You might be surprised to read the words “neat and tidy” in the same sentence as “hoarder.” When we hear the word “hoarder,” we usually think of extreme clutter, an unlivable environment mired with chaos, filth, fire hazards, roaches and rats. Within our imaginations, we plop in a disheveled, depressed looking person wallowing in the mess.

I bring this topic up because there is a segment of the “clutter community” which may be in denial about their hoarding, in part because of how they store and manage their excesses. I’ve seen enough professional organizing videos to recognize how this “neat and tidy” hoarding evolves.  As well, I’ve watched plenty of suspect interior designers who showcase their own homes. It’s easy to detect their high-level hoarding, though very few would ever self-identify it as such.  One designer boasts of having an entire basement, organized with containers for all her Christmas decorations. She decorates her home for the holidays as if it were a shopping center.

With regular hoarding, such as the poor souls featured on the Hoarders reality show, we see how this disorder compels people to save random items.  Those random things may be very ordinary (not unique or valuable in any objective way), they may be broken items, and they may be completely useless items such as the packaging from fast-food meals. With this disorder, there is an unhealthy, and indiscriminately sentimental attachment to all the garbage.

The “neat and tidy” hoarder presents in a completely different way. In fact, this might be a successful person with a high-powered job, along with the demands and fulfillment of friends and family. Their dark secret comes in stages over time. People close to the neat and tidy hoarder may not even know a problem exists. This is because the neat and tidy hoarder may have much of their stuff hidden behind closet doors, cabinets, the attic, the basement or the garage.  In fact, those who are invited into those areas might even marvel at how the neat and tidy hoarder has organized all their stuff. They use stylish containers and everything is labeled.  They can find anything they have expertly stored. Surely, those are not the indications of an out-of-control hoarder, right?

Sometimes the hoarding disguises itself as “collections.”  Many of us have a touch of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and it can manifest with very specific items: clothing, shoes, baseball caps, cosmetics, thematic decor, fine dishes, vintage items, books, pillows, food, nutritional supplements, plants or anything in excess that does not seem to be justified based on usage or value.

These collections should not be confused with items that may in fact be necessary.  For example, someone who does Arts and Crafts may have a space in a closet (or a room) where they maintain the supplies they need for projects. That room might look like a miniature Hobby Lobby or Michael’s craft store and that is okay.  As well, if you are a chef or baker and need to have umpteen kitchen gadgets, I would not call that “clutter” or hoarding as these are the tools you may need, even if only occasionally.

We also overlook the wealthy, opulent hoarder, who may own forty hats or a hundred purses, but she lives in a mansion with a department store-sized clothes closet. And in her defense, people in the media and entertainment often need to have a huge wardrobe for work and social reasons. No one in that orbit wants to be photographed wearing the same thing from last year, God forbid.  One humorous exception is actor Daniel Radcliffe.  Apparently, he wore the same clothes in public for several months, in order to frustrate the paparazzi and undermine their ability to sell new photos of him to tabloids.

Over the decades, I have had only a handful of feng shui clients who could star in a Hoarders episode. But I have surveyed many homes where there is semi-controlled clutter, even in the “neat and tidy” realm.  One client had a whole closet filled with brand new, elegant comforter cover sets. With her downsizing efforts underway, she offered me several to take for myself!

Another client has a room in her house completely dedicated to storing clothing she no longer wears.  Several hundred plastic boxes fill the room from floor to ceiling. She justified keeping them for years, hoping to one day open a used clothing store, with a jump start on inventory. It almost made sense, except for the fact that there was nothing else going on in her life to indicate she could realistically start a business.  In her case, there was a mixture of hoarding “styles.”  The clothing storage was meticulous.   However, the clutter in her kitchen looked like a bomb went off. And she would not be the first client to add more square footage to her home, in order to store the clutter.

One area where most of us are reluctant to give away something is if the item was pricey. We feel guilty throwing away such possessions and donating them still stings because of the money wasted on the original purchase. One professional organizer suggests that the pain felt in donating these items helps one learn a visceral lesson and to avoid future impulse buys.

Another technique is to place certain items in a temporary “give away” container. The items in limbo can be stored for another six months, out of sight and hopefully out of mind.  The goal is for the person to eventually realize they did not use or miss the item(s) and then make it easier to eventually discard.

These suggestions can work for the neat and tidy hoarder. The neat and tidy hoarder often has the means to replace items if they end up regretting parting with them and this type of hoarder has not completely gone off the deep end, as their public living spaces may still be immaculate. Many parts of their lives are still functioning quite normally and the OCD behavior may have been compartmentalized.

Sadly, it’s with the hard-core generalized hoarder where self-reflection is traumatic or insight into the illness may be non-existent. Often, these folks don’t have any other gratifying things going on in their lives, so they need the assistance of professional clutter experts and therapists to make those monumental changes, if they can make them at all.

Ultimately, it’s good to approach these issues with humor and tackle them with the conviction that you can and will transcend your past compulsions.  In writing this article, I had a look around my own home and office.  Is there anything that I “collect” or anything I am especially emotional about?  I know that I don’t like to run out of things, mostly because I just don’t want to shop when it’s inconvenient. I don’t think that having three tubes of toothpaste on hand would classify as “hoarding.”  Many of my own purchases revolve around practical storage and things I will use up quickly or eventually, such as a pantry that includes things I won’t have to replace for a few months at a time.

If someone didn’t know the background story, they might assume that I collect shawls, where I have a half dozen on display in my guest bedroom. And there are more inside drawers. Truth is, I’ve only bought myself one or two shawls in 40 years. Where did the rest come from?  Gifts.  Including one friend who gave me three.  I guess because I vibe like a hippie meditator, friends have assumed I’m wrapped in a shawl every morning in prayer.  They are all pretty, so I enjoy the shawls on display as textile art.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Tao of Organizing Blog Series

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For every other excerpt from a Case Study I have done thus far, I have provided direct passages, paragraphs long, into the article featuring the case study.  Just do a search in my blog section using the word “excerpt” and you will find all of them.

With the Feng Shui Symbolism case study, it contains numerous categories and lists. To only excerpt one category or list would not do justice to the case study as a whole.  Instead, and more like a loose Table of Contents, I will list many of the categories here.

The symbolism spans a wide range of potential influences. As you may imagine, and from many cultures (not just Chinese), symbols inspire and motivate us. They can protect us, teach us things about ourselves and life in general. More than placebos, those who use symbols ritualistically may also claim they work their own kind of talismanic magic for the inherent goal and intention.  Most of humanity wants similar things: love, trust, family harmony, fertility, good health, wealth and abundance, protection, and a peaceful transition to the afterlife.

In addition to the “usual suspects,” such as wind chimes, bamboo flutes and red peonies, this case study explores both the popular and the more obscure symbols directly or indirectly related to Feng Shui.

This case study includes sections on:

• Animals, insects, birds
• The Chinese Zodiac signs
• Weather and planetary cosmology
• Plants, flowers, trees, food, landscapes
• Gemstones, Elements
• Objects of décor and function, including clocks, mirrors and combs
• Architectural features, rooms in a house
• Angels, gods, statues, altars, omens
• Abstract concepts, the five senses, colors, numbers
• Classical Feng Shui and Taoist concepts

And much, much more, all packed into 60 pages with nearly 100 different symbols.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Feng Shui Myths and Misinformation Blog Series

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When I first moved to Irvine in 2019, I had already been a feng shui practitioner for nearly 30 years. Living in Los Angeles since the early 1980’s, most of my clients were initially based in Southern California, including in Orange County. I had taught Feng Shui Introduction workshops at Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, with many students hiring me afterwards for their homes or businesses. I became one of the more well-known graduates and Instructors from the American Feng Shui Institute in Monterey Park, founded by Master Sang.

In the early 1980’s, I had a memorable trip to Irvine with a friend of mine who is a chef.  In L.A., we shopped at “Irvine Ranch Market,” (ground floor of the Beverly Center) which later became Mrs. Gooch’s and much later bought out by Whole Foods. We drove down to Irvine one day so that we could experience the “real” Irvine Ranch and see where our food came from.  I recall vast amounts of farmland and undeveloped areas. I stood on land which is probably someone’s home today.

