Cecil Lee

Dear Diane, It is good to hear that since you are a weak water person, water can help your element. However, for a weak water person, the best element that helps your weak water element is ideally Metal element. Under the Five Elements Concept, Metal helps to produce water. Adding water (such as a fish tank) can still help but will not be as productive as using Metal. But nevertheless, it can still be of help to a weak water person. For a weak water person, an element to avoid is the Earth element. As Earth, destroys water. Normally, an accurate assessment of where to place a fish tank should be undertaken by looking at the birth chart of the house such as the Flying Star analysis. Without these tools, here are my general comments:- Under the Shapes and Form FS, where possible, it is good to AVOID placing the fish tank at any of the following locations: 1. Centrepoint of the house. 2. close to the backdoor (as mentioned by you) 3. It is best to place the fish tank in the living room. Since it has a height e.g. with a fish tank stand, it should be placed around or close to a wall. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Rae, 1. I am glad that your fish is getting well. 2. Frankly, I am no expert on fishes /fish tank. Perhaps, I feel that (my guess) that it could be that there is high level of oxigent content in the fish tank. 3. Since everything is OK even with the green algae, try to monitor the situation. Let me relate to you an incident: 4. Many years ago, one of my friends related to me that their home (landed property) had a orange (clay) roof. After sometime, because of the fallen leaves on it, parts of the roof turned/covered with greenish material. At the time when the roof started to turn greenish, it seems that luck began to pour into their home i.e. his father was lucky in everything. However, regrettably, they decided to get people to wash off the greenish material on the roof. And the roof returned to its clay colour. Things too a turn. It is akin to the idea of a crab. This crab was gradually covered in greenish substance and looks prosperous (or signifies prosperity). But after washing off this green substance, it is like washing away luck. Here, it is another case of " if it ain't broken, do'nt fix it ". Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Kirsten, 1. Frankly, if we are personally not too sure where to place these items ourselves, then, try not to buy them. 2. For the `normal' homeowner; they would purchase items as part of their decor for the house and it should be treated this way. 3. Unless you can get hold of a good professional FS consultant to do a full home audit for you then, I suggest that it is more worthwhile spending money elsewhere or keep the money or save it for a rainy day. 4. Another concept that one should consider is " if it ain't broken, don't fix it. " This is very true in many instances where some of us, for example buy not one but several windchimes or other objects and start placing them within the home. 5. In a Professional FS audit, if it is only necessary; the FS consultant would recommend either a cure or enhancement. 6. Alternatively, one may not necessary want to consult a FS consultant or may not have access to one; you may then, use sixth sense or rely on you or your family's instincts and treat it more as a decor of the home. But do distinguish it with i.e. that I have read a book on FS and it says that crystals, windchimes etc... are good. It may not be necessarily true in all instances. With the economic downturn and after the September 11 ( 911 ) incident, we should all be more prudent in our spending. Else if you are still very keen to apply FS should apply or understand the two key schools: 1. Shapes and Form 2. Compass Schools: Eight House and Flying Star coupled with your Ba Zi (Pillars of Elements). The above can if properly applied give one a competitive advantage during this period. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Maria, Please take note of the following:- 1. No matter what, a 20-Year Star chart must be plotted as it is the only chart that contains the three # numbers i.e. Mountain #, Water # and Base #. These three information are normally used to look at each other using the Five Elements concept. 2. If you check carefully, the Year, Month or even Day flying star charts has only two numerals i.e. the base numerial and the `period' numerial. 3. The key point therefore is that the Year, Month and Day chart are to look further i.e. looking at seasonal influences or changes. Thus the 20 Year chart is still a must. And if we still want to plot a monthly chart, we can then use it to `watch' out for the ill effects of especially bad star numbers such as #2 sickness #5 misfortune etc... Thus if a particular sector has #2 or #5 or worse still a combination of both #2 and #5 and if so happens that the 20 Year; and /or Year chart has #2 or #5 and further still the month chart also has #2 and #5 falling in that particular sector i.e. it implies a really bad omen and some cure should be "seriously" be in place as it spells `one hell' of a trouble! Remember the key phrase " Year, Month, Day charts allow us to look deeper into the seasonal influence ". Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Mark, I wish you a warm welcome to this forum! In traditional Feng Shui, there are two major schools:- 1. Shapes and Forms 2. Compass Schools. You have correctly pointed out that Compass School Feng Shui is one form of Feng Shui that can be used to help increase one' luck. Basically, Feng Shui (earth luck) and Chinese Divinity methods and the use of Ba Zi (Heaven's map) have a single purpose i.e. to try and help one increase our luck. If you have the time to read many of the messages in this forum, one may come to the conclusion that: 1. Sector Feng Shui or paying homage to a corner... This does not bring significant luck or money to a person. I have given the illustration by way of examination results. Where the perfect score is 100%, Paying homage to a sector, could perhaps be part of one of the many sections in an examination. For example, section 1 - Shapes and Form FS = 50 % marks section 2 - Flying Star = 35 % section 3 - Eight house etc.. = 15 % Total = 100% Thus, trying to do up a sector or spending money trying to enhance one sector may perhaps be like answering one of the questions under section 3 - Eight House or etc.. and even if we answer all the questions correctly in this section without paying attention to the rest, our score can only be 15% out of 100 marks. Which means we can still fail the exam! Thus, I do not believe that Feng Shui luck can be achieved by buying more and more `goods'. The end result is that it becomes so commercialised and the only people that gain are the seller of the goods. This is not part of Feng Shui. But for those who sell these goods e.g. the three legged toad, the advise is to get the toad facing inwards into the house. The vicious cycle about such Feng Shui is what I often term `Credit Card Feng Shui'. For example, one pays all these goods by credit card and later incurr a huge bill with lots of interests. This vicious cycle never ends and leads one further into dept. In traditional Chinese method, one finds out one's element and strength and only from here, we can choose our best colour(s). For example a person who is a weak wood person can try to enhance him/herself with e.g. blue or green. For a person who is a weak fire person, should not have a fish tank in side the home as water can further extinguish him/her. Overall, Traditional methods is based on the common denominator i.e. the Five Elements concept and Yin and Yang concept. You should get books that teach or let you understand concepts. Never get books that promise the world or merely give and give recommendations. The root of our problems lie with our need for short-cut and if a book says that a figurine can do wonders... we go and get it. Thus we may pay e.g. US $100 for this item. But the end result is we are no richer but instead poorer. Rather should we save the money for the rainy day? For books, I would advice some of the older titles e.g. books by Derek Walters i.e. his Feng Shui handbook or his illustrative guide or Dr Evelyn Lip's - books on Feng Shui which provides an understanding but does not `promise the world' Alternatively, you can look at the tour of the free info on this site also. Overall, books relating to Shapes and Forms from many authors are still relatively safe as it has much to do with `commonsense' Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Carol, You are absolutely correct. 28 Jan 1960 to 14 Feb 1961 = Year of the Metal-Rat While:- 8 Feb 1959 to 27 Jan 1960 = Year of the Earth-Pig 15 Feb 1961 to 4 Feb 1962 = Year of the Metal-Ox 5 Feb 1962 to 24 Jan 1963 = Year of the Water-Tiger Source / References:- http://www.geomancy.net/love/a30-50.htm and http://www.geomancy.net/love/a60-80.htm Year of the Tiger only `arrived' on 5 February 1962. Therefore based on your partner's Year of Birth, she was born in the Year of the Metal-Rat as mentioned by you. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Dana, In my opinion, if it is a small table fountain, then you can safely consider it as a decorative piece. However, avoid placing it at or close to the centre-point of the house. You can place it e.g. at a corner particularly at the frontage of the house. For example, if you are living in a flat/condominium, it should preferably be placed in the living room closer to the balcony. This is similar also to placement for landed properties. Try to avoid placing it at the center areas of the house. Warmest Regards, Cecil Lee

