As much as people know me to be patient and empathetic, I have to share a pet peeve of mine when it comes to those wanting to apply feng shui for themselves – doing it without a compass!!!
I hear over and over again about locations and directions but more than once I’ve gone in with my luo pan and advised them that they in fact have gotten the directions wrong, meaning the chart for the whole house will change and that affects remedies as well. If you want to do feng shui and you’re willing to do it on your own ( I personally believe in empowering yourself with the why’s and how’s of feng shui and I usually guide my clients in this whenever I do an audit. I don’t just write down recommendations and don’t tell them what it’s for ), but you HAVE to invest in a proper compass.
A good compass you can get at a hobby store or the hobby aisle in your favourite stores. I remember getting my first one at an army surplus store. Here in downtown Toronto’s Mountain Equipment Co-op ( MEC ) I was happy to find that they have Silva compasses. Where non-feng shui ( ie. not a luo pan ) compasses are concerned, I find the Silva brand to be trust-worthy and efficient enough as part of your feng shui toolbox.
Even with my impressive and expensive luo pan I still carry my small compass in my bag whenever I need to figure out my facing directions ( for meetings ) and for impromptu “I wonder what is the facing direction of this building” moments. If you eat, drink, sleep feng shui as I do, a compass is definitely a great tool to have on hand!
I had a bazi reading with a client lately and based on the reading that I shared with her, it doesn’t take much when you see ” Death and Emptiness” linked with her Hurting Officer star ( which usually denotes the husband as the primary, boss as the secondary ). She indeed confirmed that it was hard for her to find a committed relationship.
Although she sounded nervous that her chart seemingly tells of an uphill battle to find a life partner, with her mother on her case and her age advancing as the years go by… However, she was open enough and had enough faith that it will turn around.
I proceeded to advise her of feng shui remedies to place in her surroundings combined with mantras as well as physical action that can be taken in order to start shifting things around with her. A few days later she’s already finding that she’s in a more general good mood and the relationship between her and her mother is seeing shifts as well. With a little more time and some customized feng shui advise, I’m sure we’ll hear from her soon enough about a major breakthrough!!!
What does YOUR chart say about your potential for the love of your life…?
“When you look upon another human being and feel great love toward them, or when you contemplate beauty in nature and something within you responds deeply to it, close your eyes for a moment and feel the essence of that love or that beauty within you, inseparable from who you are, your true nature. The outer form is a temporary reflection of what you are within, in your essence. That is why love and beauty can never leave you, although all outer forms will.”
We had to pursue some help from the specialist so that definitely helped our chances but it has finally happened!We moved the bed about a week before our procedure and I’m not sure if that is what did it but it worked! I did end up getting a beady thing to hang at the bathroom door so I felt better about bed placement. If all goes well we are going to have the baby in January. Can you think of any other things (based on our house and charts) that we could do to promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby?
Its interesting, a lot of the things that you were able to find with my chart correspond with a chart reading that my mom had done for me when she went to India. Good job!!
Take care!
Nandini, British Columbia Canada
I got this email in my inbox just a few nights ago, a wonderful news from a client who started working with me around August of last year. Like many of you reading my blog post now, she came across this blog through her research on feng shui and, lucky for me, she decided to reach out and take a chance on a feng shui practitioner living on the other end of the Canadian mainland, doing the whole consult on the phone.
Nandini and her husband has been trying for a while now to get pregnant. We moved the bed ( as you can read from her email ) to a spot that is more supportive of both of them not only to conceive but to also get overall better chi. Her house had an afflicted children’s sector which we remedied with the correct feng shui placement. Looking at her and her husband’s paht
New mom and baby, courtesy of Photosavvy from Flickr
chee / bazi chart I also realized they have clashes with regards to their affinity with children. This initially really worried her, but I reminded her the birth chart reading is to let her know of potential energies surrounding a certain issue. Through action, inner tools as well as feng shui a negative thing can be suppressed effectively.
