Qi is a difficult word to translate and is usually left untranslated. Literally the word means "air". In martial arts qi refers to internal or physical energy.

In New Age interpretations of Feng Shui, "qi" typically is synonymous with "energy" (sometimes interpreted as willpower and initiative, but more commonly as "life force"). A more traditional explanation of qi as it relates to Feng Shui would consider a holistic understanding of local microclimates, the orientation of the structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment from the slope of the land to the vegetation and soil quality.

According to one writer on the subject, Stephen L. Field, one use for a Luopan is to detect the flow of qi. Field has written that he views feng shui as a form of divination that assesses the quality of the local environment and the effects of space weather, coining the term qimancy for the concept.

Professor Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that qi is a form of solar radiation. Compasses reflect local geomagnetism which includes geomagnetically induced currents caused by space weather.

Beliefs from the Axial Age, feng shui among them, hold that the heavens influence life on Earth. This seems preposterous to many people, yet space weather exists and can have profound effects on technology (GPS, power grids, pipelines, communication and navigation systems, surveys), and the internal orienting faculties of birds and other creatures. There is some evidence that suicide rates in Kirovsk, Russia, fluctuate along with the geomagnetic field. Atmospheric scientists have suggested that space weather creates fluctuations in market prices.

Source: Feng shui - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia