internal feng shui | Feng Shui Unzip

Have you ever wonder how a practitioner optimizes the interior Feng Shui of a house?

If you have seen a practitioner in action, you will notice that he usually starts by evaluating the surroundings, followed by taking a compass measurement of the facing of the house. Then he looks up a chart or plot one out on the spot or read the chart data that is embedded on his lo pan or Feng Shui compass.

He then does a bit of thinking and then proceed to recommend the optimal placement of the main door, kitchen, bedrooms, living etc. How does he do it?

I will not attempt to teach you how to optimize the Feng Shui of the interior of a house. This requires a period of study. Instead I will attempt to show you the methodology behind using the Flying Star system.

In this system, we start by plotting a chart showing the “qi” distribution in the house. This is determined by the house facing direction and the period of the house. As practitioners, we can plot the chart, off the cuff. However to minimize errors, most of use will simply read it of a chart or read the data that is embedded on the lo pan.

In the Flying Star system, we divide a house into eight(8) sectors but some other systems may divide the house into twelve(12) sectors.

The diagram shows a typically Flying Star chart for a south 2 (172.5 to 187.5 degrees) facing house built in period 8 (2004 to 2024).

You will notice that there are nine boxes (or palaces) in a 3 x 3 matrix. Note also the direction and sector of each of the boxes. In practice the middle box is usually not used, leaving eight sectors.

Within each of box you see three numbers (also known as stars). They range from 1 to 9. These numbers or stars represent the quality of the “qi” or energy that resides in that sector of the house.

The star on the left (in yellow) is known as the Mountain Star (it governs relationship and health) while the one on the right (in green) is known as the Water Stars (it governs wealth). The one in the middle is know as the Period Star.

In this system, time is divided into 9 periods of 20 years each. The current period eight runs from 2004 to 2024. During this period the stars 8, 9 and 1 are auspicious. Others like stars 2, 5 and 7 are inauspicious. The rest are not too bad.

The objective of this system is to locate the main door, master bedroom, kitchen, living, study etc in auspicious sectors. Others like the toilet/bath, store etc should ideally be in inauspicious sectors.

Since the mountain star relates to relationship and health, a bedroom should ideally be located in a sector with a good mountain stars such as 8, 9 or 1. In this case in the south sector where the 8 mountain star resides.

And since the water star relates to wealth (and career), the main door and living should be in a sector with a good water star such as 8, 9 or 1. In this case is the SW where the 8 water star resides.

The other spaces in the house such as the kitchen, dining, study can be in either sectors while the toilets and store should ideally be an inauspicious sectors such as those with stars 2 and 5.

Okay, I must admit that it is not so simple. In practice, there are lots more factors to consider such as the interaction of the mountain and water stars within the palace, interaction with the period stars as well as the presence of natural and man made structures outside the house that can enhance or degrade the quality of the stars and their efficacy. Plus the Gua number of the occupants etc.

Having said that the foundation principle is to utilize spaces where the auspicious mountain and water stars are located.

And that is how it is done!

(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.

Feng Shui Unzip

By Feng Shui Consultant Henry Fong

Tag Archives: internal feng shui

Optimizing the Interior Spaces

Internal and External Feng Shui