(A completely unbiased book review by the author herself).
After re-reading and reviewing more than thirty feng shui books, some by very famous authors, I wondered if I could give an impartial review of my own books. They really do have some unique material in them. I thought it might also be a good exercise in spiritual development if I tried to disassociate myself as the author while reviewing my own work.
Before getting into the actual review, I thought I’d share with you some backstory surrounding Feng Shui for Skeptics: Real Solutions Without Superstition. I always wanted to create a very unique contribution to the field and my first effort was titled Diary of a Feng Shui Master. It was filled with wild stories of some of my more memorable consults. The first draft included the time I was greeted at the door by the half-undressed publisher of a well-known tabloid magazine. Simultaneously, in the background his wife could be heard screaming, “Stan, put your pants on!”
In the beginning, the vast majority of my clients were in Los Angeles and so it goes with the territory that entertainment industry people ended up being a part of my demographic. This included auditing a castle in the Hollywood Hills that Johnny Depp had just purchased. In the same neighborhood, I evaluated the home of rap music producer Rick Rubin. It also included a crazy encounter with a delusional prostitute in Sherman Oaks who was convinced that Brad Pitt was going to marry her. I visited predictable commercial places, such as a cosmetic surgeon’s office, recording studios, upscale restaurants, offices at Fox, Disney, CBS, and Warner Brothers studios. I taught private feng shui classes to actor-director Forest Whitaker. I thought I could use experiences like these as a launching pad for teaching certain feng shui concepts, while entertaining the reader and satisfying the frustrated comedy writer inside of me.
I even had a book writing coach very excited about the angle and she helped me put together an impressive proposal. Linda Sivertsen had a reputation for helping writers secure big publishing deals, so I was optimistic. And yet, one morning I got a call back from a New York literary agent. Instead of just ignoring me and putting the proposal in the “slush file,” she felt compelled to give me some re-direction.
She told me that she would have a hard time shopping my book around because “Every publisher has already done a feng shui book and they’ve all lost money.” (Except Lillian Too, of course). This is one of the cruel realities, especially for new or not-already famous authors. She told me the average new author sells only 500 copies. The rest end up in the remainders bin or in the author’s garage. Feng Shui for Skeptics sold over 3,000 copies in the first year, so I was very happy to do another printing and even more renditions emerged in other languages.
This honest literary agent also told me that no one searches for a feng shui book that will make them laugh. Rather, they are seeking information, to learn something applicable. In fact, the Indonesian translation of my book changed the title to Easy Feng Shui! I appreciated her candor and stopped sending out proposals and sample chapters. The literary agent also had a discussion with me about whether or not to self-publish.
There are pros and cons to self-publishing. Back then, in the late 1990’s, there was no Google and not even a majority of people on the internet. There certainly were not any on-line self-publishing digital formats, like the eventual I-Universe or Amazon. In fact, back in the day, if an author self-published, they were called “vanity” books. The implication was that someone unqualified to get published the traditional way would just print up their own books at a copy store. These would not be titles that any bookstore would buy, as they all work with distributors and not directly with authors.
So, I took a minute, regrouped, and wrote Feng Shui for Skeptics: Real Solutions Without Superstition. I worked with a book development company and became my own publisher. I’m still in print and two more trade paperbacks followed it, including more foreign rights translations. Even though the book did get reviews by professional reviewers, most were just a few paragraphs long and some of the laziest reviewers borrowed heavily from the press releases they were sent.
I even wrote one of my own press releases, which promised the book would be “relished by feng shui junkies.” Three reviewers stole that line for their own pieces and ruined my ability to use those reviews in their entirety. If you have read any of the reviews I’ve done for other books, you know they are lengthy and quite detailed. I will now proceed with the review of Feng Shui for Skeptics in the “third person,” and we’ll see if I can be fair and objective. It was written over 20 years ago!
ooooooooooooooooooooo
As if the title was not clear enough, in the opening Introduction and first chapter, Diamond sets the tone for her book’s inspiration, writing “The main urge for me to write this book is twofold: 1) to dispel the nonsense being passed off as feng shui and 2) to actually deliver advanced but practical information without expecting the reader to abandon his or her occupation in order to study feng shui full time.”