Dear Balu, Please see below:- For the Eight House Reports, these are completely free reports. Some of the reports are: 1. Bed positioning 2. Best directions and the Eight House chart. at http://www.geomancy-online.com For step-by-step guide in using the report you can look thru at this url: http://www.geomancy.net/fs/house1.htm With the above information, you should be able use the report. However, if your house is a North house (since u mentioned that it is a suitable house to you) then North should be considered as `Excellent'. If can confirm that North = Excellent then your most suitable house is a North house. Under a North House: East - Health SE - Prosperity S - Longevity Therefore, the best location for your bed is at the East or SE or South. But bear in mind that preference should be given to Shapes and Form Feng Shui. The main considerations are: 1. Where possible, the bed should not on the same wall as the toilet. 2. Your bed should not be facing the bedroom door. These are the two major considerations. In such a situation, try to close one of the doors. For the moment, if you are feeling unwell especially in your bedroom, this may suggest that there is a bad #2 (sickness) or #5 (misfortune) at the bedroom sector or a combination of both. You can try to place 6 coins to represent `Big metal' Ideally, it should be the i-ching coins with a square hole in it but, for cost effectiveness, you could first try to use six coins as shown under this sample:- http://www.geomancy.net/mypictures/cgi-bin/imagesearch.cgi?img=0&search=six+coins&cat=all&x=25&y=12 where you take a red rectangular paper and place six coins (you can use copper or coin of your local currency) so long as they are at least more than 2 cm in diametre. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Angela, Please see below:- Primarily, the Eight House Theory or the East-West Group should not be used to activate good luck sectors. It has more to do with: 1. How suitable the house is to the breadwinners ; 2. It has to do with the time spent at that particular sector. If you want a feng shui friendly method (without resorting to the use of ba gua mirror) then my suggestion is to use a semi-circular carpet radiating outwards of the main entrance door. Do take note of the following: What is the element of the beam? If it is mostly made of concrete, then, you should introduce the wood element. Thus, the carpet should be green. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Max, 1. It is most important to understand that your Ba Zi element takes precedence here. For example, you mentioned that you are a person with a weak fire element. 2. Since you are a weak fire person, it is best that you avoid the water element especially in your home. As water will further extinguish your weak fire element for yourself. 3. Thus my advise is that in whatever location in your home, it is best or strongly advised that you forgo e.g. a fish tank in your home. 4. As wood helps fire element to grow, you can have more of the wood element (instead of water). This can be in the form or colour. 5. In colour, you should try to avoid especially blue (water). Green and brown are good colours for yourself. 6. However do take note that whate one eventually tries to achieve is: given this senario: A weak fire person should try to make his weak fire stronger. A strong fire person alternatively can have water as water helps to neutralise the strong fire. 7. The element concept is all about balance and one should not have too much i.e. too strong or too weak. Ultimately, everything should eventually be balanced. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Leslie, 1. First try to check whether you had buried your deceased dog at 150 degrees sector i.e. from the centrepoint of the house to that sector be it inside or outside the house. 2. This is govern by the Tai-su or the Grand Duke's concept (or also known as Grand Duke of Jupiter)that the Grand Duke does not like to be disturbed or this may bring bad luck or misfortune. 3. Thus to-date this is the Lunar Year of the Snake and you must not disturb the earth at South-South-East or exactly 150 degrees be it inside or outside the house. 4. Avoid digging the earth along the 150 degrees i.e. if you stand at the centrepoint of the house, you should try to avoid digging earth along this 150 degrees direction. 5. You your wealth seems to decrease continously, even if it is not buried in this sector, in my opinion (it may be unfortunate) but, you may have to try to bury your departed pet further away. 9. Where possible avoid burying the pet closer to the house. Where possible, closer to the fencing especially closer to a corner. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Mimi, Please see below:- Of course, the other important consideration is that Water feature should be placed in open spaced area. Meaning it should as far as possible be placed in say the living room with a larger area, or preferbly outside of the house (especially the frontage of the house). Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Jeffery, Please see below: I hope everything went well this round. Perhaps that was a bad day. I believe, otherwise, there should not be an issue. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Wasis, Appreciate if you can draw a sketch and let me have a look at it. Thanks. Cecil