Once I rented a house in the Portola Springs area, but after having to evacuate in the  2020 Irvine fire, I decided not to buy in that area. In 2021, I bought a house in the Northwood neighborhood and that is when I really started to notice the details. When driving on the major streets, I did see a lot of parks. Previously, I had no idea each neighborhood had its own additional parks and trails.  I now walk those trails and neighborhoods daily with my dog, still marveling at the open space. Just consider the Ventu Spur Trail as one example: In Los Angeles, they would squeeze one more row of houses into the same open area.

Much of Irvine’s residential streets are aligned on a Northwest-Southeast or Northeast-Southwest axis.   Other cities are laid out more on the cardinal directions. This alone is neither good nor bad, but directional references are a major part of a classical Feng Shui analysis. The compass is the tool of the trade.

Once we combine the directional orientation of a property, along with the year built, this reveals a lot of very personal information about how occupants are influenced: their health, relationships, career and more.  Homes and buildings are developed in time frames referred to as Periods.  In reviewing the stages of growth in Irvine, areas built up between 1964-1983 are Period 6, 1984-2003 are Period 7, 2004-2023 are Period 8. 2024 through 2043, (Irvine is still building away), is Period 9.

To the lay person, this may not mean much and there is nothing lucky or unlucky about any Period in which a home or business has been built.  But when we combine the year built with direction, we can then calculate an unseen magnetic field, sometimes just referred to as “Qi.”

There are many different types of Qi (energy, air currents), such as the relatively stationary Qi contained in a home once the roof goes on. This is distinct from the type of Qi which travels through a house based on the location of windows and doors.  In my Irvine house hunting search, I noticed quite a high percentage of homes with good Feng Shui. 

This is above and beyond the exterior environment with plenty of beautiful outdoor spaces. I’m referring instead to the non-obvious aspects, such as with the floor plan lay-outs and the pre-determined “flying star charts” (Xuan Kong Fei Xing) for the homes based on year built and compass reading. I could not assume feng shui expertise was used during Irvine’s design phase. And yet, I can vouch for unintentionally good feng shui homes having a cumulative positive effect on the prosperity and well-being of residents on a large scale.

Real estate reviews often tabulate the quality of life for cities, based on mundane criteria. Now with feng shui, we have another way to assess the quality of life.  An East-Indian version of Feng Shui is called Vastu Shastra. I’ve also had many clients grow up with Vastu as part of their culture, but they still prefer to work with the Feng Shui system as it can be so detailed, and in some cases more practical to apply.

On a large scale, we factor in mountain ranges, hills, the flow and direction of streets (seen as virtual water courses). Also influential are real water sources with lakes, ponds, pools and personal garden fountains.  The ocean has a big impact on the whole coastline. It is a general principle that those who live near water can be more affluent. Those who live near mountains can be more heart-centered. Like Santa Barbara, Irvine (and other coastal cities in Orange County) have the best of both worlds.

In the West, real estate professionals became the first to be familiar with feng shui. There was an explosion of interest in Feng Shui in the 1990’s and I had read that at one point 45% of Irvine home buyers were Chinese.  In the 1990’s I assisted one developer in Rancho Cucamonga who wanted to know why his Chinese buyers were only purchasing South facing homes and if there was something I could suggest to get the houses with other orientations to sell. Once the builder displayed a report I wrote on a north-facing house, interest in other orientations picked up.

To be brief, there is nothing especially lucky about a south-facing house when many other variables are added in, but there is a cultural belief that south is associated with summer, youth and vitality compared to north symbolizing winter and solitude.  These are Yin-Yang features, which is another big section of Feng Shui principles, some of which is just common sense. An example of that would be to avoid a house that is too bright (yang), but even more so, to avoid a house that is chronically dark (yin).  Assessing homes and commercial properties is referred to a “Yang House” feng shui.

There is also a whole branch of Feng Shui called “Yin House” which deals with the divination of grave sites.  Twenty five years ago, my first teacher Master Sang took us to Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar. We were there to evaluate the grave sites which were purchased by Chinese people (some of his clients), hoping to gift good fortune to their descendants with the ideal placement of their own cemetery plots.  The goal in Yin House Feng Shui is to choose an orientation (combined with burial timing), that can benefit up to three generations of descendants.  This is a very tricky undertaking (all puns intended), since many buy plots decades before they will likely pass.

Currently, I still see clients all over Southern California, including locals in Irvine. I also work remotely with people all over the world. I didn’t explicitly move to Irvine for the Feng Shui, as my main objective was to live closer to my son.  We could say I came for the low crime rate, but stayed for the good Feng Shui!

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Architecture & Design Blog Series

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A Book Review by Kartar Diamond

Published in 1996, Master Raymond Lo’s book focuses on Feng Shui’s use in business management, as well as “project risk and profitability analysis, staff selection, bidding for a project, choosing business partners, office decoration and design and selecting a good logo.”

Some of these applications of Feng Shui are very standard to the practice, while other decisions may be determined with the help of Chinese Astrology or through I-Ching divination. And this is the angle for the book: to give readers an introduction to all three of these metaphysical disciplines.

Master Lo dives right into Chinese astrology, stating “the moment of our birth is our identity and cosmic code or blueprint.” He explains that the solar calendar (Hsia calendar) is about 4,000 years old. Each time I hear something like this, it continues to bolster my belief that aspects of ancient cultures may have been more advanced back then than they are in current times.

With five elements and four seasons, Master Lo starts out with an example of the influence of the Element associated with the Day of Birth.  Those unfamiliar with Chinese astrology may have only heard about the 12 Chinese zodiacs assigned to Year of Birth. The Day of Birth can reveal much when we compare it to the other elements in the chart attributed to the Hour, Month and Year, referred to as the Four Pillars of Destiny (Ba Zi).

The Day of Birth element is also influenced by the literal season of someone’s birth and here we begin to sense that a Four Pillars Chart “branches” off into many sub-categories.

He uses some famous people from politics, entertainment and the financial world to show how much can be revealed by a person’s Day element in relation to the other elements in the Hour, Month and Year pillars. He also gives examples of how a person’s Day stem can be fueled, controlled, or weakened by the elements in a person’s “Luck Pillars.”

These are ten-year cycles of one’s life and it becomes clear why people succeed or struggle during these different Luck Pillars.  Keeping the tone positive, the author also notes that with this system one can take advantage of good timing, as well as scale back expectations during less favorable time frames and focus on something else that is more practical. Some of the most successful and affluent people on the planet have used astrology to plan their advances and accept their retreat modes.

Lo piques our interest in Chinese Astrology when he summarizes how he has made predictions for the stock market. There is more than one approach: we can study the charts of those heavily invested in the market or world economy to track their personal streaks of luck or one could also look at the elemental relationships with certain industries, such as the stock market representative of the fire element.  Lo wrote articles for the Hong Kong Standard, with predictions about the Gulf War, Margaret Thatcher’s resignation and Mikhail Gorbachev’s fall from power. He also made a comment as to why we sometimes see a fall in the stock market in October.

As a segway from Four Pillars of Destiny to Feng Shui, the author refers to Chinese astrology as a “passive” metaphysical art, priming us for the more active resources we can utilize in Feng Shui.  Chinese Astrology gives us foreknowledge and the ability to work with fate and timing.  Feng Shui gives us the opportunity to maximize what we have in our physical surroundings, to enhance the positives and reduce the negatives.

Lo describes two main types of feng shui environment.  The physical environment is visual and palpable such as with mountains and buildings, even the lay-out of a floor plan. The more mysterious and abstract environment, which I always refer to as “unseen” or “non-obvious,” is derived from directional cues and an invisible magnetic field. He points out that in Beijing, the Forbidden City has many structures with sharp edges on the roof tops (fire) and the walls are literally painted red.   While not all Chinese palaces burn down, apparently a large number of fire disasters did occur within the city.

Consistent with timely and untimely stars in the Flying Star School, some eras would be more active than others for such events to transpire.  Master Lo then offers a brief introduction to Yin-Yang Theory, Five Element Theory, The Eight Trigrams, the concept of Time with the 9 Periods and the flow of the stars to create different Time Charts.

Since this book is dedicated to business and managers, later chapters highlight techniques for choosing a building and then an individual office space. Placing important staff members in key areas can also assist in the overall success plan. Colors, logos, and designs can also be “feng-shuied,” for better outcomes.

Master Lo points out that establishing the correct orientation for a building is essential; otherwise, an error at the beginning could render the entire feng shui analysis worthless.  This means not only determining the correct sitting and facing, but also the precise compass alignment. A building that faces east at 80 degrees is different from an east facing building at 90 degrees.  He also suggests (as not many authors do), that you should stand as far away from the building as possible when doing a compass reading.  This doesn’t mean blocks away, but sufficiently far enough from concrete mass and metal objects, as they can throw off the compass reading.

While other authors show illustrations of a practitioner taking a compass reading inside or right at the threshold of a doorway, the best protocol is to make sure you are not standing close enough to any object (including a parked car) which could make the compass reading waver.

I’m not sure why he gives a flying star chart example for a residence in a book about business, but I’ll add my own footnote here that the success of a business can also be influenced by the good or bad personal residential feng shui of the business owner. Where you sleep at night and spend your time away from the workplace will also have a cumulative effect on all your activities. That said, it has been a cultural practice in the past to only use feng shui for either home or business, but not for both.

Lo also mentions that a rough estimate of a floor plan sketch is usually not good enough, so new practitioners need to learn how to produce a to-scale floor plan. He also recommends a written report, for the benefit of the client to keep a record of the recommendations and for the practitioner to refresh their memory when dispensing continuing advice in the future.  In my own practice, I found out very quickly that written documentation is imperative for both consultant and client, although I have professional peers who insist that the client just take notes or record the meeting.  Not often found in a beginner’s book, Master Lo also provides a list in the Appendix with “17 vital steps needed to evaluate the feng shui of a house.” Here I created a separate article, commenting on his list.

In the chapter on choosing a prosperous office building, he compares the building with the individual space. He also illustrates points about the larger exterior environment by using the Hongkong Bank’s position in relation to both its natural and man-made setting. This speaks to a building’s deficiencies or enhancement by its proximity to surrounding buildings, real mountains, and in this example, Victoria Harbor as a real large body of water.

He references Period 7 (1984-2003) and Period 8 (2004-2023), so it should be understood that the impact of the internal flying star chart and as well, the exterior features, will change in their influence in each succeeding Period.  Lo also provides examples of “sha,” which can exert its negative energy onto buildings and occupants. This includes sharp corners from one building projecting toward another, curved roads, buildings of varying heights, or even the “lonely building,” which stands by itself without the company of other nearby buildings similar in size.

Not only can buildings influence each other, special buildings can also set the tone for a much larger area and impact a whole community. Examples given include: police station, religious facility, prison, hospital, funeral home or cemetery. Each is capable of producing its own “sha Qi.”

In his chapter on the Flying Stars, Master Lo emphasizes that you want to choose, if possible, a good building to begin with. This can only help a business prosper with that extra feng shui advantage.  Then he gets into smaller units of space, such as finding a good office within a building, and then in the lay-out of the individual office, to place the key important people in the most auspicious areas.  Those best areas are determined based on when the building was built and its compass alignment. This is the corroboration of time and direction.

He does make comments which are not taught by all feng shui teachers, such as the emphasis of seating an important person in the business near a window or in a windowed room on the facing side of the building. The open window can allow the timely Qi to enter the individual office.  The view of an expansive area is deemed “virtual water” to enhance the current “water star.”  What may be confusing to the reader is the general statement about being on the facing side of the building.  Along most facing sides you will have  potentially three different directions and only one of them is the actual facing sector.  This is the sector which receives the Qi for the facing water dragon. It may or may not be the timely star, depending on the current Period.

In another chapter, he provides a checklist of what to do for the analysis, but he does not explicitly explain that one needs to create a compass transparency in order to lay it over a floor plan and easily divide up the sectors.  He just writes, “find out, as accurately as possible, the direction of each side of the office and divide the circle (around the floor plan) into eight equal sectors.”  Firstly, one needs to do a compass reading outside the building; otherwise, the metal infrastructure may throw the compass reading off. Next, if you know the directions for exterior walls, you will know the directions for interior walls, assuming that the walls are parallel and perpendicular inside.  This is the case 99.9% of the time.

Here and there you will find an angled or curved wall, but not so much.  Further, the author is here describing the flying star chart, where dividing the floor plan into eight directional sectors is not good enough.  For this, one needs to know about the 24 sectors in order to choose the correct flying star chart.  In fact, in a later chapter he uses a North-1 facing Period 6 chart, but only describes it more generally as North facing.

In continuing to micro-manage an office, he notes that the boss should sit in the mountain  star location, facing the prosperous water direction. This is a little vague and I know from countless audits that this recommendation could place the boss with their back to the room’s door or at an awkward side angle.  Ultimately, any singular office has to be noted for some of the following:

• Best sectors within the room for the current Period
• Location of door and windows, mindful of Qi flow
• Best personal directions for sitting long periods
• How many occupants in one room need to be accommodated

These aspects may override the ability for the boss to sit in the location he describes.

Lo also recommends that the untimely water stars land in an enclosed area like a closet or bathroom and the untimely mountain stars placed in an open space.  This comes from a certain school of Feng Shui which deviates from strict Five Element Theory. I use this protocol when I can, but I also place real water or real earthen items in the interiors to address the untimely 5 star.

When someone only has a single room office to work with, I can understand micro-managing the room.  However, Lo also suggests dividing up your desk into eight directional zones and that is just too Black Hat for me to endorse and I was surprised to find that minutiae in his book.  Equally, he recommends people use colors in their work environment which support their personal Four Pillars chart (Chinese astrology).

This implies that the personal relationship one has with their surroundings is even more potent than the space itself, with the ability to affect a number of people similarly.  Even those who know nothing about Feng Shui can often concur that certain spaces or areas work for or against whoever occupies a certain office.  I don’t know anyone who has run a decades-long comparative test of what affects us the most: the space itself or our personal relationship with the space.

Master Lo emphasizes that if the original Feng Shui design is good, the structure can weather negative annual cycles, which I have seen with my own clients as well.  There is a typo on page 111 in my edition, where he gives an example of an annual chart for 1996, when there was an annual 4 star in the central palace.  He writes that it is a 6 star in the center. On the following page, he suggests using a metal wind chime to counter an annual 5 star in a room.  It should be added that many practitioners advise against placing a metal wind chime indoors and one has to be very careful when using them around a 5 star.  The metal wind chime itself is symbolic of 6 metal (Heaven) and if a 2 star is added to the mix, this  2-5-6 combination is a recipe for attracting a ghost.

Next, he refers to the “year star” related to planet Jupiter. This can be confusing to a beginner because he’s just written about the feng shui annual stars and immediately transitions into a different set of stars based on the Chinese zodiac system. Here he calls the Tai Sui (Grand Duke) a “year” star (but should not be confused with a feng shui annual star). Fortunately, he provides more information in the Appendix, where readers can eventually realize this is separate cycle from feng shui annual stars, which can also be superimposed over the floor plan.  (Feng Shui annual stars repeat every 9 years, whereas Annual Chinese Astrology cycles repeat every 12 years).

Master Lo is a highly regarded Chinese astrologer and for the topic of auspicious dates for a business, he writes that you can use Date Selection for the commencement date of an organization and not just a person.  You can also take note of the Month Branch (animal sign) for any given month and then take care to avoid scheduling something important on a day where the Day element clashes with the Month’s element.  You can even consider the hour of the day. For example, if it is a Wood Day, you can avoid setting up a meeting during a Metal hour (such as between 5-7 p.m.)

Combining astrology with Feng Shui, you may also select a good day (element) which supports a building type based on its sitting position.  For instance, a building which sits East (Wood) can be supported with a grand Opening on a Water Day (Water nurtures Wood).  Some of these techniques which the author provides are easy to understand and apply, without having to become a serious student of Chinese Astrology.  If you understand Five Element Theory and have a calendar to work with, you are good-to-go.

Lo also provides some counter-measures for Date Selection when the Feng Shui is not ideal. One example he gives is a west-facing building which is blocked by other buildings on the west side.  (West=Metal). Here you can support the undermined west side by choosing an opening ceremony on an Earth Day. (Earth nurtures Metal). Although he does not articulate this, it is definitely implied that for any project or business, the START date can set the tone for success or failure.

In the final section of the book, Master Lo introduces readers to the I-Ching, Book of Changes. This ancient oracle, where trigrams are joined to create hexagrams, almost like branch and stem pillars. Responses from the I-Ching can give the business person an edge when used to ask questions which cannot be answered through Chinese astrology or feng shui findings.

Whether it is a question about the prospects of partnering with a certain person or company, or the ideal Grand Opening Date, the I-Ching can be summoned to help bring clarity or problem-solve.  The I-Ching protocols and interpretations do vary.  The most well-known way to create a hexagram is through tossing coins, building the yin (broken line) and yang (solid line) from the bottom to the top. Historically, yarrow sticks were also used. And in some cases, one can derive a hexagram based on the timing of the question.

Ways to interpret the I-Ching hexagram are even more subjective and varied, keeping in mind that the 64 possible hexagram readings were inspired thousands of years ago.  With changing lines, people often get a “part 2” answer, spawning even more individuality to the reading.  Even the updated and expanded definitions by Confucius were from hundreds of years ago.   If you were to ask the I-Ching how much you should let A.I. run your company, I have no idea what kind of answer you would get, but there are certainly modern-day adaptations and interpretations.

The author puts forth one way in which the 6 lines are interpreted, based on what element each line represents and in relation to the element of the person asking the question. He writes that this is a method used by professional fortune tellers. He also mentions that it is important to consider the season (winter, spring, summer, autumn) when the question has been asked. Lo explains through Five Element Theory how the hexagrams can reveal your answer. This eliminates, or at least enhances, the prospect of having to interpret the poetry and mystery of the I-Ching descriptions, such as: “The Gentle. Success through what is small. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers one to see the great man,” or other Nostradamus-like symbolism.

(Photo of Master Lo and Kartar Diamond, 2001).

In Feng Shui & Destiny for Managers: The Indispensable Guide for Every Businessman, Lo presents a thoughtful closing chapter regarding how much of our destiny is pre-determined. He writes that the Chinese emperors relied on metaphysical systems, such as the I-Ching, for important policy decisions, going back as far as 4,000 B.C. In modern times, billionaires and entrepreneurs also incorporate feng shui and Four Pillars of Destiny into whatever other forms of business and risk-taking analysis their companies rely on, with their counter-parts coming full circle as Westerners familiarize themselves with Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, martial arts, and ancient eastern styles of management (including Sun Tzu’s  The Art of War).

Master Raymond Lo succeeds in presenting a nice introduction to one facet of Feng Shui, Chinese Astrology, and  I-Ching analysis: focused on the benefit of business owners. Readers can appreciate the almost mathematical correlations between the three techniques. His delivery steers clear of Chinese folk beliefs, which could otherwise make these metaphysical art forms unappealing to some Western business mindsets. This book also compliments Dr. Stephen Chang’s book, The Integral Management of Tao, Complete Achievement.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Book Review Blog Series

The post Feng Shui and Destiny for Managers by Raymond Lo appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

What inspired this article was a client who told me that when his house was supposedly in a Locked Phase, he and his family did fine and they didn’t seem to be affected by it at all. This was part of a larger discussion about whether or not his house has a different flying star chart than what was presented to him.

It is true that we have to juggle a multitude of influences and it is not always obvious what makes things happen or not happen in our lives, not the least of which is personal destiny. This can override your physical environment.

What is a Locked Phase?  It is a period of time, a cycle that every single house on the planet must go through at some time or another.  This cycle is not good. The People Lock can inhibit or undermine good health and relationships.  The Money Lock can reduce income potential.  The complete cycle of a house lasts for 180 years and then it repeats perpetually. During that 180 year time frame, there will be a 20 year Money Lock and a 20 year People Lock. They are usually not consecutive Periods, but it does happen to some houses.

There is another Locked Period which is much more tolerable and that is the one year People Lock and a one year Money Lock. They each repeat every nine years. In other articles about the Locked Phase, I have stated that the best way to reduce or eliminate the influences of a Locked Phase, is with the sight and sound of circulating water for the interiors and exteriors.

There are other ways to release the lock, although the water solution may be the best. In the floor plan provided here, there is an open, unobstructed path from the front door to the geometric center of the house.  This is “virtual water” and this kind of floor plan does not experience the worst of the locked phase.  But wait, there’s more!

Back to the discussion with the client, I pointed out to him that even though his home was in a one Year Money Lock (that he didn’t notice), it’s probable that he escaped the full force of it because in that same year, he had very lucky annual energy in two important areas of his home: the entrance and the bedroom.  I had the same experience myself, living in a previous home for 19 years.  During that time, I went through 2 Money Lock phases, each nine years apart. I also did fine during those Locked Phase years.  Of course, I had the luxury of a pool, a large outside fountain and several indoor fountains to help release the lock.  But I also had a fortunate floor plan, which made it possible for me to have the best annual stars in my bedroom, entrance and home office each time a Money Lock occurred.

This article provides a sample floor plan which can serve this house and its occupants well during any annual locked phase.  For those familiar with the flow of feng shui flying stars, let’s first consider an annual 3 year, when this floor plan would be in a one year People Lock. When you fly the annual stars, this house ends up having an annual 8 at the front door, and an annual 9 in the master bedroom.  Back in Period 8 when this house was built, the best wealth star was the 8 star and the future luck star was 9.  Pretty good then, and pretty good now in Period 9!

Next, we can consider when this house is in a one year Money Lock, evident with the center star 4 in the “water dragon” position.  Fly the annual stars for that year, and you have an even better scenario. There is an annual 9 star at the front door in the North, annual 1 star in the SW master bedroom, and even a pretty good annual 6 star at the side kitchen entrance. These are all stars related to wealth luck and power.

I could have created a whole variety of floor plans to illustrate this point, even a better version of the one given here, which could have included a home office in the south 8-8 stars instead of the southeast.   The takeaway here is that some folks will not experience the worst-case scenario with annual locked phases (or even monthly locked phases) because their floor plan caters to the best possible arrangement for annual influences at the very same time.

I should add this to my testing materials for interns, to show how important it is to factor in this detail in the design phase, when a practitioner is promising to deliver the best possible, built-in feng shui solutions for their client.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Architecture and Design Blog Series

The post Another Way to Beat the Feng Shui Locked Phase by Kartar Diamond appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

The sample floor plan to the right is a colorized option from CUBI CASA.  And for a fee they can do one with your furniture placement, 3-D Doll House version. A black and white version is FREE.

to be honest, my little instructional file has been mostly outdated by Floor Plan Apps, one of which is CUBI CASA.  I recommend it to:

• All long distance clients, who do not already have a to-scale rendering
• Those doing property searches, for purchase or lease
• Local clients willing to provide me with a floor plan to save on time

Now, if you are looking to rent or buy, the seller or landlord may or may not mind you whipping out your cell phone to record the rooms before you own or rent the place.  They may have security concerns, but you can always ask permission.  Once you have recorded each room in succession, you upload it to the Floor Plan App and they send you the floor plan in 24 hours or less.  This is incredibly helpful when trying to assist people as they house hunt. Without a floor plan, it seriously limits what I can tell a client about the feng shui features to a prospective property. And the floor plan needs to be accurate,  (appraiser’s drawings are not good enough), nor just a doodle by the client.

The hand drawn example below in this article shows an attempt to make a floor plan sketch, but obviously not drawn to scale (with an oversized kitchen compared to other rooms) and no details for built-ins, counters or fixtures for the bathroom and other rooms.

I don’t use the App myself because when I arrive in person, I work quickly to produce a to-scale sketch and it saves me from having to make two trips to the property. This is something that many feng shui professionals prefer to do. And this makes my file How To Draw a Floor Plan Sketch still relevant for those who want to continue to draw a good sketch by hand.  However, I think that all realtors and others in the industry should use something like CUBI CASA.  Whether you have an Android or  I-Phone, it may determine which kind of App you can access.

Having a to-scale drawing of a home or business is also vital for space planning and furniture placement.  I knew before I went house hunting the last time what the minimum dimensions needed to be for me to fit my furniture in a bedroom, home office, and other rooms in a house. I saw some charming places, but passed on them when I figured out they were too small.

Not everyone is spatially orientated. I have a few clients who do not even recognize their own home when they look down at their floor plan.  Some folks are seriously handicapped when it comes to measuring and drawing on graph paper.  At the risk of sounding like an “influencer” with an affiliate link (I do not), I can endorse these Floor Plan Apps whole-heartedly, as a way to make your feng shui analysis even more accurate.

If I have worked with you already and you provided a hand-drawn floor plan that may not be as accurate as it could be, send me an updated version using a Floor Plan App and I will be happy to use the better version for all future updates.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Architecture & Design Blog Series

The post Feng Shui Tools for an Accurate Floor Plan by Kartar Diamond appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

An article by Kartar Diamond

In Master Lo’s 1996 book, Feng Shui & Destiny for Managers, his Appendix includes a 17-point list for essential steps in evaluating the feng shui of a house. While I agree with most of the list and its order, I thought it would be fun to comment on each of the points and elaborate where needed. His List is below in blue font with my comments in black.

1. Determine the front and back of the building by inspecting its outlook and surroundings. It is true that you need to establish the correct orientation of a house or building first and then you calculate a correct flying star chart with which to also interpret the exteriors.  For example, let’s say there is a pool on the sitting side of the house, but you interpret that as the facing side. The influence of the pool will be seen as quite different. The interiors will also have a different  interpretation.
2. Measure the front direction with the Lo Pan. The lo pan (also written luo pan) is the Chinese Feng Shui compass, the tool of the trade. You can measure the front direction or the back (sitting) direction, or both.  You just have to confirm that the front and back are parallel, which is the case most of the time.  However, if the front and back walls are not parallel, you must use the sitting side as your reference point for the correct flying star chart to use. This also has to be one of the first things you do, even before entering the premises.
3. Find out the Age of the Building. Structures are built within distinct 20-year Construction Periods. This is important data needed to create a flying star chart. A sub-section of this point is to find out if a house has been moved from its original construction location or the timing and scope of any remodels and additions.
4. Draw up the relevant Flying Star Chart. Although not common, there are some homes that have more than one flying star chart, if certain types of additions are made. The most relevant chart is based on year built and compass alignment. However, there are some schools of Feng Shui which factor in the Date of Occupancy or the current Period we are living in.
5. Determine the prosperity of the building by comparing the physical surroundings with the chart. See if the mountain and water fit in well with the prosperous mountain stars and water stars. A house and its flying star chart can reveal its potential for supporting the occupants with prosperity or conversely to undermine their financial luck. The exterior physical surroundings may enhance or detract from the house type. References to “mountain” and “water” can be either literal or metaphorical.  For instance, a river is real water. A street and its traffic flow is considered “virtual” water. Outside features influence the interior features.
6. Inspect the unit inside the building and sketch a floor plan. In Master Lo’s book and in his Appendix List, he goes back and forth between what you need to do with either a commercial or residential building. Whether it is an office space within a larger commercial building, or an apartment within a residential building, you do an on-site “inspection” that includes measuring and drawing a floor plan. Sometimes the occupant provides a to-scale floor plan and nowadays there are Floor Plan Apps to assist. It is also possible to do remote evaluations, thanks to the Internet.
7. Apply the Flying Star Chart to the floor plan to see where the prosperous mountain stars and water stars of 7 and 8 affect the unit. Are the mountain stars placed on mountains (bedrooms)? Are the water stars placed in water (the living room, entrance, open spaces)? With the flying star chart calculations, you can grid out the directional zones with the accurate floor plan. The prosperous mountain and water stars depend on the Period we live in.  Lo wrote his book for Periods 7 and 8. The most current Period 9 is 2024 through 2043.  Whichever rooms have the current “wang” prosperous 9 star will benefit the most in Period 9.  The influence of a room also depends on the activity that takes place there. Mountain stars are more influential in sleeping rooms and Water stars are more active in “awake” rooms. This is just the first layer in evaluating a flying star chart as each directional zone could matter.
8. Where are the bad stars 2 and 5? Are they in vital positions such as bedrooms and entrances or are they in unimportant places such as toilets and storerooms? You can perform an evaluation from more than one perspective. You could first search for the “bad” stars to see if their location matters. Or you could start with evaluating the important rooms and see which “stars” land in the most consequential areas, like a bedroom or home office. We all use short-cuts to describe certain terms or concepts, but there really are no “bad” stars.  We usually call them “untimely” when they are not in a good phase.  Since Period 9 started in 2024, the 2 star has been reborn and is now in a positive phase until 2084.  The 5 star, however, remains a bad boy until the next century! Wherever this 5 star lands in a house, it can trigger arguments, pain, accidents or delays.
9. Are there any physical drawbacks in the flat, such as sharp edges, dark corners or long and straight passageways. This part of the evaluation relies on principles from Form School and Qi Flow. It has nothing to do with when the house was built or its compass alignment. This is an important layer to consider as violations in good Qi Flow can undermine health, relationships and financial matters.
10. What are the external circumstances of the flat? Are the good mountain stars (of 7 and 8) supported by outside buildings? Are the water stars 7 and 8 supported by water or open spaces? While the internal space is important, so are the exteriors, which we often have even less control over. Good mountain stars support good health and relationships. Good water stars support financial luck and career opportunities. “Stars” are the word used to describe the numerical coding for the energy field in each directional sector of a floor plan. There are techniques for enhancing the “timely” stars, often with Five Element Theory. Additionally, a star that is next in line to reign supreme is also timely and worth paying attention to. In the current Period 9, we also take note of the 1 star, just as the 8 star was up-and-coming during Period 7.  During any U.S. presidency, people pay attention to the Vice President for similar reasons!  The good stars can be supported both internally and externally, space permitting.
11. Are there any unique objects outside the window? (Physical shars). The word “shar” is the same as “sha.” Sha can be deemed anything which is negative, harmful, undermining, in a state of disrepair, etc.  By mentioning a window, Master Lo acknowledges that windows are more porous than walls. The Qi from the outside can enter the inside through doors and windows, even easier than through a solid wall.  Additionally, what we see with our eyes can have an impact, for good or for bad.  When a house is in a Locked Phase for example, one must be able to see water from numerous vantage points within the house.  This releases the stagnation of the Locked Phase.  If we see something negative outside, that alone can weaken us. And when we factor in the direction, it can have an even more predictable impact.  For example, a bad view to the west might affect our teeth or breasts.  A bad view to the east might affect our feet or liver.
12. Can any arrangements be done? (From moving a bed to completely revising the interior design with changed partitions). Often, there are significant limitations to how much the lay-out can change. And yet, when there is a way to optimize the use of a space, a practitioner will suggest it. Changes can be made to improve Qi Flow, to occupy more timely stars, or to suit the personal best directions of the occupant.
13. What are the current yearly and monthly influences at the front door and in the master bedroom? A flying star practitioner not only evaluates the permanent energy based on year built and compass alignment, but also changing cycles, such as annual or monthly stars. This helps pinpoint the more likely time frame for things to happen and it can provide further guidance. For example, it might not be an easy year to get pregnant, but the occupant may learn of certain monthly cycles that are more opportune than others for trying.
14. Suggest objects to dissolve bad influences. “Objects” can serve a number of different purposes. For example, if a front door is aligned directly with a back door, then a partition screen or live plant, or an entry table can be an “object” which re-directs the Qi flow (of air currents.) Another type of object could be based in Five Element Theory. For example, if a room lacks the fire element, a large red décor item could be added. If the room needs metal, functional or decorative metal objects could be added. Objects which represent water, wood, fire, earth or metal can “dissolve” or reduce the power of a “bad” star.
15. Measure the accurate dimensions of a flat. This step seems out of place, so far down the list. It is redundant to tip #6 with regards to creating a floor plan sketch. However, it can’t be emphasized enough that only with an accurate floor plan, will your placement of “objects” be useful.
16. Miscellaneous—any special history or happenings? Advise color tones and special decorative objects. Often discussed at the beginning of a consultation, or even before the consultation, a practitioner will inquire about the occupants’ history with their living or workspace. Understanding what has happened in the past can be an indicator of what may transpire in the future, unless counter remedies are applied.  Discussing the past also helps to validate that the correct flying star chart has been selected. Colors can be related to the real Elements, such as blue color being a weak form of water or yellow being a weak representation of the earth element. Some practitioners stylize color in the interior decor as a way to harmonize the space with its function and/or with empowering colors for the individual based on birth data. Some decorative objects are also based on the occupants’ birth data, such as the Peach Blossom Romance Remedy.
17. Draw up the floor plan in scale, confirm the directions and Flying Star influences and then make a full report. This is partially redundant to Steps #2 and #4. Providing a report is a nice professional touch, but not essential for the actual evaluation. However, for new practitioners, the written report (using a formatted template) can serve as a reminder, to make sure that important parts of the evaluation have not been overlooked.

