The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feng, Second Edition, was published in 2002 and co-written by Elizabeth Moran, Val Biktashev and Master Joseph Yu. Originally, Elizabeth and her husband Val were students of Master Larry Sang. The first edition of their book closely mirrored the curriculum for Master Sang’s school, the now defunct American Feng Shui Institute.
Some years later, Val and Elizabeth began studying with Master Joseph Yu and changes were made in the second edition of the book, reflecting some of the differences between the styles taught by Masters Sang and Yu.
This was quite a coveted publishing deal, to be part of the Complete Idiot’s Guide series, as much as the Dummies books or the Chicken Soup for the Soul empire. With 25 chapters, I can forgive the authors for using the first few chapters to discuss other topics only loosely related to Feng Shui. Like a pep talk, they set the tone for what’s to come, explaining the differences between the historical Eastern versus Western way of life and thinking. It’s smart to highlight complementary fields and principles, before attempting to present Feng Shui as a universal, natural earth science and not let the unaware cast it off as a culture-specific superstition.
While some of the material in the book might seem like interesting “filler,” I know that when one writes for a book series, the author(s) might be required by the publisher to present a certain number of pages, chapters, length of chapters and sub-chapter sections. The look and feel of the book must be similar, whether it’s an Idiot’s Guide to Feng Shui or any of the other titles the series produced.
When their book came out, it was a relief for many classically trained feng shui practitioners and teachers as we could endorse a best-selling traditional Feng Shui book, distinct from the mountain of Black Hat offerings already filling the shelves at Barnes & Noble booksellers.
The authors provide a brief overview of Confucianism and Daoism. They refer to several ancient texts, Chinese philosophers and the classical oracle, which went through revisions before it became the Yi jing, Book of Changes. It presents fundamental concepts integral to Feng shui, especially the Eight Trigrams, described as representations of “transitional stages of all possible natural and human situations.” This emphasizes an expanded dimension for readers, that the trigrams do change, compared to perfunctory explanations where trigrams are “labeled” this or that, such as Li=Fire or the middle daughter.
Thorough and thoughtful explanations continue as this book is in no rush to get to the mechanics or the formulas, unlike other feng shui primers which skip over history or how Feng Shui was such a natural and inevitable outgrowth of the whole body of Qi studies.
In a solid chapter defining aspects of Qi, the authors take a moment to describe not only sheng Qi and sha Qi, but also the sub-sets of strong Qi versus weak Qi. They are not necessarily opposites. For example, in a stuffy house with poor ventilation, the Qi may be weak. Strong Qi is not automatically deemed positive, just as rapidly, raging water may be too strong and overpowering, if not annoying for its crashing sound.
Even the most skeptical person needs to only look at nature, to see order and predictable cycles: to appreciate that Heaven, Earth and Human Qi are all at work in a myriad of forms. While not provable by scientific means, everyone has feelings, hunches, and intuition which later prove to be correct. Animals can smell cancer; Qi can be identified in both concrete and ethereal ways.
Next comes a chapter on Yin and Yang, which the reader has already been prepared for since so many examples of Qi fall into ratios of yin and yang as well. From there, it is a natural progression to introducing the Five Phases. Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal as elements are also aspects of Yin and Yang. Still water (yin) has different influences compared to moving water (yang). As noted by the authors, water also takes on various forms: ice, snow, steam and fog. The Five Elements (Transformations) have distinct Qi traits as they list: “Fire qi radiates, earth qi compacts, metal qi contracts, water qi falls and wood qi grows upward.”
With this intentional role out of Feng Shui, we are next introduced to the Eight Trigrams, which are also different manifestations of the Five Elements, such as with the Zhen trigram for Hard Wood versus the Xun Trigram for Soft Wood, Qian for Hard Metal compared to Dui for Soft Metal, etc. The trigrams are also types of Qi for their yin and yang qualities.
