintenance from time to time (as do we all?!). If this one looks in need (or if you would like to know how to make your own capsule), please take a look at the Faber Optimé Travel Bug Maintenance Manual.

A PDF file of the custom stash note for this travel bug can be obtained here.

About Faber Optimé

We aim to deliver excellence, in all of our activities - such as bringing to you curious, interesting and innovative geocaches and geocache items, like this one. Keep your eyes peeled for more of the Faber Optimé Travel Bugs! We're always happy to help fellow geocachers! Please do feel free to get in touch with us on the following contact details. GeoUser:  FaberOptimé Mobile:  +64 21 184 6246 Web:  www.faberoptime.com Email:  info@faberoptime.com