Author Archives: Henry

About Henry

Feng Shui Consultant based in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Offers Feng Shui consulting services for residential and commercial properties.

Layman Buy House Guide

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The facing direction, period of the house and surrounding land-forms are important consideration when selecting a house.

So are the location of spaces such as bedrooms, kitchen, study, living area etc within the house. All these should ideally be located in auspicious sectors in the house.

However all these require some knowledge of Feng Shui and Astrology to figure out and you may require the service of a practitioner to help you out.

However there are other equally things important things that you can look out for when selecting a house.

I would like to tell you the story from one of my audits from many years ago. Two sisters approached me to look at their houses which are located in different parts of the Klang Valley.

One of the house is a modern double storey link house while the other one is a much older but well maintained single storey intermediate unit.

The one that owns the single storey unit tells me that they many brothers and sisters and it is quite common for them to hold gatherings at each others home. However most prefer to hold the gatherings at her house and the the party tend to last longer into the nights.

Why? Let me share with you what I think.

The newer and more modern double storey house does not have an air-well or courtyard or sky window for passive ventilation and you feel stuffy after a while in the house. The ceiling is low and there is very little natural sunlight into some parts of the house. In fact in some parts of the house, you need to switch on the lights even during the daytime!

The older single storey house has a large courtyard in the middle of the house. The ceiling is much higher and most parts of the house get a lot of natural sunlight.

It is well ventilated and you feel cool and dry despite it being a single storey house. The high ceiling and gives you a relax feel while the natural lighting gives the house a healthy glow.

In my opinion this features are as important as getting the facing correct and having the right surrounding land form.

Home owners who live in a very long link house should have a courtyard or sky windows in the middle section to the house for better ventilation and to bring in natural lighting.

Even more critical are three storey link houses. The middle section of the ground floor tend to be poorly ventilated and dark.

For a home buyer, I urge you to place good passive ventilation and natural lighting as a priority when selecting a house. And please ensure that the ceiling is high enough!

Mountain and Water – Real or Otherwise

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In the last two articles we learn about the quality of a house based on its facing direction and period how these qualities can be enhanced by having the right mountain and water – both natural and man-made.

In this article, I will elaborate more on these land form and man-made structures.

In Feng Shui theory a mountain that has lush green vegetation is known as a “Living Dragon”. Better still if there are rivers flowing within. A “Living Dragon” is highly revered, rich in qi (or energy) and is the mountain of choice to enhance the quality of a house.

A rocky mountain without vegetation is known as a “Sick Dragon” and as you would have rightfully guessed is not favored. Those with sparse vegetation or with those that are turning yellow is viewed as lacking in qi and not favorable

A “Sick Dragon” can depreciate the quality of a house. For example, for a N2 facing period 8 house, having a “Living Dragon” mountain at the sitting side is favorable and would enhance the descendant quality – meaning relationship and health.

However if you have a “Sick Dragon” at the sitting, then you can expect your relationship and health luck to suffer.

In lieu of a real mountain, tall trees can also take the place of natural mountains. But what about another taller building nearby? Can we consider them as mountains? I will come back to this at the end of this article.

But first something about water?

In Feng Shui theory, for water to be effective, it must be clean (relatively speaking) and must flow slowly. Better still if it meanders. A river will flow quickly or slowly depending on the terrain that it passed through. When the terrain is steep, it will flow very quickly and when it reached level terrain it will flow slowly or accumulate (as in a lake or pond).

So remember, slow and meandering is favorable. Fast and straight is not.

An open area such as a playground or a field is also considered form-wise to be equivalent to water. Better still if it is lower than the house. Man-made structure such as a fish pond is also water but is not as efficacious due to it smaller size.

So what about a building? Form-wise it can be considered a mountain. In the case of the rocky mountain, the uneven surfaces is considered a “sha” capable of generating “sha qi” or “killing qi” that can be detrimental to the house.

If a building has sharp uneven surfaces, then it can be considered a “Sick Dragon” and is detrimental if it is located near enough. However most buildings are not like that and can be considered a mountain, at least form-wise.

In my opinion, a building can function like a mountain but is in no way as good as the real thing!