Indeed, Diamond’s chosen topics include feng shui principles and techniques which were not largely written about in the first wave of commercial books by Western authors. She may have also been the first Western author to critique what she refers to as the New Age version of Feng Shui, a One-Size-Fits-All approach which gained quite a bit of popularity in the 1990’s and which dominated the field for some time thereafter.
To be a “whistleblower” and call out one school of Feng Shui as “fake,” may have seemed heretical at the time, but after her book came out, other traditional practitioners felt more comfortable speaking their minds as well. Her own teacher, Master Larry Sang, soon came out with his second book, Feng Shui Facts and Myths, shortly after. The subtitle promises “real solutions without superstition,” but Diamond excuses herself early on in that she has cannot claim feng shui is a “science” in the Western sense. She asks the reader to accept it as a “near science.”
We know even scientists make predictions, based on data collected, reserving the right to re-calibrate their findings when needed. Science can say that if you maintain a diet of highly processed food, you may have a 57% higher chance of developing diabetes or heart disease. Diamond thinks Feng Shui is no different, in that a majority of people will respond similarly to the same or replicated environment. And this is one reason she feels there is no need for ritualistic or cultural placebos.
She presents us with opinions to ponder, including the differences between the Eastern and Western mindsets, as other authors do as well to warm the reader up to these foreign practices. The Chinese may easily believe that an inanimate object can affect their health, well-being, and finances. Equally, they believe that deities and ancestors who have passed can also influence just about everything in our lives. For the Westerner with no religious affiliation, “seeing is believing,” and more likely to be skeptical regarding metaphysical doctrines. Diamond just wants to acknowledge that right off the bat.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of feng shui, Diamond lists the most important areas of your house, what to pay attention to, as every area of your house does not hold equal weight. That would be the mistake of a novice. She rejects the New Age (Black Hat School) premise that the back left-hand corner of every house is a Wealth Area and intrigues us with a counter that we all have several areas within a house which can encourage monetary success. They are not arbitrary, however. We will have to learn a step-by-step process to identify those unique zones in each house.
The author also indicates that false feng shui schools are not just an invention of modern-day charlatans peddling instant gratification. Apparently, the deception goes back many hundreds of years, or longer, when advanced feng shui knowledge and practices were kept secret from the masses. Only the Chinese emperor and the wealthiest in society had access to a feng shui master, with few exceptions. In fact, in the Addendum that Diamond wrote for all her books years later, we find out that a whole false school was created by monk Yi Xing under mandate by the emperor during the T’ang Dynasty. That adulterated school is still in practice today, with many current day practitioners unaware of its true origin.
Next, Diamond lists the four major components that go into an evaluation: Time, Orientation, Environment, and People. She further describes how each of these four features bring uniqueness to the property. Her subsection on the different schools of Feng Shui does not really cover all the now well-known classical schools, which other authors like Dr. Stephen Skinner have written about in great detail. Instead, Diamond categorizes different principles which are foundational to most traditional schools. This includes Form School and Qi Flow, Yin-Yang Theory, the Eight Trigrams and Five Element Theory.
With these foundational principles, she points out some of the ways in which the New Age Schools misuse the information. For example, the novice or poorly trained may assume an elusive type of equilibrium, often referred to as “harmony,” is achieved by representing all the elements together in one room (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal). When one understands the cycles of the Elements and their relationships with each other, placing them all together is easily recognized as absurd. Diamond remarks, “this makes about as much sense as swallowing everything in your medicine cabinet when you don’t know why you are ill.”
In this same beginning chapter, the author mentions briefly the Flying Star School, as the only traditional school which factors in aspects of timing, such as when the structure was built. Later on, she will dispense information about annual energy. She briefly mentions the popular Eight Mansion School, also known as Pa Chai (Ba Zhai). From there, Diamond does a short, critical expose on the founder of the Black Hat School and his creation of the New Age Ba’gua Map. The Map is a fixed template that goes over every floor plan, identifying different Life Stations supposedly present in every living space.
Chapter Two gives us examples of how life force energy, (aka chi), affects us and how, such as through architectural designs flaws which create “poison arrows.” Shen chi can encourage health and success, while sha chi can undermine us. The shen chi list includes good lighting and ventilation, while the sha chi list mentions spaces that feel oppressive or dirty. Much of this is common sense, but Diamond also likes to point out the non-obvious features as well.
