clarification

New Agers are wont to speak of “good energy/qi” and “bad energy/qi”, as well as “low-level energy,” as opposed and inferior to “high-level energy”.

Energy is neutral. Energy is just energy; it’s neither good nor bad. Sometimes it’s misplaced, stuck, or lacking, which causes imbalance, disharmony, ill health, but it’s never bad per se. Likewise, some energy is more yin (cool, slow, feminine, soft, dark) and some is more yang (warm, fast, masculine, hard, light), but yin doesn’t mean “low-energy” or inferior, nor does yang mean “high-energy” or superior (except literally, where yin has to do with the earth and the lower parts of the body and yang with the sky and the higher parts of the body). Yin & yang are both necessary. Neither is better than the other—they coarise and coexist, and only occur in relation to each other. Also, yang always contains yin & vice-versa. And they’re mutually consumptive, but we’re veering from the point now. Which is, essentially: Yin deficiency causes as much trouble as yang deficiency.

So when someone tells you that shoes*, dairy, or New England winters are “low-energy”, s/he is mistaken—they are merely more yin and less yang than hats, meat, or Florida winters. (You would no sooner feed cheese to someone lacking yang than you would lamb to someone lacking yin. The medicine must fit the cause.) Likewise, if someone wearing a big ole crystal pendant says that x, y, or z has “bad energy”, please correct her for me. It might have improper energy for the context, but it’s not bad in the proper context.

*Real example from an otherwise pretty good feng shui book I’m reading