The Death and Emptiness Lines

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Here is another article that I write for the Sun Daily.

A house should not directly face North (0 degrees), South (180 degrees), East (90 degrees) and West (270 degrees). It should also not direction directly face the inter-cardinals of North-East (45 degrees), South-East (135 degrees), South-West (225 degrees) and North-West (315 degrees).

These are known as the Dead and Emptiness Lines and such houses, like the name suggest, do not bode well for the occupants.

In theory a shift of 1 degree to the left or right is sufficient to escape from these lines. In practice it still too close for comfort and practitioners would normally advise you to get away by 3 degrees to be safe. For north 0 degree facing is unfavorable. Three (3) degrees or 357 degrees is quite acceptable.

While these facing are not good for homes, they are suitable for places of worship.

In the last article, I talk about the 24 mountains. It is also not favorable if the house sit on an axis that borders two mountains for example between NE3 and E1 or between E1 and E2.

Houses facing the different mountains have different chart pattern or qi distribution. When a house sits between the two mountains, the qi that enter the house is confused.

In an ancient text, it says that “Riding the lines invokes the wandering souls. It is inevitable that spiritual entities will enter the premises”. Continuing the text says that “More so if there is a gap between two Trigrams, one will be disturbed by one’s dream.”

Note: In this context, a Trigram spans 45 degrees. Therefore north can be one Trigram and NE another.

I will leave it to the spiritual master if or not wandering souls will enter the house. From a Feng Shui perspective, the unstable or indefinite qi pattern translate to sporadic and unpredictable changes in one’s fortune. It can also impact a persons emotional well being and hence their dreams.

Yet another line in the ancient text infer that the unstable qi distort one’s thinking leading one to act rashly or irresponsibly.

What can you do if your house sits on one of these lines? The cure is to change the facing side of the house but a few degrees. This is of course easier said than done. Therefore many practitioner recommend tilting the main door and/or the windows on the facing side. The ration is that since qi comes in primarily through the doors and windows, tilting them would change the facing!

What is my thoughts on this? If you face problems like the ones described in the ancient text, I would recommend tilting the doors and windows. However if they still persist, I would suggest you move the affected ones to another house and see if the problem persist!

Then in the worst case scenario, shift to another house!

Prosper Wealth or Prosper Descendants

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Here is another article that I write for the Sun Daily.

The ideal house is one that prosper wealth and prosper descendants and that is supported by the ideal land form of mountain at the sitting and water at the facing side.

There are however those that prosper one or the other but not both. They are “Prosper Wealth but not Prosper Descendants” and “Prosper Descendants but not Prosper Wealth”.

Period 8 house that face S2, S3, W2, W3, N1 & E1 are classified as “Prosper Wealth but not Descendants”. Such houses influence positively the wealth (include career) luck of the occupants but not descendant (meaning relationship and health) luck.

Land form or man-made structures again play an important part to enhance or degrade the quality of the house. Such “Prosper Wealth” houses should have water – real or otherwise – at the facing side. If it faces a mountain located nearby at sitting side, then the wealth quality of the house is degrade.

Ancient text do say that if there is a mountain at the facing side but located much further away then the descendant luck is improved.

Period 8 house that face N2, N3, E2, E3, S1 & W1 are classified as “Prosper Descendants but not Wealth”. Such houses influence positively the descendant (meaning relationship and health) luck of the occupants but not their wealth luck.

Land form or man-made structures again play an important part to enhance or degrade the quality of the house. Such “Prosper Descendants” houses should have mountain – real or otherwise – at the sitting side. If there is a large pool of water located nearby at sitting side, then the descendant quality of the house is degraded.

From my study, most houses other than the ones classified as “Up Mountain Down Water”, would benefit from have mountain at the sitting side and water at the facing side.

Therefore the ancient saying, “Mountain at the back, facing water” still holds – at least for most house facings.

I mentioned early in the previous article that the quality of a house can change over time. For example a SW1 facing house completed and first occupied period 7 is a “Prosper Wealth but not Prosper Descendant” house. This is true during period 7 between 1984 and 2004.

