Place. Landscape.
Our Ancestors had different views than ours on that place called home, where they were to live, raise children, celebrate, love, and receive guests.
Let’s try to turn to their experience, to restore for ourselves their sense of the space of being, which they “did” in compliance with customs and rituals in order to serve their lives as successfully as possible.
First of all, the choice of location was not accidental. The Russian village, as a rule, is very picturesquely located. A settlement was established on the banks of a river, lake, on a hill near the springs. The place was well ventilated and washed by energy flows of air and water.
When building a house, the peasant gave it orientation to the cardinal points. He placed the hut where the rays of the sun gave more warmth and light, where from the windows, from the porch area, from the yard there was the widest view of the lands he cultivated, where he good approach and the entrance to the house. For example, in Nizhny Novgorod province they tried to orient the houses to the south, “towards the sun”; if this was impossible, then “face” to the east or southwest. The houses of single-row settlements are oriented only to the south. The natural shortage of places on the sunny side with the growth of the settlement led to the emergence of a second row of houses, with facades facing north. On a flat and dry area, he built a barn and a threshing floor, “before his eyes” - he placed a barn in front of the house. Raised to the top of the hill windmill, down by the water, he was building a bathhouse.
It was impossible to build housing where the road used to pass. The space of the former road was piercing, “breathy”; the energy of life did not accumulate in the house, but passed through it along the old route.
A place was considered unfavorable for construction if human bones were found there, or someone was wounded with an ax or knife until they bled, or other unpleasant, unexpected events occurred that were memorable to the village. This threatened misfortune for the residents of the future home.
It was impossible to build a house on the site where the bathhouse stood. In the bathhouse, a person did not simply wash off the dirt from himself, but, as it were, immersed himself in a vessel with living and dead water, was born anew each time, subjecting himself to the test of fire and water, steaming at high temperatures, and then plunged into an ice hole or river, or simply doused himself ice water. The bathhouse was both a maternity hospital and a habitat for the spirit of the bannik. The bathhouse is an unconsecrated place - there are no icons there. The bathhouse is a place where a lot happens, if you do not adhere to the rituals of visiting it.
Based on all this, the house, built on the site of the bathhouse, was built in a space where a lot of things happened and it continued to preserve the memory of it. The consequences of living on the site of the bathhouse were unpredictable.
The place where cattle lay down to rest was considered favorable for construction. People attributed to him the power of fertility. Animals are more sensitive to the energy characteristics of a place. The ancients knew this and used it widely in life. The peoples of the world have many similar signs and rituals that use the senses of animals.
The entire house-building process was accompanied by rituals. One of the obligatory customs is making a sacrifice so that the house stands well.
Here it would be appropriate to recall that Orthodoxy has pagan roots, which Christianity has not destroyed. The paganism of a Christian reflects the reality of his existence among living nature, which he perceived as spiritualized, that is, manifesting itself as a subject equal to him. Our ancestors, the Slavs, as a rule, clothed knowledge in mythological metaphors, proverbs, sayings, and signs. This did not in any way reduce the value of the knowledge they accumulated, which today is forgotten and little used. We tend to turn to to the modern designer, relying again on traditional, but Chinese Feng Shui, rather than using the experience of one’s own ancestors.
Fragments of the worldview of the ancient Slavs were preserved by the Russians almost until the end of the 19th century. Speaking about the construction of a house, we can observe its manifestations in the ritual described below.
At the site of the future log house, a tree was installed, usually a birch or rowan tree, which symbolized the “world tree” - the “center of the world.” In our opinion, this ritual reflects the idea of our ancestors about their own time and place in the world. Let us note that the peasants of the 19th century hardly did this consciously or with understanding. The archaic meaning of the ritual could mean that it was here, in the space of the future house, that all the most significant events for the owner of the house would take place, his life, the life of his children and, possibly, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The ritual tree was replaced by a living one, planted near the house. It carried sacred meaning the world tree, and besides this, the person who planted the tree demonstrated that the space around the house is not wild, but cultural, mastered by him. It was forbidden to cut down specially planted trees for firewood or other household needs. The choice of tree species - most often rowan was planted - was also not accidental. Both the rowan fruit and the leaf have the graphic of a cross, which means, in the Russian worldview, they are a natural amulet.
Particular importance was attached to the laying of the first crown: it divided the entire space into domestic and non-domestic, internal and external. From the chaos of the surrounding nature, the elements, the promised island stood out - the macrocosm human life.
Estate. HOUSE.
