Cecil Lee

Dear Sharon, Frankly wind chimes have TWO main uses:- 1. If say a particular corner of the wall is `radiating' poison arrow or sha ch'i, some Feng Shui Masters advice the householder to place a wind chime to negate this effect. Alternatively, they would ask the householder to place a potted plant at the corner to absorb `sha ch;i.' I mentioned earlier in another message in this forum that potted plants are mostly used by Taiwan trained FS practioners. 2. If the corner is of the metal element and say under the Pillars of Destiny, the owner of the house is a "Weak Metal" person, he may add e.g. a metal windchime at e.g. the West area to enhance or strengthen his Metal element. These are the two main uses of using a Windchime. There are a few caution here:- 1. As wind chimes do `vibrate' and give off a certain pitch... it may inadvertently attract `spirits' into the house or that location. One view here is that when a person dies, buddhist monks use to " call " the dead during the last rites for the person using cymbals or two metal claps .... making `noise' in the hope of attracting the spirit of the person. 2. Wind chimes can be made of many types of materials or even a combination of both and if one is not familiar, may inadvertently cause more damage than good to yourself. For example, if say the North is an auspicous location for someone and this owner decides to hang windchimes (triangle shaped and red) representing the " Fire element ". Under the destructive process of the 5 elements, Fire destroys Water thus this clearly shows that more harm than good may come out of it. The best advise I would like to give is that if you are not sure whether to hang a windchime or not, please don't do it. In your case, try not to hang the wind chime until you can be certain that it will `help you'. The reason I am unable to tell whether it is good for you or not is that: 1. I am uncertain of what type of element and strength you are. Eg. Netural Earth, Weak Earth or Strong Earth person. 2. Where is your front door facing? If say the front door is facing West, then overall, your house's main element is " Metal ". 3. Which corner are you placing the clay wind chime? As clay represents earth, by right, it could be used to enhance the earth element provided e.g. yiou are a " Weak Earth person" under the Pillars of Destiny. Hope that helps

Dear Chris, Please see below:- If you are standing on the steps of your main entrance door and look out and notice that the tree is in direct line `slicing' part of your main door, then this is considered sha chi. Currently there are four methods of dealing with this (not in any order of importance):- 1. Change the angle of the door to face one of your best directions i.e. tilt the door to one that faces one of your good directions. This is said to `kill' two birds with one stone. 2. If your main entrance door is elevated, you can have semi-circular steps leading to the house. This is one technique of `radiating' sha ch' away from your main entrance. 3. Alternatively, if your main entrance is level to your external of the house, you could consider a specially made semi-circular carpet e.g. of half of a sun with it's fiery sunlight (spikes) radiating away from the main entrance door. 4. Hang a pakua above the main entrance door. To find out more, please go to this URL: http://www.geomancy.net/fs/pakua.htm Sorry, I hope you can further clarify regarding what you have said " the front window looking unto the half wall ". My question is what is the half wall attached to? Is it because that your house is a basement flat that it overlooks the half wall? My next question is that above the half wall can you have a clear view outside or must you say climb up a ladder to see it. Frankly, a half wall is not so bad as it provides a certain level of privacy to the residents. In addition, if is better to use curtains for the window (if u not done so already.

