A closer look
Feng shui is currently used by wealthy interior designers to justify charging thousands of dollars to rearrange your living room furniture so your couch doesn't block your chi, but it originally began in ancient China exclusively as a magical system for figuring out where to bury dead bodies. The practice was designed to perfectly align gravesites with the magnetic forces of the earth to keep ancestors happy, because angry ancestors were believed to cause bad harvests and family curses. Only centuries later did the living decide they also wanted in on this spatial magic, adapting the death-rituals to figure out the optimal placement of their kitchen tables and indoor water features. The fact that modern corporate executives are paying premium consulting fees to arrange their ergonomic office chairs based on ancient graveyard superstition is perhaps the ultimate triumph of mystical rebranding in a capitalist society