Let's consider the typical form of traditional housing. A hut is a cage, which is a rectangle, above which rises a gable roof. Let's try to read this in the Feng Shui system. According to the elements, it is earth heated by fire. That is, energetically the house was like a continuation of the element Earth, but so that it was not washed away by the element of water pouring from above, the roof - the fire - protected and warmed. Fire connected the space of the house with the Fire of Heaven, the Sun, the Light of the Stars and the Moon. By gable roof energy flows onto the house, washing it. For comparison: our today's box houses lack verticality, which would facilitate, like an antenna, connection with the energy of the Cosmos. This is directly related to the well-being of a person living in such a house and among such flat architecture. In the architecture of Nizhny Novgorod, for example, over the last 10 years they have been trying to make a tower, a spire, a high roof reaching towards the sky, and, moreover, like residential buildings, as well as administrative ones. This is an intuitive desire to compensate for a long period of a kind of gray stagnation in external decoration and well-being. What can we remember from " architectural styles» Soviet period? “Stalin buildings”, “Khrushchev buildings”, panel construction. How are they appearance, so interior decoration cannot be called comfortable for a person.
On the facades of the houses of our ancestors, for example, in our forested Nizhny Novgorod region, it was reflected in wood carving the picture of the world of the ancient ancestors or some of its details were present, as if hinting at it. The essence of ornamental decoration is the image of the three worlds. The pediment is the upper world, the middle part of the facade is the earth. The lower part, as a rule, not filled with ornaments, is the chthonic, unmanifested world. The abundance of solar signs, signs of fertility, the world tree - everything was intended not to decorate, but to carry certain meanings through which space unfolded required quality. That is, it was assumed that the house should be a full cup, its space should contribute to the health and happy life of the family. This was what the façade ornaments served.
Interior.
Sacred meanings in a simple Russian hut, manifested in rituals, dominated over cleanliness and comfort with our modern point vision.
Almost the entire home space seemed to “come to life”, participating as a place for certain family rituals associated with the growing up of children, weddings, funerals, and receiving guests.
Let's start, as usual, from the stove.
The Russian stove is the largest volume in the interior of the house. They occupied an area of 2.5 - 3 square meters. m. The heat capacity of the stove ensured uniform heating of the living space around the clock, making it possible to keep food and water hot for a long time, dry clothes, and sleep on them in damp and cold weather.
The stove, as we have already noted, is a home altar. It warms the house and transforms food brought into the house with fire. The oven is a place near which various rituals take place. For example, if a smartly dressed woman comes to the house and, almost without words, approaches the stove and warms her hands by the fire, it means that a matchmaker has come to make a match.
And a person who spends the night on the stove becomes “one of our own.”
The point here is not the oven as such, but the fire. Of all the elements, fire is the most revered. Not a single pagan holiday was complete without the lighting of ritual bonfires. Then the fire moved to Orthodox church: lamp lights, candles lit with prayer. In traditional Russian culture, a room without a stove was considered non-living.
Let us note that, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region the stove was heated black, and there was no talk at all about any convenience in our understanding - cleanliness, fresh air. The white furnace fire transformed the house. At the same time, the traditional furniture and interior of the Trans-Volga peasant hut remained unchanged. Back in the middle of the 19th century, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky wrote: “The Great Russian hut in the north, east and along the Volga has almost the same location everywhere: to the right of the entrance in the corner there is a stove (rarely placed to the left, such a hut is called “non-spinner”, because on the long bench opposite the stove, It’s not easy to spin from the red corner to the bunk - right hand close to the wall and not in the light). The corner to the left of the entrance and the counter from the door to the corner is called “konik”, here is a place for the owner to sleep, and harness and various belongings are placed under the bench. The front corner to the right of the entrance is the “woman’s kut”, or “cooking room”; it is often separated from the hut by a plank partition. The shop from the holy corner to the cooking corner is called “big”, and sometimes “red”. The counter from the woman’s kut to the stove is a “cooking shop”, next to it up to the stove itself is a “cooking station”, like a cupboard and a table together, on which dishes are prepared.” (5, p. 199)
Each family member had their own space in the house. The place of the housewife, the mother of the family, is at the stove, which is why it was called “woman’s kut.” The place of the owner - the father - is at the very entrance. This is the place of the guardian, the protector. Old people often lay on the stove - a warm, comfortable place. The children were scattered like peas throughout the hut, or sat on the flooring - a flooring raised to the level of the stove, where they were not afraid of drafts during the long Russian winter.
The infant was swinging in a swing attached to the end of a pole, which was attached to the ceiling through a ring fixed in it. This made it possible to move the shifter to any end of the hut.
Red corner .
An obligatory accessory of a peasant home was a shrine (“tyablo”, “kiot”), which was located in the front corner above the dining table.
This place was called the “red corner”. It was a home altar. A man began his day with prayer, and prayer, with his gaze turned to the red corner, to the icons, accompanied his entire life in the house. For example, prayer was required to be read before and after meals.
The red corner - the Christian altar and the stove - the “pagan” altar, created a certain tension, located diagonally across the space of the house. It was in this - the front part of the hut - that there was a red bench, a table, and food was prepared in front of the stove. The events of everyday life took place in a very powerful energy space. A guest entering the house immediately saw the icons of the red corner and crossed himself, greeting the owners, but stopped at the threshold, not daring to go further into this habitable space, preserved by God and Fire, without an invitation.
