A Book Review by Kartar Diamond
His book written nearly 20 years ago, Master Joey Yap has become one of the most famous of the second wave of educators, exposing Feng Shui to the Western World and re-igniting interest in the East as well. Right in the Preface, he admits that books written by Hong Kong and Taiwanese masters are well-known for having the attitude of “disclose not the secrets of Heaven.” Not only have they withheld information from the public, but they have also thrown in some misleading information as well.
This reminds me of when Master Larry Sang would talk about students “on the inside” or “on the outside,” referring to the classroom. Joey Yap rejects this attitude of withholding information and by that alone he has already won me over. He also asks the perceptive question about how to properly describe Feng Shui. Even good teachers will circle around the question with vague statements about “harmony with nature” or the impact of the environment on people. Yap explains that because there are so many schools of Feng Shui and different approaches, he chooses to narrow the definition down to “classical” Feng Shui specifically.
Over the years, students and fellow practitioners have discussed Joey Yap with me and I am familiar with some of his practices, even though this is my first review of one of his books. I know already that I do things differently than he does and I will comment on that throughout the review. To be clear, this does not make one of us definitively right or wrong and this is something which frustrates those trying to learn Feng Shui. Understandably, students want to be shown universal practices and learn about as few contradictions as possible among the different schools.
However, each practitioner has their own lineage of training and experience. I know from both my own training and experience that I have cherry-picked what I can endorse, while rejecting some things taught to me from the very same teachers. There is no need to discredit or completely abandon a teacher’s entire curriculum, just because another teacher disagrees with one or several techniques. Ultimately, a practitioner will come to their own conclusions. It is generally good to keep an open mind.
Joey Yap lets readers know that what he covers in this book will not resemble the New Age versions which became so popular (and contradictory), at the end of the 20th century. Even some Taoist Feng Shui practitioners forego using the essential tools of the trade in comparison to “classical” Feng Shui. Yap makes it clear that classical Feng Shui utilizes both the Li Qi system in conjunction with the Luan Tou system. This is the marriage of techniques which factor in timing and changing cycles along with both natural and man-made environmental features.
Just as one example, we could discuss the impact of an ugly mountain view (Luan Tou) in general terms. But we can also discuss that ugly mountain in the context of its direction and when we are making that assessment (Li Qi). A mountain to the west of a house is different than a mountain to the east of a house. A mountain to the south of a house will have a different impact in Period 9 versus a mountain to the South in Period 1.
Yap gives us a crisp overview of Feng Shui history, and since this book is devoted to Xuan Kong Flying Stars, he features scholar Jia Da Hong (1616-1714). Flying Stars is but one school, within a school, that is considered “classical.” Another noteworthy master was Imperial scholar Zhang Zhong Shu, the founder of the Wu Chang Pai school during the Qing Dynasty. From there, one of the school’s prodigies was Tan Yang Wu- “one of the first scholar-practitioners of Xuan Kong Flying Stars,” according to Yap. Tan wrote important works that were published in the 1920’s, so this really brings Feng Shui into the 20th century.
Another “contemporary” feng shui expert was Shen Zhu Reng, bi-lingual with both a British and Chinese education. We can thank him for translating many older works, lifting the shroud around the “Secrets of Heaven,” and teaching openly. For me personally, these last two masters mentioned could be my patron saints of Feng Shui since their honesty and openness helped make Feng Shui more accessible to the world. With Joey Yap being like the Tony Robbins of Feng Shui, we can appreciate a book like this, which is so straight forward and organized in its presentation.
Yap explains the Cosmic Trinity of Heaven-Earth-Man Luck, corroborating it also with the three lines of the trigrams further in the chapter. His “Power of Three” analogies continue with the three cycles of the Elements (Productive, Controlling, Weakening). Yap then introduces the three foundations of Feng Shui: He Tu, Luo Shu, and Ba Gua. This is where we get a little history lesson wrapped in Chinese metaphysics, nods to astronomical notions and the relevance of pole magnetism. Yap supplies the needed Table Charts and illustrations, a prelude to the fun stuff which awaits in future chapters.