Obviously delighted with this baby news, I replied to her with my congratulations. However I gently reminded her to take things easy as, again, based on her chart, she is prone to miscarriages, an advice she is most likely to heed. As a mom myself I highly recommend doing as much meditation as possible while pregnant. I personally believe that is the reason why my own baby was very good-natured, ate and slept well, and my pregnancy and labor was without a hitch.
I am pre-empting some readers who may say, “Well, they went to a specialist, that’s how they got pregnant”. Well, yes and no. How many times have you heard of couples doing their second, third attempt at a fertility treatment? Once again I’ll repeat that I am all for taking action as well, so seeing a specialist definitely is not a wrong move – PLUS, based on Nandini’s chart she is more likely to get pregnant through Metal methods ( ie. modern medicine ) rather than, let’s say, Wood methods ( usually more traditional medicine involving herbs etc ).
I’ll repeat myself until I’m blue in the face I suppose. Feng shui is about complementing visible action with the invisible energies at work.
I have always admired Ms. Williamson for the messages that she spreads in the world that not only enlightens but reminds us of our greatness. Here’s a favorite that I’d like to share with all of you.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson
What I would suggest is not to only read it. Print this out. Put this on your bedside table, your fridge, your desk… make it your bookmark. I believe the world will be a much better place if we all are reminded that all of us have a seed for greatness in us. Question is, what will we do with it?
I had a recent bazi / paht chee reading with a client who, as loving as she is, is in her fifties and has never been married. Longing to love and be loved, she asked me if there’s any potential for future love prospects. Luckily for her, I said it does look like things will start looking brighter for her, but I warned that whatever negative patterns that didn’t work well for her previously will need to be addressed if her future relationships were to be fruitful. Based on her element, I advised that her being needy hasn’t served her well and will never be. The fact that she loves so much that she puts others in front of her to the point of being self-sacrificial doesn’t serve her as well.
It was quite clear that she was flabbergasted by how the day pillar in her chart alone told me so much about her characteristics. I gently reminded her while these are behavioural patterns she’s inclined towards, it doesn’t mean it can’t be changed. Nothing is set in stone. I personally believe karma can be changed by our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
There was marriage luck before, and when I told her of the year she confirmed that indeed there was a marriage proposal by a man she loved, and whom loved her in return. But she acknowledged that her pride stood in her way and that relationship met an unfortunate end. This again proves that even though the energy for a certain happening is there, it all remains in POTENTIALITY until we act upon it, whether we realize it or not.
I realized after the appointment the best way to describe this potentiality as can be seen in a bazi / paht chee chart, and here it is :
Things that were to happen as per the chart is like the electric current that’s surrounding a dark room. It is until we turn on the switch that the potential energy turns into a light that fills the room, and it is our decision ( consciously or not ) to put the room back into darkness.
Our part in this whole thing has been, for the most part, done subconsciously. I highly recommend Caroline Myss’ Sacred Contracts as a great introduction to what we have agreed to go through in our lives before we are born into this earth.
I hope this analogy can help most of us reconcile with the idea that while we are on this earthly plane, a spiritual classroom, with ups and downs in our lives and sometimes we feel like we are merely corks being tossed about in a volatile sea, ultimately we have the power to change that. Also, changing your destiny doesn’t mean you’re defying God or the higher power whichever name you wish to use… It also doesn’t mean you’re playing God. It just means you come into a position in your life where you decide to take more control of what goes on inside and outside of you. I will say this again and again, changing our destiny means deflecting negative karma in our lives through mantras, prayers and chants…. charities and donations…. praying for others’ health and happiness… feng shui… taking care of our negative emotional and psychological states…. breaking ourselves of bad habits…
With your action, things happen. With your inaction, things happen as well. One gives you power, the other takes it away.
I watched The Bachelor the other night… In my defence there was absolutely nothing to watch on the television and it was the season premiere and… oh well, I might as well admit it, I saw the previews and the man in question looks quite disarming. Obviously… my curiosity is piqued.
