Feng Shui Directory

When you tell people that you are a Feng Shui Consultant, they look at you with a raised eyebrow and say, “Isn’t where you put something in the relationship corner and use colours to make you feel better”. After years of enquiring about the ancient knowledge and cultivating wisdom about eastern Philosophy you stare in stunned belief at the usual response. I usually answer, ‘No Feng Shui is where you use principles to create opportunities to make your life successful and achieve your ambitions in the shortest possible time’. They look at me a say, ‘Wow that sounds cool. What do you do?’

There are many assumptions about Feng Shui that have been twisted and remodified to simplify and demystify the ancient science. The reality is the more it is adapted and redeveloped, the more confusion is created about Feng Shui’s understanding by the general public. There is hope however because the quality of Feng Shui education has been evolving and many western practitioners are learning the traditional Feng Shui approaches which must improve the quality of Feng Shui in the future.

Feng Shui is a science that can be measured using the understanding of time’s effect on a person and their environmental influences. For example, a Feng Shui consult can consult use date selection using a number of age old approaches such as the Da Gua method, Dong Gong and the 12 cycle’s procedure to determine a great day to invest. It becomes a positive window that a client can utilise to bring fortune such the right time to buy a stocks at the right price. There is a saying, “A average Feng Shui consultant that can alter your environment and bring auspiciousness, a good Feng Shui consultant can alter your environment and enhance your destiny to bring you success in an endeavour, the greatest Feng Shui consultant is the one that manipulate time to help you to achieve happiness and have the courage to step into your dreams”.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'

John F. Kennedy
35th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 - 1963)

Time can be a foe, or a friend. Become the master of time, not let it be the master of you.

1.    Understand Time - The first and for most tip to create success is to understand the cycle of time and how it influences you and your environment. For example, the Chinese Calender has a cycle of sixty days that has a combination of elements in the form of heavenly stems and earthly branches. Beyond this cycle can be also monthly and yearly. The Chinese masters have used this information to plot the predictions of for the emperor and outcomes for his kingdom. Feng Shui consultants now are using this information to plot the destinies of individuals to bring personal success to achieve personal ambitions.

2.    Use Bazi (Eight Pillars) Destiny Reading (Understanding who you really are) – to understand the blue print of yourself considering your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, health concerns, career, future predictions using luck and year pillars, relationship success, children luck, ideas, direction. Once you understand all of these factors you can develop actions needed to achieve personal ambitions and the approach needed to reach goals in the shortest possible time frame. The power of Bazi has been realised in Asia to assist various high profile people to create further success but its potential in Western cultures has yet to be truly unearthed. If one can see one’s path ahead, they can duck when the branches are low, step over the potholes, and choose the right journey when the road is forked. Life still is a mystery regardless because the road that we travel on, however the road that we want to avoid is the road that we end up travelling on. There will be times when we have no say on our destiny.

3.    Consider, develop and reorder your values to create the life you can have instead of the life that you could have had.

The power of understanding you values is definitely under estimated. Spending time to consider what are the key top 10 values and how you order them. This will determine where you are on the road to your dreams and how much further you have to go. Positive values creates a desired state of mind, and when realised will inspire and transform you to act and form successful behaviours. These values can be as simple as ‘spending more time with the kids’ to ‘what it takes to be promoted’. The order of your values and beliefs will determine what you spend your energy on. What we focus on we become, this is the power of the mind to create success. Values in the right order will give you purpose, direction, and motivate you to create a ‘call to action’. You just have to determine what you have been blessed with, order your values to tap into this resource and consider how you can market these skills and talents to aid value and create opportunities for yourself.

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

Malcolm S. Forbes

4.    Know your direction and you will know the actions to take to bring you success

Don't say you don't have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.  ~Life's Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

We make excuses why our dreams are unattainable and furthermore blame others for our impediments in our progress. But when you take time to reflect and consider all of the challenges that you had in your life it was those moments that defined you, created you and made you who you are today. Don’t put off what you can do today. Apathy and procrastination are the unwritten sins. Consider and clearly see your dreams and take steps towards attaining the impossible. It can be done, because you have something special to offer this world. You just have to work out what that is and move towards your destiny.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.  ~Samuel Johnson, in Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1770

5.   Be a Constant Observer of Yourself and Others

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Marcus Aurelius

Observation is a difficult thing to master because it is the mind that decides if we a truly aware of the moment or if we are caught in our own internal mechanisations. Our emotions are a two way process, where the external charges the internal, and the internal sparks our reaction to the external. It is a reality of cause and effect, where we are driven from the order of our beliefs and values but they also charge the emotions if the external conditions stimulate the internal. By instead become the ‘constant observer’ you can understand how your values impact your emotions and create a behaviour or action.