Some of his comments should make the reader stop and contemplate the awesome origins of Feng Shui and how advanced the ancients really were. He remarks, “The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter can actually be viewed with the naked eye from Earth. In deed, it is believed that planet Jupiter (Sui Xing) has a rather big role in many Chinese Metaphysical theories.” Yap introduces the three cycles of Xuan Kong, totaling 180 years. Each of the three cycles is 60 years in length, further broken down into three 20-year Periods. This total of 9 Periods of 20 year’s duration creates the 180-year cycle, which repeats perpetually.
Expressing these time cycles from the outset, Yap lets readers know that in Flying Star Feng Shui, we tap into different energies, pertinent to the time frame we are currently in. Now the reader is prepared to learn about directions and the luo pan (Chinese Feng Shui compass). With illustrations and instructions, Yap succeeds in laying out the framework for obtaining the information needed to eventually create a flying star chart. However, it is in this chapter where I and fellow practitioners disagree with some of his protocols or diagnostic techniques.
Like others, Yap instructs readers to turn their back to the facing wall of a house, aligning the body in the same direction the house faces in order to get your compass reading. I’ve stated this elsewhere, that unless you go to painstaking care to align your body perfectly parallel to the facing wall, there is room for error in doing a compass reading this way.
If you can position your back, hips and legs parallel to the facing wall, look down at your compass and feel confident that you and your compass are not angled slightly differently, then you may get a correct reading. I just think it is much easier and more accurate to face the house or building and then align the flat side of your compass encasement with the facing wall. While looking at the two surfaces, instead of turning your back to one of those surfaces, I think you can get a better reading. It goes without saying, but doing multiple readings from various distances and on BOTH sides of the property is advised.
When you face a structure, the compass point furthest away from you is the back “sitting” side and the compass point closest to your body is the facing side. If you later tour the house and check out the back, only to discover that the house really faces the backyard side, then you still have your compass bearings to simply flip. Yap proceeds to explain how there is a difference between what direction a door faces versus the whole house, in those cases where the front door is not flush with the facing wall. Yap keenly anticipates many of the common questions which will come up for anyone new to Feng Shui.
Another area where Yap and I disagree is in how to view the facing side of an apartment within a building. Unlike a house, with its own four walls and family of occupants, the apartment building may house dozens or even hundreds of occupants (who have nothing to do with each other). He insists that each apartment should take on the same orientation as the whole building, as if each apartment were a smaller version of the building, like each bedroom in a single-family home.
It is true that all the occupants in a building may share the same entrance, perhaps even parking area and laundry facilities. But the other features to each apartment could be so unrelated to the building as a whole, that I prefer to micro-manage the individual apartment with its own orientation which might be different from the building. There are many differences and one fundamental reality which rarely gets pointed out is that Qi has intelligence and interacts with people universally in some ways, but individually in other ways.
While one practitioner may rely on one approach and another practitioner something quite different, there is the possibility that both approaches can co-exist. For example, if I am in a position to help a client choose what part of the building to occupy, I will compare the “Big Tai Ji” with the “Little Tai Ji.” This will note the flying star chart for the whole building and then a smaller chart for the apartment, which may have its own unique orientation. What we discover with practice is that even a small apartment may have compelling features which lends itself to a different orientation from the building. We then do a conscientious comparison of all the interior and exterior Yin-Yang features.
Yap gives an illustrative example on page 95 where he identifies the main door side as the facing side. This is to specifically discount the living room’s balcony side as the facing side. In this example, we also see there are windows on all four sides, indicating this is not likely an apartment (sharing a wall with another unit). However, if the wall that runs through the kitchen, bedroom 2 and bedroom 3 was a solid wall, that would be a compelling “yin” feature in relation to the more open living room/balcony side, as the most “yang” side.
The author then explains the beginning protocols for setting up a Flying Star chart. And he explains the motive for even doing this, if it was not already obvious to the reader. The Flying Star chart for any house or building is going to give us very important, but non-obvious information about how the space will affect occupants (and in very personal ways). With the uniqueness of the Flying Star chart, it can also show us WHEN various events or circumstances are likely to occur. This is what initially got me so excited about learning Flying Star Feng Shui.