However the same house in the current period from 2004 to 2024 no longer retain this quality. Instead the occupants may not face career or wealth problem or fall victims to theft or robbery.

The good news is that if you carry out a major renovation to the same SW1 facing house and change the period of the house to the current period, it becomes a “Prosper Wealth Prospers Descendant” house. Better still if there is water at the facing and mountain at the sitting side.

I know this is a lot of take in. Therefore I urge you to consult a practitioner before you carry out a major renovation to your current house.

Next time around, I will talk about the “Death and Emptiness Lines“. Till then.

Prospers Wealth Prosper Descendants House

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(This is an article that I wrote in a column for the Sun Daily newspaper).

In the last article we talk about the Feng Shui quality of a house. The best ones are those that prosper wealth and prosper descendants meaning good for career, wealth, relationship and health.

There are many schools of Feng Shui and hence there are as many ways to determine the quality of a house. In the Xuan Kong Fei Xing method, the quality of a house is determined by the facing direction and period of the house. This quality is further enhanced or depreciated by the surrounding natural land form and man made structures.

Some schools divide the facing of a house into eight spans of 45 degrees. Most school however sub-divide each of the 45 degrees span into three smaller spans of 15 degrees giving a total of 24 spans of direction or 24 mountains.

In the old days, each of these 15 degree span is given a Chinese name e.g. Ren, Zi, Gui. This is not easy to remember especially if you are not educated in Chinese. A popular and easy naming convention is to simply name the 15 degree span within each cardinal numerically i.e. N1, N2 and N3 in a clockwise manner. The spans in the NE sector becomes NE1, NE2 and NE3 as shown and so on.

In addition, the Fei Xing school take the period of the house into consideration. To recap, the period of the house is derived from the date the house was completed and first occupied. A period spans 20 years and the current period is known as period 8. It starts from Chinese Solar year 2004 and ends in 2024. A house completed and first occupied during this period is known as a period 8 house.

A house completed and first occupied in the 20 years period before is known as a period 7 house while a house completed and first occupied in the 20 years from 2024 will be a period 9 house.

The quality of a house depends on the period and facing. Therefore a house with the same facing from different period may have different quality. In this series of articles, I will touch only on current or period 8 house only.

Back to house quality. For period 8 houses in period 8 (which means now), “prosper wealth prosper descendant” house include those that face NE1, SE2, SE3, SW1, NW2 and NW3.

Land form is important too. Having the right facing and period is like having the potential. For such houses, this potential is enhanced if there is water at the facing and mountain at the sitting side. Water can be real e.g. river or pond or pseudo e.g. open playground or field. Mountain can be real e.g. hills or higher land or pseudo e.g. a taller building or tall trees.

It is fine if the land at the sitting and facing is relatively level. However the potential of the house will be depreciated if the reverse is true i.e. mountain at the facing and water at the sitting.

Neither Prosper Mountain nor Prosper Water

The opposite of “propser wealth prosper descendant” houses is “Up Mountain Down Water” house as commonly known as house that do not prosper wealth nor descendants. For period 8 houses, they include those that face NE2, NE3, SE1, SW2, SW3 and NW1.

Do not panic if you live in such a house. Some of the these facing are also influenced by other good patterns that reverses or improves the luck of the house.

The more important thing is to have the right landform features which in this case is the reversed of what you learnt earlier and that is there should be mountain at the facing and water at the side!

So now you know. Water at the sitting is not always unfavorable!

The Siginificance of a House Facing Direction

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(This is an article that I wrote in a column for the Sun Daily newspaper).

From the Ba Zi (or date and time of birth) an astrology practitioner can figure out a person’s fate potential and luck cycle throughout his or her life.

The facing direction of a house or the side that allow in most of the environmental energy is often used to iron out any pitfall in the person’s fate potential and luck.

For example, a person’s has poor lifetime career luck. This means that he is likely to experience obstacles and challenges in his career throughout his life. Things may become better during periods of good luck but is likely to revert to bad once he passes these good luck periods.

