William Spear
William Spear is a life-long teacher whose clarity, knowledge, humor and insights continue to introduce international readers and audiences to a wide range of topics including feng shui, the I Ching, macrobiotics (the foods, life-style and the philosophy), 9 Star Ki, personal transformation, end-of-life care and sustainability. He is the founder and president of the non-profit 501(c)(3) Fortunate Blessings Foundation in Connecticut which offers educational programs in the service of wellness for the individual, for our human living & working environments, and for the larger ecological & social health of human & planetary life.
While extensively lecturing and consulting in London during the early 1990’s, Spear was approached by a publisher as being the expert most likely to clarify for Westerners one of the most mystifying of Eastern arts, feng shui. They believed that Spear was the most capable to synthesize and simplify the incomprehensible to the uncomprehending. The result, when people were still asking "feng what?" is the now classic Feng Shui Made Easy: Designing Your Life With the Ancient Art of Placement first published by HarperCollins in 1995. Freshly revised in 2010 with three new chapters and new illustrations, the book has been republished by North Atlantic Books and it is available once again. The New York Times called Feng Shui Made Easy "the most user-friendly explanation of feng shui for American audiences."
In the new preface, Spear writes:
In the years since the first edition was released, my focus has remained more on the inner world and the extraordinary study of the nature of consciousness. It has been my privilege to be of service in many areas where natural disasters have decimated villages and populations, where nothing was left “outside” to use the “art of placement.” That we are all one is inescapable in my experience; however, communicating this reality remains my biggest challenge. With that in mind, I choose to revise and re-release Feng Shui Made Easy with three new, and, hopefully, helpful chapters that add to our attention beyond the arrangement of things: Feng Shui for Children’s Environments; Back to Nature: Feng Shui and Ecology; and Feng Shui for Health.
As a young boy of ten, Spear played with the patterns of the "magic square" which he discovered to be the energetic foundation of the I Ching (or the Book of Changes) and the basis of Chinese cosmology and feng shui. From the early experiences with the magic square, the I Ching and then macrobiotics - which takes into account the evolution of humanity, our personal relationship to the environment and our individual needs on every level of our being and which also encompasses feng shui - it was natural for Spear to incorporate feng shui into his personal life and his life’s work. All these practices are interconnected since they study the ebb and flow of universal energy.
In 1991 and 1992, Spear delivered the most popular lecture on feng shui ever given at the International Interior Design Exposition held in Toronto. In 1993, he served as the first honorary President of the International Feng Shui Society in London, and continues to teach feng shui at international conferences and workshops. Before a capacity audience of 250 in 1997, Spear was introduced by, Jan Stuart, the curator of the Smithsonian's Sackler/Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. as "The ultimate Western authority on this ancient Chinese practice. Through his book and lectures he has achieved more than a historically or culturally biased view of feng shui, to make it something modern and vital that affects our lives today." The architectural editor of The London Times, Hugh Pearson, described Spear as "the feng shui man in the West."
Around the world, Spear has been a consultant and team player in a wide range of design projects from private residences to corporate offices, clinics and urban planning:
- furniture design for Kinnarps in Sweden
- building conversion for the Haven Trust breast cancer clinic in London under the patronage of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales
- restoration and conversion of Spier Estate winery into a 5-star resort, spa and conference center on 200 acres in South Africa
- lobby of the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, Canada
- Darling Harbor 500-room hotel and casino on the Sydney Harbor, Australia
- restoration of a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Connecticut, USA
- construction of the first residential hospice in the state of Maine, USA for the Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice, a 400-employee health agency
- myhotels – boutique hotels – in London
- redesign of a port on the Lake of Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland
A gifted and accomplished speaker who offers knowledgeable and lively presentations, Spear has been featured at numerous international conferences and in the press, on radio and television in the U.S. and Europe, including television appearances on CNN, the BBC and the CBS Morning Show.
In the foreword of the revised edition of his book, Spear writes:
Feng Shui Made Easy was created after a lifetime of solving puzzles. Making the most complicated things more accessible and easily understood was ingrained in me; transforming philosophies and concepts into practical methods had been fascinating to me since childhood. This book will be like a feng shui consultant coming into your own home. But Feng Shui Made Easy tells you more than just how to rearrange your furniture, it tells your how to change your life -- and that is what feng shui is really all about. This is a remarkable system for self-development and a practical took for improving business and relationships. All you need to do is practice -- the energy flows by itself.