Would I add anything else? Yes, I routinely include in my consultations anything specifically relevant to the client’s needs or concerns.  I also forewarn each client about the yearly Construction Sha directions, should they plan to do any remodeling or even just to be aware of what their neighbors might be doing, which could impact my client.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Feng Shui Frequent Client Questions Blog Series

The post 17 Steps to Evaluate a House from Raymond Lo appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

It’s almost a cliché in the Feng Shui world, to speak about “balancing one’s environment,” in order to achieve good Feng Shui. And from that, people are more likely to prosper, experience good health and more satisfying relationships.  But could the word “environment” be confusing in this context?

One definition of “environmentalism” revolves around concerns and actions to literally protect the environment. Whether it is “ecology” or climate change awareness, we can only loosely associate the practice of Feng Shui with being in harmony with nature, shunning pollution and preserving the physical environment. That would be a Taoist perspective, which can surely spill into the mechanics of Feng Shui.

For example, it would be insanely hypocritical to discover that a feng shui master in your town owned a business that was dumping chemicals into the local river.  And yet, an “environmentalist” is not a feng shui practitioner. Rather, an environmentalist is someone who lives by principles which support a pristine, healthy environment and that can include protecting wildlife and the ability to thrive in their natural habitat.

Another definition of environmentalism is a theory that our natural surroundings have just as much of an impact on us, as features like heredity. This rings true to the philosophy of Feng Shui, where five major aspects determine a lot about who we are as human beings. Destiny, luck, education and spiritual efforts play a role in how well or how poorly we function in each incarnation.  But 20% of the influences also come from the environment.

Still, we need to drill down further because we are not just alluding to the obvious and palpable features to our environment, be they degraded or preserved. We can say generally that if someone lives in a polluted area, their health and mind-set will suffer. We can also say that an environment may look and feel good initially, but there can still be subtle aspects which undermine a person or even a whole community over longer periods of time.

We can also consider the interior environment. That has been the focus of many modern-day feng shui consultants.  Most of us live in a built city, where we have little to no control over our exterior surroundings.  We then have to counter-balance the environment, prioritize what we can change or manage within interior spaces.

In a feng shui context, “balancing one’s environment” refers to many things, and much of it on a more esoteric level.  We strive to balance yin and yang energy and sometimes there is an overlap between what is part of a metaphysical practice versus common sense. For instance, if you have diseased trees dying on your property: that is not in harmony with “environmentalism,” nor is it good feng shui. That can have an impact on the neighboring landscape and eco-system, but also influence you directly in a personal way.

In contrast, you may need to balance your most immediate personal living space, which might not have any consequences at all on the larger environment.  To give an example: if your home is excessively dark inside, making you depressed, that will not harm the immediate outside space.

One type of environmentalism can encourage and support another type. But for the most conventional domain of feng shui, we introduce elements and features to our living spaces which are not directly associated with the most frequently understood definitions of environmentalism. If your bedroom needs the “fire element” to be balanced, that has nothing to do with the aerosol geoengineering going on in the sky overhead. If nothing else, we could distinguish those comparisons and categorize feng shui into its own sub-section of “micro” environmentalism (personal energy reduction and recycling) versus large scale environmental projects.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series

The post Feng Shui and Environmentalism by Kartar Diamond appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

Book Review by Kartar Diamond

Master Gahle’s book starts out with glowing endorsements by two very influential teachers who traveled the globe in the late 20^th century, one being Master Raymond Lo. He gained so much popularity decades ago that in Hong Kong he was referred to as “Mr. Feng Shui.”  The other endorsement came from the now late Grand Master Yep Chang Hai, who also noted Atherton’s exceptional diligence as a student, and hence became a renown practitioner in her own right.  Keep in mind that even though Feng Shui now appears to be dominated by female personalities, originally it was almost exclusively a man’s profession, and not openly accessible to non-Asians.

In the beginning chapters, Atherton lays out the definition of Feng Shui in both nuance and sophistication that you won’t find in many other books for the general public. It’s refreshing to see how she outlines the five major components that Chinese philosophy espouses as the main influences in our lives (Destiny, Luck, Feng Shui, Virtue, and Knowledge), and even why those influences have a certain order. Atherton highlights several schools and approaches to Feng Shui, and the different uses, such as for existing buildings compared to new construction, and the personal subjective aspect for who is using the space.

With Atherton’s expansive and detailed account of what Feng Shui really is and how it fits into our spiritual existence, we gain a welcome understanding of how complex the subject is in just the first few chapters. What followed after her book was published, was a flurry of other authors trying to capitalize on Feng Shui as a trend, focused more on how to use it just for making money, attracting romance and reduced in many cases to a form of pseudo-spiritual interior decorating.  If any of these authors had read Master Gahle’s book first, they may have taken a few extra years to study feng shui more deeply before coming out with their own.

When Master Gahle describes the manifestations of ch’i (Qi) as life force energy, she breaks down three all-encompassing types of Qi which others refer to as components of Heaven Luck, Man Luck, and Earth Luck. In her description of Man Luck as personal life force energy, she distinguishes further between “personal ch’i” (for the physical body) and “atmospheric ch’i” for the soul.  Ch’i of different types are all interdependent and further described in Yin or Yang attributes as well as some ratio of the Five “agents” (aka Elements).

With the heavenly qi, earthly qi and personal qi, it dawned on me while reading that each type of qi records and archives its influence.  For example, in many esoteric systems, there is a cosmic repository which Eastern paths call the Akashic Records, where all events from our perceived past, present and future are recorded. This is Heavenly qi.   Atherton also sites the heavenly qi exposed through weather, climate and other forces of nature.

Earthly qi records, such as land, rock and water harboring positive or negative energy (a memory) from events or circumstances. In many cultures there is an understanding that people who live on land with a negative past, or on a former burial ground, will encounter misfortune.  Land can be cursed or blessed.  There are so many manifestations of earthly qi keeping a record, including the rings in a tree trunk, the carbon dating of an ancient artifact, and too many other examples to list here.

The personal qi also keeps a record on the cellular level as well as the soul level, including the aura. Atherton explains how the seen and unseen energies work together in a feng shui context. This is actually a big deal because so many feng shui authors only discuss the “seen” energies. The “unseen” energies must be calculated.

