Feng Shui Secrets That Change Your Life by Li Pak Tin and Helen Yeap is the latest installment of my Book Review Project. As I wade through my personal Feng Shui library, this book, like others, presents a buffet of interesting, though sometimes contradictory applications.
Most of the Feng Shui books I’m reviewing, I read initially over 20-25 years ago. Some I appreciate on a whole other level, now that I have the experience to distinguish fact from fiction. Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, I tried to read as many books as I could, even those which I knew I would disagree with. When clients would ask me about something they heard or read in the name of Feng Shui, many would marvel at how I could tell them exactly which author or feng shui personality had promoted that particular belief or practice.
Li Pak Tin and Helen Yeap are as straight forward as other authors in describing the basic concepts of what Feng Shui is. I have few criticisms on their coverage and examples of qi flow with regards to street alignments, bed and desk placement or door alignments. There are universal principles about the influences of air currents, but their suggestions for remedies differ from other professionals. They tend to vacillate back and forth between using the elements (water, wood, fire, earth, metal) and using folk remedy tokens like images of certain animals for good luck and protection.
In describing objectionable features aligned with a front door (chimney, cemetery, lamp post), the authors have a strangely specific demarcation that if these features are over “100 feet” away from the door, it is not a problem.
They classify house types as one of the five elements according to their shape. Given that hardly any houses are shaped like a triangle (fire), they refer to a triangular shaped lot instead. The authors note that a house which backs up to parks and open space will doom the occupants to “not find support in their ventures.” It’s a shame that there is nothing in this book which defines the important concept of “sitting and facing.” This is because it is very common for houses which are backed up to open spaces to actually face that direction from a Feng Shui perspective. This nullifies the assumption that it is the back of the house.
This is just one of many instances where a certain concept is not fleshed out completely, to give the reader a broader understanding. As I went through each chapter, I wondered whether the authors were limited in their knowledge or if they were withholding some information for marketing reasons with plans for more books. It may also be a cultural posture for some authors to not “give away the store” since up until the late 20th century, this information was not so openly dispensed to the public.
In Chapter Four, Yeap and Li Pak Tin discuss the “Tong Wan” auspicious direction. Published in 1996, they simply let readers know what are the best locations for outside water in Period 7, Period 8, and Period 9. (For wealth luck). They state that “fortunes of a house wax and wane over a twenty-year cycle.” Nowhere else do they mention that there is a school of Feng Shui called the Flying Star School (Xuan Kong Fei Xing), where there are nine Periods, each lasting 20 years and repeating perpetually. I’m reminded here of the Biblical saying how you can give a man a fish, or teach him how to fish.
They also mention “Air” in relation to main doors. This was an interesting formula, where they describe the location of a door as being Wong Hei, Sang Hei or Choon Hei. The quality of the “air” or qi entering a house has varying impacts on the occupants in order of best, second best and third best. Said differently, this might be like describing the energy coming through the door as current good luck, near future good luck and distant future luck. In looking at their chart on page 61, it becomes obvious that the best door location (according to them) is the direction related to the current Period. The next best door direction is the up-and-coming Period and then the one after that. This is a modified version of the principle that if a house faces the direction associated with the current Period, that it has a special edge over other house orientations.
For example, now in Period 9, the best location for a main door (according to them) is south because Period 9 is associated with Li energy (south). What follows in 2044 is Period 1 which is associated with North. If your main door is currently in the north sector or faces north, then you can garner good luck in the near future. If your door is in the southwest, that is related to Period 2, which is the distant future luck (since Period 2 does not begin until 2064). The weird twist to this is that the authors instruct readers to check the date you purchased your home or signed a rental lease and refer to the chart for that Period. This is a nod to the Date of Occupancy Theory, as opposed to the Date of Construction Theory.
This is confusing. Let us say that you moved into a house in Period 8 (2004-2023), but we are all now living in Period 9 (2024-2044). The chart says that your best door location is Northeast. But that is no longer the “current” luck location, so I don’t see why it even matters when the house was built OR when the occupant moves in to interpret the direction of the door. Current Luck is Current Luck. The 9 water dragon is the main wealth star in Period 9 no matter when your house was built.
It becomes evident that in many of their recommendations, the authors advocate for micro-managing individual rooms, as opposed to gridding the whole house floor plan into the eight main sectors. I don’t object to this, but that is definitely their angle. For example, if a person is the East-Wood (Chen) trigram, they have recommendations for how to arrange that person’s bedroom in the house, with small adjustments to each part of the bedroom.
In another area, they mention that there is a Tiger side of a room and a Green Dragon side, each possessing yin and yang qualities which can be matched with certain items on each side of a room. They suggest items like a clock, radiator, or electrical equipment be placed in the yang Green Dragon side of the room, but the yin Tiger side should be kept quiet and calm. With references to the left and right side of a room, you are not alone to ask, “From what reference point do we identify the left or right side of a room?”
It was nice to see on page 80 a mention of the Peach Blossom Romance Remedy, although they did not call it that. They just list what direction a person can place a vase of water in order to attract romance, based on birth year, but without noting their Chinese zodiac sign. As well, their list is not specific enough for the placement of the vase of water. For example, a person born in 1989 can place a vase of water in “south” on their chart. But “south” is a 45-degree range and it is more specifically the Horse direction (South-2) which is the accurate spot for their Romance Remedy. South-2 range is between 172.5-187.5 degrees. To get the right location, one needs to work with an accurate floor plan and also know how to use a compass in order to get the narrower 15-degree increment for each of the cardinal directions.
On page 91, they discuss the “green stars” and state they rule “mental activities.” They give examples of which direction the green stars energy occupies from 1993-2001. What they are describing is the annual 4 star from the Flying Star School. Mental activities? The 4 star is called the Academic Star and it is also called the Romance star. It is energy which can be used for intellectual pursuits, but also to attract romantic opportunities and creative career advances. The authors state that a desk can be placed where the annual green star is located, but they don’t give the perpetual formula for tracking the 4 star, nor do they note how else to enhance that energy besides placing your child’s desk in that area of their bedroom for better Study habits.
There are many extrapolations for the use of the annual 4 star. In my books where I discuss the annual 4 star, I share with the readers that there are also PERMANENT locations for the 4 star (in two spots) in addition to the revolving annual 4 star.
Feng Shui Secrets That Change Your Life also features the personal trigram charts, with the conventional comparison of males and females born in the same year. The personal trigram charts are your guide for some of the applications, but there are enough contradictions interspersed that I can see how readers and those new to Feng Shui would be frustrated. For instance, they give an example of a person who identifies as a Li person (fire). They recommend that this person can wear red clothing to strengthen their energy when doing something consequential. The right color can strengthen your aura and confidence. However, the authors acknowledge that for this Li person, the east sector of their house is a good area for them to dwell and use water. The East is associated with Wood and water nurtures Wood. So, water for the east section of the house, but fire color for the person who is sitting in the east sector. Both of these premises are so simplistic that they are never part of my repertoire when consulting with clients.
The book ends with recommendations for what to do with a front door or bedroom (important areas, agreed), but just for 1996 though 2000. There are no further explanations for how one should accurately draw out their floor plan in order to know for sure where the bedroom and main door are located. Just eyeballing where these areas are located is not recommended. The book has good-intentions with unique insight in a few places, but it ends up being a mish-mash of conflicting styles, with solid information along-side observations so generic they border on superstition.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