Dear Leslie, Thanks for sharing with all of us your experience on how you got started on Feng Shui. I guess most users started `learning' Feng Shui from various sources. For those fortunate to live in countries in the Far East such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore or Canada (where some FS Masters have migrated from Hong Kong) these users, if they are lucky could study under a FS Master. Alternatively, if you are near to Feng Shui `centres' in US, England or Australia, this would be a good way to learn. However, the next best alternative are as you have mentioned Feng Shui books. Currently, there are so many good Feng Shui authors around and you can choose from a wide range. If your local book store has books on Feng Shui, it is best to browse around and look thru them to find one suitable for you. Depending on what books you are looking for, certain authors specialize in specific topics. For example: Lillian Too writes a range of Feng Shui books and most of her books are `applied feng shui' where you simply apply what you see in her books. If you want to write research materials for a school/college or university assignment, you could read books from Evelyn Lip who is a trained accountant. Her books always provide biographies. If you want to learn more about 5 elements, you could read the Feng Shui Handbook by Derek Walters. For books on Chinese Horoscopes, books by Ho Man Kwok. For books on 9 Star Ki (same as Feng Shui) but originate from Japan you can read books by Jon Sandiers or some other authors on this subject. For books on Pillars of Destiny, read books by Raymond Lo I guess, to be an all rounder in Feng Shui, you should not stick to one author but read lots of Feng Shui book. The earlier Feng Shui books written by Derek Walters: especially his work simply titled: " Feng Shui " makes interesting reading with a dab of rich history and applied Feng Shui. Nowadays, I do see many good authors coming up with equally good books on Feng Shui. Some have even created templates and easy to digest Feng Shui under the " 9 Star Ki". These authors are usually not from the traditional school of Feng Shui i.e. directly originate from Hong Kong, Taiwan etc.. but are just as good. The only caution is that if you ask lots of "Traditional" Feng Shui practioners, they still prefer the use of Feng Shui as `taught' to them (and myself). We normally do not use 9 Star Ki (friendly to use thou). Most `Traditional' Feng Shui practioners would like readers to steer clear of the Black Hat Sect Feng Shui. To find out more, you can browse thru: http://www.geomancy.net/fs/addsites.htm Under para 3. The confessions of Professor Lin Yun of the Black Hat Sect. I noticed that there are still quite a number of his followers who had written books. Where possible, get books written by either authors who are `Traditional' FS practioners or 9 star Ki practioners. Better still, if you understand Mandarin, books written by authors e.g Hong Kong ones in this language are really `Excellent'! Wishing You Success in your Application of Feng Shui! Cecil

1. To clarify, that means that the back of your house is a hill instead of at the `left hand corner' of the house. For a house, it is good to plant trees to the back of the house (especially if it is sloping). As for trees on the side of the house, provided your garden is large, you can plant some trees. But do avoid planting too many trees or large ones at the West or North East or South West part of the house. Trees should ideally be planted on the East (at the Green Dragon or Yang side). The reason for avoiding planting trees at North East is because under Feng Shui, it is considered the `Devil's gate". To find out more about the Devil's gate go to this URL: http://www.geomancy.net/fs/gate.htm At the same time, the South West area is considered the Devil's backdoor and planting too many trees or large trees could inadvertenly attract ghost spirits to `live' there. While the West side is considered a Yin location or (the White tiger) and planting too many trees may create a `too' yin environment again may also attract `spirits'. It is also not too auspicious to plant a large tree in the front (main entrance) of the house as this may affect beneficial `ch'i' from entering the house. For houses on a hill it is best not to have the house at the top of the hill but rather in the mid-point of the hill. Too high and without protection (trees for example), the house is at the `mercy' of the elements. While houses just below the hill may be affected by soil erosion (should there be `deforestation' or heavy floods.

If you have the time, do visit this link: http://www.geomancy.net/fs/house1.htm Go to the " Year of Birth " and find out the KUA. Alternatively, create a Free Account under geomancy-online.com. Next, select the Free 8house theory and key in each account and follow the instructions. Hope that helps!

