Geomancy in the context of "Sui script"

Feng shui (/ˈfʌŋˌʃuːi/ or /ˌfʌŋˈʃweɪ/), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China. The term feng shui means, literally, "wind-water" (i.e., fluid). From ancient times, landscapes and bodies of water were thought to direct the flow of the universal qi – "cosmic current" or energy – through places and structures. More broadly, feng shui includes astronomical, astrological, architectural, cosmological, geographical, and topographical dimensions.

Historically, and in many parts of the contemporary Chinese world, feng shui has been used to determine the orientation of buildings, dwellings, and spiritually significant structures such as tombs.

In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, or (sometimes) a building or object. An exorcist can be a specially prepared or instructed person including: priest, a nun, a monk, a witch doctor (healer), a shaman, a psychic or a geomancer (Feng shui - Chinese geomancy).

The bagua (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bāguà; lit. 'eight trigrams') is a set of symbols from China intended to illustrate the nature of reality as comprising mutually opposing forces reinforcing one another. Bagua is a group of trigrams—composed of three lines, each either "broken" or "unbroken", which represent yin and yang, respectively. Each line having two possible states allows for a total of 2 = 8 trigrams, whose early enumeration and characterization in China has had an effect on the history of Chinese philosophy and cosmology.

The trigrams are related to the divination practice as described within the I Ching and practiced as part of the Shang and Zhou state religion, as well as with the concepts of taiji and the five elements within traditional Chinese metaphysics. The trigrams have correspondences in astronomy, divination, meditation, astrology, geography, geomancy (feng shui), anatomy, decorative arts, the family, martial arts (particularly tai chi and baguazhang), Chinese medicine and elsewhere.

A "Fengshui woodland," "Fungshui woodland," or "Fengshui Forest," known in Chinese as 風水林 (fēngshuǐlín - "Wind-water Forest") is a grove, forest, or woodland protected by the residents of villages, towns, or, in some cases, religious communities associated with Daoist or Buddhist monasteries or temples. Also known as Chinese geomantic woodlands, they are most often found near lineage villages. The trees and other plants in the woodland can either be natural or planted. Many of the trees in fengshui woodlands are the results of natural succession, and they comprise some of the most mature forest stands in China, often resembling old growth forests. Fengshui forests also contain trees planted by village ancestors, because people consider the fengshuilin an essential part of a geographical environment largely shaped by humans. These strategically protected and cultivated forests were part of the landscape design repertoire of wet rice farmers as they adapted to the humid subtropical ecosystems of southern China. Fengshui and fengshui groves were also utilized to meet the specific conditions affecting houses, tombs, temples, and entire villages. Fengshui woodlands are widely located in East Asia, while a few can be found in Chinese settlements outside of Asia.

In addition, fengshui woodland are related to many Chinese culture concepts, including funerals, the city gods, redecorating the temple, the eight diagrams. Only important individual objects are described.

Robert Jaulin (7 March 1928, Le Cannet, Alpes-Maritimes – 22 November 1996, Grosrouvre) was a French ethnologist. After several journeys to Chad, between 1954 and 1959, among the Sara people, he published in 1967 La Mort Sara (The Sara Death) in which he exposed the various initiation rites through which he had passed himself, and closely analyzed Sara geomancy. In La Paix blanche (The White peace, 1970), he redefined the notion of ethnocide in relation to the extermination by the Western world of the Bari culture, located between Venezuela and Colombia. As genocide designs the physical extermination of a people, an ethnocide refers to the extermination of a culture.

Kumalak (qumalaq; Kazakh: құмалақ) is a form of geomancy, or divination, which originates in Central Asia. This fortune telling method involves 41 beans, stones, or sheep dung ("kumalak" means sheep dung in the Turkic languages) sorted into piles, and has been used for hundreds of years in the region of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Siberia by Turkic peoples such as the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatars.

Similar to other forms of divination such as tarot or runecasting, Kumalak is practiced by shamans who seek to connect to their Turkic ancestors in the spiritual realm. A spiritual teacher trains and mentors the shaman for years before the initiation ritual is completed. Such shamans are often consulted by villagers looking for advice on their future. Kumalak is believed by Kazakhs to be a spiritual tool which opens spiritual gateways to connect with their ancestors. Similar connections can be seen in other Shamanic cultures.