One Californian I know had to have a new feng shui artist rearrange a former feng shui artist's work because the first one miscalculated due north. The words feng shui in Chinese mean literally wind and water, though it's anyone's guess how wind and water link to the ancient custom of geomancy, which is what feng shui is. Feng shui thus shifted from being the prerogative of engineers and proto-home decorators to being the exclusive privilege of the Taoist and Neo-Confucian sacerdotal class, who turned feng shui into a ritual and a science at the same time, both of which gave it an air of mystique. In once sense feng shui is pure aesthetics, the art of putting objects in places most appealing to the eye. In another sense feng shui is pure pragmatics, putting things where they are most useful or nearby what is useful.

Source: Huffington Post May 22, 2016 10:37 UTC