For one whole hour I watched a whole group of women clamor over one man, and that one man in question seemed to have everything but the right woman to spend his life with. Not to pass any judgement on anyone ( okay, maybe a tad bit… I am human with my biases… ), but it got me thinking about how finding their soulmate makes an otherwise perfectly sane person do things they normally wouldn’t do, what more to say to do it in front of the camera and the whole world. The things we do in the name of love….
Isn’t it ironic that in a world where the population is over 6 trillion strong that finding a soulmate is still a struggle for so many? Even with the technology where you are no longer limited to prospects in your own city, there’s still such a huge amount of singles online and offline looking for love and there’s a huge array of products and services to fill that need.
As much as I advocate `putting yourself out there’ be it with an online profile or just going out to meet people in your neighbourhood, from a feng shui perspective I would like to offer the idea that each of us are born with a certain kind of destiny where your love relationships are concerned. Some people have good relationship karma where the right partner just fell on their lap without them asking for it. Some have not-so-good relationship karma where it feels like you’re heading towards a dead end over and over again.
How would you know if you have good or bad relationship karma? As a feng shui practitioner who reads the 4 Pillars of Destiny birth chart ( in Mandarin it’s called bazi, or in Cantonese known as paht chee ) which gives us a complete picture of one’s heaven luck ( a feng shui term for destiny ), there are a few things we can gather where love is concerned - your loveblueprint, if you may.
First of all, one can see if the Spouse Star or boyfriend / girlfriend luck is present in the chart and if it is auspicious for the owner of the chart. Second, we can take a look whether there’s the Peach Blossom Luck ( in feng shui known as the romance luck ) in the chart and also whether it is auspicious or not ( auspicious Peach Blossom Luck obviously means really good potential to find love, but if it’s inauspicious it also means negative relationships such as a scandalous romance ). There’s also the Red Matchmaker which usually is a huge indication of marriage, or the Red Chamber which usually warns us of carnal-related destruction ). You do need a practitioner to help you read these charts as there are numerous guidelines and rules to follow in order to read the chart effectively, but nevertheless it gives one a great overview of what’s to come.
So what if your 4 Pillars Chart doesn’t show any indication of finding that love ever after? We are not here merely as corks being thrown in the rough sea, being tossed around as the environment sees fit. We DO have free will, so don’t forget the 3 Trinity of feng shui – Heaven Luck, Earth Luck and Man Luck. The chart gives you a good idea of what Heaven Luck ( destiny ) might have in store for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change your destiny through Earth Luck ( ie. feng shui ) and Man Luck ( ie. your own actions ). But obviously, if you line up all three aspects together then the love manifestation will happen much faster. For instance, if the chart doesn’t show you being involved with someone let’s say 20 yrs from now, there’s always a way for us to help destiny along and shorten the timeline!
I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll say it again. The difference between the 4 Pillars and regular destiny / life readings is that there are certain situations that can be remedied if you know about it early enough, and those remedies are usually through feng shui, charity, mantras etc. So intead of being defeatist when the chart tells of a looming problem ( ie. an affair or a divorce ), a combination of Earth Luck as well as Man Luck can help you minimize the challenge, or in certain situations might even help you avert it altogether.
If, as a spiritual love seeker you can sense that there is a piece of the puzzle missing in your quest to find your highest and best love, your 4 Pillars will most likely complete the picture for you. If you feel this is the right step, send me an email and we’ll get you started and get your more magnetized to the love of your life!
I know this to be a popular feng shui advice given in books and internet sites that unfortunately do not address the fact that water placement needs to be done very carefully.
There is the common feng shui misconception that water equals wealth. While it is true that water is a powerful feng shui activator, it also means that it can activate good chi if placed in the right location, or if placed improperly it can actually activate negative chi. Which is why I now shudder whenever I come across information that touts placing an aquarium / water feature without taking into consideration the details of the location as this is a great dis-service to those receiving the information and taking it in as truths.