For example, you could be regular interrupter to conversations, which can cause frustration during conversation but your group of friends don’t discuss that this is a problem. You carry on interrupting without thought until you meet someone that interrupts and also tries to talk over you. You try to work out why you don’t like this person and can’t put a finger on why you dislike them. If you were the ‘constant observer’ you could see that these traits of interrupting are what you do and you now understand how others feel when they disturb your train of thought. This could bring a change of behaviour and also may bring benevolence, compassion and understanding. ‘Constant Observation’ is a wonderful tool to bring transformation to your actions but also to your environment to create peace and harmony.

6.   Understand what’s happening in your external environment and how it affects the home and the occupants.

There is a Chinese saying, ‘the external environment affects the home, the home in turn affects the people’. So what are the prerequisites of a favourable environment that will impact the home positively being success to residence? This is a question that is beyond the scope of this present discussion in fact it may take a number of books to answer of how our external environment impacts our home Feng Shui. However the masters in essence looked for a specific type of mountain basically size, shape, texture, and appearance and if there was a body of water in the near vicinity of the mountain.

 The mountain was considered to the key enquiry and how it affected the wind and the flow of air. The position of the water body would allow the energy to settle at the edges of the water. So you can observe that the harmony of the environment depended on the placement mountain contours incorporated right balance of water nearby. Gaps between mountains, flat areas, regular ridges that move off main mountain ranges can confuse that mountain energy causing issues to the external environment. Uniform and symmetrical shaped mountains, wavy mountains, slanted witch hat mountains (There are two that are west of Byron bay – probably why property in this area is very expensive) and table mountains are considered that best type of mountains because they influence the air in a more balanced way.

The water also must be calm and gentle in nature, rather than merciless and violent because the negative energy that will pervade into the environment causing scattered influence and disharmony. A good example of this is when Gold Coast has rough waves; the energy near the seaside is uncertain and crazed. The mountains are too far away at the Gold Coast to have an impact on calming the energy down. The best seaside environment needs a bay because it needs three sides to calm the water. An island front can be more beneficial as this further harmonises that water effect.

Sydney has this effect as the water in the harbour is generally calm and the energy is captured by the undulating hills creating positive Feng Shui for many areas near the water. River environments such as Brisbane and Perth are also very good as the both rivers are calm. Brisbane in particular has number of hills that also assist in harmonising the energy. One of the short comings of Brisbane ’s Feng Shui is its lack of bodies of water in various suburbs. Comparing Newfarm’s home prices to say Mt Gravatt or Wavell Heights property values one can see the influence of being near water.

The rule for water is if you have none, it is advised to create artificial water. It’s really that simple. One important point here if property prices are higher than other suburbs the rule of thumb dictates that the Feng Shui of the area is generally better than the cheaper suburbs.

7.   Which are the important Feng Shui spaces in your home that you should focus on improving?

There are three areas of the home that are considered primary areas of focus in improving the quality of your internal Feng Shui. Called the three factors the front door, main bedroom and the kitchen are the key regions of the home that will certainly impact the quality of your Feng Shui. In ancient china the homes general had only these three areas. Therefore the office, auxillary bedrooms, living and dining rooms are modern day extensions to the home. They are in Feng Shui considered secondary rooms, however still are important. They key is to understand where in the home you spend most time and that is the area that needs consideration. So you can see that each consultation is unique but the main areas are the front door, kitchen and main bedroom.

So what are the some ideas of how to enhance the Feng Shui of these three regions of the home:

1.    Front Door – Keep the front door free from obstructions such as trees, electrical poles (If electrical poles are at the front door and in the south it can lead to heart disturbances) , and tall buildings. The front door needs to have three grand halls (Ming Tang) where it has long distance view, clear street gap and a front to front door gap. If you have 3 out 3, congratulations, 2 out of three ain’t bad either. Where you enter the house will also be an important to determine the quality of energy that you dragging into the house. This is where you need that flying star or 8 mansions technique to determine the best door to enter the home. In fact the front door will tell the horoscope of the residence of the house. It never lies. Front path, gardens, and street appeal are important to the value of your home, but it will have little effect on the underlying Feng Shui impact on the residence.

2.    Kitchen – The kitchen is considered the hearth of the home where the family come together and integrate to share the experiences. If the food smells good, the kitchen is modern spacious and everything has its place. The direction of the stove is an important consideration, especially to the person that cooks in the kitchen the most. The sink should be away from the stove, but it’s not that crucial as some books will tell you otherwise. The key is to link the cooking area with the dining so these areas are in close proximity. This will bring the family together. The flying star and 8 mansions impacts must also be considered so the kitchen design can be modified to create the best possible Feng Shui space.

3.    Main Bedroom – Considering that we spend a third of our lives in our bedroom, it should be enticing and be comfortable. It should be tidy and have balance with bedside tables with lights. Turn these lights on occasionally to create an ambiance of love. The colour in the room should be neutral with peaceful prints or paintings. The bed placement is crucial especially using the flying star technique. The myth that the bed placement under a window or facing the door can bring bad luck. This is a superstition and many times some people have no choice to place the bed in this location. The mirror facing the bed supposedly also creates the loneliness. This was instituted by a western Feng Shui practices, but it does make sense that too many in a bedroom can cause confusion and vanity. For example, the 80s AFL star Warrick Capper had his whole bedroom covered in mirrors, including the ceiling. He had all sorts of relationship problems during the time he slept in this bedroom. Personally less mirrors in a bedroom the better. Instead place them in the ensuite.  