The trigrams possess their inherent binary coding, explained by the authors with historical references, such as the correspondence between 17th century German philosopher-mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz and a Jesuit missionary, Father Joachim Bouvet, stationed in China. They shared their “mystical calculations” on binary numeration directly from the Yi Jing’s hexagram symbols. Scholars from around the world have been intrigued by this numerological divination system, and the authors wet our lips to investigate The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the I-Ching (Yi Jing), which was written by Master Joseph Yu.
In the chapter titled Understanding Your Environment, the book covers classic Qi flow observations for the larger environment (outside influences), including land levels, lot shapes, and street alignments. I like that they showed with illustrations the difference between a road that wraps lightly around part of a property (good), compared to a road that circles tightly around almost a whole property, forming the shape of a noose (bad).
The smaller environment with house shapes, room shapes, window and door placement follows. While explaining what kinds of environments are ideal versus those to avoid, the only thing lacking in this chapter is remedies for the flawed environments.
The chapter introducing The Eight Mansion (Ba Zhai) School is more thorough than most beginner’s books. The authors call it Eight House feng shui and unlike most books they mention that monk Yi Xing created the Eight House method at the “request” of Emperor Xuan Zong during the Tang dynasty. Many feng shui practitioners do not know the origin of the Ba Zhai school, nor the controversy where he assigns a female gua (trigram) that is different than the trigram for males born in the same year. What I heard was that it was more of a mandate from the Emperor than a request. The goal was to undermine the Mongolian Empire and gift them a book on Eight House feng shui, with unsuspecting alterations made.
The chapter moves on to instruct in how to calculate your personal trigram, leaving the “female” gua intact and showing how the trigrams change their lines to reveal the top four best personal directions and bottom four worst personal directions. They give examples, such as using your best personal directions for seated work-station positions and for sleeping.
While the personal trigram is based on birth year, what follows is the method for determining the Eight House types based on SITTING direction and how to interpret the influences on the person with their house. The authors admit this is a simple school of Feng Shui and anyone familiar with this knows that finding perfect compatibility with your own home (or people in your life) is not likely.
They give pointers in how to determine what is the facing side versus sitting side of your house or apartment, but it’s just a quick run-down and not a thorough explanation. As well, they give a quick review on how to take a compass reading, thankfully asking readers to do their compass reading outside the structure. However, illustrations showing a compass reading have a person standing with their back to the front of a house. This might appear reasonable: that a person could face the same direction as their home and simply look down at their compass for the correct reading. I still advise people to FACE the structure.
By facing the structure, you are going to be more accurate in your compass reading, lining up the straight edge of the compass parallel to the facing wall of the house instead of having your back turned to it. You could be 5 or more degrees off with your back turned, which could be detrimental on a higher level of compass reading.
And to be clear, you can also do a reading at the back of the house, then facing the possible facing side of the house (such as toward the street). On page 136, there is a typo where it states that if your house faces 330 degrees, your house “belongs to the Li trigram.” 330 degrees is Northwest, so the back of the house would be Southeast (Xun trigram.) These kinds of mistakes are inevitable since there are no professional editors who are also feng shui practitioners.
Not a typo, but a contradiction, on page 139, they show various house shapes and how to find the geometric center. Illustration A shows a house with a missing facing sector and they say it’s no big deal (i.e. missing sectors are not necessarily a concern). But on page 103 the authors show a similar shaped house, missing either a sitting or facing sector and they say this is a major flaw. A house with a missing sitting sector can attract an occupant with “no back bone.”
Next come chapters giving step-by-step instruction in how to create a Flying Star chart, taking into account when a structure has been built and its precise compass alignment. We jump from eight basic directions to twenty-four directions a house can sit or face. The authors invite the reader to practice creating a chart and compare it with the section showcasing all the Period charts possible. In the classroom, this is a section of learning that might take a half day of instruction, so that students can acclimate to the most tricky part, which is when to fly the stars in a descending or ascending order.
In describing the four major house types, the authors mention something that not all feng shui writers do; it’s commendable that they point out a house does not remain one of the Four Major House Types into perpetuity. For the house that is still in its original Construction Period, they note that you can and should enhance the exteriors with the proper placement of Water and Mountain forms. They even go as far to say that a Wang Shan Wang Shui house is not all it’s cracked up to be without the support of Mountain in the sitting and Water in the facing. The implication is that the Wang Shan Wang Shui house type cannot fully realize its potential to have a great influence on the occupants, unless the outside environment supports it. This is different from other schools which tout the goodness of the Wang Shan Wang Shui house, with or without the ideal outside forms, as if they are just frosting on the cake.