The first number (star) to plot into the chart is what most practitioners call the Period Star. And usually, practitioners are referring to the Period in which the structure was built. Here Joey Yap states that the Period energy cannot be fully switched on until the first occupant moves in. He gives several examples, to make his point clear that if a property was built in 1980 (Period 6), but no one moves in until 1986 (Period 7), that the chart he will use for that property will be from Period 7. I have written at length about my objections to this Date of Occupancy theory. The author believes that it is a critical error in thinking that a flying star chart is activated before occupants move in. But let’s not get lost in semantics, such as “activated” versus “established.”
He believes that human energy needs to turn on the energy switch, (referencing back to the Heaven-Man-Earth Luck principle), but this disregards the very active human element of all the workers building the house. He even states that one person can switch on the Period energy for a large structure. Is there any variance in that? What if the person moving in is sickly and with a very weak aura? I could go on and on disputing this approach, but of course each practitioner will have their success stories to back up their methodology.
While placing so much importance on the future occupant, he discounts the enormous influence sealed into the house when the roof goes on. How about re-framing this as a compromise, to say that the flying star chart from the Period in which it was built lays “dormant” until occupants move in? In practical terms, the first occupant is naturally going to be the first one to experience the Feng Shui of the structure. One thing I can say for sure is that the Date of Occupancy theory leaves gaping holes in its premise. There are so many ways one could get a “false positive” from this as well.
We can’t ignore the fact that in the majority of the time, the first occupant will move in during the same Construction Period. Relative to all structures built, how many are built in one 20-year-long Period, not to be occupied until the next Period? Let me elaborate on this for someone new to Feng Shui. If a house was built in 1984, that was the beginning of the last Period 7, which went until February of 2004. If a first occupant moved in any time during Period 7, Joey Yap would assume that it was the move-in date and not the Construction Period which created the chart. But they would be identical charts. So, that is my example of getting a “false positive” between Construction Period versus Date of Occupancy. There are other instances of “false positives” which I go over in my teaching materials.
To put a final cap on this dispute among practitioners, I can allow for the possibility that there are overlays to a flying star chart. In my third book, The Feng Shui Continuum, I describe another type of chart that is simply a “Current Period” chart and how that can be interpreted as a shadow influence against the flying star chart from the Period it was built in. Nevertheless, the Period chart from the literal construction Era is the one that holds the most weight.
Yap then takes the reader step-by-step in how to create a full flying star chart. You can still follow these exact instructions, but it will be up to you if you want to start with a Period star based on construction or based on occupancy. He also shows how to transfer the numerical coding of a chart to a real floor plan, taking note that the floor plan may be drawn on a page differently than the conventional flying star chart format where north is on the bottom and south is on the top. He also gives an example of how to place a West-2 facing chart over what I think is an East-2 facing apartment, just to illustrate further that he considers all apartments within a building to have the same orientation as the whole building.
Here and throughout the rest of the book, Yap uses the Nine Palace Grid method to divide up the directional zones of a floor plan. I used this method myself up until about 2011. I then switched to the pie-shape sector method, which I had already been using for specific applications, reliant on correct application for a remedy needed in one of the 24 mountains. There is no other way to determine this, except with the pie-shape sector method. Aside from Eva Wong, who uses another method entirely, the majority of practitioners fall into two major camps: Nine Palace Grid method or Pie-shape Sector method.
Joey Yap, Dr. Stephen Skinner, along with Master Sang and well-known personalities like Lillian Too, all use the Nine Palace Grid method. This is the system which also lends itself well to the Eight Mansion School. The Pie-Shape sector method has been taught by current-day Masters Raymond Lo, Joseph Yu, and others from their associations, to include Master Gayle Atherton and Heluo Hill.