She lists different shapes as stable or unstable, comparing square and rectangular shapes with triangular, pyramid, oval or columnar shapes. Unusual shapes can have predictably bad influences, such as U-shaped houses, L-shaped, and a zig-zag shape she calls the Lightning Bolt House. Throughout, Diamond tells us stories from her actual audits, as well as how certain shaped buildings can enhance different types of businesses, such as the square shape (symbolic of earth) being good for real estate companies.
In this chapter, she also forewarns that not all irregular shapes are to be feared if they are on a small scale. Diamond gives a comparative example of the “poison arrow,” which could be formidable when created by the corner of a large building, but almost insignificant when the corner edge is a piece of furniture. The author also notes how the shapes of adjacent buildings, representative of certain elements, may undermine or enhance each other. According to Diamond, this should be a layer to consider when it comes to city planning.
While other feng shui teachers conclude that an L-shaped building is, by definition, missing several directional zones, Diamond demonstrates how the truly L-shaped structure may in fact be two charts that happen to be connected under one roof. This is an example of how to separate the Yin versus Yang rooms in a house. Diamond points out that the corner of the L-shaped house, which connects the two wings, is like an elbow to the arm: a stress point.
Much of what she discusses regarding the shapes of structures can be applied to the shape of land parcels too. The author dispenses a few landscaping techniques to square out uneven parcel shapes. When a floor plan or a section of a parcel is missing a directional sector, it can indicate a deficiency for the occupants. The example given is that East is associated with the eldest son in the family. With a missing east sector of a house or parcel, the eldest son in the family will be weak or non-existent. What Diamond doesn’t mention here is that with a feng shui-observant Chinese couple, they would avoid purchasing a house just based on that feature alone. Historically, having at least one son has been very important in this culture.
In order to stay true to her book’s premise, Diamond asserts that arcane language and overly-simplified translations have also contributed to feng shui’s reputation for being a superstitious practice. This includes terms like the “poison arrow,” or referring to negative energy as “evil spirits.” And without context, many feng shui design flaws get blown out of proportion, causing unnecessary panic for adherents or dismissed entirely by skeptics.
In a sub-chapter section called Examples of Flawed Floor Plans, Diamond showcases some of the more common feng shui design flaws, including:
- Direct window to door alignment
- Entrance to stove alignment
- Entrance to toilet alignment
- Entrance to narrow hallway alignment
- Entrance aligned with bottom of staircase
- Congestive entrance
- Bathroom or kitchen in the center of a house
- Bed aligned with door, window or toilet
- Bed under exposed beam, under a low ceiling or against a window
Diamond explains why these designs are bad and how to fix them, if possible. The author also concedes that some situations should just be avoided.
Chapter Three is about directions and begins with instructions on how to take a compass reading, which she refers to as “the tool of the trade.” The Chinese Feng Shui compass is called a Luo pan. Diamond includes an illustration of a compass, showing the 24 different sectors, identifying what directions the 12 Chinese zodiac signs are aligned with and an alphabet coding system which was unique to Master Sang and his school, the American Feng Shui Institute. Other teachers have shown compass illustrations with the Chinese character for the direction, along with the more universal abbreviations for the directions, such as W1 (west-1), W2 (west-2), etc.
The instructions for how to take an in-person compass reading can certainly still be used today, but when the book was written, no one had cell phones which can launch a rocket into space. In current times, anyone can download a Compass App. However, Diamond has forewarned readers in follow-up publications that compass apps are not always accurate and why that may be so. Likewise, there are other on-line tools for taking remote compass readings which had not yet been created for the public back in 2004. Diamond forewarns readers to make sure they are not standing too close to metal objects, as that cant throw a compass reading off.
Once the compass reading has been determined and you know what is the “sitting” and “facing” of the building or house, Diamond instructs on how to divide the floor plan into what is often called the Nine Palace Grid method. It is one of the two most common ways to determine the boundaries of the eight directional zones. Specific to that style, the author notes how to determine if an irregular shaped structure has a missing direction or an extension to a direction. It is even possible to have both occurring within the same floor plan.
In 2012, Diamond published an Addendum, applicable to all her books, where she updates a few key areas of her practice which changed over time. She abandoned the Nine Palace Grid method in favor of the “pie shape” sector method, as being more accurate. What is still relevant to any style of floor plan division, is the priority given to the sitting side of a structure over the facing side.