In addition to the first level of the interior already described above, there was a second one, located on the stove column, which was located at external corner stove - almost in the middle of the hut and reached the height of the stove's shoulder. From the stove pillar, leaning on it, there were two thick beams - one to the front, the other to the side walls opposite the stove. They were located approximately at a height of 1.6 - 1.7 meters from the floor. The first is a ward one, since he served load-bearing structure ward flooring - traditional sleeping place. The bread beam limited the height of the “babiy kut” oven. Freshly baked breads and pies were placed on the bread beam as if on a shelf. As we see, the second residential tier is directly related to the life processes of household members - meals and sleep. If you open the door and look into the hut, then what is going on in the tents will not be visible at all - they are located above the head of the person entering, and the place near the stove will be hidden by a protruding stove pillar and a curtain, which was sometimes used to fence off a woman’s kut just along the upper border, marked by a beam of bread . Naturally, many rituals are associated with the stove pillar - as if it were the strongest supporting structure in the house. For example, when a child stood on his feet and took his first steps, a midwife visited him. She placed her pet with his back to the stove pillar with the sentence: “As the stove pillar is strong, so be you healthy and strong.”
Among the movable furniture we can name only a table and one or two saddle benches. The space of the hut did not imply excesses, and they were not possible in peasant life. A completely different space in the house of wealthy Volga region or always free northern peasants.
Windows and doors.
The entrance to the hut was preceded by a vestibule, the entrance to the house was preceded by a porch. The porch is a few steps up, then a door leading to the vestibule, a vestibule, and a door leading to the hut. The doors were never located on the same straight line. The flow of air and everything it carried seemed to swirl, weaken, and enter the hut itself, already “purified,” filled with the good aroma of herbs drying in the hallway and the smell of a cow coming from the yard.
Windows and doors, like some kind of highways, passages into and out of the house were always framed externally and their intersection was accompanied by rituals. Before the owners went outside, she could be like this: “God bless you for a good day, save you from bad, evil people!” Before entering someone else's house, a prayer was also read.
These customs are associated with the fact that a person subconscious level he distinguished between the space of the house, where nothing threatened him, and the external space, where anything could happen.
The window is also a connection with the world of the dead. For example, dead unbaptized children were carried out through the window: they died, although they had not yet been accepted by the world of the living. "God gave - God took." That is, there is almost no time in their earthly life and the child’s soul is returned to the world from which he just came.
Through the window they will serve Christmas carols to the carolers - that is, to those who brought divine wishes to the owners.
Space exploration.
The house was, as it were, a model of man himself and by its very design was designed to help life in it.
The dwelling was likened to the human body. Forehead, face (platbands), window (eye), mouth (mouth), forehead, backside, legs - etc. general terms to describe a person and a home. This is reflected in rituals. For example, at the birth of a child, the doors of the house, which was thought of as a woman’s body, opened.
A fully rebuilt house is not yet a living space. It had to be populated and settled properly. A house was considered inhabited by a family if any event important to the household took place in it: the birth of a child, a wedding, etc.
To this day, even in cities, the custom of letting a cat in front of you has been preserved. In villages, in addition to the cat, the house was traditionally inhabited by a rooster and a hen left overnight. folk beliefs, the house was always built “on someone’s head”: this meant the possible death of one of the household members. Therefore, the house was inhabited in a certain sequence, first by animals, then by people.
The transition to a new residence was preceded by rituals associated with the “relocation” of the brownie.
To this day, the brownie in villages is revered as the owner of the home, and when moving into a new house, they ask his permission:
“Master of the brownie, let us stay” or:
"Master and Mistress,
Stay with us
Give life a good one.
It's not a night for us to spend the night,
And the century will last forever.” (3, pp. 24, 21)
Feng Shui is a popular Chinese science about harmony with the environment and the ability to arrange your life in accordance with the laws of nature. In our Slavic...
At all times, the house was considered a nest, protection from bad weather and evil. No wonder the proverb was born: “Houses and walls heal.” Our ancestors brought the endless world of space closer to themselves with the help of images, building their lives in accordance with natural rhythms.
When starting to build your home - both directly and figuratively- we can use many rules that guided our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Construction should begin after the new moon - on the waxing moon. Simultaneously with laying the foundation, a tree should be planted in the middle of the future yard. Previously, birch or rowan trees were planted. In general, our ancestors endowed all trees with certain properties: ebony symbolized the ability to magically protect, oak - strength and luck, pine - money and recovery, cherry - love, cedar - longevity, maple - love and material well-being, and walnut - health. Since time immemorial, a sign has remained: to ensure happiness and wealth, scraps of wool, grain or money were placed under the corners of the first logs. Before laying the ceiling, an inverted bear fur coat and a loaf of bread, a pie or a pot of porridge were tied to the base, and a green branch was placed in the front corner - it would “ensure” the health of the family.