Here is what needs to be taken into consideration regarding the location of an aquarium / water feature, and whether or not it is even a favorable thing to do in the first place :
1 ) you need to determine the facing direction of your home / office
2 ) determining the period that the location belongs to ( determined by the move-in date )
3 ) figuring out the the 9 grids of that location ( you do this by dividing the layout into 3X3 sections )
4 ) identifying the flying star chart for the location ( ie. you’re looking for prosperous mountain star if you’re wanting to activate health and relationship luck, then water star if you’re wanting to activate wealth )
5 ) plotting out the annual flying star chart and how it interacts with the location’s chart
6 ) make sure that it follows the guidelines for Direct and Indirect Spirit ( Northwest, West, Northeast and South should never, EVER see water even if it has a prosperous star sitting there – these will be in violation of the rule so there’s no exceptions!!! ).
7 ) find a good day for you to activate your aquarium / water feature
As you can see, without further information on your location I unfortunately can’t help you address this question at this point. To be honest, water placements are VERY powerful but need to be done under watchful eye. I have seen businesses turn around after all the steps were taken to make sure it is appropriate, combined with feng shui date and time selection as well to make sure it is extra potent.
For instance, I have a very prosperous star sitting in the living room part of my home and under normal circumstances I would have a water feature there in a heartbeat. HOWEVER, that prosperous star happens to be in the East and the East in 2011 is affected by the Wu Wang ( Five Yellow ), therefore placing a water feature there will actually activate the most dreaded negative star in feng shui which will bring disaster to my family! I unfortunately will have to wait till next year before I can plug my fountain back in. Oh well…
A great resource I would like to point you to is Joey Yap’s book, ” Your Aquarium Here ” which will guide you through all the steps except steps 5 ( there is, however, a lot of good info in the internet about which directions are affected in 2011 so that’ll help you figure out if you want to activate with water ) and 7 which unfortunately should only be done with a feng shui practitioner trained in date and time selection as this needs to be very specific to YOU, not something easily covered in a book… or a blog post…
I apologize that it’s frustrating, not being able to get your question answered now. But honestly, when it comes to water placement I would strongly suggest you do this with a practitioner who knows what the steps that I laid out above entail. It’s best to be safe than sorry in this case. If you can’t find one near you, there’s always me.
I recently assisted my feng shui mentor and teacher, Diamanda Huynh, doing almost a full day’s work of home and business audits, and we came across a very interesting case where a family unknowingly activated bad luck for the father who was the main breadwinner of the house.
Now, the house that they live in is a very nice house. Great space for the whole family and was decorated lovingly. Unbeknownst to the occupants, however, this house does not support the man of the house at all. The master bedroom contains the dreaded 5/2 flying star combination in the northwest sector which practitioners and intermediate students know to be one of the most disastrous combinations out there resulting in negative life-changing events such as accidents, illness, career and financial setbacks and even in extreme cases, death.
Now, there’s other factors that don’t support the father as well where the feng shui of this house is concerned. The father, or the man in the house, is affected by the Northwest corner of the home. On the main floor the northwest is where the shoe closet as well as powder room is located and in the upper floor the northwest is the master bedroom.
Last year in 2010, the annual star that resides in the northwest is the Purple Star 9 which strengthens whatever good luck is already existing there. In the case of this house, the 9 strengthened the 5/2 combination which doubled the chances of ill events happening that will effect the family in general and specifically the father.
As if that is not enough, they had in the latter part of last year put in a big boulder on the outside of the house in the Northwest corner. Now, the 5/2 ( mountain star 5 Yellow and water star 2 Illness ) combination which was already strengthened the annual stars by gets another boost where the mountain star 5 is being supported by the boulder which signifies mountain.
If you’re not able to follow the technicalities here, that’s okay. The main reason why I have to point these factors out is this:
Almost immediately after the boulder was put in, the father got into an accident at work and hasn’t been able to go back to work since then, leaving the mother to be the sole breadwinner.
