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
