Most Xuan Kong Flying Star Schools teach that you can evaluate a house based on its compass orientation in conjunction with the year of Construction. The house then takes on a “Flying Star” chart and is associated with having been built in a certain Period. These different Periods are twenty years in length. For example, a house built between 1944-1964 is a Period 5 house.

The house is then remedied according to the energies it assumed at the time it was built.
I have found this to be very predictably accurate and I have a fair amount of experience evaluating properties according to when they were built, having assessed nearly 5,000 structures in the first twenty years of my practice.

Then there are a number of ways in which the original energies of a house can be changed, such as when a house undergoes a radical remodel, an extensive fire or a major portion of the roof is opened to the sky. Certainly when a house is moved from one location to another, it is like a new house being built very quickly on the new land where it is placed.

There is another theory taught in at least one Feng Shui system and some speculate that it might be one of the false Feng Shui schools, in other words, a theory put forth and perpetuated by practitioners from ages ago, who did not want the knowledge of Feng Shui to be available to just anyone.

There are a few false schools and some practitioners don’t realize that they were devised specifically to confuse people or put them on the wrong path. We take for granted that so much Feng Shui information is available and accessible in modern times to whoever wants this information. But historically, this was not the case.

This alternate calculation on a house is based on when the occupant moves in, regardless of when the house or building was built. I don’t believe this is an accurate way to diagnose a house in the times when I have done a comparative study. But this is also a conclusion that would not reveal itself all of the time, in the case of a person moving into a house during the same Period it was built. As an example, if a Period 7 house is any house built between 1984-2004 and an occupant moves into that house during its original construction Period, then the Period of Construction and the Date of Occupancy would be the same. The calculations would be the same.

The Date of Occupancy theory also doesn’t address the issue of occupants moving in and out of a larger building. Would a practitioner from that school calculate one suite from one Period and another from another Period, just based on when people are moving in and out? And how long would someone need to stay in a place in order for them to change the flying star chart? Some say the occupants have to move out for three months, along with all their possessions. Can a guest in a hotel change the Period chart of their hotel room? All of these hypothetical situations are giving a lot of power to people, to control the energies, but my experience is that the space has more power over the individual.

Of course, some of the very simplified schools don’t even factor in time, so they are off the hook from determining one way or the other. It is not their concern.

I live in Los Angeles and I see houses built in many different Periods, where there may have been occupants coming and going every decade. As an example, I visit a lot of Period 4 homes, built between 1924-1944. The occupants who live in them now, many of whom moved into them in the last twenty years, are still being influenced by the original energies. In fact, another testimony to the year of Construction being the most substantial and accurate way to diagnose a property is that each Period has some personality traits that often match the occupants no matter when they move in.

Period 4 Houses, as an example, have a strong “4” energy in their soul and this is associated with art, music, writing, acting and many other creative professions. It is overwhelming how many people in the entertainment industry live in these homes. If these homes were to be evaluated according to when the occupants moved in, they would be having a very different influence. The remedies that I recommended to the clients based on the year of construction would not have worked so well. All the feedback over the years has made me have pretty strong convictions about this technical, critical aspect to an evaluation.

Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R) Since 1992
From the Feng Shui Theory Series