Feng Shui Absolute No-Nos
Feng Shui Absolute No-Nos
“The only constant is change” Paracelsus
As we approach what may be two of the most demanding years in history, it’s time to fill you in on a couple things:
1. Good news: my new book I Talk to the Animals, a how-to on ba zi (that is the Four Pillars of Destiny) is now out and available from all good book stores. My boast is that it is a Definitive Guide to the Four Pillars of Destiny.
Not so good news: there is one glaring typo. It’s a bit embarrassing really. but unless you’re really paying attention you could miss it.
More good news: To make up for it, I’m offering either a free copy of my previous book The Feng Shui Diaries or a free 30 minute Zoom Yi (that is Book of Changes or I Ching) reading to the first half dozen readers to spot it.
2. Over the next few months we’ll be moving my various writings over to Substack. Easy to find: just search for Substack, then within Substack forme. You can subscribe there for free for the time being. But the plan longer term is to offer three tiers:
Tier One: free, my daily prognoses plus regular pieces that should inform and entertain you if you’ve read this far.
Tier Two: for small change monthly – we haven’t concluded yet but literally for a price of somewhere between a latte and decent sandwich – say the price of a Boots meal deal – my regular monthly public bulletin plus the dailies plus regular informative/provocative/comforting/poignant pieces.
Tier Three: my comprehensive Monthly Auspicious Dates and Places, (currently only available by email and by subscription) plus all of the above for a somewhat more. Again we haven’t decided.
If you are of a mind to do so, you can join Substack right away.
Meanwhile here’s something that’s on there already. There’ll be lots more. Watch this space.
R.
Feng shui absolute no-nos.
i. Top of the list is this: do not live where the land is wind swept. The underlying theory is that the energy will be dissipated and the outcome at best restlessness, at worst a chaotic state of nothing ever settling. Many Masters would go much further.
This proscription is actually laid down in the first mention of feng shui in the Book of Odes, parts of which are reckoned to date from the 16th Century BCE.
The text goes: “The qi comes down from the mountain on the Wind and is held at the Water. Therefore protect the Water and defend against the wind.”
I addressed one case on tv’s House Busters (still watched on cable by insomniacs all over the world and on You Tube). The house was on Windmill Hill (which was a bit of a giveaway) and they were not happy campers. I have more severe stories which I’m not going to share here. But mark my words: windswept is bad.
ii. Facing a road junction. A road leading straight at your front door implies a constant push against it. Often such homes change hands frequently.
Often you’ll find old houses in such positions have moved their front doors away from the thrust. Little can be usefully done to the interior until the house is protected from the sha qi or “poison arrow” on the outside.
iii. Water nearby higher than the house. Which at the very least makes for darkness. Of many kinds. If the Water is higher, then on some level you know it could swamp you at any moment. I’ve been working for three years now on a house with this problem and you’d be amazed at how the darkness – in relationship and other areas – has begun to lift. Or maybe you wouldn’t.
iv. Corner Units are exposed to whatever is happening outside from time to time, not least to the weather. The slightest wind will unsettle them and unsettled outside means unsettled inside. What’s required is a solid external wall to contain the exposed faces.
v. Graveyards are a classical feng shui no go area. That’s partly because yin feng shui – the practice of placing graves in auspicious locations in order to benefit the ancestors – is a totally separate discipline and its requirements are not met in the average Western graveyard, and partly because spookiness is not everyone’s favourite sensation.. A walk through Westbourne Cemetery at dusk in August (the month of the Hungry Ghosts) is quite an experience. But it won’t kill you.
For myself I am more concerned with police stations and hospitals which are magnets for upset. Anyone visiting a hospital is likely to be in some sort of distress: even if there to celebrate parenthood they are likely to be exhausted and clumsy. Hospital car parks are among the most disturbed places on Earth.
As for churches, this is where, as in so much feng shui assessment, it’s best not to abandon common sense. Some churches, those mostly used for christenings, weddings and celebration are beacons of benevolence, the collected goodwill of centuries is a powerful thing. For myself I am most likely to consider a church (unless it’s relatively small and very close) as a neutral “mountain” in the landscape from which I can draw qi – that is energy.
vi. Toilet in the tai chi – the tai chi is the geometric centre of the building. It’s easily found: just draw diagonals from the opposing corners, the tai chi is where they meet. If it’s in the toilet, every flush, shower and bath is draining energy.
One Chinese Master I studied with actually ran workshops on poo-poo qi. I never attended one.
Do not buy a house with a toilet at the geometric centre. Even worse btw if the oven is there, Master Chan Kun Wah used to say that you would be cooking your heart. And almost irretrievable if the tai chi proves to be outside.
One wealthy lady asked me to check out a warehouse she had just bought. She had found the advice she’d been given by a student of a very famous Chinese Master insulting. I gave her the same advice politely: the tai chi was outside and the doors were all wrong and it proved an absolute white elephant. It would have been smarter to ask me before purchase of course but over time it became home to a number of ex-servicemen who’d been living rough. So maybe it worked out.
More in a week or so.
Richard Ashworth©
www.imperialfengshui.info