A high and strong threshold occupied a special place in the houses of our ancestors, since in pagan times the ashes of their ancestors were buried under it after burning. And then the threshold began to be considered as the habitat of ancestral spirits. The tradition has still been preserved - not to talk on the threshold. It is customary to hang or draw a horseshoe above the threshold of the front door - a symbol of happiness or a Christian cross, as protection from negative energy.
The hallway should be spacious and bright, because this is where guests are to be received, this is where people return tired from work, and through it the energy of the house itself and the outside world is exchanged.
Windows also connect us with surrounding nature- they should be oriented towards the sunny side. East and south symbolize life and warmth. Therefore, it is better that the windows of rooms and bedrooms face south and east, and Entrance door, kitchen, bathroom and toilet - to the west and north.
The central place in almost any Slavic house is the kitchen-dining room (in ancient times - the stove). Life is always in full swing here: the whole family gathers for lunches and dinners, talks with guests, raises children, “pours out” their souls to friends, and according to legend, the guardian spirit, the brownie, lives here. Therefore, it is the kitchen, sometimes the most comfortable and “habitable” place in the house, that should be beautiful and clean. Here, according to tradition, you can hang amulets: spoons, symbolizing a satisfying life; decorative keys - a symbol of dowry, wealth, hatchets - a sign of pagan Perun - the patron of the harvest; bells, whistles, shovels, brooms - protection from various troubles, corn cobs and dried sunflower hats - children's amulets and so on.
According to Slavic customs, a table should connect two spaces in the house - living and working, and on it main side- under the icons - the owner-breadwinner is seated. On the table there used to be a samovar with a beautiful hot-water bottle doll, sewn by the hands of the mistress of the house, the eldest woman in the family. Among the Slavs, the doll had a deep meaning - it protected and resembled an idol. Bereginya - a magnificent doll was also placed above the porch and on the windows. They believed that the doll protected children's sleep. The doll was dressed up, but the face was not painted. By folk beliefs, a doll with a face acquired a soul and could cause harm. Many dolls were filled with grain - a symbol of prosperity and health. A house without toys was considered soulless and empty.
Elegant linen towels in Slavic Russian culture were, perhaps, the most popular “amulets” and home decorations (kitchen-dining room, living room and even bedroom). A towel is a symbol of human life, a line of fate.
The mirror symbolizes monetary well-being. Hang a mirror next to the table in the living room or kitchen - it will attract wealth to your home. IN Lately It has become very fashionable to decorate bedrooms with mirrors. Under no circumstances should you hang a mirror near your bed - in this case it can destroy your life, taking away all your strength and energy! You should also not hang shelves, cabinets or paintings with negative images or scenes above the bed. Innocent home flowers in pots - geranium, aloe, delicate violets - will come in very handy. Our ancestors generally attached great importance to plants, which they treated and fed and watered. They were used as amulets. For example, ferns, lilies, marigolds, and junipers were grown at the entrance to protect the house from evil spirits and the evil eye.
There should be no unnecessary things in the house. According to the ideas of the ancestors, each thing serves a specific purpose and should be filled with love and the great meaning of serving the material to the spiritual. And unnecessary things create chaos and disorder, so you should systematically get rid of them. As a rule, this is done before Christmas and Easter.
The tradition of decorating your home dates back to pagan times, in this way a person sought to protect his family from evil forces. Therefore, images of sacred animals and birds were located on the most vulnerable to negative energies places: windows, gates, doors, chimney or fireplace. Since the house expresses a triune system, then the amulets correspond to the three worlds - earth, water and air. Among the Eastern Slavs, images or figurines of a dove were especially popular, personifying kindness and beauty, a chicken - a symbol of fertility, a bear - a symbol of wealth, a horse - the personification of the sun and life (a wooden horse was planted on the roofs of houses), a bull - the embodiment of earthly strength and reliability, and so on Further. Also popular are carved, painted and wooden (clay, glass, porcelain) images of the sun, moon, fish, palms, as well as nesting dolls.
Since ancient times, poetic images and spiritual ideas embodied in everyday objects helped our ancestors make their lives more beautiful and warmer. They will also help us, because the structure and spirit of the house depend only on the owners themselves, on their good thoughts, desires and hard work.
Elena Melenevskaya
How to position the house according to the cardinal directions? This is the question every person who begins to build his own asks himself. a private house, plans cottage construction outside the city.
Building a house with its orientation to the cardinal points is not only a tribute to our ancestors, who located houses with a clear layout along the south-north axis, but also took into account many other features of the location of a residential building, including humidity and the presence of main wind flows. What is it? such importance to design, take into account in construction and? It turns out that sometimes saving space on a plot of land can lead to misuse Such an irrational arrangement does not add natural strength and comfort to those living in this house. On the contrary, such an attitude creates many unnecessary problems for its residents.
