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Feng Shui tips on what to look for in your present home/office or a new one if you are thinking about buying.

The below information is an extract taken from our October 2002 newsletter and provides valuable and often overlooked information on analysing your home or office. If you would like to join our monthly Feng Shui newsletter please click here.

We bought our first house 23 years ago, it was a two bedroom Victorian terrace in a lovely area by the canal, a dream come true we thought.

In our ignorance we paid the asking price and Michael moved in a few months later, (the idea was he would do all the decorating etc and I would come in and arrange the napkins, it didn’t quite work out like that though) from the day we moved in the problems began, health problems, bad luck and a serious drain of what little money we had.

The house was a mess, the previous occupants had serious debt problems and we found out later from the neighbours that their situation deteriorated from the day they moved in. We used to have bailiffs (debt collectors) knocking at the door at all hours looking for the previous owners and the web untangled from then onwards, legal, health, wealth you name it.

Feng Shui in the UK in those days was practically unheard off as was the Internet so finding information on this subject was very hard, because of Michael’s upbringing in Hong Kong he made enquiries about it and how it affected the house we lived in, we soon learnt that the flying star for this house was very bad and in general regardless of your Min Gua number most people would suffer who lived in it. That is until you change and control the energy, we had a dream house that was turning into a nightmare but within three months our fortunes had changed for the better just by using a few simple cures.

They were subtle cures placed in different parts of the house, I remember my Mother becoming very worried that I had joined a cult, many people still think that Feng Shui is a religion, as you are probably aware it has nothing to do with religion or any ceremonies at all. She soon realised that I was on the right path and today my Mother uses Feng Shui in every part of her life.

The most powerful cures were pretty much the same as our 2002 cures kit on our site together with a salt water cure, which you have all heard of, in my recent newsletters. These cures are used for the 5 yellow and 2 black stars, 5 being the worst causing bad luck, sickness etc. After using them our luck seemed to change very quick. Now remember 23 years ago Feng Shui was virtually unheard off to the public and explaining why we had six Chinese coins hanging in the window, wind chime in another and a bowl of salt in another part of the house was a topic under much discussion with our neighbours. I remember having to wait about 4 weeks for the coins to arrive from Hong Kong, now I have thousands of them.

Cutting a long story very short I thought it would be a good idea of things that you should look out for in your own home and when buying or renting a new home or office.

1: This will be the best advice you will ever have, the first thing you should look at is the history of the home and also the previous occupants, this will tell you so much. If you find the home has had many owners and only held it for a short time and the fate of the previous owners has not been good, i.e. divorce, bankruptcy, health problems, problems with children, suicide and so on, I think you get the idea.

Do not read too much into it though, a great example is the last house we bought we obviously did all our checks of the previous owners and at one stage decided this was not the right house for us until Michael got hold of the floor plans and took compass directions and found although the house changed hands many times over its 35 year age, it was because the house had such good energy nearly every owner had become successful in a fairly short period of time of living there and then went onto bigger and better houses. The old adage definitely came true, “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it” how many people or companies have you heard of that were very successful and then moved premises and it all turned sour, that is mainly because they have probably moved from a property with good Feng Shui to a bad one.  So sometimes it is better to stick with what you have especially if it is good for you. We outgrew this house 4 years ago and rather than move we extended.

Getting back to the story, do some homework check the previous owners with neighbours, local councils and also the selling agent. Were they happy, did they have trouble with teenage children, money or health problems etc?

You are probably thinking this is pretty much part of modern living all these types of problems, you would be right in thinking that, just look for a long history of problems with the previous owners, don’t worry if the last couple got divorced or they went bankrupt or worse still had some serious health problems, just look for a pattern over a period of time. Most bad Feng Shui homes or offices are easy to fix and just because you have the dreaded 2 & 5 stars that will cause health, wealth and bad luck it does not mean this will happen to you, even though on the whole we have a good house with regards to Feng Shui, the south sector of our home has some awful stars and it took a while to control them and believe it or not this is where Michaels office is. This is an area that has one of the worst flying star combinations you could imagine and yet he receives hundreds of requests for consultations each month, he does on average of 3-4 newspapers and magazine articles a month and enjoys more success than the average Practitioner, so just because you have some bad areas in your home it does not mean they cannot be cured.