Pleas Please see my comments below:- Yes, since you are a WEST House person, South West sector is indeed your Health sector. When you use the 8house theory you should follow these steps:- 1. Determine your " 8house ". In your case, you had found out that it is the WEST house. 2. Prepare a template of it. For example, if you have tracing paper or better still, a transparency, mark out all the 8 sectors pertaining to the WEST house. 3. Next, obtain a copy of the layout plan (preferably on an A4 sized paper), find out the North to south direction of your house and mark it on the layout plan. 5. Determine the centre of the house. 4. Lastly super-impose your WEST house template onto the layout plan by placing the intersection (mid-point) and aligning it to the North to South direction of the layout plan. For you, as a West house person under the 8house theory, all the 8 intangible forces will not change: e.g. North is Disaster; North East is longevity; East is Death; South East is irritation and so on... You can continue to use the 8house layout plan to any house. You may have to ask yourself two questions:- 1. What is the frequency of you sitting facing North in that location? Is it a long time or short period. E.g. if you do sit there for 7 or more hours, it is considered a long period. 2. If you do not sit there for more than 7 hours, then you can safely follow the shapes and form school of feng shui. But if you spent more than 7 hours, are there any other locations you can sit or try to relook (where possible) another angle to face. For example, turning your furniture 45 degrees instead? In the last resort, if the above is really not possible, then; there are two possibilities:- 1. Use the Flying Star theory to find out the what location the North is. For example if the house chart shows that North is a very auspicous location or has a " mountain star " or both, you can activate this sector by placing objects like a solid piece of paper weigh. 2. Alternatively, if you know your `true element' e.g. strong metal, under the Pillars of Destiny, you could apply some enhancements there. Hope that helps.

Thanks for your file attachment:- 1. As there are two files and both looks familiar i.e. plan.doc and plan1.doc; I updated plan.doc and revised it to " centre.doc". 2. I still have difficulty visualising the layout plan as it looks like it is not proportionate. For example, the stairs leading to the second floor looks quite large as compared to the area I marked in Red. Therefore, I hope I got it right i.e. the space I marked is large enough to be your living room. 3. Normally, we try to leave out the garage that is why, you see that I only marked out the rectangle area (in red). And once you have the rectangle area, it is easy to find the center of the house. In the revised ms word doc " centre.doc "; I had marked the centre of the house in blue color. Hope that helps.

Dear Jody, Thanks for taking the effort to explain in detail. It can be very hard to visualise. Perhaps, you could either scan a layout or draw a `rough' one and sent as an `Attach file' to this forum with your next message. Ideally, it should be in gif or jpg format and not more than 0.5 K in size. Thanks in advance! Cecil

Yes, the bedroom is a Yin location (especially for adults). In Feng Shui the reason why many FS Masters suggest not to have plants is because plants are GROWING and do create some form of Yang `activity'. I guess a small plant is acceptable. What usually is no good are larger potted plants with large leafs. As for fresh "cut-flowers', there is no problem in placing them in a bedroom.. Most flowers do smell nice:) Water in the form of an aquarium or a fish tank is not good to be placed in a bedroom. This is because fishes swimming in the fish tank do generate yang ch'i and again as the bedroom is a place of rest (yin) it is not ideal to have a fish tank in the room. Even symbolic paintings such as a scenery of sea waves, or water `hitting' against coastal rocks are best left out in the bedroom. However, if you have a Children's room; as they are growing up, it is good to have radios, musical instruments and bright coloured walls etc... Try to create abit of yang environment here. Do take note of this:- Fountains, artificial waterfalls (man-made) or otherwise are excellent ch'i enhancers. However, fish tanks/aquariums are usually meant to correct `sha' (poison arrow). To counteract adverse `sha', Hong Kong Feng Shui Masters usually prefer to use a fish tank. For example if the window at the main entrance faces a `lone' street lamp, a Hong Kong FS Master usually ask the house hold to place a fish tank in `full view' of the street lamp. As the lamp post being tall and thin, represents the `Fire' element, the fish tank has an element of `Water' to put out the fire. On the other hand, a Taiwanese FS Master usually prefer to use plants instead of fish tank to counteract adverse `sha'. Both are not wrong, just that they are used to using what they had been taught by their Masters to use. So, next time if you see a traditional FS Practioner use either one, you will know where they learn their FS from.

