Book Review by Kartar Diamond
Published in 1991, and in re-reading this book decades later, I feel nostalgic for the time when authors like Derek Walters contributed to the initial Feng Shui books in English. These are books, written by sincere authors who practiced or studied feng shui, but without all the extra New Age adaptations which later became the norm.
Like Stephen Skinner, Walters presents the information in a logical progression, with historical references, emphasizing the importance of the natural and exterior landscape first. In describing how to interpret the surface and undulations of a mountain, he writes “the veins of the Dragon are usually formed over the centuries by being the channels for excess water at a time of great flooding. Though they may become streams only once every score or so, they have been carved over the ages and are silent indicators of where future flooding may occur.” This highlights how land surveying and geological studies were an integral part of feng shui and also reveals attention to common sense: i.e. Don’t build on a lovely spot which could eventually become a flood or fire hazard. Compare this to modern architectural wonders which sometimes defy their immediate surroundings, just because they can.
In discussing the land and ch’i (breath, air, gas, favorable currents), he informs readers that the ch’i (Qi) we track inside a home is partially fueled by a well-positioned “Dragon hill,” or outside features which should never be disregarded. Walters also covers the Five Elements briskly, pointing out that they have nothing in common with the four western “elements.”
He does also assign the four seasons and four directions to the Elements, with the fifth element of earth representing the “center.” We venture into debatable territory when assigning the seasons to directions, such as equating south to summer. This only holds true in the Northern Hemisphere. Whenever an author defines the seasons (for the whole planet) based on the Northern Hemisphere, it provides an opening for the largely unsupported “Southern Hemisphere Theory.” It also makes me wonder if there was ever a time when all the continents were in the Northern Hemisphere, prior to Continental Drift.
He assigns the agreed shapes to the elements and compares the symbolic element of an environment with the shape of a building. This can reveal whether the occupants inside the building are empowered or drained by this collaboration. He shares nuances such as the Earth type location (flat land) with a fire type building (sharp pointy roof line). Since fire is drained by earth, one might suppose that this is not a good building for the occupants. However, unlike a residence, in a commercial setting such as a hospital or school, the building’s inclination to benefit or energize the land will also benefit the community at large.
Walters offers brief descriptions for the pairing of each environment (representing one of the five elements) with a building that represents one of the five elements. This is interesting information and may occasionally be useful to the feng shui practitioner if they are involved in land selection for a client or have a say in the style of a building in the design phase. The tricky part of this layer of analysis is that it is common for an environment and the building to be a mixture of elemental influences. Using Walter’s methodology, we see in the photo of the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the building material is over the top metal, but the irregular shape could be defined as “water.” The much taller column-like buildings around it would be categorized as “wood.”
If I use my own current home as an example, the front part of my house has a very significantly angled roof line, representing the fire element. The back half of the house has a flat roof, representing the earth element. It would also be possible for an exterior environment to have more than one elemental feature, such as metal shaped mountains with tall columnar trees (wood element) in the foreground. This reminds me of Chinese face reading, where the shape of a face could be defined by more than one element.
The author includes a list of different businesses which can benefit from a certain style of architecture. Most traditional consultants would welcome the opportunity to add this knowledge to a design project. Walters spends many pages on these observations, so it stands out as one of the unique features of his book.
In describing the Pre-Heaven and Post-Heaven sequences of the Luo Shu, the author mentions, aside from their origins, that one usually sees the Pre-Heaven Sequence on talismans and ba’ gua mirrors. This makes sense since these are the more transcendental or symbolic “cures,” tapping into other realms. The Post-Heaven Sequence relates more to how life is on Earth.
On page 102 there is a big mistake, which I had heard was corrected many years ago in a second printing of his book. Walters describes the Eight Basic House types with their associated trigram names, but he uses the facing side instead of the sitting side to name the house type’s trigram. For example, he lists the Li House as facing South, when a Li House “sits” (back to) South. It is the backbone, the spine, the back of a house which defines its real character.
He then describes the portents for each of the eight directions within a house type. These definitions are conventional in their descriptions, but they are located incorrectly on his charts. He refers to this as the “Compass” School because directions are the noteworthy part. However, he does not elucidate on this being the Eight Mansion/Ba Zhai School.