2: Check the surrounding of the property; is it supported in Form school Feng Shui? Has it got a Tortoise behind you? This can be a mountain, another house, a row of trees, a building, a fence anything that is considered support at the rear.

Has it got a Dragon to the left? (Looking out from the front) this can be another house, tree or even a large fence line.

A Tiger to the right (looking out from the front) this can be a smaller house or tree etc.

A phoenix to the front, open ground, road, a roundabout even a circular flower border.

For more details on Form school Feng Shui please follow this link

3: Are there any poison arrows directed at the property? Lampposts, telephone poles, corner of house pointing at you, prison, hospital etc. If so you will need a Ba Gua mirror, for more details follow this link http://www.fengshuiweb.co.uk/advice/ba_gua.htm

** TIP ** Knickers, yes you heard right (not the sort of tip I would normally give but so many people swear by it), they say if you wear red knickers to a job interview, your chances are greater of being offered a position, even a visit to your bank manager. Now I have to say this only applies to the ladies, I don’t want any men saying to their partners, that Jo from the Feng Shui Store told me to wear them. I suppose red Y fronts or boxers would have the same effect. Just to clarify, you don’t just wear the knickers; it would be advisable to wear other clothes on top, although maybe that’s why I am getting such good feedback on this advice.

4: The back garden should be larger than the front, look for balance.

5:  Try and avoid having a long narrow path leading to your front door, try and have a windy path and not straight. Do not plant trees too close to the front door, this will not let Ch’i enter the home freely. If you already have a straight path place some plant pots or statues along the line to break up the line of the path. 

6: Avoid a house or office with a spiral staircase, it turns positive energy into negative, if you have one already hang a faceted crystal sphere at the top to try and slow it down. It won’t cure it but it will help. A shame really because I really like this type of staircase to look at.

7: Avoid swimming pools, gazebos, patios, ponds or any other structure in the garden that dwarf the house, try and do everything in proportion to the house, garden or room, having a fireplace in a living room which is far too big is not good Feng Shui.

8: Michael recently did a consultation on a very large Manor house with 17 bedrooms and 6 reception rooms, the original part of the property dated back to the 13^th century, naturally the property was riddled with beams, these are not considered good and although I love them to look at I would not like them in my home, they carry a lot of weight and cause many problems in Feng Shui. You can hang a pair of flutes over them to lessen the effects but you should never sleep or sit under them.

Faceted Crystals can also be used in place of bamboo flutes, i.e. hang under a beam to help deflect the energies that have an oppressive effect on the people in the room. They can be used in hallways to slow down or activate Ch’i. Crystals are ideal for energising dark or lifeless rooms or areas of rooms such as alcoves, as they will encourage more light and energy. Neither of these two cures will completely cure the problem but they will help.

9: When buying a new house or office try and go for a regular shaped property, avoid properties that have odd looking designs, the best shape is the good old rectangle or square, if it has a few extensions sticking out here and there don’t worry too much as they can be easily rectified.

** TIP ** Do not have clutter in your office; desks must be kept tidy and clutter free. This is so important, an office in China would not have paper trays on desks, and many UK and USA companies now employ the same approach. I have just looked at my desk, oops, how does that saying go? “Practise what you preach” that’s why I love writing these newsletters, it reminds me of what I should be doing, I just had a good clear out.

10: Can you remember the last time you looked up at the clouds in the sky and saw the shape of a tiger a dog or your Aunty Ethel; it is amazing what you can make out of the clouds in the sky. When looking at a new home or office, try and look at the building as if you were looking at the clouds, I see so many homes on my travels that resemble creatures or certain structures (makes me sound a bit crazy that statement), a house I saw last week in Essex reminded me of a ferocious animals mouth, the brickwork around the two main windows in the centre gave the impression that they were animals teeth, or a house recently I saw looked like a prison tower on one side. Also check shadows that are cast on the house, do they resemble anything hostile?