It is the sitting side (compass reading) which determines the orientation and Diamond gives an illustrative example on page 45, Figure 3-8. The door to the structure is angled, and the front wall is not parallel to the back wall in Fig. 3-8. It is the back wall which determines the chart type. In other words, if a back wall is to the north and the front wall is angled to the southeast, you go with the back wall as the anchor to the house, the spine and its real nature. The north sitting house is known as the Kan House type.
Diamond also gives an example where you may have two grids for one house, if a large enough portion of the house is an addition. The next section gives more meaning to these directions, defining them as trigrams, and she includes the English spelling of the trigrams using both the Wades Giles and the Pin Yin spelling. This would have been an appropriate section for Diamond to illustrate the three-lined symbol for each trigram. Other authors have introduced the trigrams initially, developing first from a singular yin (broken line) and singular yang (solid line), transforming into binary code (bigrams) and then the three-lined trigrams. From there, other authors introduce the Hexagrams from the I-Ching.
Diamond’s book focuses more on practical application than on Chinese metaphysics as a whole. Simply put, if a reader at this point figures out that they are missing the west sector of their home, they can look at the list to see that this missing west sector might affect the youngest daughter in the house or any of the occupants in the area of the teeth, mouth, jaw or breasts. The rich symbolism of the trigrams is not critical at this beginner’s level.
Pertinent to directions, Diamond introduces the concept of “environmental sha.” This is anything that could have a negative influence on someone who has a view of that objectionable situation and/or proximity to it. Knowing what direction is involved (relative to the center of the house) brings more information with it. Using the example of south being associated with the eyes and heart, an occupant could have heart or eye problems if they have a bad view through a window aligned to the south sector of their home or if there is a dying tree to the south (with or without a view of it).
In reference to directional zones, Diamond uses the word “quadrant,” which was the imperfect word adopted by her teacher Master Sang when translating his courses from Chinese into English. Students of his referred to the eight directions as quadrants, such as “the southeast quadrant,” when a quadrant is actually a geometric term that defines a square shape. It is not the ideal word to describe a direction which is one of eight basic sections of a floor plan, just because “quadrant” implies a section of a square.
The author also mentions that you can micro-manage a single room, superimposing the same directional gridding for the larger structure, just reduced to a smaller scale. For example, if the northeast sector of a house is related to the bones or muscles, the northeast sector of each room in the house is also related to the bones and muscles.
After mentioning ways to remedy a missing area, the author defines “construction sha” as harmful energies generated directly from a demolition or construction site. Being near a construction can be unpleasant in a variety of mundane ways, such as noise and debris. However, there are also unseen energies which get stirred up as well. Here the author describes the annual 5 star as one type of untimely energy to contend with.
This is her first mention of the 9 annual stars. The 5 star is related to pain, accidents and arguments. Diamond illustrates how the annual 5 star, aligned with an actual construction project could affect the occupant. This annual cycle repeats every nine years. Next, there is a 12-year repeating cycle to factor in, based on the 12 yearly Chinese zodiac signs. Diamond mentions this is based on the Chinese “lunar” calendar; however, the annual signs can be superimposed over the Chinese solar calendar just the same.
In any given year, the zodiac sign associated with that year is called the Tai Sui. Some people refer to it as the Grand Duke. Not to be confused with David Bowie’s Thin White Duke. This zodiac sign (representing time) also represents a direction. For example, the Rabbit sign is related to East. Rabbit years include 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 and continuing in multiples of 12. Whatever direction and zodiac sign is opposite the yearly sign can be equally problematic. This is called the Sui Po direction. Unfortunately, the book has a typo for the chart on page 56, transposing Sui Po as “Po Sui.” If it is a Monkey Year (Tai Sui), the opposing Tiger sign will be the Sui Po for the year. From this, we can extrapolate other influences on people and with houses. For instance, if the direction of the Dragon is the Sui Po direction in a Dog year, a similar clash or oppositional energy could exist between two people who are Dragon and Dog.
When a construction is taking place aligned with the annual 5, the yearly Ta Sui direction or the yearly Sui Po direction, Diamond says you can place a metal wind chime outside aligned with that construction sha. It has the power to deflect or absorb the negative vibrations coming from those directions. As an alternative, you can post a metal rod or garden stake in the ground to also ward off the construction sha. The ideal is to do this before the demolition begins, if you have any advance warning at all.
