All of you receiving the School Newsletter are in the Beginner’s Module or have been in the past. In Chapter 4 of Feng Shui for Skeptics, pages 71-77 give definition to this principle of the house going through a period called a Locked Phase. It is worth it to re-read it as many times as it takes for those of you who may have some blind spot about it, especially the process for how to determine if a house is in a locked phase or not.

I have written articles for the general public about what the term means and there are several areas in my books which go over it as well. And, there is even an advanced Case Study called “All the Remedies for a Locked Phase.”

As a student, you will be tested on three different aspects of the Locked Phase, and being adept in each area will be indispensable to you as a consultant, teacher, or article writer in the Feng Shui field.

First and foremost, just the awareness of a Locked Phase puts you in a higher category of practitioner. Many consultants who have little training do not know what a Locked Phase is and it can be a big ticket item for helping people. And this is the “concept” part: all houses go through cycles when they are not as supportive as other times for the occupants. No house or building can be in a locked phase forever, but when it is currently in a locked phase, the occupants almost always experience it. As you learn and experience more, you will see how other aspects of feng shui can mitigate the locked phase or make it worse. And this is a general Feng Shui truth: Rarely is it one feng shui flaw which creates something drastically bad for the occupants. It is usually several combined influences.

Structures of any kind, residential or commercial, can go through a one year cycle OR a 20 year cycle when they are “locked” for health or money. The singular word “health” can imply physical, emotional or relationship health. “Locked” for money is when that cycle can undermine or cause stagnation in someone’s career, income or any professional pursuits.

The “mechanics” part, how to determine if a house is in a locked phase, is the part which confuses some beginner students. The concept of course is easy to understand. But when you are new to looking at floor plans, new to identifying compass directions, and new to the concept of Sitting and Facing, then the mechanical part can be the most challenging to get. There are actually a couple of ways to determine if a house is in a locked phase, but one is a beginner’s approach which does not require you to know how to create a full Flying Star Chart. It does however, require that you be familiar with the 9 different Construction Periods in which a house can be built in.

Once you know the number associated with the Construction Period, you can position the numbers 1 through 9 in a sequence of directions that never changes. The Construction Cycle Number is usually called the “Period Star” and all the other numbers plotted out in the defined directional pattern can also be referred to as Period Stars in their respective directional sectors. Once you get to the point when you are placing more than one star/number in each direction, it is imperative to be clear about which one you are referring to. It is a conventional practice for Flying Star practitioners to place the Period star below the “Mountain Star” and “Water Star” which often have a dash line between them.

The initial Star, from which all the other stars are derived is the Period Star. On pages 74 and 75 you see examples of the Period Stars being placed in sequential order according to the Flying Star pattern that is used over and over again: center, to NW, to W, to NE, to S, to N, to SW, to E and to SE.

Some students are getting confused about directions and that will create an error in your determinations. This is why on page 74, I show three examples of charts where the facing side is toward the bottom of the page. But you also see that Fig. 4-3 is west facing, Fig. 4-4 is south facing, and Fig. 4-5 is southwest facing. You will come to the wrong conclusions if you think that every feng shui chart will be facing north or south and drawn on a page with north or south towards the top of the page. These examples are showing how in real life, you will be super-imposing the gridding of a house according to its actual sitting and facing directions.

And you can draw that house on paper or a drawing board any which way you want, as long as you have the directions correct. In other words, I can draw an east facing house with the facing side toward the top of the page, the bottom of the page or either side. Identifying the other accurate directions for that same floor plan will just have to be consistent in relation to the sitting and facing directions. For example, a beginner could be totally thrown off if they place north on the bottom, south on top, and then put east and west in the wrong locations. In a clock-wise manner, North progresses to NE, to E, to SE, to S, to SW, to W, to NW. This can be obvious in the abstract, but you don’t want to make a hasty mistake when you are gridding out floor plans.

Let’s say we have a house that faces northwest, built in 1950 (Period 5). You place 5 in the center cell (often called the Center Palace). Then, immediately after 5 in the center, you place 6 in the Northwest, which in this case is the “facing” sector. The Period Star in the NW for this example is 6 and therefore this indicates that the house type will be in a 20-year Money Lock during any Period 6 cycle. The last Period 6 was 1964-1984. Therefore, this house type example is not going to be in a 20 year-Money Lock any time soon! The next Period 6 will be in 2124! It’s possible that structure will not even be standing in 107 years from now….

For the same example, a Period 5 NW-facing house, you ascend the numbers throughout the luo shu grid and you will end up with a 4 star in the SE Sector. If the house faces NW, then it also sits SE. This sitting sector represents the “people” aspect and so this house will be in a 20-year People Lock in the next period 4. The next period 4 will be during the years 2104-2124.

What you will then correctly surmise is that within a complete 180-year cycle for any house, there will be a 20 Year Lock for People and a 20-year Lock for Money. One student was assuming that the structure will go into a locked phase whenever the Period Star matches the current Period we are in. This is technically impossible. A structure cannot be in a locked phase during its own construction Period. With the example just given, we see that the Period 5 house facing NW goes into a 20 year Money Lock in Period 6 and it goes into a 20 year Money Lock in Period 4.

What IS significant about NW facing houses compared to any other facing direction is that they WILL go into a 20 Year Money Lock immediately after their Construction Period is over. Some house orientations show that the house will not enter a 20 year lock until many decades after it was built. But the NW-facing house goes into a Money Lock sooner than all the other orientations.

After the mechanics of determining a locked phase is understood, the remedy to “un-lock” the locked phase involves the sight and sound of water. This is what all beginners should know and it is usually the most effective. Then, at the more advanced stages, you will learn about a couple other techniques as well.

Author: Kartar Diamond
From: Kartar’s School of Traditional Feng Shui ®
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