On the topic of Feng Shui Books, I have another link with the graphic on the book covers of some of the books I mentioned earlier to the reply on basic Feng Shui books. Click here to view the book covers:- http://www.geomancy.net/fs/books.htm For those who are interested in finding out if Feng Shui is for real or hocus pocus, you may like to read this book:- Amazing Scientific Basis of Feng Shui by Dr. Ong Hean Tatt Phd. This book although does not have richly illustrated graphics on Feng Shui but has many research work on topics that really show that Feng Shui is for REAL! The book cover can also be seen under the above link (bottom right hand side of the page). Warning: This book is not a practical guide on how to apply Feng Shui to real life situation but more of a research work into many topics e.g. Feng Shui and water dowzing, sun spots, ancient stonehenge, other cross cultural similarities etc.. and MORE!

Dear Tam, One good source is the geomancy.net's pages full of feng shui information: Under this URL : " First time here? " http://www.geomancy.net/fs/map.htm There are many good books on Feng Shui for the beginner:- Author: Lillian Too 1. Complete illustrated guide by Lillian Too 2. Basic Feng Shui Both books have `rich' information on Feng Shui for the beginner. (However, these books are not meant for those who wants to know more about the history of feng shui but rather the practical side of it i.e. Applied Feng Shui. These two books are more on the Shapes and Form School with a dab of the 4 good and 4 bad directions. If you want to apply Feng Shui immediately, you should get her books. Author: Eveyln Lip 1. Geomancy a Layman's Guide Her books are all `academic' books i.e. a with a rich history of Feng Shui and some basic information of applied Feng Shui. Her books are more for those doing research into the history of Feng Shui. Doctor Evelyn Lip is a trained architect. 3. Derek Walters Derek Walters books were written quite sometime back. But his one book titled " Feng Shui" is richly illustrated graphically and makes interesting reading for those who wants to know in general all about Feng Shui. In this book, he also gave a template of a English version of the Chinese Luopan or compass. Although this book cannot meet the new recently published books by authors like Lillian Too, it is a truly beautiful illustrated book... with a balanced look at both the history, understanding of what a dragon hill, and more... 2. His book " The Feng Shui Handbook " gives very good `solid' grounding in the Five Elements concepts and the application of it. 3. If you want instead to apply `9 Star Ki' you can obtain books like `9 Star Ki' by Jon Sandiers which will teach you how to apply the mathematical `side' of Feng Shui to your overall living. By the way `9 Star -Ki' is also Feng Shui but practised widely especially in Japan. (It does not include the Shapes and Form School of Feng Shui) There are many more new books out each day by different authors. If your local book store has books of Feng Shui, I suggest you do some browsing and you may most likely find some other books not listed here but are equally good or interesting. I have written a summary of a few Feng Shui authors and their works under this URL:- http://www.geomancy.net/books/books.htm If these books are not found in your local book store, you can easily go to any of the good internet book websites e.g. Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com and do a search for these authors. You will find more books by them. Good Luck!

Feng Shui - Tip I currently wear a yin yang ring on my right hand ring finger. Which side should the darkened side be on, either the left or the right? Does this affect you if I have it on the wrong way and if it does what could it affect? The correct way to wear the ring should be (if you are looking at your own fingers) " Left = white and Right = Black. " For a graphic representation of how the symbol should be correctly used, do check out this page:- http://www.geomancy.net/fs/yinyang.htm On the top of the page you should see the correct `white (left) to black (right) Yin and Yang Symbol. This is also the same way one should also hang the pakua (bakua) above the main entrance door. This applies ONLY to uses who need to use it as a `cure' against adverse `sha'. E.g. a lone lamp post facing the middle of the main entrance door. Another way of looking at the yin and yang symbol is that when we rotate it, we rotate it clockwise. Each quarter turn e.g. 3 O'clock, 6 O'clock, 9 O'clock and 12 O'clock represents a season e.g. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. However, like the yin and yang symbol on the Pakua, one should still use it showing white (left) and black (right). Cecil and Robert Lee www.geomancy.net

Thanks for your information. Please see my feedback below:- then your main entrance door is `North -- 10 degrees '. Thanks for the information.