Even the most skeptical person would agree that our five senses are limited (or presently under-developed) in their scope.  A growing plant makes a sound we can’t hear, but insects can.  We can’t see radiation, but other animals can see and feel it. Each participant in life, the five kingdoms of living things, is equipped with what they need physically or intellectually to survive.  Atherton illustrates for us, as we venture through life, there are times when we become more yang or more yin, to meet the environment or what stage of life we are in.

When the words “Feng Shui” are translated as “wind water,” this is an abbreviation of Master Guo Po’s full quote that “energy dissipated by the wind, stops at the boundary of water.”  Atherton then gives many examples of this in both our natural and man-made environment. When Feng Shui knowledge shows us “the perfect arrangement,” the surroundings will be conducive to the right amount of Qi flow. The essence of the Form School or Landscape School is to utilize or manipulate the environment so that the right amount of Qi is dissipated (not too much or too little) and so that the right amount of Qi is collected or “stopped.”  (Not too much, nor too little).  We don’t want the environment to be too yin or too yang, for its intended purpose.

Master Gahle demonstrates eloquently how Feng Shui knowledge can open our eyes and all our senses, literally heightening our consciousness. And just when you start to think the principles may be too “woo woo,” she quotes molecular biologist Harvey Bialy, who wrote: “The mathematical structure of the human DNA molecule was strictly analogous to the structure of the most revered text of ancient Chinese wisdom- The I-Ching.”

Most instructors will teach the Four Celestial Animals in the context of ideal natural (mountain) or man-made formations to protect a property. Atherton introduces the 5^th Celestial “Guadian” in the center, the Snake, whose official duties are to dictate to the other animals, so they can communicate with each other. This is similar to the 5 Yellow Emperor in the center of the Luo Shu, over-seeing all the directions.  As I write this, I’m having images of the Merkabah holographically laid over the Luo Shu. It is helpful to imagine certain feng shui concepts as multi-dimensional.

With the principle of a mountain for “backing” and protection, we can better understand the modern-day structure and the environmental impact on it, especially since so relatively few people get to enjoy living nestled in a mountain range.  Here Atherton offers practical landscape solutions for what may be lacking.

Where each Feng Shui concept has both “macro” and “micro” applications, the human body also has a “sitting” and “facing” side.  This is why we prefer to sit with our back to a solid wall, facing a view, mimicking the ideal house position. Atherton notes from Chinese acupuncture that the main meridian points for personal life force energy are aligned along the spine. This is just one more reason why sitting all day backed up to a window or open space can be so draining, compared to the support provided by a solid wall. So often, what initially appears to be a superstition or folk remedy will be validated by science or some provable theory.

In the middle of the book, chapters for every room in the house and many architectural features are discussed in a comprehensive way. For instance, just the chapter on stairs covers not only the infamous staircase aligned with a front door, but also the influence of multiple staircases in one house and their varying shapes.  Most authors focus on how a person may be in a poor alignment with a door, a window or a house aligned with a street. Atherton takes it further with examples of how aspects in our environment compete with each other, forcing one of two nearby influences to become more yin or yang as the stronger feature will usurp most of the qi.

As one example, if a multi-use building has both commercial and residential together, the commercial part of the building will hog the qi and the person living on the premises needs to adjust their space to help harness more qi for themselves.  Exterior doors which face each other across a street will also compete for qi traveling down the street if the juxtaposed houses have their front doors directly aligned.

Master Gahle provides many solutions, after describing a feng shui design or landscaping flaw. She also gets into more specifics than other authors, such as noting that a front door can be influenced by anything within a 45-degree range of the door. She also refers frequently to the “unseen” energies. It should be understood that she is alluding to the flying stars. This is a meaningful disclaimer to any advice given because the flying stars are powerful forces and could change the recommendations partially or completely when factored in. The flying star chart for any building is the magnetic field created inside, uniquely based on year of construction and compass orientation.

In the chapter on how to interpret and treat the front door, she also introduces the option to use a mirror, (to draw in or deflect), according to what is needed.  She mentions the concave mirror, convex mirror, and the popular octagonal Ba’ gua mirror.  This came as a surprise to me, re-reading the book 25 years later. Those familiar with my work know that I had dismissed the Ba’ gua mirror as a Chinese folk remedy and it is not a part of my own professional repertoire.

Master Gahle even mentions the use of statuary for some circumstances, such as protective lions at an entrance.  I could ponder, “For whose benefit?” when it comes to images like the lions. Is this to make the homeowner feel safer or is it meant to psychologically disarm the stranger approaching the door? Does the statuary carry its own magical energy or is this a justified placebo?

I will have to ask Master Gahle about her experiences with folk remedies and perhaps I’ll add a postscript to this review. As the years have passed and I have become more open-minded and less judgmental, I’ve also lightened up regarding all the talismanic applications used in Feng Shui, (even dabbling in the crafting of sigils myself).

Atherton leaves no stone unturned in detailing the many exterior influences which produce “sha qi,” as well as chapters dedicated to the interiors, covering each room in the house. One interesting observation is the home where the foot of each family member’s bed points away from the other beds, like a family where each person has their arms folded and back turned away from the others. She concludes this as a signal that family members will not get along.

She also recommends that exposed beams be painted pink as that is a weak form of the fire element.  Since the beam is almost always made of wood, it’s a subtle way to drain the oppressive power from the beam, using Five Element Theory. She mentions the influence of loud wallpaper in a teenager’s bedroom and bookshelves over a bed. One of my favorites is her description of a “dragon toilet” in the bathroom chapter.

Another unusual section advises those who have a lot of antiques to have them cleansed with a flower essence potion. This is a space clearing technique, specific to antiques which can harbor the old energies of past owners.

Master Gahle also has a chapter called Heart of the Home, with insight into the influence of what we put in the literal center of our house. She starts with the premise that the center of the home is essentially earth energy. The types of décor and even the shape of a rug in a center hallway can have a permeating effect on the whole house.

Her section on streets and roads not only covers their influence on the house in relation to the street, such as parallel to the house or on a curved “knife’s edge,” she also shows the influence of seven houses on a block and which houses receive the most Qi from the road and which receive the least. She offers landscape suggestions to help capture more of the road qi when needed.

In numerous areas of the book, Master Gahle points out how a door can receive harmful influences, and recommends “tilting the door,” without elaborating on what that really means. In case you were to assume this is just some symbolic modification to the door, you would be wrong.  I happen to know that tilting the door is a relatively big commitment that few are willing to pursue. I’ve never suggested it, even though I learned about this in the 1990’s from the late Master Yap Cheng Hai.  In fact, Master Yap was also famous for telling people to change the orientation of their stoves.

With regards to an entrance, literally angling the door in another direction can apparently fix many problems, but this is completely impossible for renters to undertake.  If one owns their own home, it brings up the awkward and expensive project of angling the door and that might not even be possible without also extending the area of the house where the door exists. In fact, some practitioners believe you can change the Period of your house by tilting the door.  An angled door means a new door frame and it would have to be done in such a way to not look weird or contribute to some other “sha qi“ because of this modification.

Going back to Master Yap’s instructions to tilt a stove, he maintained that the cook needs to stand in their good direction and the knobs for the burners need to face a certain direction as well. In some cases, it would dictate that the stove be pulled out of its spot flush within the counter and angled differently.  Who is going to do that?  (Talk about poison arrows!)

Perhaps a wealthy person who wanted to remodel their kitchen anyway, but certainly not 99% of my clients. This is one reason why I lost interest in studying with Master Yap any further. With Atherton, she provides practical and affordable solutions. She mentions the door tilt, knowing that her readers understand Feng Shui on a wide range of levels.

(Photo of Kartar with Master Yap Cheng Hai and Joey Yap, 1999).

Just as a postscript regarding the late Master Yap Cheng Hai: He was quite a character, compelling people to take his words and recommendations very seriously, often speaking about one of his areas of expertise, which was in creating “Water Dragons” for his clients.  Water Dragons in this regard are the creation of artificial streams around a property.  The entrance point, meandering path, pooling location of the water and the exit point can be manipulated in such a way to bring great fortune to the homeowner.  Master Yap would say in class that he “turned millionaires into billionaires” using the Water Dragon formulas.  Unfortunately, he charged a huge fee for this information (think down payment on a house), making it unavailable to most.  In one of his classes, he wanted to demonstrate the power of Qi.  I was standing at the back of the room, filled with more than fifty students.  He moved his hands like a Tai Chi master and when directed toward the back of the room, I actually felt a big push against my chest. Very memorable!

