Before I dive into a review of Feng Shui Step By Step by T. Raphael Simons, I want to state that the book was written decades ago. As a teacher and practitioner, it is possible, that like me, he may have changed some of his opinions or practices since the time his book was published. I don’t know if he has, but I want to allow for that.
My own trade paperbacks were written between 2003-2008 and each book that gets ordered through Amazon or sold off my own website comes with a sticker on Page One, alerting readers to an Addendum they can have free of charge, which discusses two major practices I have changed since the books were published and why.
The point in re-reading the feng shui books in my library is to experience for myself what I think of the contents in each, after having now been a practitioner since 1992. And since books like Simon’s are still available on-line, someone new to Feng Shui can have my critique as a a rebuttal to the ideas presented in his book.
I appreciate that Simons begins by urging the reader to go “step by step,” so that they have foundational information to help with comprehension and application of his recommendations. When I used to teach a three-hour Introduction to Feng Shui class, the first half was spent discussing such essential concepts as Qi Flow, Five Elements, Yin-Yang, and Eight Trigram Theory. That was to ensure that the second half of the workshop would make sense and not be taken out of context or appear based on superstition. To that degree, the author does a good job in setting the table in the first few chapters.
But when we get to Chapter Five, titled “The Nine Stars,” I braked hard because Simons interprets certain fundamental theories in a way not done by any other practitioners I know of. The recommendations made are also a departure from some of the most well-known Feng Shui Schools taught and practiced today.
For example, there is a popular school of Feng Shui called the Ba Zhai (Eight Mansion) School. I personally only practice the parts of it which do not contradict the other system I practice, The Flying Star School (Xuan Kong Fei Xing). In the Ba Zhai school, each person has signature energy based on their year of birth. It is the Feng Shui equivalent to a Zodiac Sign. This is referred to as the “ming gua” or the personal trigram. No one refers to the individual’s birth year as a “star” except in the practice of Nine Star Ki. This is a completely different predictive art, although it is complementary to Feng Shui.
When I saw the chapter title The Nine Stars, I thought the author might be introducing classical Nine Star Ki to the readers. Instead, he gives a run down of the personal trigrams in the mostly conventional ways, but he allows for someone to be a “5 Earth Star.” This does not really exist in the Ba Zhai School. In doing calculations on the birth year, anyone who resolves to a “5” is relegated to the 2 gua for a male or the 8 gua for a female. In his Table Charts, he has inserted the 5 star person, but no one else does that in the Eight Mansion School. It would even be considered an error. ( I have defied this in my own practice).
However, in the practice of Nine Star Ki, where there is no distinction between males and females born in the same year, the 5 star person is autonomous and not relegated to a 2 or 8 star person. I object to the author merging these two practices, without explanation, only adding to confusion and contradictions.
This might be on par with a Western astrologer suddenly interjecting Vedic astrology references into their repertoire as if they were one and the same. In Western Astrology I am an Aries. In Vedic Astrology, I am a Pisces. Do they come to the same conclusions?
Further, the author also teaches the reader how to determine their “Month Star.” Not only does this not exist in the Eight Mansion School, but in borrowing the Month Star concept from Nine Star Ki, he also has an erroneous formula separating males from females. I refer to this as a mistake on top of a mistake, similar to the way a certain Australian practitioner invented the “Southern Hemisphere” Theory and turned everything upside down which did not have to occur at all.
If we are going to discuss personal best and worst directions, the domain of Ba Zhai (Eight Mansion School), there are clearly two camps in that school. People are defined as West Group or East Group, which is why Master Sang translated these principles as “The East-West” School. The East Group people prefer the East, Southeast, North and South. The West Group people do better in the West, Southwest, Northeast and Northwest. From these divisions, there are a variety of ways to use one’s personal best directions.
One way is for sleeping direction. Simons states early in the book that if a 1 Water Star person (East Group) shares a bed with a 7 Metal star (West Group) person, that they can achieve a compromise and harmony by both sleeping heads to west. His reasoning is that the west direction matches the west type person and that the 1 Water Star person (East type) is nurtured by sleeping in a “metal” direction. This is because in the cycle of the Five Elements, Metal nurtures Water. While this might make sense on some level, it defies the fundamental concepts of the Eight Mansion School, where sleeping head to west is seen as very bad for an East type person.
My priorities have always been with the space first and the person second. If a space is positive, then anyone can do well in the space, and if the person happens to be personally compatible with the space based on birth data, they can be even more successful. However, Simons takes the approach that the person’s own energy dominates the space. For example, if a West group person has a main door in an Easterly direction, he recommends using an Element in that space to mitigate the supposed conflict.
If a Wood person has a main door in the Northeast (related to earth), he interprets that as Wood destroying earth, a harmful domination cycle. His recommendation is to use FIRE color at that door, such as painting the door red. This is his own idea about Five Element Theory. If Wood destroys Earth, then Fire is used to support Earth. That practice, using the “Reductive” method is used routinely in other contexts, such as with the Flying Star School between the stars and not the person. And yet, what are we really doing according to his method? Are we draining the person’s energy and handing it over to the energy of the room? Isn’t that counter-productive? (All puns intended).
Let me use myself and my own home as an example. I am a Wood trigram person in Feng Shui. The Northeast sector of my current home has a flying star combination of 1 water dominated by 2 earth. Even students new to Flying Star Feng Shui can grasp that if I were to put FIRE in that location, it would further embolden the 2 earth to dominate the 1 water. This could result in 1 water star problems with the kidneys, blood, circulation, glands, or ears. If I follow the author’s recommendations, it is definitely going to contradict what is normally done in the Flying Star School. Not only that, but if you follow the author’s Table Charts, you could end up not knowing your correct Year “star” aka birth year trigram. This happens all-too-often, where students and readers start off with the wrong information.
Simons delivers these theories with clever analogies and organization. I want to believe what he is saying is accurate and helpful, but from my vantage point, and having had well over 6,000 clients, I beg to differ on these important principles.
There is so much to unpack in Feng Shui Step By Step, that this article became “Part One” of the review and a “Part Two” was necessary to fully do justice to this popular Feng Shui book. I should also state that I am not at all against a modern-day feng shui consultant making their own discoveries and adding to the total knowledge and experiences we can have with this metaphysical art form. I like to think of myself as having made contributions and discoveries, so I welcome anyone’s feedback using his teachings.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