Why orientate your house?
Any designer will tell you that orienting a house to the cardinal directions is not only good for maintaining traditions, but also economical and rational from an engineering point of view.
There are a few simple tips on the layout of the house, which are important to follow and which:
- Save money on heating or cooling your home;
- will allow you to reduce the number of heat-insulating materials in the walls;
- will add more light to the rooms;
- simplify the building design.
How to correctly position a house according to the cardinal directions we will try to tell you using information based on the design of buildings of varying complexity and for different purposes.
How to correctly position a house according to the cardinal directions
The south side is a place where it is necessary to design and use more windows and terraces open to the sun. The south side is the most illuminated even in winter. Entrance to the house according to the cardinal directions oriented with a south reference. This is good for reducing the cost of snow removal in winter, because the south side warms up much faster, and the south wind is warm, so the snow melts much faster here. Usually the south side is the leeward side (except for local conditions), that is, the most protected from cooling. Since the front door is a direct contact of the air mass of the house with the outside air masses, then the presence and more warm air, and smaller air flows are very good here for retaining heat.
The south side is ideal for games rooms and living rooms. If the owners love sunlight and are not afraid of heating the bedroom to high temperature in the summer this is also a good option for them. By the way, in winter this room will require less energy for heating. However, it is recommended to equip windows on the south side with canopies and cornices, which will protect from direct sunlight, although they will allow reflected light to enter directly into the room.
The building on the north side needs to be planned completely differently. The modern layout of the rooms allows you to make it without windows. This is desirable for many reasons, including because a solid wall will retain heat best. The northern part also has its advantage - if there are rooms where sunlight is undesirable or not necessary, it is better to place such rooms on the northern side. We are talking about technical rooms, warehouses, garages, boiler rooms. The eastern side is one of the most valuable. Here you can place rooms for relaxation, bedrooms, and dining rooms. First of all, this is because it is on this side that at sunrise there will be the brightest, most pleasant light. However, it is worth remembering that in winter this side of the world cools more strongly, so arrange from the east a large number of windows are not recommended.
The western side tends to be the wettest. It requires constant care and is also cool. Therefore, it is better not to place bedrooms and living rooms on this side, although this side of the world is suitable for placing storage rooms, corridors, and other utility rooms.
Besides, sometimes you can violate such general rules, we will return in the publication below, but still the main recommendation is to fulfill these requirements, observe the location of the house on the cardinal points. The fact is that compliance with the placement of rooms and the orientation of the building affects the period efficient operation building structures. First of all, this applies to the roof and walls. Wall enclosing structures are the first to suffer, as are roofing materials, from overheating by sunlight and from hypothermia. It is for this purpose that, according to recommendations developed in advance, homes receive the appropriate:
- thermal insulation;
- communication device with the least freezing effect;
- device interior decoration premises taking into account the lighting of the rooms.
That is, oriented house on the cardinal points, may be more economical for the developer.
How to design a house?
It is not uncommon for engineering projects to be redesigned under the influence of advice from friends or relatives. Sometimes there is a rational grain in this advice, however, building a house is not only a personal opinion, experience, but also, above all, an accurate mathematical calculation based on scientific knowledge. Therefore, in such a matter, it is better to trust not words, not information from ten or twenty years ago, but the proven proposals of designers.
Calculation of wind, intensity of sunlight, heating or cooling of a house can be carried out by people who do this professionally. For example, employees construction company"InnovaStroy" can offer individual house design, as well as the construction of houses with the provision of all necessary construction services. It is also possible to order a free consultation with a specialist on the company’s official website, including calculation of services.
Where is the best place to build a kitchen, living room, bathroom?
Let's consider the placement of specific rooms if our house is already oriented to the cardinal points. Now we will try to adjust the placement of rooms in order to understand how best to plan the house as a whole. The kitchen is a place where food is constantly prepared, that is, there is increased temperature regime. In addition, a refrigerator is usually placed here. The temperature in the kitchen should be comfortable for the person who cooks, so you should not place the kitchen on the south side - it will be too hot in the summer. This shouldn't be done because refrigeration unit requires the lowest possible temperature for efficient work. The kitchen can be located east, northeast. In exceptional cases and with the installation of reinforced additional thermal insulation of windows, it can be oriented to the north.
The living room is usually the most a large room, where the family gathers for communication. We said that it can be placed on the south side. However, placing it to the east may be a good option. The fact is that in the first half of the day, when most of the residents of the house will be at work, the room will have time to warm up, but in the evening, the sun will not blind the eyes, but will fill the room with pleasant natural light. Sometimes you can try to orient the living room to the west and adjacent directions - southwest, northwest. The bathroom can also be located on the north side if it is designed without windows. If at least a small window for natural light provided, then it is the south or southeast, southwest side. Thus, the warm and sunny side of the location will add the opportunity to dry the room thanks to sun rays, and will also reduce the risk of bacteria and mold in the room. Thus, location of the house according to cardinal directions helps get rid of harmful microorganisms.