Yap also mentions that he prefers to refer to the mountain dragons as “sitting” stars instead of mountain stars because a whole other section of Feng Shui describes literal mountains as stars. Likewise, he prefers to term water dragons as “facing” stars because the popular phrase “water stars” can also be confusing. Master Sang had his own English conversion by calling them the “people number” and the “money number.” For others in the field, referring to a star as a “number” implies you have stripped the star from its special qualities, such as referring to the Wu direction as simply “South-2.”
In this same section on how to build a flying star chart, I do appreciate the clear Table Charts and his care in going over how to ascend or descend the flow of the stars when a 5 Period star is in the sitting or facing palace.
Yap provides all the Flying Star charts for all Periods and gives a thorough description of each flying star, 1-9, preparing readers to be able to interpret their chart. “Shan Guan Ren Ding, Shui Guan Cai,” notes the author in explaining how the sitting star impacts the health and well-being of the occupants generally speaking, while the facing star generally effects finances and career. In the scheme of things and what expectations a person might have, he states that adjustments made to sitting stars tend to show results slower than the activation of a facing star. I’m often asked how long it takes to see an energy shift, once remedies have been executed and I know it is a fair question to ask. Just so, when I put various essential oils on my scalp, I want to know when I will see new hair growth!
With Feng Shui remedies, we know that there are numerous factors or variables which will influence the speed in which results come. Aside from the fact that Feng Shui doesn’t cause everything to happen in our lives and we still put Destiny and Luck (Pillars) ahead of Feng Shui, we also have to factor in how many other feng shui features are working together or against each other. Timing is critical also since there are many overlapping time cycles. This may be why one person sees a result within days or weeks, while someone else may not see a change for a month or longer.
Included in this, Yap gives examples of how timely stars will be more or less activated by features to the outside environment. He gives classifications for mountain and water influences outside which affect the stars inside, before even getting into elemental adjustments for the interiors, (which never happens in this book).
Continuing with ideal placement of timely stars, Yap reveals the top three locations of importance for a residential setting: main door, kitchen and bedroom. I agree with these priorities, as most other practitioners do as well. He also mentions that in modern times, a lot of people don’t cook as much as they used to, so its rank in importance goes down a notch. And this is where I substitute all of the bedrooms in the house as more important than the kitchen. Likewise, a heavily used home office will easily rival the kitchen in importance.
Yap gives nuance to different examples where the facing star may be the current “wang” star, such as 8 in Period 8. For Period 8, the 9 star would be future luck and the 1 star distance future luck. These are true consolations since not every important part of the house can be shoved into one section of the floor plan. Yap offers solutions in how to compensate when the important rooms are not in good flying stars. Simply using your space differently costs nothing, such as spending more time in a positive zone of the house and/or using an alternative door as your most common entrance. In modern times, people often use a garage entrance more than a front door, so I place heavy emphasis on that more than a front door used infrequently. In my own home, the garage entrance may be used a couple times per day, whereas a back door is used possibly ten times a day to take my dog out to the backyard. Use of a space is a way to activate facing (water) stars.
That being said, many people live in apartments or rent homes where they have absolutely no control over the exteriors. This cancels the ability to place water and mountain forms outside. If they are there naturally, that may be one reason to buy or sign a lease! Next, people often don’t have the luxury of using more than one entrance or use rooms unconventionally. Because of that, I use elemental adjustments as my first line of defense, whereas Joey Yap alludes to this not being his priority or even necessary.
The next section of the book goes over how to micro-manage a room, with the goal to get the bed or study desk in the best location within the room and the stove in the best spot in the kitchen, or at least an area where the fire element from cooking can benefit the kitchen. This can be done for its own sake or to compensate for a room that is not in good flying stars.
On page 233, Yap shares a sample apartment plan with a west facing orientation. This has nothing to do with the balcony side being the side with the most windows or being the most yang side. It is based on his premise that the entire building faces west, so all the units must face the same direction. We can also look at this same plan and see the sense in calling the north side as the facing side. That is the side with the “yang” rooms all aligned: kitchen, living room and dining room, as well as the entrance. Often, bathrooms anchor the sitting side. But without context, we don’t know the real facing side.