The ‘right’ house facing direction can help to correct or at least try to improve upon his poor lifetime career luck making life more pleasant. Correcting the lifetime fate potential will also help to improve the 10 years and yearly luck cycle as they are somewhat related.

For a person with a balance fate potential and luck cycle, the correct house facing direction can be used to enhance specific aspect of his luck for example career and wealth or spousal or children relationships.

For most systems of Feng Shui the facing direction of the house is also used to determine the quality of the house. Some systems uses the sitting direction which is essentially the opposite of the facing while others combine the sitting or facing with the period of the house to determine its quality. The period of the house is determined by when the house was completed and first occupied. The period and hence the quality of a house can be also be changed via a major renovation or rebuild.

The ideal house is one which is beneficial to career and wealth and to relationship and health. It is often referred to one that “prosper wealth and prosper descendants”. Think of it this way, poor relationship and poor health is unlikely to result in a lot of descendants!

In practice, houses may benefit wealth but not descendants or vice versa. Worse still some benefit neither wealth nor descendants. You will learn more about this in future articles.

Meanwhile, the facing direction and period also determines the auspicious and inauspicious sectors in a house. Knowing this allow practitioners to allocated the most auspicious spaces for the main door, kitchen, bedrooms, study and living area. The underlying principle is that the auspicious energy in the auspicious sectors will rub off on the occupants and influence their luck in a positive manner.

This explain why buying the wrong house can require a expensive relocation of the kitchen or why you as the master, may need to sleep in the smallest room. It just happen that they are in the auspicious sectors!

Feng Shui Moving House Rituals

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Feng Shui Moving House Tips

In Feng Shui, the move-in date and time is very important as it is believed to enhance the auspiciousness of the house. A practitioner will usually use a combination of date selection methods to find an auspicious date for the move-in while ensuring that the date do not clash with the animal sign of members of the family.

But what are the move-in procedures?

The moving procedure can differs between practitioners and you should not be surprised if other practitioner’s procedures are slightly different from mine.

For me, there are three things that a home owner should do to signify the start and completion of the move-in. First, he should start the move-in at the selected auspicious date and time. Second, he must cook a meal – a simple one will do – and prepare some beverages. And third he must sleep over at the new house. This is all he needs to do to complete a successful move in.

In the past, the house owner may be instructed to declaring loudly that they are the new occupants and letting off fire crackers (which are banned in most places) to signify the occasion. Nowadays hardly any owner do so for fear of being branded crazy or a pest by their neighbors!

Using the stove to cook a meal as a special significance as it signifies operating in the new house. Some practitioners may want to emphasis this switch over by making the stove work overtime, usually by cooking a dessert that requires simmering over a low fire for many hours!

Some practitioners may want you to energize the house and would advise you to switch on all the lights and power appliances such as air conditioners, radio and TV for a few hours. There is nothing wrong with it. At least you will know if your electrical system is overloaded or not. In fact I also advise my clients to let the tap water run long enough to clear the water tank. In a previously vacated house, the water in the tank may be dirty having collected water and left stagnant for a long while. The last think you want is food poisoning while you may wrongly blame it on bad Feng Shui!

There are also many pre-moving rules that were popular in the past but rarely observed nowadays. Here are some of them.

For example, the house should be left vacant for a few days prior to the move. No one including animals (though I suspect it will be difficult to stop the rats) is allowed. All vents should be sealed and natural lighting blocked from entering by pasting dark colored paper on windows and other openings.

They should only be removed when you move in on the auspicious day and time to signify a rebirth of sort and an infusion of new energies into the house.

It is also a popular belief that negative “yin” energies can accumulate in the corners of a vacant house. The last thing you want to do is share the house with them. To overcome or neutralize these negative “yin” energies you can scattered the inside corners of your house with a mixture of items with strong “yang” energies in the days prior to moving in. They include a mix of salt, rice, tea leaf and dried chilies.

Also popular in the past is jumping over a charcoal fire. This is to ensure that unseen negative energies do not inadvertently follow you into the new house.