Also unique to a commercial book on the Flying Stars, they mention that a house with a compass reading landing right on the line between two distinct directions is a special house type, to be investigated outside the scope of their book. Here they are alluding to the Out of Trigram house type and the Borderline Compass Reading charts to be used instead.
Next comes a section on how to interpret the Flying Stars, where there are three main players: Time Star (also called Period Star), Mountain Star and Water Star (also referred to as Mountain Dragon and Water Dragon). There are 9 stars paired up with each other to produce 81 possibilities. These lists are interesting for what they DON’T have in common, as in the unique interpretations by each practitioner. I agree with almost all the interpretations, as I did with Dr. Stephen Skinner’s list in his flying star book. And yet, I’d like to highlight just a few pairings they cover, for their non-obvious agendas.
I don’t recall any other flying star authors interpret the 1-2 combination as causing traffic accidents. More often, the pairing is noted for causing marital problems, miscarriage, bleeding and accidents in a general sense. Traffic accidents are very specific and one might otherwise attribute the 6 star (heavy metal like a car) as being one of the culprits. Outside of Periods 9, 1, and 2: the 2 star is associated with dumb or risky behavior, so perhaps that is what can lead to the traffic accident.
Also non-obvious is the interpretation of a 1-6 combination leading to nervous breakdown. The 6 star is universally associated with power and authority. Initially, we see this combination as “Productive” with metal nurturing water. However, inherent in a Productive cycle of Elements is also the Reductive Cycle. Here we can see the stars from another angle, where the 1 water is empowered at the 6 metal star’s expense. Water drains metal in the Reductive cycle. And this might be why the powerful person is drained, leading to mental and physical exhaustion.
The 2-9 combination has been regarded as an indicator that the occupant is lacking a few brain cells, but now that we are in Period 9, the impact of the 2 star will increase in positivity until the end of the next Period 2 in 2084. As well, the interpretations of these 81 star pairings lean heavily on how we would view them back in Period 7 and Period 8, not for all time.
Worthy of further elaboration is the 4-5 combination, noted by the authors for such specific things as plagiarism and breast tumor. The 4 star can support a writer’s creativity and output, so we assume here that the 5 star pairing will poison the good nature of the 4 star. We also normally associate the 7 star with the breasts, but here we can glean from the 4-5 combination that the 4 star in other applications relates to the respiratory region, where the breasts just happen to cover. Similarly, the authors list the 4-6 and 4-7 combinations as potentially causing physical injuries to a woman. With the 4 star related to the Eldest Daughter as a trigram and the 4 star symbolic of the lower part of the body (including pelvic region), we can extrapolate such an interpretation.
We usually regard the 6-8 combination as sublime and benign, especially in Period 8, being “wealth stars.” But we can also give it the nuance that the authors did by stating it can create obstinacy. How? Well, the 6 star can fuel a powerful person and the 8 star represents a mountain which doesn’t budge.
The 9-4 or 4-9 combination is often described as positive and nurturing for a creative (4) and intelligent (9) child. So, why would they “fail their examinations” as a very specific outcome? The 9 star is bright, but showy. The 4 star is creative, but driven with sexual undertones. This combination could produce the “class clown” or the kid we all knew who was obviously very gifted, but couldn’t sit still in school or just found other things more interesting than studying. This energy probably contributed to some of the world’s most well-known tech moguls and innovators, some of whom were college drop-outs.
This chapter also highlights the use (by some practitioners) of the Time Star as more than just an excuse to produce the Mountain and Water Stars throughout the chart. In their lists, the Time Star is a more active participant in the choice of which element to use as an enhancer or mediator for all three stars. This appears to be mostly Master Joseph Yu’s contribution to the second edition, as Master Sang’s school did not emphasize the Time Star to this extent and really only noted it for the Special House Types.
