One sunny afternoon, I was sitting at the park with a friend whom I have not seen in a long time. He moved to another continent with his family a few years ago, and was making a rare trip back to his country of birth.
We were talking about old friends and life in general when he asked me which industry I'd gotten into. I told him, and his eyes went wide in shock as if seeing Elvis alive there and then performing 'Jailhouse Rock'. I asked him why his reaction, and he said,
"I just didn't imagine you to be that sort."
"What sort?"
"The new-age sort, you know. Putting flowers everywhere, burning incense, placing ugly plastic frogs wherever, wearing traditional Chinese outfits all the time..."
"I am not wearing anything remotely Chinese now", I laughed.
"True, but you know how these things go..."
I asked him why he had such fixed negative perception towards Feng Shui. From what he said, I gathered that he has been exposed to what we call 'new age Feng Phoeey'. After all it was a chance for me to correct the image of the ancient art and bring him around to classical Feng Shui. One down, ten million to go.
Turned out that my friend has long suffered from the indecisiveness of his mother in the name of Feng Shui.
"It's crazy", he lamented, "She has me and my father moving all the furniture in the house ALL THE TIME! Sometimes once a month, sometimes three times a month! Now whenever I see her looking around the living room with a certain look in her eyes, I make excuses to go out just to avoid the moving about. It's hard labour I tell you, what with the sofa being so heavy, and my parents' bed much bigger than me. My father takes it silently because... oh well, love does crazy things to you.
Not content with that, my mother has pink this and that all over the house. She says that it's good for my romance luck or something then proceeds to nag me about finding a suitable girl to settle down and have kids with. I sometimes wonder if it's all connected, if she is doing all these just to get on my nerves so I would finally bring someone home for her to see.
Plus the whole house is full with incense smoke, it's a wonder that the local fire brigade are yet to be alerted."
After the laughter subsided, I rebuked him slightly for exaggerating. He grinned unapologetically.
"Well, it is almost true. All these Feng Shui doings are supposed to bring me good luck and happiness, right? On the contrary, they are making me very unhappy! Hey, since you know Feng Shui, why don't you give me something so that I could stop my mother from doing what she is doing?"
Now, what could I do? I couldn't very well give him Bilbo's magic ring so he could disappear at whim. Nor could I present him a key to a door that leads to another dimension, so he could stick his mother into an unknown realm and be freed from all her new-age doings, except during dinner times so she could come back and cook for him. No, Feng Shui is not magic like that.
Instead I bought him another Coke from the nearby drinks machine and prepared to explain to him what Feng Shui is and what Feng Shui is not.
"You see", I began, "Feng Shui does work, but only if you know what it really is! Bin the flowers, thrash the incense and your life will not get any worse than it is already."
"Gee, thanks..."
"Hahah. I am serious. If someone tries to sell you products in the name of Feng Shui, run. If someone tells you to hang a plastic product in the name of Feng Shui, run. If your mother wants you to move the furniture around every month, you can't run but perhaps you could tell her that it is not classical Feng Shui, and risk hurting her feelings. It is a mother and son relationship so I do not want to get into that."
"So what can I do?"
"Well, the list is a bit long but maybe you could get Joey Yap's Feng Shui book, Stories and Lessons on Feng Shui. You can read about the common beliefs associated with Feng Shui today, and whether they are really Feng Shui or merely superstition and traditions that come with Chinese culture. But one thing is for sure -- one important thing for Feng Shui is the Time element. Things that you have done for this year may not be good for Feng Shui the next year. For example, shifting your bed to a particular sector of your room. This year you may be sleeping in the Northeast sector. This is not so bad. However next year you should preferably move your bed to another sector. There is such thing as the annual Flying Stars. It has 9 stars -- when I say stars I really mean 'qi', and they move every year to different sectors. Each star has an attribute of its own. Next year the bad star #5 will 'fly' to the Northeast. If you want to avoid unlucky incidents, try not to sleep in the Northeast.
As for your mother, she has a point in moving things around. However it is not necessary to shift your furniture ever so often, unless she likes it that way. If for example a particular room has an annual bad star residing there, then it is best to NOT use the room, if possible. If that cannot be helped, you still have one more option. Say, the bad annual star is in the West. If your bedroom is the West sector of your home, then leave the West corner of your bedroom alone. You can also place some metal items in the corner to weaken the star's effects."
My friend look confused. "Wait, I thought you said no products?" he asked.
"Yes, I did say that. However in Feng Shui we do use certain products; those we call cures. Like I have said, each star has its own attributes, and one of them is the star's element. There are Five Elements involved -- Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood. I am sure you being Chinese, would have heard about them.
There are ways to enhance or increase the effectiveness of the stars, and there are ways to decrease the negativity of the stars. For this we use cures that are based off the Five Elements. For example the #5 we talked about earlier is of the Earth element. You want to weaken the Earth element, so what do you do? You place Metal element items in the afflicted sector. How does this work?
You see, there are three cycles of the Five Elements, which we call the Productive Cycle, the Weakening Cycle and the Destructive Cycle. You do not want to use the Productive Cycle in this case -- you do not want to flare the element of the star 5. Instead you want to use the Weakning Cycle. Now, according to the Weakening Cycle, Metal weakens Earth. And that is what you want to use."
He looked down, as if he was thinking. "That's all the bad stuff. What about the good stuff? Say, what if I want to make more money for this year?"
I laughed. "Then you will have to earn it! Like I said before, Feng Shui is not magic. It is not going to bring you bags of gold with a snap of the fingers. All it does is to create opportunities for wealth luck, for example a side job that would allow you to earn some money. But if you do not take up the job, then it is not going to do anything else. Even those people on reality shows, they had to work hard for their money and if luck permits, win the competition.
Think back about the Flying Stars I mentioned. There are 9 stars, right? Well, the star #8 is particularly good for creating such wealth luck for opportunities. This year the #8 is located in the North. You will need to activate the North sector of your home. You can either use the North sector for work or you can place a small water feature in the sector to activate it. That is all you will need to do. AND keep a lookout for any opportunities that come your way. Sometimes they may be small and not quite visible at first sight, so you will have to be on the alert. Who knows, they might lead to better things!"
"That is a lot to take in..." he sighed, "but it does sound interesting."
"Don't worry, it will be easier once you get a hold of things. Do read up on the book I recommended you, and lend it to your mother. Be sure to tell her that when it comes to good Feng Shui, you don't have to have flowers and candles to show for it."
Tags: fengshui, Feng Shui, Feng Phoeey | 
