By Lee Ann Manley | Living Space Feng Shui

The Magic of the Ojai valley is legendary. But what makes Ojai a truly rare jewel is not readily seen, though in plain sight and wrapped all around the valley.

As a 20-year veteran of environmental acupuncture and Xuan Kong Feng Shui, I jumped into a quick look-see of Ojai’s energetic geography.

Instead, I found myself looking square through the eyes of Ojai’s very own Dragon. Ojai’s Dragon is not a fictitious “Puff the Magic,” or “Desolation of Smaug”-type beastie; it is an actual, moving geometaphysical force of nature. The practice of benefitting from “magical” terrain goes back beyond time.

Every successful ancient civilization used some method of tapping into Earth’s subtle, electromagnetic field for personal benefit. Three of the methods have been:

Ley Lines: Linear channels of Earth’s geomagnetic field, akin to an energetic nervous system. Historically Leys were used to site a community’s most important buildings.

World Grid: A planetary grid connecting points of great seismic, atmospheric and magnetic stresses. Many Grid points are home to locales such as the Giza Pyramids, Stonehenge and Bermuda Triangle. Reportedly military, telecommunication, particle accelerator and nuclear facilities are also sited on Grid points.

Xuan Kong Feng Shui: Geological sister school to the science of body acupuncture. Xuan Kong Feng Shui was originated to locate the best place and time for imperial buildings and burials. Xuan Kong identifies and facilitates the release of Earth’s life force energy called Qi or Chi.

Encoded in Asian calligraphy, artwork and poetry of mystical Dragons, Tiger, Phoenix and Tortoise, we learn of five mountains that generate supreme energy for special locales. “Heaven is brought to Earth” when these five mystical creatures (mountains) are properly shaped and located. Ojai meets every criterion to be called a rare Feng Shui jewel.

Traditionally a “Big Dragon” is a large, continuous serpentine mountain range bounded by water with gentle undulations, folds, valleys and hills. The tip of Ojai’s Big Dragon tail appears at Point Conception, Santa Barbara.

Undulating along California’s coast, Dragon curves easterly, wrapping around the Ojai valley, makes a U-turn westerly and stretches back towards Ventura headlands, laying her face to the earth.

Tortoise is “guardian spirit” of Ojai. Nordhoff Ridge’s northern elevation is an ideal Black Tortoise, indicated by crisscrossed mountain ridges and “sinking pulse and descending aspect.”

Phoenix generates future luck. Sulphur Mountain is a joyous red bird in action, indicated by bright, gently undulating southern mountains with “wings arched, head bowed, in dance sentiments.”

Tiger generates life force, “Qi,” for females. White Ledge Peak indicates a modern Tiger with bright, open westerly mountains “round in embrace and reaching to the east.”

White Tiger Mountains: Dragon generates life force, “Qi,” for males. The Topa Topas generate this energy indicated by imperial curving easterly mountains, martial in dignity yet unthreatening in shape.

Depending on location Ojai’s mountains produce different energies. Another influence would be a building sited within one of the creatures such as Wheeler’s Hot Springs, tucked within the folds of Big Dragon’s spine.

Roughly six percent of Ojai’s wildernesses are explored. The air, conductor of Heavenly Qi, funnels rarified energy from wild places into the basin, following an encircling path, forever refreshed from the wilderness it comes from.

Ojai’s magic is palpable: a wild blend of chaparral beauty and citrus, embraced by extraordinary transcendental geological features. This mystical, rare Feng Shui jewel is a geometaphysical work of art.