The author elaborates on the principle of sitting and facing, noting that it is critical to know the difference when applying the Eight Mansion School or the Flying Star School. She provides lists of yin or yang qualities which help define the sitting (back) from the facing (front), stating that the location of the main door is incidental and not the exclusive indicator of the facing side. An apartment with windows on only one side is a common example of a home not facing the direction of an entrance when it is on the opposite side of the windowed wall.
Diamond moves from examples of yearly influences to discussing how the year a house was built can determine good or bad feng shui (long term presumably, and not just during the construction phase). Additionally, if a house goes through “radical” remodeling, this might also change the original chi or energy blueprint of the house.
Diamond does not yet mention the nine 20-Year-Periods in which a house could be built, but dives into a brief section on how only a radical remodel can potentially change the original Period of the house. She gives examples of what constitutes a “radical” remodel and underscores how changing a roof does not change the Period of a house. Only when the sun shines down into the house will a new energy field be created and that requires removing the ceiling as well as the roof.
She briefly mentions the controversial Date of Occupancy theory, where some practitioners create a flying star chart for a house based on when occupants move in and not when it was built. Some well-known Malaysian practitioners have taught this method, with their students sprinkled around the globe, so many people have heard of this style.
Diamond writes that the annual stars are most active in rooms or areas that are used the most. Readers should therefore not fret about a negative annual influence in a bathroom or closet. She discloses also that the definitions she gives for the annual energies are accurate up until 2024. Turns out, some of the definitions for the annual stars are similar if not the same for Period 9. Only a few of the stars have changed in significant ways since the beginning of Period 9 (2024-2043). Her third book, The Feng Shui Continuum, covers the Flying Star School more completely than Skeptics, with more information about the these 20 year cycles called Periods.
Diamond also mentions the unwarranted bad reputation suffered by the 4 star, just because the Chinese word for “4” sounds similar to their word for “death.” She also mentions that a singular annual star will manifest differently, depending on which direction it lands in. One example is how the fire energy of the annual 9 star will be under more pressure (to create a negative outcome) in the north sector. This is because north is water energy and water can destroy fire. Diamond gives a quick run down of how to remedy these annual stars, while providing the disclaimer that permanent flying stars need to also be factored in for a full understanding of the space.
Next comes a section on defining the “locked phase” which every house goes through at some time or another. This is one of the more unique parts of the book. Other authors do not cover this topic, even though this is a very common cycle which can have a big impact on a home or business. Diamond manages to discuss the most important points in a few pages and explains a similar way to determine annual locked phases.
In Chapter Five, she cherry picks some vivid case studies to showcase the correlation between the non-obvious feng shui flying stars and real life, modern scenarios. Case Studies include what she titles the Divorce House, the Creative House, the Crime House, the Crazy House, the Romance House and the Wealth House. Here we see the flying stars in action, based not only on the charts themselves, but how they become activated with certain floor plans.
Diamond concedes that readers are not expected to understand the flying star charts. They come right after simpler instructions in how to experiment with the annual stars. Readers get less than 20 different flying star charts as examples in specific case studies, while there are technically 216 flying star charts in total. She saves her complete flying star chart instruction for her third book, The Feng Shui Continuum. That being said, many readers will recognize their own house in the examples given, such as the very common South facing house built between 1924-1943. Structures are built within nine different 20-Year Periods, with 24 different possible directions a house can face. This is made clear with her compass illustration on page 40.
Since the publication of Feng Shui for Skeptics, a few authors, like Dr. Stephen Skinner, have covered the Flying Stars in a comprehensive way, to include all the “regular” charts for easy access. However, even The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feng Shui only mentions the charts for borderline compass readings in passing, stating they are beyond the scope of their book.
Diamond gives an example of the borderline compass reading in The Crazy House example. It is also referred to as “out of trigram.” She addresses other complexities, such as how The Romance House could also be the Infidelity House, depending on who lives there. She delves into how a couple may have fertility problems due to stars which can instigate a miscarriage versus flying stars which simply make it harder to get pregnant in the first place.
In the section on the Romance House, she recommends placing water in the “4” star areas of the floor plan, to further activate the sexual attraction energy. However, that example shows a chart with one of the 4 stars in the center cell. It should be noted that you cannot remedy center stars. They are not literally locked into the center; rather they permeate the whole house. In that example on page 88 Fig. 5-15, it is only in the southwest sector that an available 4 star can be activated further with water.
