A multi dimensional multi disciplined approach that fuses the material with the spiritual
Ronit Lev-Bik an Israeli artist, who now resides in Connecticut, has made it her life’s work to merge the concepts of the Hebrew Kabbalah, Chinese Feng Shui and her art.
“Practical Kabbalists inscribe amulets to cure bad luck, I draw them applying the principles of both teachings. This is my language with the unseen world, this is my unique approach to deal with space and energy as an artist”
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth … and the spirit of God hovered over the face of waters…”[Genesis, chapter 1, sentence #2]
After spending years learning Kabbalah and practicing Feng Shui, it suddenly dawned on me that this universally known sentence is in fact the Hebrew origin of Feng Shui (Spirit of God = Feng = Wind = Chi, and water = Shui).
Until that moment it was as if I was walking on two separate paths. The natural path of my heritage and the acquired path of Feng Shui. But now the two validated each other and merged into one. I had been initiated and knew I had a rich, solid and authentic toolbox to go out and help others.
This kicked in the artist in me. I left the city to a secluded village in the country and dedicated two years to create the “Channeled Feng Shui art” series.
Both the Kabbalists and Taoists saw the underlining structure of the universe in terms of energies, forces and elements. The Hebrew Kabbalists used letters and symbols such as the tree of life to give structure to their system. The Taoists used symbols such as Yin and Yang for Tai Chi and drew on the eight trigrams of the I-Ching to organize their system.
My work on the channeled Feng Shui painting was driven by an affinity with the visual properties of both symbolic weaponries.
The Kabbalah offers a method for building magical squares based on letters from the Hebrew alphabet and numbers.
For example:
- The amulet of Saturn
Exactly like the Chinese Lou Shu Square, adding the numbers in any direction adds up to 15. This number in Hebrew Isopsephia (Gematria) represents “יה” the Hebrew word for God.
- For a correlation between the Bagua and the Kabbalah see Channeled Art Gallery
The Kabbalah highlights the concept of “Tikkun” “תיקון”, translated literally “to fix”. What is being fixed however is ones destiny, through the balancing of the soul and spirit energies. The results show up in ones life. Feng Shui achieves the same by balancing the physical surrounding to affect the spiritual energies “a clean home, a clean soul”. The Jewish “Star of David” symbol depicts these two approaches, the spiritual to physical and the physical to spiritual.
The above is a Feng Shui painting from the series “Channeled art” to activate the auspicious energy of the WEST. The angel of this direction is Rafael and the element is Metal.
The famous Kabbalah “Book of changes” “ספר שינויים” teaches practical methods to achieve real change in the real world by clearing blockage within ones soul. Inner Feng Shui is the same.
Feng Shui and Kabbalah share the idea that our physical environment has an effect on our soul.
The Kabbalists wrote “In a new house where no house ever stood before, there live the most harmful energies to afflict, because their space was taken from them where before they were free to roam as they please. Therefore, those who dwell in a new house are to obtain amulets of the right kind and place them over the entrances and windows”.
What is being described here is the Feng Shui “Flying Stars”.
Feng Shui and Kabbalah mark certain days as good and others as bad days for entering a new home.
The parallelisms of Kabbalah and Taoism/Feng Shui discussed here are only the tip of the iceberg. Deeper observation brings to light “The spirit of god” or the “oneness” that both these teaching allure to.
Article was featured in Conscious Design Magazine
Ronit Lev-Bik