They were flabbergasted when the boulder was pointed out and my mentor asked them if there’s been any ill luck befalling the father. They were semi-skeptical of feng shui up until that moment, and when we were able to confirm that he indeed got into the accident after the boulder was put in they were starting to realize that they have been ignorant about feng shui even after a member of the family ( who was the one who referred the client to my mentor ) warned them not to.
When an affliction is unknowingly magnified, unfortunately the reason for that happening is rooted in karma. The kind of house that you end up living in, whether it nurtures you or destroys you, is karma. You can be half of a twin yet both of you living in different houses will have lives that lead to different paths, one may find good fortune while the other might end up stumbling along the way.
What can we do to lessen the effects of unfortunate karma in our lives? Good feng shui is one. Good heart and action is another way to help pay down our karmic debt. Charity, always. Compassion, always.
Even when we feel like we are stuck in the challenges of life and don’t see a way out, it is of the utmost importance to keep our chin up and our hearts open. Nothing is forever and believe it or not this includes the struggles we currently face in our lives. To change, we must want the change and be willing to take the action.
In the case of this family, they are fortunate to have a relative aware enough of the influence of bad feng shui and lead them to my mentor’s assistance. I will keep you updated to the turning of the tide for this family after putting in place the feng shui remedies prescribed to them. So… to be continued….
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I get asked all the time what people should do to boost up a certain area in their life through feng shui, for instance, “what to put in my love corner” etc. If I were to be approached for generic answers even just 2 years ago I’d gladly have said that you put love symbols in the southwest corner of your room / house to activate relationship luck.
However, quoting Maya Angelou, ” When we know better, we do better”. Now that I know better, I know I can give even better feng shui advice, but it’s not an answer that I can give in just a few minutes.
Let’s take a look at how in-depth you can go with feng shui if… let’s say you want to activate relationship luck. Sure, there’s the `universal’ love corner, and I myself have had great success activating that while I first tried my hand at feng shui BUT I realize now in hindsight that based on my birth chart it’s not that hard to activate for me. Another person who has a birth chart that would denote more obstacles in finding love would do exactly the same things I did with their universal love corner and would see no results, and they would then dismiss feng shui as another hoax.
Talking about personalized feng shui…. do you know there’s a love direction based on your gender and year of birth ( which gives you your kua number, which then allows you to determine your love direction ); or, if you live in a Period 7 house the romance potential in certain parts of the house will be different from a Period 8 house, and so on and so forth; or certain months and years would have a stronger energy for relationship manifestation, for instance it is the north area for 2010, and for 2011 it will be in the southwest?
Classical feng shui, or at least Xuan Kong Feng Shui, takes a lot of the time dimension into consideration, something that a lot of feng shui advice being thrown around on the Internet is missing, and it’s a dis-service to my clients if I lead them down the same path. It is incomplete, it is unprofessional, and it can potentially be a huge waste of time and effort.
Energy is always moving, it’s always transforming, shifting, increasing, decreasing…. it is NEVER STAGNANT. That is why we can no longer keep the common misconception of “this universal corner for this” and “universal corner for that”, because what is a strong corner for romance or for career this year, this month, even this day, will constantly change!
I in fact just read a blog that touts placing crystals on the southwest corner to activate romance. While this generally is a harmless effort, however putting crystals on the southwest only worsens the situation for 2010 as you are strengthening the Wu Wang ( the earth element negative energy all who are familiar with feng shui know better than to mess around with ) which will make matters even worse! So again, this is a disservice to those who are seeking feng shui guidance.
If information that you get on the internet or in books is all that you have access to, by all means do with it the best that you can. But if you find there is no change in your situation, or worse it even aggravates the situation, that’s when you need to realize that you would need to analyze deeper before you do further feng shui activities.
If you have any questions on this, please feel free to connect with me from my “FS Question?” page!
), but it got me thinking about how finding their soulmate makes an otherwise perfectly sane person do things they normally wouldn’t do, what more to say to do it in front of the camera and the whole world. The things we do in the name of love….
Oh well…
