Not Exactly a Book Review by Kartar Diamond
Just a few pages into this book, published in 1992, I put it down to go find the other Bob Sachs book I had reviewed already. That one, Nine Star Ki: Your Astrological Companion to Feng Shui, was written in 2001. Successful books often have a second edition published, some have many more editions and it can give the author a chance to make changes at those times.
As with The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feng Shui, their first edition had been directly influenced by the authors’ tutelage with Master Larry Sang. The second edition, with the same title, had a number of changes to it, based on the authors’ collaboration with Master Joseph Yu. With Bob Sachs’ books, the titles are different, so I was hoping they had different material in them.
As I scanned through them both, I realized quickly that the books are nearly identical. Why the title change? Well, they each have different publishers. My guess is that the publisher’s copyright for The Complete Guide to Nine Star Ki expired and that Sachs chose to re-publish. And it makes sense to package the book a little differently and with a new title, given that there was an explosion of interest in Feng Shui between the first and second printings of his Nine Star Ki books. It only makes sense that the second book would refer to Nine Star Ki as a “Companion to Feng Shui.” Why not? A whole new audience would be interested in Nine Star Ki, specifically because of the affiliation with Feng Shui.
In fact, most of the Nine Star Ki books I have read (and there are not that many), trace the beginnings of Nine Star Ki right there with the inception of Feng Shui and the whole of Chinese metaphysics. The luo shu is a foundational part of Nine Star Ki, as it is with Feng Shui. While Feng Shui focuses on the “place,” and Nine Star Ki focuses on the “person,” there is an overlay and the two domains borrow from each other in certain applications.
In fact, when discussing the personal Adult Natal star for the individual based on year of birth, impressions about that person are similar to how we relate to the personal gua or “trigram” in Feng Shui. Annual and monthly stars are floated throughout the luo shu chart in the same pattern and on the same time-line. However, the way we interpret those stars in each system can be quite different. This is where some Feng Shui practitioners make erroneous assumptions about Nine Star Ki, if they have not formally studied it.
And it seems that even those practitioners who have written books about Nine Star Ki, are still only revealing a portion of what Nine Star Ki has to offer. Don’t get me wrong; I have learned a lot from Bob Sachs, Jon Sandifer, Michio Kushi and Takashi Yoshikawa. And yet, their books feature only one of two major branches of Nine Star Ki.
These popular authors have described eloquently how you can understand an individual better, their personality and aptitude based on their Nine Star Ki make-up. Three numbers (stars) are produced based on the Year and Month a person was born. Additionally, you can learn how people get along or relate to each other based on their personal birth data. Some of this is based on traditional Five Element Theory, which is also integral to Feng Shui.
For the progressive or “active” part of a Nine Star Ki analysis, practitioners can look at yearly and monthly cycles and make some predictions based on what “palace” a person’s star resides in. These same authors also track the good and bad travel directions, based on similar criteria. But then it does not go much further.
When you gaze at a Kanagi Guruma chart (see below), it’s pretty obvious that there is a lot more going on, not openly obvious. In the last couple centuries, Japanese Nine Star Ki masters took this system to a whole other level from its Chinese origins. Those insights and techniques are still not available to the masses or written about in the commercial way we see from Sachs and others.
In my own studies of Nine Star Ki, I learned a whole other way to read the individual chart. For that we can call it a type of Nine Star Ki astrology. My mentor, Heluo Hill, bristles at the word “astrology” because it is only a weak approximation and not truly analogous to conventional astrology systems. For this personal reading, the palette of definitions for each star is greatly expanded and has little to do with Wu Xing.
For example, it would be typical for some Nine Star Ki practitioners to assume that if a 3 “Tree” person (aka 3 Wood) is positioned annually in the Northwest palace (not a literal location), there could be some kind of conflict or oppression since Northwest is related to the Metal element and “metal destroys wood.” Well, that is not how we look at it from my training.
Instead, if anyone’ star is in the Northwest Palace, it can indicate that the person may rise to a higher level of power, they may receive acknowledgement and accolades for their work and accomplishments. They may also have to deal with legal issues. They may have health issues related to the Qian 6 metal star. That would be true for anyone who is in the Northwest palace for the year, or for a month. This is just the tip of the iceberg because we can fill in other parts of the story when comparing the stars which reside in the polar opposite direction of Northwest which is Southeast.
Here is a link to an article I wrote about a Nine Star Ki cycle that is very telling in terms of what kind of year or month a person may experience. But nothing about this has been written in any conventionally published commercial books on Nine Star Ki:
https://fengshuisolutions.net/what-is-a-reversed-luo-shu-axis-by-kartar-diamond/
Another branch of Nine Star Ki deals with global divination, such as things which happen on a wider scale and affect many people. This is not the type of training I have ever seen in published books, to date. (I might have that book come out of me one day). For example, in 2026 the “Luo Shu Trend” for the year is the 1 Water Annual star. This can indicate more instances of water-related events, be that a heavier rainy season, hurricanes, floods, or things related to water such as islands or ships. At the time of this writing, the world has just endured the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strain on the global economy. Prior, the U.S. military was blowing up small boasts involved with drug-running. Nine Star Ki can see in advance what kinds of natural disasters, industries or political situations may manifest.
Here is another example regarding predictions for events which could affect many people, a country or the world:
https://fengshuisolutions.net/nine-star-ki-and-ufo-alien-disclosure-by-kartar-diamond/
I have a Section on my Website Blog, archiving articles on Nine Star Ki, where I pick timely and universal topics to discuss, including examples in U.S. politics or the global COVID pandemic.
In both of Bob Sachs’ books, he puts out the welcome mat and definitely lays the ground work for anyone to appreciate Nine Star Ki and its basic premise. If you can get either book, you will be fascinated and also see the complementary links with Feng Shui. It may not be the “complete” guide, but it is definitely the opening chapters. Should anyone find themselves intrigued with Nine Star Ki and want to learn more, I can tell you there is a lot more to learn and explore, including my own current two-part Introduction to Nine Star Ki Case Study series.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Book Review Blog Series
