The Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year 2023 (also known as Spring Festival in China) ushers in the Year of the Rabbit on January 22. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 radically changed the world.
The recent unrest in Ukraine over its president Viktor Yanukovish backing out of a trade deal with the European Union, prompted one of my students in Kiev, to ask me about the national flag of Ukraine. How does the flag of Ukraine reflect the fate of the country? The flag is composed two equal sized blue and yellow bands. Originally, yellow on the top, now it is reversed and blue sits on top. Does this make any difference?
As we know, any successful company in the world has a good logo; such as, Apple computer, Facebook, Google, Nike, Mercedes Benz, and Twitter, to name a few. Likewise, any strong country in the world has a good flag design.
The most common national flag design is the combination of colored bands in either a horizontal pattern (German, Russia, and Netherlands) or vertical pattern (France, and Italy). Flags could also have different design patterns such as the flag of USA, England, China and Japan.
Good design is reflected by the color combination and the form of the pattern. For the flag with color bands, ideally it should have a three-color combination such as the flags of Germany (black, red, yellow), France and Russia (blue, white, red), and Italy (green, white, red). If there are only two colors, it should have three bands such as the Austrian and Canadian flags. Three (either color or band) represents a Yang number with more dynamic energy. Two (color and band) is a yin number. It is static and has less momentum such as flags of Libya, Monaco, Poland, and Indonesia. (Indonesia, in spite of its largest population and big territory, does not play any important role in the world stage).
Ukraine’s national flag of blue and yellow was officially adopted for the first time in 1918 by a short lived Ukraine People’s Republic and then was restored in 1992. There were times when yellow was on the top and blue was on the bottom. There are some who argue that maybe it’s better to have yellow on top instead of blue. The real issue is that it has two-colors and two-bands. Both are Yin in number (even number), and the lack of Yang energy from the numerology in the flag reflects stagnation, conflict, and indecision for the fate of the country.
Good design follows Natural Laws; Yin Yang Theory and Five Element Theory. From the Five Element theory point of view, Blue (Wood element) and Yellow (Earth element) are in direct conflict. What is more, even though Wood controls Earth, the light blue is a weak Wood, which means it does not have a strong control over Earth. This reflects stagnation and indecision. Also, from a Yin-Yang theory point of view, Blue is a yin color, Yellow is a neutral color, thus the flag energy also leans more toward yin. The flag of strong and rich countries such as USA, China, Russia, Japan, German, France, Italy, Netherland, and Canada all have the color red, the Yang color, in their national flag.
Ideally, Ukraine should add a Yang element in its flag. This can be done by simply adding a red band to the flag. If there is a concern of being too similar with other countries, it can also consider inserting an emblem, of which reflects the historical and cultural identity in the center of flag to bridge the Blue and Yellow colors. But make the blue, a darker blue for strength.
To change a national flag is not an easy task. It will require much national debate. However, all manifestations begin with a simple thought of a simple person. Time will come when people’s energy will change, to a stronger energy and inspire the change of the flag, for the better future of the country.
Shan-Tung Hsu, Ph. D.
Blue Mountain Institute
Seattle, Washington USA
shantunghsu@gmail.com
While lecturing in Kiev, Ukraine, the students there asked me to comment on the feng shui of Ukraine.
“Good” I answered. Indeed, Ukraine has a good mountain in the Northwest, vast fertile land on the east and south, and it is also adjacent to the Black Sea on the south. From a feng shui point of view, Ukraine has all the four features: Dragon, Guardian Hill, Energy Spot and Bodies of Water. Furthermore, Ukraine has an abundant amount of natural resources, and it exports uranium, coal, electricity… “How then are we still poor?” the students asked?
We are affected by Heaven (time), Human, and Earth (space). Even if the space is good, it is also affected by the human factor. This is a country, where food and clothes are not any less expensive than in the United States. The streets are full of new cars such as, Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. I was amazed; it does not seem like a poor country. Yet, a university professor makes about only $500 per month. People in the private sector make a bit more, but $1000.00 per month is regarded high. The average person is indeed poor. But who are those driving all the expensive cars? There must be an issue with the Human factor. There must be some imbalance in the Human factor. The Human factor includes the average citizen and government officials. Well you can guess what is wrong here. It must be the abundant amount of corruption among government officials!
The second half of April, I was in Kiev, Ukraine for a 10-days visit, giving two levels of feng shui workshops. During this period, some students took me to visit a museum in a small village called Trypillia, 50 km south of Kiev, where Trypillian culture (5508-2750 BC) was first discovered in the year 1897. The museum was modest in size but the collections it housed were amazingly impressive. It was difficult to imagine that people in 7500-4750 years back in history could create such beautiful designs of pottery and vases, of which many included images of animals. As I was the only visitor, the old caretaker of the museum, full of warm energy, patiently explained the history and significance of the culture and artifacts. One interesting aspect about the culture in the Trypillian tradition was that approximately every 60 to 80 years, they would burn their cities down and relocate to a new place for reasons that still puzzle archaeologists. Toward the end of my visit, my attention was heightened when he mentioned that most of Trypillian settlements (cities) were on the right side (view from facing downstream) of the big Dnipro River. For those who are into feng shui, it’s an interesting point: Classical Chinese feng shui text stated that “land on the right-hand side of river was more auspicious”. Here we find the same pattern in Trypillian culture dating back 7500 years, on the opposite of side of the planet from China. True feng shui concepts are universal. As a matter of fact, if you take a look at the large cities in the world, with rivers running through the city, it will either sit on the right-side of river or the initial development of the city began on the right side of the river. In the traditional Form School feng shui teaching, there is a clear and good explanation for this. Here, I post it as a challenge to those who have studied feng shui for the explanation. Please send in your comments!
