Magic in the Mountains by Kathie Merriman “Give me ae spark of Nature’s fire, That’s a’ the learning I desire.” Robert Burns   “...The trouble with Scotland is its dragons are too skinny. No meat on them - no muscle, not fed properly. Too poor. Too thin. When Scottish people go abroad they make a lot of money but people who live here are not rich. This is because the Scottish mountains are too skinny. They can’t hold the chi, and the earth is poor and rocky; it doesn’t sustain growth.” Thus spoke Grand Master Chan. He spoke it on a bus halfway up Glencoe, to a bunch of students studying Form School Feng Shui. Well where else would you study mountain and water formations in Britain, but in the Highlands of bonny Scotland? Here there is a wealth of dragons - sleepy dragons, skinny dragons, many-breasted dragons, forward moving dragons and rebel dragons (my personal favourite), not to mention The Dragon’s Lair, The King's Chair and that elusive spot of deep mystery and fulfilment, The Dragon’s Pulse. No, truly, I am not mad. I was there and saw them all. Let me explain.... Grand Master Chan Kun Wah is a quietly powerful and extremely successful Chinese Feng Shui master. He was taught from the age of fourteen by Taoist Great Grand Master Chue Yen who told him he could not become a Feng Shui practitioner until he was 50 years old. By this time Grand Master Chan was living in Edinburgh and running a Chinese restaurant. In preparation for his 50th birthday he closed and sold the restaurant and sat, on the appointed day, waiting for his new life to unfold. Nothing. The day came and went and nothing happened. But the very next day, miraculously, The Scotsman rang him out of the blue and asked if they could write an article about him. His career was launched. Since then he has always been busy, and in between Feng Shui consultations worldwide he has lectured at the School of Feng Shui and has started his own school - The Imperial School of Feng Shui and Chinese Horoscopes. This man has spent over 40 years studying Feng Shui. He spent a whole year studying the concept of Yin and then another year studying the concept of Yang! What hope have we poor Westerners of ever grasping this elusive and esoteric knowledge? There is obviously something in this perfect chi business because Grand Master Chan who is in his mid 50’s doesn’t look a day over 35. I need this chi - big time! And that is why I now find myself sitting on a bumpy bus, feeling very slightly queasy, as we scale yet another dragon’s ridge, listening with great concentration to this slight, youthful and extremely wise teach. We spent three days in the mountains and two days in the classroom. It would be impossible in this article to tell you all that we learned but here is just a little. The mountains are earth dragons. The rock is their skeleton and the earth or soil covering, their muscles and flesh. The vegetation represents skin and hair. Hills or mountains (dragons) that are too thin with no skin or muscle are weak and mountains that have no movement or energy are dead. Active mountains, i.e. their form suggests movement are more desirable and mountains near water are better still. Wind carries the chi, water stops the chi. Without water the dragon’s energy cannot be harnessed. Between two mountains there should be water, or between two lakes there should be a mountain. This is the correct balance of yin and yang. These examples show different kinds of Dragon Mountain Movement: (Diagram 1) There are 9 mountain shapes, which relate to the 9 Jui Stars: T’ang Lung - Yang Wood - Vitality Goy Moon - Yang Earth - Health & Wealth Luk Tsyn - Yin Earth - Disasters Man Kuk - Yang Water - Six Curses Lien Chen - Yin Fire - Five Ghosts Mou Kuk - Yang Metal - Longevity Por Kwan - Yin Metal - Death Za Fu - Yin wood - "Life" site Jau Bat - Yin Wood - “Life” Site If you buy or build a house which has one or more of these mountain shapes near it the inhabitants will be affected by the character of the mountain. And more specifically, the mountains will relate directly to the trigrams of the house. For example if one finds a mountain the shape of the “Queen’s Crown” which can be seen from the Southeast position of the house, then the eldest daughter in the house is likely to become a queen! Or at least someone with that sort of authority and status. Feng Shui students will know that the Southeast represents, Soen, the eldest daughter. But if you build a house facing an ugly, rocky cliff face, the next generation - your children - will be ugly. And if the back of the house faces the rocks then you are likely to have back problems. Children born in front of a Lien Chen Mountain (yin fire) will be fiery and bad tempered. But if the house is earth-shaped, (oblong, flat-roofed and low) or if there is another mountain nearby which is earth-shaped, the fire is