In the Practical Applications chapter, the authors feature a married couple, and how they could decide between two homes that are both south-facing. However, there is a 30 degree difference in orientation, making one chart South-1 and the other home has a South-3 chart. We get a flipped version of the flying star chart with the second example, and the 30-degree shift in orientation also shows how important it is to take a precise compass reading and use the pie-shape sector method. Because of this, the comparative illustration shows how the bed in the primary bedroom lands in the northeast for the first example and more in the east for the second example. (Using the Nine Palace Grid method would have shown the bed in the same location). The authors also provide an overlay of using the Ba Zhai method to judge the personal compatibility the occupants could have with the house example.
More than once in this book, the authors suggest adding a hedge to the outside of a property to emulate a virtual mountain when needed. A hedge is a row of plants or a bush. They never mention using elevated earthen hardscapes, like a brick wall or even placing large boulders where the mountain energy is needed. A hedge just seems like an inferior choice compared to something made of actual earthen materials.
Additionally, when a house needs water on the outside, they not only recommend a fountain or pond, but oddly suggest “lawn sprinklers.” This is strange coming from these highly trained authors. Lawn sprinklers do not supply a continuous flow of water and the water also needs to pool in a specific location to work as a remedy (and not disappear into the ground).
Their case study analysis is a very helpful guide for readers, but they don’t distinguish the hierarchy of importance between different areas of the floor plan. They give equal weight to the bathroom and kitchen compared to the bedroom, entrance or home office. In the floor plan chosen, the home office lands in an area that is not good according to the flying stars (no house is perfect). The authors suggest the occupants can have a desk in the bedroom. This is a big no-no for many feng shui professionals. I’m not rigid on the principle of not having an office in a bedroom, but the floor plan shows another obvious possibility where the owner could instead have their desk in a positive corner of the living room. My goal is NOT to nit-pic; rather, to comment on details which both a beginner and a seasoned practitioner may question.
In the chapter on Office Feng Shui, the authors reinforce the practice of creating a flying star chart and superimposing it over a floor plan. We get a Before and After list of recommendations which includes changing the entrance so that the Qi is ushered into the business through better flying stars for Period 7. This also solves the problem of the receptionist’s desk being too directly aligned with the entrance and also blocking the Qi flow through the interior space. Workers in cubicles get an aisle space between the rows to facilitate better Qi flow and the company owner gets to switch his private office into a room with flying stars that can serve him better in Periods 8 and 9. They also go through each directional zone with element recommendations. The only inconsistency is their emphasis on the Time Star in one direction and not in another.
The remainder of the book is an introduction to one form of Chinese Astrology called the Four Pillars of Destiny (Ba Zi). The other, less popular form of Chinese Astrology is called Zi Wei Dou Shu. Chinese astrology is very complementary to Feng Shui and a fair number of Feng Shui practitioners incorporate Chinese astrology into their consultations as well.
The last nearly one hundred pages of the book are instructional in how to set up a Four Pillars Chart and how to determine such things as the strength of your “Day Master” based on the day you were born, influenced by other information gathered, to include month and year of birth. Clearly, this is just an introduction and it does not try to corroborate feng shui applications with the insight gained from Chinese astrology. While it’s admirable that the authors chose to give readers some foundational information about Chinese Astrology, those last few chapters might have been put to better use in giving more Feng Shui case study examples. A newbie to Feng Shui and Five Element Theory might get further confused by the different way the elemental “phases” are interpreted in a personal Ba Zi chart.
The tone of this book is very encouraging, humorous and personable. That being said, some of the material is now dated, with pop culture references from more than 20+ years ago. Learning the step-by-step manual calculations are imperative for any serious feng shui practitioner or Chinese astrologer, although as you can imagine by now, there are on-line and software programs which produce these charts instantly. I can highly recommend The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feng Shui, as a stand-alone beginner’s Feng Shui manual, but it might also be integrated even easier, along with a small collection of other books to reinforce the theories and techniques presented. All the information bears repeating.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Book Review Blog Series