Diamond details two notorious homes she evaluated to conclude Chapter Five. The former O.J. Simpson’s home in Brentwood, California had some of the markings of a home where an occupant could be irritated, prone to arguments, accidents, and arthritis (which was one of O.J.’s alibis for not being able to commit violent double murders.) She asks the philosophical question: whether or not bad (or undeserving) people can benefit from good feng shui and this could have been expanded further. How much does Feng Shui affect anyone? According to the Taoist theories embedded in Feng Shui, our immediate physical environment influences us by about 20% and it only comes after personal destiny and luck (as in 10 year Luck phases revealed in Four Pillars Chinese Astrology).
Anticipating that her review of the Erik and Lyle Menendez home would be recognized by readers who live in that same house type, Diamond cautions that personal fate had more to do with their family tragedy than the feng shui alone. As a sting to the Black Hat School and its generic Ba’gua Map, Diamond notes that the location where the murders took place had the infamous 2 and 5 stars with their potential for accidents, bleeding and disaster, in spite of the Black Hat folks assuming that area is the “Wealth Corner.”
The author gives a detailed description of the Four Major House types, how they influence occupants and how to enhance or correct them on the outside. Diamond does not mention that these Four Major House types relinquish their titles when they surpass their original Construction Period. She is not alone, as many other practitioners believe that these house types remain as part of the house’s personality in perpetuity.
However, in Diamond’s more recent publications and teaching materials, she remarks that what initially defines these Four Major House types is no longer relevant in succeeding Periods. This may be on par with how structures go in and out of being in a Locked Phase and what defines a locked phase is not relevant in the other Periods.
Chapter Six is devoted to more personal and subjective aspects to a feng shui audit. Your personal response to any place is conditioned by a number of factors. Diamond describes geographical location, age, gender, occupation and lifestyle as key features not to ignore.
She then highlights the “East-West” school, which is a beginner’s version of Ba Zhai (Eight Mansion School). Each person has good and bad personal directions based on their year of birth and the more you can cater to those personal good directions, the better. This includes ideal positions for sleep or different areas of the house you can spend more time in. Diamond uses the conventional system which gives females born in the same year as males a different trigram (aka gua). Since this publication, Diamond has supplemented her teaching materials with information about how this branch of feng shui may be a false school.
Each personal trigram is related to a list of body areas and functions. When the individual is prone to certain health issues and they live in a house which can trigger the same health issues, this increases the odds that the health problems will manifest. For Diamond, predictions can be more accurate when there are compounding influences.
She also mentions how Chinese astrology can be used as another way to personalize a space and how artwork is also in the subjective column. When Feng Shui became ultra-trendy in the West around the turn of the last century, it even influenced major design and décor companies, such as the mass availability of indoor Zen-like water fountains. Back then, you could practically get your feng shui fountain at your local supermarket or office supply store. And yet, not everyone wanted to be surrounded by Asian décor. It’s obvious that Diamond enjoyed telling clients they did not need Chinese knick-knacks in order to have good energy in their home or workspace.
In Chapter Seven, Diamond comes in for the home stretch in her appeal to skeptics and those who recoil from superstitions. She lists legitimate practices which just shouldn’t get confused for being feng shui, such as interior decorating or professional organizing. She then lists popular Feng Shui myths and superstitions, all of which have been perpetuated by big name consultants in the feng shui field. The list includes a lot of Asian décor items, placebos, and Taoist symbols right along with New Age interpretations of the toilet, dried flowers and skylights, to name a few.
To further underscore the potentially dramatic differences between practitioners and schools, Diamond takes one floor plan and interprets it in three ways: first the Black Hat method, and then what she calls the New Age Compass School method. This school asserts that the proper way to use the Five Elements is to place an element in each directional zone which corresponds to the element symbolically aligned with that direction. If West and Northwest are both symbolic of metal, then the New Age Compass school recommends metal objects in those areas of the house. If the South is symbolic of fire, that would be the area to place red objects. Even beginners who have learned about annual stars through Diamond’s primer, will rightly conclude that the New Age Compass School is haphazard and not complete. To top it off, some practitioners combine more than one false school. Diamond quotes her teacher Master Sang, who refers to this as “feng shui chop suey.”