Coming in for the home stretch, the author continues to get into more detail than most, explaining the type of poison arrow known as a secret arrow, as well as distinguishing different types and situations, such as: “water cutting the feet,” “lonely buildings,” “baby buildings,” and issues with flat top and mirrored buildings.

Atherton gives us a more nuanced description of the BTB “cures” and those measures aiming to balance yin-yang deficiencies with sections on sound, light, color, living objects, moving objects and heavy objects.  While probably not her intention, Atherton’s description of the “law of heaven,” implies for me personally that we might very well be living in a simulation, or at least some truth in that “perception is reality.”

So often, the person new to Feng Shui assumes that placing water anywhere will have a good effect, but Master Gahle cautions, “water is such an unknown quantity that the ancient Chinese classics on water placement described water as ‘abysmal,’ the bottomless, the hidden, the underground, that which is hidden beneath the surface. Water has the power to heal, to absorb negative influences, to stimulate and magnify influences, to reflect, to activate, consume and finally, drown.” She offers ways to test for water placement, in lieu of having a professional’s determination, if you are not yet at that place where you can hire an expert.

Master Gahle gives color advice, room by room, based on the function of the space and its inherent yin or yang qualities. This is a departure from what some consultants do; some will advise based on the signature trigram energy (element) for each direction and others will make color recommendations based on the flying stars. There is more than one approach to color and an awareness of all these levels is the best guide. Ultimately, Atherton reminds us that everything is some frequency of light and light manifests as color in this regard.

In the closing chapters, Atherton explains in detail the Predecessor Law, a result of the Predisposition Law.  If mentioned at all, other authors may sum up the Predecessor Law as the reality that a house can impose its energy similarly on a series of occupants. In my first book, Feng Shui for Skeptics, I used an example of what I termed “The Divorce House,” to describe the innate energies of a house being capable of creating the same or similar events on various occupants for decades.  Master Gahle takes it further with a comparison in family genealogy, where ancestors share personality traits, constitutional health and career choices.   She also shares her knowledge of Chinese astrology and how complementary it is in a Feng Shui audit.  When we understand a person’s current phase in their life chart and their long-term birth influences, we can better gauge priorities in the feng shui assessment.

The “unseen” influences are the flying stars, a different type of “feng shui astrology,” and the calculations start with the Period in which the structure has been built. This harkens back to the I-Ching which provides a deeper, expanded meaning behind the trigrams.

Atherton mentions that the influence of each Period actually begins a good 20 years before it officially reigns. A complete cycle of the 9 Periods lasts for 180 years.  When only 20 years away from taking the throne, the near future Period can be felt.  For example, the last Period 6 was from 1964 to 1984, but the energy of Period 6 was running as a background program during Period 5.  She sites the global influences of the Period stars, which is really amazing to reflect on with so much historical validation.

With the frequent references to “unseen” influences, it might be assumed that one needs to use their intuition to comprehend such ethereal forces.  And yet, that is not necessary or even desirable.  There are so many mechanical and teachable theories, that one does not need to rely on intuition to correctly assess a living space.  In the final pages, Master Gahle further distinguishes between intuition and instinct. Intuition may evolve from the mind, but instinct is a more primal bodily response, such as when the hair on the back of your neck stands on end, alerting you of danger.  Both intuition and instinct complement their usefulness in sensing the good or bad feng shui. With training and wisdom, feng shui allows us to meet or even exceed our goals and aspirations.

Studying with an experienced teacher and practitioner is best; and yet if you have no choice but to learn feng shui only through books, you only need a few of the great ones and Atherton’s book is on that short list. And in case you think you might be having a Mandela Effect Moment, Master Atherton later changed the spelling of her first name to “Gayle,” after her book was published as “Gahle.”

Author:  Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Feng Shui Book Review Series

The post Feng Shui The Perfect Arrangement, Simple Secrets Unveiled by Master Gahle Atherton appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.

Almost no one has heard of Nine Star Ki, even in my circles, especially if we compare it to how mainstream Feng Shui has become over the last few decades. People who know very little about Feng Shui have some inkling about how a fortunate interior arrangement or design can benefit the occupant.  But when it comes to Nine Star Ki: crickets.

My own mentor has ruminated that there might be just a handful of practitioners on the planet who are using Nine Star Ki analysis at a high level which no conventionally published author has written about.  And yet, we do see Nine Star Ki practitioners on the internet with varying ranges of knowledge.

What version of Nine Star Ki are they teaching?  We know about some who understand certain baseline concepts and others who have mistakenly projected Feng Shui principles onto Nine Star Ki, partly because we track Annual and Monthly Stars in the same pattern of flow. But that is where the similarities end.

One morning, my mentor Heluo directed me to a Facebook page he came upon and for a minute I was very excited to discover another Nine Star Ki practitioner across the globe. Like stumbling upon a long lost relative, I couldn’t wait to see what this person was all about and reach out to them as kindred spirits practicing an almost lost Art.

Scrolling through his Facebook entries, it became immediately apparent he was blending Western Numerology with Nine Star Ki. How inventive, you say?  Well, we don’t do that.    Is this person a genius for uncovering something significant that no one else ever considered?  Is this just some marketing ploy or a way to ride on the Nine Star Ki bandwagon without really studying it?

I didn’t stick around long enough to figure out WHY he is doing this, but the HOW part was really stunning.   Let me elaborate: In the practice of Nine Star Ki, we track atmospheric and changing energies which impact people, potentially in all areas of their life.  Annual, monthly, and daily cycles can be calculated and the specific energy of the moment is given numerical coding.

With daily cycles as an example, the numbers (called stars) repeat in order perpetually with a “9” day star followed by an “8” star the next day, and a continuous descending order from the June Solstice to the December Solstice, such as 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,1 and starting over with 9.  From the December Solstice to the June Solstice, the pattern switches with the daily stars into an ascending order of 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. This alternating order of the daily stars is unique, compared to Annual and Monthly stars which always descend in order of the center star.

And when we refer to a “daily” star, it is the numerical coding we use to identify a “center” star, which is surrounded by eight non-literal directional “palaces” having their own pattern of related annual, monthly and daily stars.  It’s not numerology, but out of convenience and lack of a Western equivalent, I’ll excuse someone who makes the analogy.

And yet, what this so-called Nine Star Ki expert was espousing on his Facebook page, is a completely nonsensical association between the days on the western calendar with Nine Star Ki meaning.  For example, if it is the 24^th of the month, this person notes that 2 + 4 = 6 and therefore it is a 6 Metal Nine Star Ki day!  If it is the 31^st of the month, he adds 3 + 1=4 to label it a 4 Wood Star day.  But what happens when the next day is the 1^st of the month?

This person announces that, oh well, it’s a 1 Water star day: dismissing that the sequential order of the stars just got skipped over. This is cockamamie!  I know that in Western Numerology, the days of the month resolve to a single digit, but they have their distinct meaning, completely unrelated to Nine Star Ki.  Just as one example, this article was written on March 3, 2026.  According to this Facebook man, it is a 3 Wood Star day.  But in Nine Star Ki, it is actually a 1 Water Star day.

As a theoretical comparison, should we trust a Chinese astrologer who takes the 12 zodiac signs and arbitrarily assigns seven of the twelve signs to each day of the week and tosses out the other five signs?

Promoting this foundational misunderstanding, and abuse of the Nine Star Ki system, one cannot trust that he understands or applies anything else correctly, just as he erroneously refers to Nine Star Ki as “Eastern Numerology.”

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Nine Star Ki Blog Series

The post Nine Star Ki Misconceptions, Part 1 by Kartar Diamond appeared first on Feng Shui Solutions with Kartar Diamond.