Students are always asking questions about the influence of the flying stars and on page 235 Yap notes that a 6 facing star at the entrance is so-so energy for wealth luck when outside of Period 6, but he surprises me when he writes that one can garner wealth luck through the 6 star if they “work hard in their employment.” I don’t totally disagree. But the 6 star can attract a natural leader and that implies more of an entrepreneur, as opposed to someone who works for others. Perhaps Joey Yap is just referring to the ease in which someone can be promoted at work and take on more responsibilities due to the 6 star. He later mentions that the 1-6 combination at that door could garner even more luck because it is a He Tu pairing. This is not elaborated on, compared to Eva Wong’s first book, which gives a lot of power to the He Tu pairings, capable of over-riding other bad feng shui influences.
Yap gives a number of examples in micro-managing a bedroom with the 8-8 stars. For a sleeping room, it is the sitting star which has the biggest impact, and it is good surrounded by little activity as a “mountain” star. But the 8 facing/water star would be under-utilized in a bedroom, so he suggests placing a work desk in the same room as well. One could say that this arrangement makes the most of the room, while another opposing view is that the dual activities of the room cancel each other out. I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate here with some of the inconsistencies in the recommendations. No doubt, Joey Yap was aware of this when writing the book.
On page 245, he suggests that with a 9 facing star in a bathroom that you can spend more time there in a bathtub soaking up (all puns intended) the good prosperous Qi. This would acknowledge that future money luck (a 9 star during Period 8) is worth activating. However, you will have another camp of people warn that if a wealth star is in a bathroom, that you are “flushing” away the good Qi.
In another example on page 250, he notes that a good front door with the 8 facing star is aligned directly with the property’s driveway. He states that this is not the same level of concern in direct Qi alignment as a T-junction or the home at the end of a long cul-de-sac. And yet, he suggests moving the garage to the other side of the property. Firstly, there is nothing really wrong with a short driveway aligned with a door that hosts the major wealth star. If anything, it can stimulate the star in a good way.
Next, if the garage and driveway locations are swapped to the other side, now the main door area is blocked by the garage from getting enough Qi. In other words, we go from potentially too much Qi flow to not enough, perhaps even making the entrance area dark. This also means in the floor plan given that the living room window would be directly aligned with the driveway and could cause an unsettled feeling when sitting there.
Pages later, he recommends a water feature inside the house with the 8 facing star at the main door, to buffer the driveway’s direct Qi flow. Since Yap had also recommended a speed bump outside, I wonder why he did not just recommend a water fountain outside next to the main door. Not only does an outside water feature buffer the direct Qi flow, but it can also be a very relaxing and welcoming visual when approaching a main entrance. Even earlier in the book, he mentions outside water features and how they affect facing/water stars. This would have been a good time to describe how one adjustment can work on several things at a time.
While using the Eight Mansion style Nine Palace Grid method, Yap does not take the boundary lines created with this method as absolute and unwavering. He uses a bedroom in a floor plan on page 251 as one example where the room is split evenly between a northeast and east sector. And yet, he states that the flying stars in the Northeast take control over the whole room. I might think that was plausible if the northeast sector spanned through most of the room, but it is not even half the space. To call the whole room for the Northeast 9-5 stars (because it includes an exterior corner of the room) suggests to me that we should go with the pie-shape sector method (if the Qi is coming from this specific directional angle).
On page 255, he shows a floor plan where the master bed in the bedroom is in the best place within the room when the room is divided up into the small “Tai Ji.” And yet, it is directly aligned with the room’s door, which can be a formidable Qi flow problem. He suggests erecting a screen near the foot of the bed to block the direct Qi flow. This creates another problem, which is that most humans are wired to want to see the room’s door from their bed. And from a design standpoint, blocking a view of the bed when entering is also unsettling. What’s behind the screen? I would simply advise a client to keep their bedroom door closed at night, or partially open. This can be done easily with a doorstop and can satisfy those occupants with pets who like to come and go during the night, while their owners sleep.