drained and the children will be strong and creative. Fire problems in the household can be manifested in the heart, kidneys, liver, eyes or brain. The bus lurched on through the Highlands. We came at last to a spot where there seemed to be a whole lot of nothing very much going on. Grand Master Chan ordered us all out and asked us to report on the quality of chi in the area. We checked the ground - it was cold and soggy. The vegetation was poor and sparse; no trees grew. There was a small stream running through the area but it had no life in it, no fish or weeds. The weather was bleak here and the wind whistled through us. Everything appeared yin, damp, cold and dead. I felt quite depressed. In the background two mountain ranges met, forming a deep V-shaped valley. After we had shared our gloom with our teacher he told us the history of this site: (Feb. 13, 1692. The Glencoe Massacre). Many Scottish clans had remained loyal to King James II after he was replaced on the British throne by William III. In August 1691 the government offered an indemnity to all chiefs who should take an oath of allegiance before Jan. 1, 1692. "Letters of fire and sword," authorising savage attacks upon recalcitrants, were drawn up in anticipation of widespread refusals; the chiefs, however, took the oath. Alexander MacDonald of Glencoe postponed his submission until Dec. 31, 1691 and was then unable to take his oath until January 6, because there was no magistrate at Fort William to receive it. So an order for military punishment was issued under William III's signature by Archibald Campbell, 10th Earl of Argyll. More than 100 soldiers from Fort William who had been quartered amicably with the MacDonalds for more than a week suddenly attacked them; many of the clan escaped, but the chief, 33 men, 2 women, and 2 children were killed. John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, a neighbour and enemy of the MacDonalds, was widely suspected of planning the attack. * At this site we find a classic example of Heaven Chop. Two mountains meet in a valley causing a gap, with nothing to stop the chi in front or behind. Heaven’s chi is funnelled through the gap and concentrated into a powerful blade of energy, which destroys anyone or anything in its path. The mountain range to the right contains Por Kwan shapes (death) and its feet are running backwards - not good chi. I asked Grand Master Chan if there was any cure for a site such as this. His answer was to build a church in the path of the Heaven Chop. He said, “Only God can throw this energy back, it is too strong for mortals.” During our two days in the classroom we learned how to translate and apply this incredible information to urban life. One doesn’t really get to see too many mountain dragons in downtown Streatham. But in understanding the shapes and portents of the mountains and rivers one can locate them in buildings or in the shape of roads, and the same learning applies. For example, a friend of mine has a business that went bust last week. His studio was located at the top of a five-storey building in Chelsea Wharf, London, with very large windows on two sides. His major view was of seven tower blocks, all of which had Por Kwan shaped roofs on them pointing straight at him. He didn’t put any curtains up to screen them out and they killed his business within six months. But it isn’t all doom. We saw lots of nice rounded Mou Kuk mountains - Grand Master Chan got quite excited as he explained about them being double-breasted and therefore twice as fruitful! And he positively blushed when he explained about the land formation that looked like a woman’s skirt being lifted. “The women here will be sex-crazed,” he muttered shyly, staring down at his shoes, in front of a class of about 25 women and 5 men! (The men in the class all checked their ordnance survey maps for precise grid references.) We learned about the lucky Flying Goose hill formation, the Crane’s Kneecap, the Wasp Waist and the Dragon’s Lair. By the end of the week we could distinguish our forward from our backward dragons. We could see if they had snakes running uphill or downhill. This is quite important you know, because as Grand Master Yang said, several centuries ago:   “Snake travelling uphill, woe! woe! woe! Snake travelling downhill, ho! ho! ho!” But very best of all, Grand Master Chan taught us to find “The Pulse”. This is the spot in the mountain that is the most auspicious place to build or bury. Sometimes in a mountain of many miles in circumference the pulse is only a few feet in area. But if you find it, and if you use it at the correct time, your life will be complete. And not a wind chime in sight. This is real Feng Shui. He taught us magic - the magic of the mountains. *Source: Historical facts checked in Encyclopaedia Britannica.com © 2002 The Estate of Kathie Merriman