Next comes his section on how to determine the personal “ming gua” or personal trigram. He refers to it only as the “Natal number” and this is where his instructions get convoluted and confusing. At a beginner’s level, there is no need to include a Table Chart for when each month starts. Suffice it to say that the Natal Number is assigned to year of birth, with the awareness that the Feng Shui Solar calendar begins @ February 4th each year. (not the lunar calendar).
I’m not bothered by Walters using the popular “female” gua method, which gives females a different gua/trigram as males born in the same year. I used that method for nearly two decades before switching to the older system. However, there are errors in his examples of the “Natal Number,” such as listing a man born in 1957 as “1” when it should be “7.”
The author has a section where he compares the individual’s “natal” element with the inherent element associated with each direction. This is a valid layer to consider and a big part of the Eight Mansion School (Ba Zhai). The problem is that these examples will also contradict within the basic Ba Zhai School.
For example: An East Group person (like a Li person) should be comfortable, productive, or happy in any of the East Group directions (North, South, East, Southeast). Instead, he uses a more specific example such as a Li-fire type person being dominated by dwelling in the North-Water direction, obviously because water destroys fire. Adding to the frustration, with those familiar with Eight Mansions, is that the North sector of a house will have a different influence (portent) in an East Group House versus a West Group house.
There are really three different impressions to reconcile here: The location of good and bad portents in the house based on orientation, the fixed elements associated with each direction, and the personal best/worst directions for the individual. He does try to separate these features, but for the beginner, this is going to end with a lot of frustration over the inevitable contradictions. Never mind what happens when you try to accommodate more than one person in the same house!
This is one reason why I have largely abandoned using the Eight Mansion School since it also contradicts much of the Flying Star School. With The Eight Mansion method, you strive to position yourself in good directions, but if you are forced to dwell in the inauspicious areas, you are stuck. In the Flying Star School you can adjust the unseen flying stars and not have to move to another area, especially since that is often impractical to do.
On page 139 of my edition, Walters puts forth something that appears borrowed from Nine Star Ki, in a brief section about good and bad travel directions. And yet, Nine Star Ki does not determine travel directions in that same generic manner. The author is relying on Eight Mansion notions regarding the Easterly Group and Westerly group directions. This is not how it is done in Nine Star Ki, but it reminds me of other misconceptions that Feng Shui practitioners have about Nine Star Ki when they have not studied it.
It gets more confusing in Chapter 7 when Walters introduces the idea that there is a “third” School of Feng Shui, not like the Form School or Compass School, but more reliant on folk beliefs and practices. He rightly states, “the use of cheap bamboo flutes, faceted crystal pendants, tinkly trinkets, and other bric-a-brac is a latter day response to counter all kinds of ominous Feng Shui circumstances. They are mentioned for the sake of completeness, but it should be remembered that these folksy remedies are not part of the great traditions of Feng Shui…” His statement is well appreciated, but the chapter continues with examples of design flaws, and their solutions, without it being clear if these are the folk remedies that readers should not take seriously or if these are solutions which he actually endorses.
In a sub-section on “Rectifying an Imbalance of Elements,” he describes exterior scenarios, where the adjustments in response are made inside the dwelling. For example, if an exterior site is too “woodsy,” we know in theory that fire weakens wood. But we don’t address the outside woodsy environment by burning a candle inside the house. The outside does affect the inside, but not exclusively. And the inside affects the outside even less.
And would a small décor addition inside a house really handle a big feature outside? If you live too close to the ocean (many have), is placing ceramic (earth element) décor in the house going to “dominate” the water Qi of the ocean and keep it from overwhelming the occupants? I don’t think so. Perhaps Walters is here describing the kinds of folk remedies that don’t work, but it’s not explicitly stated.
Next, the author covers some examples of ideal Qi flow via the “Water Pattern School.” After having discussed the dragon veins and importance of mountains, he rightly pivots to another manifestation of Qi, highlighting principles from the ancient book known as the Water Dragon Classic. The voluminous examples contained in this treatise are mostly variations on a few themes. Those themes include how water should ideally flow past a site, coming from certain directions and angles, where the water pools and how it exits. One can almost intuit the ideal Qi flow without much formal training.