While on the subject of moving, I would like to clarify a misconception on the moving time. An auspicious time is usually a span of two or more hours in a given day, for example between 9 am and 11 am. It means that you must arrive and first occupy the house anytime between 9 am and 11 am. It does not mean that you have to arrive and complete the move within the two hours! After you have move the first item into the house, you can continue to move the other items later in the day, the next day or anytime after that.

Another best practice is to only move in existing items such as you computer and clothing on the move-date or later. However new items such as your new stove and hood or new room can be safely moved-in before the move date.

Have a good move.

Water and Wealth

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(This is an article that I wrote in a column for the Sun Daily newspaper).

To the Chinese people, water is associated with wealth. When cash is tight, it is not uncommon to hear the phrase, “Water is tight” to describe the dire cash flow situation!

In Feng Shui, water is also associated with wealth. Hence the belief that water in the right places or approaching from the right directions brings wealth. Conversely, if your water is all wrong, then the consequence is dire. This is of course an over-simplification and in this article I will explain the usage of water in Feng Shui.

Water can be large e.g. pond, lake or river or small e.g. indoor aquarium, water fountain or drains. As we would expect, large water has a greater impact on our luck and this is why Feng Shui practitioners pay a lot of attention to rivers and lakes in the vicinity of the house. For water to be effective, it must be clean and not stagnated. In the case of flowing water like a river, the flow should also be slow and meandering. A fast flowing river and especially one that runs straight can be considered a sha!

The potential of a house can be enhanced by having the appropriate forms at the facing and sitting. Most houses will benefit from having water at the facing side (and mountain at the sitting side). Water in the form of a river or lake can enhance the wealth potential of a house. Even pseudo water form like a field or playground at the facing side works which is why a house with a lake view or facing a playground is more in demand Feng Shui wise.

Water is primarily used as an activator. In Feng Shui theory the “qi” and its quality within and outside the house can be computed using a formula. For example a sector may be good for wealth luck, another good for celebrations or happy events. Yet another may be good for career luck. Activating these sectors with water will increase the luck of the occupants of the house in these areas.

Conversely there are sectors influenced by bad energy. Activating these areas will activate the negative energy and cause bad luck for the occupants. This is why water in the wrong place can cause dire consequence.

From my observations, small water inside the house like an indoor water fountains are rarely the culprit. The problem is more likely caused by the large water body outside the house e.g. river, lake or swimming pool.

In Feng Shui theory, it is favorable if water e.g. river flows in from an auspicious sector and flows out from an inauspicious sector. These auspicious and auspicious sectors are determine from the house facing direction and sometimes other factors such as time.

In urban areas, roads take over the role of rivers and Feng Shui practitioners have to take the flow and traffic of the roads around a house into consideration. The application is the same as for rivers. If there is steady traffic, then there is activation – positive or negative. If there is hardly any traffic, then little activation. If traffic is very heavy and fast flowing like a busy highway, it becomes a sha!

In the Xuan Kong school of Feng Shui, it is highly auspicious in this period to have water in the south-west. Other sectors such as north, east and south-east are also acceptable. So if you are planning to build a huge swimming pool and not planning to seek the services of a practitioner, I would suggest you locate it in one of the above sectors!

Internal and External Feng Shui

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(This is an article that I wrote in a column for the Sun Daily newspaper).

A popular is question is, “Which is more important? Internal or external Feng Shui?”.

Internal Feng Shui refers to the Feng Shui of the inside of the property enclosed by its walls. It exclude the garden and fences. The garage is considered internal if it is attached to the house and there is a connecting passage into the house.

External Feng Shui refers to the external of the house and include the garden, fence, surrounding land form and man-made structures such as roads, rivers, playground, mountain, high tension pylon etc.

In an audit a practitioner has to look at both. For example, lets say the practitioner has determined that a house has a “prosper mountain prosper water” quality meaning that it is auspicious for wealth and relationships. However this is only true if there is appropriate mountain and water feature in the surrounding.

By appropriate mountain feature, we mean a real mountain, hill, elevated land or tall trees or buildings at the sitting side that simulate a mountain feature. By water feature, we mean, rivers, lake, swimming pool, fields and land at a lower level at the facing side that simulate a water feature.