We plan comprehensively
It is important not only to position the windows and doors of the house correctly, to orient the entire house to the cardinal points, but also to plan how plants, shrubs, and trees will be located on the site. This will allow:
- improve the landscape of the site;
- will allow you to grow the necessary green spaces on the site;
- reduce the influence of wind and sun on the house;
- improve the microclimate personal plot;
- will introduce an element of quality design into the entire structure.
What is the best way to plan green spaces? Traditionally it is believed that the west side of the house is ideal for placing windbreaks on the house. It is on this side that it is better to plant trees. This is where they should best take root, since this side of the world contributes to the accumulation of most of the precipitation there. On the south side it is better to plant shrubs or trees that like to absorb heat. If our goal is to protect the house from overheating, such plants will be necessary there.
In extreme heat, the temperature difference between an open surface and one protected by trees or foliage of tall shrubs can be up to 10-15 degrees. On the contrary, if the winter is cold and the house is blown by the wind, then tall trees or lush, dense coniferous or evergreen plantings not only cut the continuous cold flow from the north side, but also make it possible to reduce the cooling of the building by 5-10 degrees. The plants themselves also help to retain solar energy and can protect in the summer from drying out and heating or excessive freezing of the territory of the personal plot in the winter. According to various sources, the effectiveness of such planted trees and bushes is up to 90% of solar radiation transmitted to the surface in summer, and about 50% of retained radiation in winter.
Feng Shui at home according to cardinal directions
One of the conditions for designing a house is taking into account the wishes of the developer. Among such outlandish proposals, at first glance, may be the requirement to place the house in the cardinal directions according to the teachings of Feng Shui. This Chinese teaching, a kind of philosophy, allows you to take a unique look at the traditional practice of placing houses. By the way, it is somewhat consistent with classic options placement of houses proposed by professional engineers, including the part that answers the question of how to position the house according to the cardinal directions.
Feng Shui at home according to cardinal directions explains in its own way why to do this and how. For example, it is advisable to orient the entire building to the cardinal points so that a person’s character and his aspirations are harmonized. Feng Shui of a house according to the cardinal directions also states that the house is divided into at least eight parts according to the cardinal directions and each direction has its own characteristics:
- wealth is approaching in the southeast,
- in the south - honors,
- the southwestern direction is love, creating a family,
- the east is an exclusively family direction,
- West - is responsible for the creative aspirations of the owners of the house,
- northeast - obtaining information, training
- north - growth through the ranks,
- northwest - travel.
In addition to these directions, there are the main ones that we have already mentioned, those that are subject to the elements, natural elements:
- career is water,
- honors are fire,
- creativity- Earth
- family is air.
The logic of Feng Shui says that where there is a fragment of the house that protects the family, place family photos with all household members, and where there is a part of the house where it is best to create, leave your best hand-made masterpieces, creative works. Feng Shui points to the fact that brute rationality is not always useful when orienting a house. If you have a corner free from buildings or vegetation, that’s great, because a consciousness that is loaded and built up with fences without free fragments means a complete lack of freedom of thought, an uncritical attitude to reality, and a lack of vision for the future. Orientation to the cardinal points, according to the teachings of Feng Shui, is a very subtle matter, not always directly responsible for the result, since the person himself still plays a very large role in the realization of his ideas and thoughts.
And some more short advice from the masters of this ancient eastern teaching:
- It’s good if there is a large road filled with traffic near your house on the western side;
- it’s great if the north-west direction of the site is complemented by a tree;
- if the south side of the room is adjacent to a vacant lot, this is a positive sign;
- Golden Rule orientation of the house according to Feng Shui: in front - from the south side, and from the rear facade - north;
- the kitchen is preferably located in the eastern part of the house;
- when the bedroom of elderly people is located in the southeast - this is good;
- The window of young people, a young family faces east or south.
If the site does not allow you to orient the house
Location of the house on the site according to cardinal directions may also have a significant disadvantage. Orienting your home to the cardinal directions can be difficult due to the fact that your land plot is not suitable for such a location, the corners of the house rest against the edge of the site or leave a meager passage.
Here you will need to make a choice - either you build a house according to all the rules and canons of science, or you rely on the fact that your house will fit beautifully into a number of similar houses of your neighbors. What is more important to you:
- comfortable living with neighbors;
- own well-being;
- rational use of resources?
The answer to these questions is obvious - it is important to build a “smart” house where water, heat, and electricity will be used rationally. And this can be achieved without resisting natural forces, without opposing ourselves to the sun, wind, soil properties, but using all the best that nature gives us.