Dear Elvis, 1. Please see below:- 2. If your floor plan is rectangular in shape, you should try standing at the centrepoint of the house and from there take the direction of the main entrance door. 3. If I read what you wrote correctly, and if you were to follow what I mentioned under Para 2. In this case I understand that the main door that you mentioned perhaps should be considered at North-east and not East. Alternatively you can use this as reference:- http://www.geomancy.net/fs/cecilcompass.htm In my opinion, there should not be an issue in replacing the single seat sofa with a bed. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Adrienne, In my opinion, there should not be a major issue as to where it should be placed as overall, it is considered as a `metal' element. Overall, since it is weapon, it should be safely locked up and if possible, the ammunition should be (where possible) kept separate from the gun. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, One can place a bedside table between the toilet door and the bed. Here, one also has to place a table / reading lamp on it. By doing so, it will act as a `partition' between the toliet area and the bed. For the sha qi i.e. corner pointing towards the bed, especially if it is made of wood you can use a wind chime. You can try this out. Since metal is overall quite a safe element to use and there should normally not be any `harm' doing this i.e. experiment. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, Please see below:- For the Chinese, it is preferable that the ceiling fan where possible is not black. White or gold is fine. Do you find it uncomfortable? If so, you may like to change it. Purple represents the Fire element and it would normally depend on your Ba Zi. For a room, unless one has a need for the `Fire element' e.g. if a person is a weak wood person and staying in the room, can use the `Fire' element to help his/her weak wood to grow. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Max, There are many theories involved with regards to the kitchen: 1. Some FS practitioner feels that kitchen should be in harmony with either spouse. Either/or should be auspicious sector for either say the husband or wife. Please see below:- The main `argument' here is that it has to do with the fire element. Some FS practitioners feel that fire may be harmful as it can result in frequent quarrels. However, this is less of importance and we should be focusing more on:- 1. The kitchen has both the fire and water element i.e fire (stove) and water (the basin/refrigerator). 2. Priority is that the stove should try to face inwards in the kitchen as it helps to keep the warmth-in. The kitchen is seen as a place that provide both food and warmth to the household. 3. Another major consideration is the position of the stove in relation to the wash basin / fridge. And the stove should especially be kept a distance or there should be a gap between the two. 4. If the kitchen is at the north, the stove and frige should not face each other as North = Water, may just distinguish the warmth of the stove. 5. If the kitchen is at the south, the stove can face the fridge. The siting of the kitchen door is less important than the placement of the stove. Cecil Lee

Dear Angie, 1. For the front door (main entrance); if a lamp post looks like `slicing' thru it, then this is a `sha qi' or poison arrow. 2. One can apply the `triangle effect' by placing two plants on both sides of the main entrance. By doing so, symbolically the two plants with the lamp post forms a `triangle'. With the point (lamp post) pointed towards the neighbour's home. 3. Another option is to place a semi-cicular rug outside the main entrance (radiating outwards). Preferably the carpet should be red. As red represents the fire element and will help destroy or neutralise a METAL lamp post. Please note that if the lamp post is made of a wooden post (WOOD) element then one should then use golden (gold) or white rug to neutralise wood. As gold / white represents METAL element and is the element that can destroy WOOD. For more information, you can refer to http://www.geomancy.net/fs/5element.htm and check the `Destructive cycle' chart. Where the element preceeds the element of the object should be used to `destroy' it. For example as mentioned ealier, if the lamp post is made of METAL then Fire element (red) can be used to destroy or neutralise it. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Angela, In my opinion, it would be best if you want to apply Feng Shui to get a FS practitioner to go thru all the details. As the modification may affect i.e. the Shapes and Form of the home (itself) and Compass School readings. If you do not want to engage a FS practitioner, you can try to make sure of the following:- 1. Shapes and form Feng Shui. Here, you made a good point by trying to make sure that the house is as rectangular as possible. 2. Outline of the house. Does the house resemble any "human body" shape? If you have not read this article, please go thru it:- http://www.geomancy.net/fs/grandpa1.htm It highlighst an actual case study: House influenced by Feng Shui (Yang Zhai Shi Shu). This particular case, involved my grandfather who had `chopped' off the head of the house to build an extension. There are two critical - "errors". Not only chopping the head but subsequently, made the head of the house heavy by building a second storey above it. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Carol, We can all appreciate your situation. In a confined space, there is not much one can do to relocate these items. However, this is not the `end of the world' as far as Feng Shui is concerned. In your case, just make sure that there is an `island' or a distance or gap especially between the stove and either the frige or the sink. Try to leave as much gap as possible. But a symbolic gap is still acceptable i.e. for example; 3 or more centimetres. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Tril, If you have not reviewed how to find the main door direction, please check out:- http://www.geomancy.net/fs/cecilcompass.htm In the graphic presentation on the above site, you find that at the last part of the presentation, I actually superimposed a circular protractor i.e. 360 degress protractor on the layout plan. Here, you should then mark out i.e. 0 degrees (North), 45 degrees NE, 90 degrees East etc... and this is how you draw a `pie chart' with North, NE, East, SE, South, SW, West, NW. In fact there are two methods of dividing a room i.e. by diving it into 9 equal sectors as what mentioned below or using the `pie chart' method. If you are using a compass protractor, you can easily divide the home into 9 equal parts. Warmest Regards Cecil

Dear Tril, There are several rulesets in Feng Shui. One of the more visible method is: the 33.3 percent ruleset. Here, so long as a sector or location has 33.3 percent of an element, it can be said that this element is dominant at that sector. A good example is let's say a bedroom. If we paint the walls and this cover more than 33.3 percent of the entire wall with blue, then we have `applied' a significant amount of water element. Thus painting a wall or using bedsheet to cover the bed are some of the options. Please see below:- Thus we can use numbers to associate with an element. Thus 6 or Six signifies BIG METAL, then we can use 6 coins to represent BIG METAL as a cure. However, do take note of the following:- BAD YELLOW or star #5 - Bad Earth element or Misfortune. Here, it is better to use `moving' metal to neutralise Bad earth. Thus a metal windchime can be used here to produce metal sounds to neutralise the star #5. FOr #2 sickness sector, BIG METAL or 6 coins can be used here. Once can also have e.g. furniture in natural wood colour e.g. brown. Or laminated cabinents e.g. in green, wood grain etc.. Warmest Regards Cecil

Dear Anon, Please see below:- It is common for your home and many other homes to have a shoe rack conveniently located as mentioned by you. We have to be realistic in the way we apply Feng Shui. A shoe rack e.g. at the front of the house is `secondary' to Feng Shui. More importantly, we need to score as many marks or points as possible in other more important areas. For example, if one has good shapes and form Feng Shui, this would bring up our `luck' in other areas and things like placement of shoe rack is less important issue. It is good that the inner door e.g. we call this the actual door should open inwards. As for the grille gate, there should not be an issue of it opening outwards. Anyway, technically, it is not practical to change it to open inwards as it will affect the `inner' door. If you are staying in Singapore, a neutral colour is a white door as Singapore is considered as located `South' - fire element. It is best to apply the Flying Star Feng Shui to access the colour of the doors. This is because each sector should be `balanced' i.e. the mountain # ; water # and base number should be looked at. If there are any imbalance, then it should be neutralised by painting the door a specific colour to either neutralise the imbalance or if this is a good sector a good colour be used to enhance it. Warmest Regards, Cecil