Much effort in internal Feng Shui is spent on selecting and appropriately using the auspicious sectors. For example, the main door and kitchen should be in sectors where the wealth energy is strong while the bedrooms should be in sectors where the relationship and health energy is strong.

Even then, the external feature is important. For example, outside the specially selected bedroom there should be a mountain feature. At the least it should not have a water feature such as a lake or a steep downward slope. Otherwise the relationship and health quality of the bedroom is deeply degraded.

Equally much effort is also spent on avoiding internal sha such a overhead beam cutting the bed and to ensure violation of any Feng Shui best practices e.g. the stove sharing a common wall with the WC (Water Closet).

Externally most of the effort is spent on finding matching land forms and man made structures and avoiding sha. Structures that generate sha such as high tension pylon or a rocky sill side nearby can degrade the quality of the house turning what should be auspicious into inauspicious.

For example, the south east sector of house is associated with the elder sister, the liver, study and status and mercy. If there is a sha generating structure at the south east, such as a rocky mountain or polluted lake, it can cause problems for the occupants especially middle age women and with the liver. It is cause a lack of desire to study, become merciless, a demotion or a lack of direction or desire and excessive sex!

The flow of the river matters too. Based on the facing or sitting of a house, water flowing in or out from certain sectors relative to the house is auspicious. In modern societies, you have got to be quite lucky to live near a river. You are more likely to see a roads or a large drains. Just like rivers, a practitioner will evaluate if they are beneficial to you or not during an audit.

In the next article, I will write about water placement.

Using Feng Shui to Shape Your Destiny and Luck

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(This is an article that I wrote in a column for the Sun Daily newspaper).

The ancient masters believe that we are composed of a set of energies that we absorb at birth. This combo of energies is usually not balanced and it determines the strength and weakness of our destiny and luck.

The Significance of a House Facing Direction

In Chinese metaphysics, every direction is associated with an energy type. For example north is water, south is fire, east is wood and so on.

The facing direction of a house is the side that brings in most of the enviromental energy. One of the most effective way to influence our destiny and luck is by living in a house with a facing direction that is beneficial to you. For example if you lack fire, then it is good to live in a house that face south (the direction of fire).

From a birth chart a Feng Shui master can tell you which facing directions are and how they are beneficial to you.

For me, the starting point in using Feng Shui to improve your destiny and luck is to select a house with a facing direction that is good for you.

The facing direction is also very important as it is also helps to determine the quality of the house. For example some houses are beneficial to career and wealth, others to good health and relationships, yet others for both and so on.

So, for example, if you are a young person aiming for a successful career, then you would want to live in a house that has a beneficial facing direction that is also good for career and wealth luck.

The facing direction of a house also determines the auspicious and inauspicious sectors within. We would want the places where we use the most such as the main door, kitchen, bedroom and so on to the in the auspicious sectors so that we are influence positively by the auspicious energy.

The auspicious energy within can be further upgraded or downgraded with the right external land form or man-made features. For example, the health and relationship quality of your bedroom in an auspicious sector of the house is enhanced if there is a hill outside. Or the career and wealth quality of your house is enhanced if there is your main door faces a lake or a river.

Certain natural land form and man-made structures such a rocky hillside or high tension pylon generate “sha” or killing energy. If they are located very near the house, these “sha” can degrade the positive energy with the affected sectors in the house, making auspicious energy within, inauspicious.

To summarize, the first step is to select a house with a facing direction that is good for you and supports your endeavors. Next utilize the auspicious sectors within and strive to have the correct supporting land form nearby. Finally ensure that there are no “sha” generating land form and man made structures in the vicinity.

It is not an easy task!

Feng Shui Unzip

By Feng Shui Consultant Henry Fong

Author Archives: Henry

About Henry

Layman Buy House Guide

Mountain and Water – Real or Otherwise

The Death and Emptiness Lines

Prosper Wealth or Prosper Descendants

Prospers Wealth Prosper Descendants House

The Siginificance of a House Facing Direction

Feng Shui Moving House Rituals

Feng Shui Moving House Tips

Water and Wealth

Internal and External Feng Shui

Using Feng Shui to Shape Your Destiny and Luck