In a chapter titled More Advanced Feng Shui, Walters explains why this section has taken a backseat to the other Feng Shui diagnostic techniques he’s presented thus far. While the use of the compass (Feng Shui Luo pan) is a complex instrument, I don’t like his excuses for mentioning it so late in the book, claiming that a) it’s mostly used to determine where to lay the foundation of a new structure or b) more frequently used for the orientation of graves. This is not only dismissive, but inaccurate. The luo pan compass is an essential, high-level tool used for existing homes and buildings. In fact, he goes on to describe the various rings of the luo pan compass and its use to locate the auspicious and inauspicious areas of a floor plan already in existence.
As he was a Chinese astrologer, perhaps more than a Feng Shui practitioner, I value his descriptions of the luo pan where he points out the astrologically based rings and the footnote about Buddhist monks in the 7th century creating the animal names for the Twelve branches of the Chinese zodiac. He also mentions that the Ten Stems of Chinese astrology appear related to a long ago 10-day week.
The “Diviner’s Board” with Chinese astrology symbols has been excavated from at least one tomb dating back to the first or second century B.C. This means that the Chinese geomancers had formulated notions about time and space, centuries before they invented the magnetic compass. While this chapter on the compass does not supply the reader with a lot of practical applications, it does show how the multiple overlapping divisions of the compass directions could easily outrank the more simple Ba Zhai method he introduced in the beginning of the book.
In the closing chapters, Walters devotes pages to commercial properties and how the astute practitioner will factor in the type of business being evaluated, not the least of which is whether the business manufactures a product on site, sells physical items or other intangible services. And obviously, there would be different priorities for a doctor’s office versus a retail store. He also recommends, like other consultants, that Five Element Theory can be relevant depending on what element the business is most influenced by, such as a publishing house (wood element for paper) or a jewelry store (metal element for gold), etc.
What’s unfortunate is that he continues with the mistake made at the beginning of the book in describing which “portents” will influence different areas of a business, such as relegating a storage room to the “Five Ghosts” sector or cautioning against the “Severed Fate” portent for any area with heavy, dangerous machinery. In theory, these concepts are fairly sound (within the limitations of the Ba Zhai School), but the identification of the building types is once again noted for the facing side when it should be the sitting side. One who is already trained in the Ba Zhai School can decode this very easily and still get some use out of the chapter in relation to commercial properties.
It should be mentioned also that there might be confusion over the “facing” direction of a singular door, which the author also assigns a portent to and this might get into a gray area among different Schools of Feng Shui. There is a difference between “direction” and “location” which is not always clearly highlighted. For example, you could have a building that faces East, with a front door smack in the middle of the east facing wall. This would be a door in the east sector that is also facing east. There are variations, however, such as a door off to the side of an east facing building. Perhaps the door is also facing east, but over in the northeast sector of the building. Which portent do we then assign to the door?
Additionally, you might have an east facing building (West sitting), with a door along the east wall, but within the northeast sector of the floor plan and that door might be angled 90 degrees so that people actually enter through it from the north side. These are details which have to be explained on a regular basis, including situations where someone is trying to avoid having their back to the yearly Tai Sui when entering a house or building.
The last chapter discusses how to conduct a home survey, with charts and forms handy for reproduction. Some of the advice repeats rather rigid notions, such as having the family members sit at a dining room table in the directional order of the Eight Trigrams. I don’t mind feng shui details or nuances, like this one, but when they substitute much more important principles, which could change a person’s life, it’s just frustrating to read.
In other examples, he notes that bedrooms for young people should have an east-facing window or that a bed should not receive direct southerly sunlight since it is a yang force. Well, what about the fact that most people lay down to sleep after the sun has set? Is the bed still an “electric blanket” of yang energy throughout the night? The most disappointing part is that the closing chapter implies that the reader is ready to consult professionally, with all their charts and surveys ready to go. It would have been more responsible to encourage readers to continue their studies if his book had inspired that spark to investigate feng shui further.
I do value all the traditional Feng Shui authors who were part of the first “wave” of books to educate the public about such an historically cloistered topic. However, the mistakes made in the uncorrected edition of this book could really set someone on the wrong path. Other books do a better job of describing the Eight Mansion (Ba Zhai) School and other books cover similar information when it comes to Form School principles.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Book Review Blog Series