8.   Does the placement of a water feature in the right place bring abundance to the occupants of the home?

The placement of water outside the home can be very powerful if done at the right time, but the key affect is there needs ample volume. There is a myth that a small internal water feature can bring positive Feng Shui success. To be honest this strategy is has a marginal effect, therefore the amount of water needs to match the space. A rule of thumb is 20cm squared to one square metre. Therefore a 5m by 5m with 4m ceilings, you would need a 20litre aquarium. Beyond this there will be specific homes where the energy will not be right to place the aquarium in the living room, dining or the office. This will depend on the flying star and 8 mansion configurations.

The home will require a full analysis of the flying star technique. The best and most effective approach is to place a large volume water feature or a pool in an appropriate space at the right time. This can bring amazing results such as stock market success, relationship harmony, financial enhancement and promotion. There is a down side to water placement if you place it in the wrong area of your space or construct it at the worse possible time can have disastrous effects such as legal disputes, loss of income, loss of job, relationship and family problems, poor health and issues with petty people. Water placement is a serious matter and although can have powerful positive effects can also be just as negative if not put in the right place or constructed at the right time.

9.   How can you effectively tap into the prosperous areas of the home to improve the relationships, create abundance and influence harmony?

For the curious types who likes to dabble in the science of Feng Shui and would like some simple and effective ideas to create prosperity, happiness, abundance and harmony in your home here are a few simple tips.

·        Keep the house clean and allow the air to circulate freely throughout the space.

·        Clean clutter, throw out things you don’t need or better still sell them.

·        Work out the direction of your house using a compass, then determine the flying star chart. Find the 8, 9, and 1 on the top right and left number. Superimpose the number chart over your house floor plan. Work out which rooms have these numbers. These are your prosperous rooms that you need to utilise more often and spend more time in these areas. (Feng Shui consultants can assist you with understanding these charts).

·        If you are having difficulties, relationship, family or financial you can solve many Feng Shui problems by moving. It could be that the house does not match your individual Feng Shui.

·        Your date of birth can determine your favourable direction for wealth, health, relationship and networking ability. This direction is excellent for the direction of your bed, desk or facing direction at an important meeting.

·        Create space at your frontdoor, make sure that the opening has a good combination of yin and yang.

·        Don’t focus on cures but enhance the good areas. Enhancing a positive area can have a 10 fold effect rather than curing a poor region of the home. There is a fixation to cure problem areas, instead the focus should be on the positive spaces.

·        Your actions and beliefs are everything, what you think you become. Make that change today and shake the habit that holds you back from greatness.

·        Know your destiny (bazi) so you can react with the challenges that time throws at you can be aware of when to withdraw and when to attack when the time is right. 

·        Finally you are the one that creates peace and harmony in your home, for every action there is an equal reaction. If there is something you don’t like, make the change. It can be done drastically or in little steps. Write down your goals and set a time table to achieve the impossible. You set the bar to leap over, just decide how high you want to go.

10.                   What is the ‘Feng Shui secret’ to generating harmony, peace and abundance in a home and how it can influence the occupants to achieve the personal ambitions and dreams?

Feng Shui is so vast and in depth, it would take you a thousand years to fully understand its true subtleties. In fact the ancient masters would not allow their apprentices to practice until they had studied 20 years under their tutorage. Perfection of understanding of Feng Shui wisdom brought about continued enquiry and development of the metaphysical science. The masters over time, superimposed the knowledge upon other knowledge to understand not only the true nature of how our environment impacts the individual but also how time will effects people. The true obsession of the ancient masters was how time interacted with people, but beyond be able to predict how it would influence individuals in the future. The reality is in the present day this true understanding of time has been lost in translation.

Many Feng Shui consultants today clear goals and aims to solve your external and internal environment using Feng Shui principles. This will only have a 33% effect on you achieving your personal ambitions. The true Feng Shui consultant needs to be a life coach, where he guides you, by understanding your destiny, helping you to develop and maintain your goals by providing timeframes to achieve success. He also encourages you to act towards the personal ambitions and also enhances your environment using the Feng Shui principles used by the traditional masters of old. Together they are the Feng Shui ‘secret’ where you become the captain of your journey. Where you take control of your destiny and create the life that you wanted. To be peaceful, be compassionate, be motivated, be loved, act inspired, to be a great husband and father, have a clear direction, be giving and most of all simply be happy. You can achieve this dream, you just got to lay the foundation today. Good luck and look forward to meeting you in the near future.

Written by Rob Brown

www.enhancefengshui.com.au