And yet, if you can’t arrange the house on the site according to the cardinal directions according to the recommendations of architects and planners, consider adjusting the project itself. Perhaps just linking it to the area, using non-standard techniques, including unusual communications, courtyard paths, overhead passages, underground entrances and exits will allow you to create a unique image of the building and, most importantly, will pay off many times over. After all, you can build a house once, but you will constantly pay for irrationally used resources, as well as feel discomfort from a cold window on the north side.
Let's summarize briefly. It is advisable to place the house on the cardinal points. This is supported by the centuries-old experience of builders, including the Slavs, who built both religious buildings and simple huts with orientation to the cardinal points. Maybe even our great-grandfathers knew a little more than we think. The second important conclusion: combining windows, corridors, rooms, utility rooms with their orientation to the cardinal points is of practical importance.
The most important advantage, if the house is oriented to the cardinal directions, is that we get significant savings in resources throughout the long, many-year operation of the house. The conclusion is obvious - such a solution will be profitable and will bring significant benefits to the inhabitants of the house. And this is exactly what we are striving for.
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While settling, the Aryans carried the Vedic faith throughout almost the entire earth. In the 5th century BC. The Aryans reached the Yin region (the territory of today's Southern Urals, China, India) and spread their faith throughout India and China. |
In China, Feng Shui reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). In 1927, Feng Shui was officially banned in China, and Feng Shui masters were forced to leave the country. Feng Shui began to come into fashion in the West and the USA only in the late 80s of the 20th century, in Russia - in the 90s. During this time, popularizers either simplified Feng Shui to such an extent that its principles simply lose their meaning, or “inventing” it anew, relying solely on their intuition. |
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1. The word Slav means “glorifying YANG and YIN.” 2.Jars with the image of the Yin-Yang sign were found at excavations of Trypillian settlements of the 5th-7th centuries. BC. |
Yin-Yang is the foundation, the basic concept of Feng Shui, the symbol of our dualistic universe, the basis of everything that exists in the Universe. Yin and Yang are directly opposite, but at the same time complementary forces. Any change means, first of all, a change in the ratio of Yin and Yang. Yin always contains some amount of Yang and vice versa. |
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According to legend, the first Calendar (“Kolyada’s gift”) was established by Kolyada in the 6th century. BC. According to this calendar, the Year of Svarog (Big Kolo), equal to 27 thousand years, consists of 12 eras, where each era (Month of Svarog) consists of 2160 years. Svarog Day corresponds to 72 years. There are 10 more trieriyas, where one trieriya (3 eras = 3 days of Svarog) is equal to 216 years. Now we are in the 8th trierium in the era of Rod. |
In the Chinese mind, time is cyclical. The largest unit of time is 180 years. It is called the Great Cycle and is divided into three equal 60-year cycles (upper – middle – lower era). Each 60-year era also consists of three periods of 20 years each. So, there are nine periods in a 180-year cycle. Now from 2004 to 2024 there is an 8th period. |
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Our ancestors considered the East to be “Red Spring”, South - "Red Summer". In the south was the World Tree (a universal tree that unites all spheres of the universe). Therefore, initially the entrance to the house was from the south, much later they began to make a door from the east. And in the north there should be a stove. |
The ideal building should be surrounded by the "four heavenly animals." The green dragon (patron of the east) should be to the left of the house (if you look outward from the house). The white tiger (patron of the west) is to the right of the house. Rear protection is provided by the Black Tortoise. The Red Phoenix in front of the house should ensure the accumulation of favorable Qi. |
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Relationship to ancestors |
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The ancient Slavs always treated the elders of the family with respect and reverence. They also revered the souls of their ancestors, believing that they were in the middle sky - “Irie” and controlled the elements, sending either rain or snow to the earth. The souls of our ancestors were always nearby, ready to help. |
In China, they believe that the spirits of the dead directly influence the well-being of the living, and the location of the graves directly affects the luck of their relatives. To this day, Yin Feng Shui is practiced to determine burial sites. |
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Cracked dishes |
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Amulet |
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The Slavs were very sensitive to amulets. They were used everywhere: in homes, clothing, dishes, women's jewelry, bracelets. For example, carved skates on roofs, horseshoes on doors, trim on windows, designs on dishes, patterns on fabric. Cross-embroidered towels, scarves, pouches, and bedding were considered powerful amulets. The Bereginya doll and a bunch of dried herbs guarded every house. Especially a strong talisman was considered the sign of the Sun, bird and cross. |
Usage protective talismans-an integral part of false feng shui. The most auspicious symbol is the dragon. Laughing Buddha, amulets coins, Money Tree, fish in an aquarium, a vase of abundance are used in Feng Shui magic to attract wealth and good luck. |
What's happened
"Flying Stars of San Yuan"
“Flying Star” is one of the most effective areas of classical Feng Shui.
“Flying Star” is a complex and well-developed technique.
The essence of the Flying Stars theory is that there are feng shui energies that change over time. The main nine of these energies are called "Flying Stars".