-> Dear Cecil lee, -> -> I have been working hard for the past week trying to understand the -> different methods of looking at feng shui. I am slightly confused -> when I read the few books. There seems to be more than 1 method of -> looking at the ba gua/trigram. -> -> Method 1 : Using the software that you have put up with on the web. -> Method 2 : using the 3 door trigram whereby the door should always -> located at the kan,chuan ... -> -> Method 3 : using the compass to locate the direction and the center -> of Chi. -> -> To be very frank, I am not saying that your method is incorrect. But, -> I am just puzzled why there are so many methods used. -> -> Please advice me, which method should I follow. For those new to Feng Shui, I would like to share with you the reply to the above question (see above) sent thru e-mail. To clarify, each method under Traditional Feng Shui practise has its own use and when you put them all together, one will get a clear picture. For example, let me share with you what a Professional Feng Shui Master does (this varies with their experience) but the most `powerful' steps used to analyse for a person and his home are as follows:- 1. A Feng Shui Master will first establish the homeowner's `true element and it's strength' using the Pillars of Destiny. For example, if the homeowner's element is `strong metal' and the house is also a metal house (after determining the compass point) a Feng Shui Master will advise you on what to do. Subsequently, other members of the family's Pillars of Destiny are also analysed. 2. Next, you should also know which house is most suitable for you using the Eight House Theory. Later on, you can then use the Eight house template to superimpose on your home's layout. Each member of the family does the same. Lots of information on how to do assessment etc.. on the Eight House Theory can be found on geomancy.net 3. Next, it is advisable to do a Feng Shui using the Flying Star theory to analyse the `fortune' of the house. Lastly, depending on how good the Feng Shui Master is, he will be able to do a Feng Shui audit accurately by looking at : 1. Pillars of destiny (for the homeowner and his family members) to determine there `true elements and it's strength. 2. Anaylse the house using the flying star theory and also look at the suitability of the house (Eight house theory). Therefore, if you follow the above steps, EACH Feng Shui theory has it's specific use not just simply that one is a compass school and the other on Destiny etc... I hope by now, you will understand better why, so many Feng Shui principles are applied and they do not contradict each other nor `compete' with each other but in-fact all the theories found on geomancy.net allows one to understand and take it that each Feng Shui tool are `building blocks' when combined together are truly powerful tools ... if used correctly will enhance. The more you can combine all these theories together, you will get a better and clearer picture of yourself in-relation to your family members and your home. The ulitimate aim is to 1. Encourage beneficial chi to our life and home. 2. if required, help to `fix' adverse `sha' or poison arrows. In addition to this, one should also not forget to include the use of theories under the Shapes and Form School. Much of the theories can also be found on geomancy.net

A Feng Shui master would normally advise a person (where possible) not to have the toilet facing North or West. This was because in traditional Feng Shui practice, the North faces the cold and if the toilet faces the North, one may get digestive problems. If facing west, one may get `aggitated'. Unfortunately, it may not be possible for you to shift it. perhaps you could in your diet take more `cooling' food. Not cold food but food that relieves heatiness.

Feng Shui Tip - Where is the best position for the air-conditioner in your bedroom? It is best not to sleep with the air-conditioner blowing towards your head from behind you or in-front of your bed. (Opposite direction) The best position for an air-conditioner is for it to blow from the side of the bed. Cecil Lee www.geomancy.net

Dear David, Thanks for this interesting view. So far this is not mentioned in any of the `ancient/traditional' Feng Shui books/practises but you may never know, and it may work as besides the dragon (the most Yang of all creatures, the tiger is considered the opposite, the most Yin of all Feng Shui creatures... and is on the `dark side' or .. viz a viz gambling? Well, anyone tries this and work, do let us know:) Cecil

Feng Shui Tip - The Master Bedroom with an attached toilet Most master bedrooms come with an attached toilet and it is often that the position of the bed directly faces the toilet door. What can we do? Here are three ways to overcome this:- Install a screen between the bed and the toilet door. If this is not possible then, you may consider any of the following alternatives:- - Close the toilet door when not in use or - Place a lamp on the side of the bed between the toilet door and the bed.