The basic belief behind Feng Shui is that there are five
elements, some combinations of which create a productive cycle,
and some a destructive cycle. When one of these five elements -
water, wood, fire, earth, and metal, respectively for the
productive cycle - are combined with an element adjacent to the
main element, a productive cycle is perpetuated. The reason
being that water sustains wood, wood feeds fire, ashes create
earth, earth creates metal, and metal holds water. So if you
have a room where wood is the main element, it would be good
Feng Shui to add a water or fire element to the room, as water
feeds wood and wood feeds fire. This is where candles would be a
nice touch of good Feng Shui.
A look at the destructive cycle will show which elements do not
work well together: water, fire, metal, wood, earth. And we can
see that water puts our fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood,
wood clogs earth, and earth muddies water. Although these
elements are generally considered bad Feng Shui combinations,
one can be used with an adjacent element in the destructive
cycle to minimize an overpowering element. For instance, if a
room has overpowering metal elements, maybe filled with modern
metal furniture, you can minimize that with wood elements like
some green leafy plants, or with fire elements such as red throw
pillows, a fireplace, or even candles.
It is beneficial to bear in mind the productive and destructive
cycles while decorating, but for optimum Feng Shui, a room would
have an equal balance of all five elements - none being too
overpowering. If this isn’t the case and there is not one
overpowering element, then the productive cycle is a good place
to start when decorating.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the elements, we can
see how to best utilize candles in our decorating. In areas with
predominately metal or water elements - rooms which would have a
lot of blue or silver colors or metallic furnishings - a candle
would help minimize the overpowering colors and add balance. If
you want to start using Feng Shui in a room with no overpowering
elements, you could bring in a candle and a complimentary
element like a plant or a brown oval rug since that color and
shape are associated with the earth element.
Candles can be an easy way to bring a natural element into your
home and can be a good starting place for implementing Feng Shui
design. Not to mention that scented candles are often great Feng
Shui because of the mood-enhancing qualities certain scents
have. Candles provide a simple start in creating a pleasant
ambiance and good decorating style.