Within the first few chapters of re-reading The Elements of Feng Shui, by Joanne O’Brien with Kwok Man Ho, I was excited about reviewing this modest book of 100 pages. Published in 1991, the book came before the worst and most popular New Age offerings.
I appreciate so much that the authors included, in the beginning, sound Feng Shui theory and discuss charming stories from Feng Shui history and folklore. The stories bring more light to the concepts and practices and how they came into being.
We read about the use of “offensive” feng shui between the competing Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, along with construction details of the Bank of China. The takeaway is that these principles have always been used on a high level and not just for the comfort and safety of humble homes.
The book covers well the concepts of Yin-Yang Theory and The Five Elements, careful to explain that these are “processes” and not static. And for all the attributes of the Five Elements that are routinely described in Feng Shui books, here we find yet another association where the Five Elements are tied to five classifications of animals.
Wood= scaly (fish), Fire=feathered (birds), Earth=Naked (human), Metal=hairy (mammals), and Water=shell-covered (invertebrates). This just underscores the presence of Five Elements everywhere.
We also get simple examples of the Elements in the shape and flow of water courses and how that affects people living along those water courses. In modern times, the principles for water courses can be applied to streets. We learn about the origins of the Hexagrams (from the I-Ching) and the resulting Pre-Heaven and Post Heaven Luo Shu, from which Feng Shui came from. I had learned early on in my own studies that King Wen (circa 1160 BCE) had “downloaded” the Later Heaven Sequence of the Luo Shu. What I never heard elsewhere was that King Wen was captured by invading forces of the Shang Dynasty. It was while he was imprisoned for a year, that he channeled the framework for the Later Heaven Luo Shu that we refer to constantly in Feng Shui practice.
Chapter Two introduces one of the more obscure practices (to westerners), which is Yin House Feng Shui, the divination of grave sites. They give some useful specifics for this distinct specialty. Chapter Three goes over the meaning and use of the different 36 rings of the luo pan (Chinese Feng Shui compass). I mention this because the vast majority of Feng Shui books which were written in the 1990’s and 2000’s hardly touched on the essential tool of the trade, which is the compass.
On page 47, readers are introduced to the 24 Terms of the Solar Calendar. This is another fundamental teaching in Chinese Metaphysics and a nod to the cycles of the year which are tied to nature, seasons and the predictable repeating flow of “ch’i” which affects all creatures on planet Earth.
Starting with Chapter Four, things start to go downhill. Good information is still dispensed, but for the last half of the book, we get some over-generalizations and more than a few contradictions. The authors discuss the “Pa Che” System, which is an alternative spelling for the Ba Zhai (Eight Mansion) School. This comes after their introduction to the Flying Stars and their connection to the literal stars which make up the Big Dipper. The Flying Star School is more sophisticated than the simpler Eight Mansion School. Like other authors, they may have felt obligated to cover more than one school of Feng Shui, which is fine to do, but they don’t mention the contradictions.
In this section on the Eight Mansion (Pa Che System), they perpetuate the popular practice of changing the “gua” of the female born in the same year as the male. And the author places emphasis on the “door” for personal compatibility with the house, when it is really the position of the entire house that is regarded as more consequential.
For example: If you are an “East Group” person, you are very compatible with a house that “sits” in any of the Easterly directions. Instead, they only mention being compatible with an easterly door.
Novices will not know that their chart on page 66 is almost meaningless and certainly vague. It lists the ideal productive color to a certain element. Whether they are referring to colors for the house type, the front door, or the clothing of the person dwelling in the house, this is just too generic to be helpful. This is the kind of information which makes Feng Shui seem rigid or impractical.
For the serious Feng Shui student or practitioner, there is a confusing reference on page 70, in a chapter about mountains, trees and rivers. The authors refer to the “water dragon” and “mountain dragon” in relation to water courses or mountain undulations. This should not be confused with the terms “water dragon” and “mountain dragon” in the Flying Star School.
With Chapter Seven, it felt to me like a different author took over. Many generalities are made about residential feng shui, which make me cringe as a practitioner, knowing that these statements are overly simplistic or just false. For example, the authors state that a house should have a main door towards the left-hand side, the Green Dragon side, as opposed to the right side or smack in the middle of the facing wall. Earlier in the book they mention the Four Celestial Animals and state that the “Green Dragon” (which represents East) is on the right-hand side of the house. This would only be true for a south-facing house.
But the real issue is that the ideal location for a front door can be left, right or center depending on what direction the house is facing and what year it was built. They also state that a main door facing a mountain or hill could result in work difficulties or business loss. This is so generic that it is misleading. Some house types (Double Facing, Reversed House) actually benefit greatly from having a hill or mountain across from the house, supporting the occupants’ health.
Sections on the bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom all contain too many falsehoods to list. In the last chapter on Feng Shui and Business, more generalities and superstitions are delivered, intertwined with good information. For the person new to Feng Shui, they would have no way to distinguish between the good from the bad advice. Even when I hear about a generality or superstition, I can often understand where it came from and how it is now promoted out of context.
Yet, some of their statements don’t make sense. An example is the recommendation that the business accounting office should be in the “White Tiger” side of the office since “money is yin in nature and should be matched to the quiet nature of the Tiger.” Earlier in the book, the authors describe the White Tiger as ferocious and not suitable as a location for a main door.
In Chinese astrology we dissuade people from moving into a new house on a Tiger Day since the Tiger can be clumsy and the occupant may have some possessions broken during the move. If a Tiger person helps you move your stuff, things might also get damaged. Is this too generic on my part? Perhaps. But I had a boyfriend who was born in the year of the Tiger and he was definitely accident-prone, stubbed his toes more times than I can count, cut himself, and accidentally broke some of my serving bowls, glassware and dishware.
In conclusion, I liked this book for the first half and for some of the oddities it highlighted, such as the historic use of the “Feng Shui ruler,” with notions about the lucky and unlucky size and height of furnishings. But the last half of the book felt like driving off a cliff when there was a distinct change in the quality of information delivered. I’m going to be nice and give them the benefit of the doubt that something might have happened in the editing process with the publisher that might have been beyond the control of the authors. This can happen! When my first book, Feng Shui for Skeptics, was sold with foreign rights to an Indonesian publisher, they actually changed the title in Indonesian to “Simple Feng Shui!” I was horrified, since that was the exact opposite message of my book. God only knows what they changed inside the book.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