Try and choose a regular shaped property and let your imagination run wild when viewing it, try and look for any resemblance to anything bad in the shape of the building but don’t forget to look for the good points.

                                  Good regular shape.                                     Not so good irregular shapes.

11: Take a look at the ground around the property, a good house with good energy will have healthy trees and plants around and plenty of wildlife, even if it is in the City you will still see some birds in the garden. Obviously I am talking in general as I am sure you will not see much wildlife in the middle of Bombay or New York, or maybe you do I don’t really know. Don’t be put off though if you see one or two dead trees or a couple of dead rose bushes, there could be any other reasons just look overall. Look for any signs of Geopathic stress. Follow this link for more details. http://www.fengshuiweb.co.uk/advice/geopathicstress.htm

12: If you have trees at the front of the house or office make sure they do not grow too high, a good height is about six foot, less than this is better although I am aware some people would prefer higher as it offers seclusion to the home. The reason it should be no higher than six foot is because not only will it cut out valuable light it will also block Ch’i entering the home.  The rule is the further the tree from the house the higher the tree can be, the example above is for trees that are approximately 15 – 20 ft from the front of the house. Trees at the front should never be higher than the house though.

13: Avoid a house with a straight road running towards the front of your house or the end of a T-junction, if you have one already you should hang a Ba Gua mirror outside the front. 

14: Another mistake many people make is to calculate their facing directions using the front door. Because your front door faces east this does not mean you have an east facing Tui Trigram house. As an example our front door faces east, on this side of the house we have our main door and a small window, this is not the facing direction, our facing direction is north Li Trigram because on the north side we have the most windows, it faces the road, the street sign etc. If you follow this link you will find more details on Sitting and Facing directions, this is so important if you want to use Feng Shui and get results. http://www.fengshuiweb.co.uk/advice/property.htm

15: If you can see the back door from the front door (in a straight line), ideally you should place something in between or if there is a door close it. This point causes much confusion, it is only considered bad if the front door is in a straight line with the rear door, if you can see your rear door from the front and it does not run in a straight line that is OK. Windows or doors should not be too big or small, look for a balance. Avoid ceilings that are too high or irregular shaped; flat or domed ceilings are best. 

The best example I can give is try and imagine you are Ch’i and you need to walk about your home/Office and also round the garden. Can you walk freely without obstruction? Do this little exercise inside and outside your home. Is the large storage chest in the hallway slowing you down? Is the clutter in the office making you do a detour around it? Oops did you trip over the books in the study? Remember Ch’i is like air it needs to flow freely around a property inside and out.

There are literally hundreds of things to look for when buying a house or taking a new office, the few I mentioned above are the obvious things you should look for and believe me the perfect house does not exist (not unless you have a few million pounds to spend and build from the dirt), and you will always find something that is not right. Our house is L-shaped and it has a triangular shape rear garden, theses are not considered good Feng Shui but by adding a few simple cures they can be easily overcome.

Do not get paranoid; if you have a straight path or a triangular plot do not worry about it, there are simple and effective cures you can use, take a look at our resource pages on www.fengshuiweb.co.uk you will find we have covered many of the problems that are encountered in most homes.

** TIP ** If you own a shop try and place the till in your wealth corner, even your petty cash tin.  Order books can also be placed here with 3 Chinese coins tied together with red ribbon (a very powerful cure we always use in our business). Your till should have a solid wall behind it for protection and support and it is said that if you place a mirror beside it, this represents a doubling of turnover, also hang a crystal faceted sphere over your till. I was not so sure about the last two until I spoke to a good friend of ours who tried it out in their jewellery shops and it worked as far as they were concerned.

Follow this link to look at the 3 Chinese coins: http://www.fengshuiweb.co.uk/pages/wealth.htm

The complete list of all our traditional and authentic Feng Shui resource:

You will find many articles on learning traditional and authentic Feng Shui. They teach you how to use cures and enhancers that nature provides us with, mainly the five elements. As many of you long time subscribers will notice some of the articles are taken from our monthly newsletter. I hope you enjoy them, we will be adding to the resource on a regular basis.

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Last modified: December 01, 2003