Nine stars correspond to numbers from 1 to 9 and move (fly) along the trajectory specified by the Lo Shu square.
Each 20-year period, year, month and day of the Chinese calendar has its own star.
And each house and each room of the house has its own Lo-shu square, i.e. 9 spatial sectors. And at every moment these sectors have their own “Flying” stars of the hour, day, month, year and period. Naturally, they change every hour, month, and so on.
The most important are the influences of the stars (in descending order of importance) of the period, year and month.
Each star (numbers from 1 to 9) has its own set of qualities. Some stars are favorable, others are dangerous. They try to maximize and use the influence of the former, while the influence of the latter is neutralized or at least weakened. Feng Shui of the Flying Stars deals with all this.
The Flying Stars map depends on the specific house, its direction to the cardinal points and the period, which is determined by the year the house was built.
Why should you be afraid of "yellow 5"?
In Flying Star Feng Shui there are "Flying Stars of the Year". At the same time, you need to remember that the year is Chinese, and it usually begins on February 4 (5).
There is a very problematic “Star” - “Yellow 5”. It is advisable to clarify its location at the beginning of each year, especially if your plans include repairs or rearrangements. Otherwise you may be expected financial difficulties, failures and other unpleasant things. And the more intensely you make noise, the more trouble this nasty “Star” is preparing for you.
How to get rid of "yellow 5" problems?
It is best to refuse repairs and rearrangements in this room this year and try to make less noise.
Remember where Yellow 5 will be!
In 2014 – in the North-West
In 2015 - in the West
In 2016 - in the Northeast
The word “Slav” means “glorifying yang and yin.”
About ten to fifteen years ago, there was no art in choosing a place to build a house. Modern architects We are little familiar with the knowledge that our ancestors accumulated by observing nature for centuries. Firstly, this knowledge was classified as non-materialistic, and therefore false in the then public understanding of the universe. Secondly, the principle of conquering nature worked, in which there was no room for harmony with it.
The vacuum that arose in this matter gave rise to interest in other cultures that carefully preserved and passed on this knowledge. This explains the special interest, both in Russia and in Western countries, in the ancient Chinese teachings of Feng Shui or the Indian science of Vastu.
Some of the principles of Feng Shui can be traced in the approaches to building our houses. Slavic ancestors. According to these principles, it is not recommended to erect buildings on high hills or in hollows. At higher elevations, it is difficult to protect a house from gusts of wind, and lowlands are often prone to flooding, which means, among other things, they have an unhealthy atmosphere. Knowing this, our ancestors preferred to choose a place to build a house in those places where the risk of flooding was minimal.
The development of civilization entailed changes in natural landscapes. Therefore, today experts, when choosing the location of a house according to Feng Shui, look not only at the location of natural objects. Important role plays a role in the proximity of man-made forms - bridges, buildings, roads. The proximity to power lines, railway bridges, and highways is considered unfavorable. Quarries and dumps, high factory chimneys, telegraph poles and dead-end roads interfere with the normal flow of energy.
Slavic Feng Shui for building a house
In Rus', great importance was attached to finding a place to build a new house, the start time of work and the preparation of appropriate materials. At the same time, the process of choosing a site acquired a deep mystical meaning. The search for a building site began after the Intercession holiday. It was impossible to build a house on an abandoned old road, on the site of a fire, or where an old bathhouse used to stand. The worst place was considered to be the place where blood was shed.
The house was built where a young cow, released from the barn, calmly lay down to rest. Or where a horse, loaded with heavy luggage, stopped to rest. Of course, these are not the mysterious Chinese dragon and phoenix and other fur-wearing fish, but quite ordinary domestic animals - but none of our ancestors doubted their ability to sense favorable and unfavorable zones of space.
Having decided on a place, the owner cleared the space and plowed the area, moving in a circle. Then a square was drawn inside the circle - the place of the future foundation of the building, which was divided by a cross into four equal parts. Afterwards, the owner of the house went to “all four directions” in search of boulders, which were later placed under the corresponding corner of the house. This is how it was formed reliable foundation.
According to " Slavic feng shui", such stones served as support for the house, endowed it with protection from the four cardinal directions, and brought prosperity.
The entrance to the house was made from the south, thereby bringing Slavic Feng Shui closer to the best traditions of the Chinese teaching of the same name. The Slavs attached great importance to the quality of the soil on the site. To do this, its entire area was covered with a layer of oak bark. On the third day, the bark was removed and what was underneath was examined. The presence of ants or spiders was considered not good. The found worm was a good sign, and the place was suitable for construction.
Nowadays, Feng Shui masters use knowledge of the laws that allow them to determine the energy of the surrounding space. And their use when choosing a place to build a house can significantly improve all areas of a person’s life. Therefore, we will not spare effort, time and means for what is favorable for us personally! All these efforts will only be beneficial.