On page 256, Yap writes that bedroom 2 is fine with the 9-5 stars since the 9 sitting/mountain star is good to sleep in. He states that bedroom 1 should not be used because of the 2-3 stars. Still no elemental remedies suggested at this point. I would advise a client to place metal with the 5 star, even if it is not the main operator in the room. In classic Five Element Theory, metal can reduce the earth energy of the 5 star. If a person does not have a work or study desk in their bedroom, they still might hang out in the room while awake, activating the 5 facing star.
Then, with the 2-3 star bedroom, it need not be roped off as a crime scene. The fire element can be used now for this combination in Period 9. And back in Period 8, metal could have been used here to dominate the 3 wood and reduce the 2 earth. Each practitioner attracts their own types of clients. I can tell you that if I had gained a reputation as someone who recommended that people simply not use a room, I would have been out of business right away.
With all of the suggestions for placing a bed, a desk, a door, or a stove in good flying stars, what Joey Yap has not delved into is the personal best directions based on the occupant’s birth date. Granted, this book deals with the Flying Stars and how they could impact just about anyone, regardless of birth data. But Joey does not yet even allude to that layer of analysis. However, he does mention that there are higher levels of Feng Shui to learn.
In this same chapter, Yap again references the Date of Occupancy as the Period chart to use. Honestly, I thought that the Date of Occupancy theory was based on when EACH occupant moves in, and not when the FIRST occupant moves in. I don’t know if this is the standard definition for Date of Occupancy or a variation of it. Still, this actually gives me peace of mind because we can assume MOST of the time that the first occupant moves in shortly after the structure was built. With a 20-year span for each Period, there is a good chance that year built and occupancy date will occur in the same Period. It’s not that often you will see a structure built and then left unoccupied for years, and certainly not for decades.
If Joey was doing a consultation for a client today, who moves into a house built in 1935, there may have been dozens of occupants since then. But if he adheres to the notion of the “first occupant” and the fact that we will hardly ever have a record of that, then by DEFAULT, we have to go with the Year Built. There are troubling exceptions of course, such as a house built and completed in 2023 (Period 8), but the first occupants don’t move in until 2024 (Period 9). His book also does not get into what happens to a house and the original Period chart when there are extensive additions made and the roof is opened up.
With the last few floor plan examples, Yap suggests remodeling or just relying on micro-managing the position of furnishings within the rooms which do not have good flying stars. The remodel suggestions end up creating their own awkward side effects and the repositioning of furnishings do as well, including the recommendation to have the master bed in a corner of the room just to get their bed into the 9 sitting star. Most adults want each side of the bed to at least have enough space to exit the bed, without having to crawl over the other person.
Moving a stove is not small matter either. It might necessitate remodeling the whole kitchen because each part of a kitchen (counters, appliances) are all inter-dependent. A plan he provides in the book shows the main door directly opposite a back door, Yap suggests a bar be installed between the foyer and the back exit from the dining room. How about a few tall live plants or something less conspicuous than having a bar be the first thing you see when entering the home? I just have to speak up on behalf of other Feng Shui consultants with similar sensibilities.
Awkward or expensive solutions will generate a lot of resentment and less follow-through. But most important, these kinds of changes are not even necessary. Sequels to this Xuan Kong Flying Stars Feng Shui series appear to cover what most practitioners call “Special House Types” and other stand-alone techniques. He also discusses annual and monthly stars, as well as Out of Trigram Charts. It’s not obvious if any of the follow-up books discuss elemental remedies based on Five Element Theory. In this first book in the series, he only mentioned using interior metal one time.
This book is easy to understand, written in a clear and foundational format. It more than likely inspires readers to continue their classical Feng Shui studies. Yap’s affable personality comes through in his writing, supported by user-friendly Table Charts and illustrations. In the spirit of sharing Feng Shui with the world and not following in the steps of those who have been reluctant to release information, Yap has probably produced more written materials on Chinese metaphysics than any other current-day practitioner. The caveat is that you need to already be financially well-endowed in order to afford all his books and courses.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Book Review Series