The third interpretation of the same floor plan uses a classical flying star chart. This is the only school which factors in timing. With the glaring differences in these three approaches, it becomes obvious to the reader that if you really want to understand your own home or workspace on a deep level, why settle for a beginner’s style when more advanced calculations can be learned relatively easily? With her example using the flying star method, the author also slips in coverage of a special House Type called String of Pearls house. Special House types are usually reserved for the classroom, but she included another one earlier in the book, regarding the Wealth House. Her chart example was the supposedly lucky “Sum of Ten” house.
The author shows us another controversy, in the way floor plans get divided up spatially. The Nine Palace Grid method is one way and the pie-shape sector method is another way, where discrepancies become obvious for any floor plan other than a perfect square. She shows us how one method may place an entrance in the south sector, while another interpretation of the same floor plan considers the entrance in the southeast. Just this detail alone could be a tie-breaker. Some people will not buy a house based on what they perceive as negative energy just at the front door.
Diamond shares with the readers that she spoke with Master Sang about these two methods and he satisfied her curiosity by stating that the pie-shape sector method is reserved for Yin House readings (divination of grave sites). She admits to thinking this was a reasonable argument, given that some very famous practitioners were teaching Yin House feng shui (for graves) with formulas meant for Yang House (residences). And yet, Diamond drops some hints about her duality on this one, suggesting that readers do comparisons of the two methods and come to your own conclusions. If you glance at the author’s blog post articles, you will only see examples of the pie-shape sector method used for “yang house” floor plans.
She writes at length about this switch over (after her third book was written) in one of her case study lessons called Feng Shui Controversies, Part 1. If I am keeping track, there are three things which Diamond would likely change in this book if she did another printing: Expose the suspect female gua origin, add to the Four Major House Type section some commentary about what happens to older structures, and use the pie-shape sector method instead of the Nine Palace grid method, also called “the Luo Shu square” method. Diamond felt compelled to write about these changes to her practice through her school’s curriculum. For the general public, she adds a notification sticker on each book sold through Amazon, inviting readers to get a free copy of her Addendum.
In a chapter helping readers decipher between real feng shui and fake feng shui, she includes consumer tips for what constitutes a qualified practitioner with four major points. Diplomacy and compassion are two of the qualities which speak more to the personal exchange between client and practitioner. The other two necessities, training and experience, may be equally subjective, but she shares her sincere thoughts. Later on, Diamond created an expanded Feng Shui Consumer Tip Guide, for people around the world who contact here with questions and reservations about local practitioners or masters they find on-line.
Chapter Eight, Commercial Uses for Feng Shui, is a varied collection of choices, but appears to be drawn from her actual audits. It also lets readers know that feng shui is not just being sought out by a narrow, stereotypical demographic. Diamond inserts good feng shui business protocols, like where the president of the company should have their office or how we should treat extremely different businesses.
Feng Shui also has a sense of humor in turning lemons into lemonade, such as how a space which attracts legal problems can be good for a law firm or how “lonely” energy at a bar can draw in those who will drink more. The location of inventory can also help move product, above and beyond the obvious impulse buy locations near the check-out station. Outdoor spaces have their own feng shui as well, from golf courses and amusement parks to cemeteries. Diamond asserts that many retail businesses do their own type of “subliminal feng shui,” when it comes to atmosphere and intentional design. Techniques are used which encourage people to linger and ultimately spend more money.
Like any other feng shui book, this one will not convince hard-core skeptics that Feng Shui is real. Rather, Diamond wrote this book for those who are genuinely curious about Feng Shui for the metaphysical practice that it is, but minus the more superstitious demonstrations which require an active form of faith when applied.
Clocking in at only 140 pages, Feng Shui for Skeptics still packs in a lot of foundational information, as well as principles and techniques usually only found through paid instruction. When Diamond created her on-line private mentoring program in 2014, Feng Shui for Skeptics, along with her second book, The Feng Shui Matrix, became part of the Beginner’s Course materials.
Diamond signs off by stating, “Please consider this book an invitation to any reader who needs clarification on something discussed in its chapters or who wants to ask further questions. If you want either local or long distance feng shui advice, I am here to help and will probably never retire.” In contrast to those who cashed in during the trendy years, and then moved on to something else, Diamond continues to consult and teach feng shui, as promised.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Book Review Blog Series
