Book Review by Kartar Diamond

Before I review a feng shui book from my personal library, I check to see if the book is still in print or available on-line. With David Twicken, I also paused a minute to decide whether or not to review his book since I know him. He is a brilliant and multi-talented person. It’s always a different experience reviewing a book by someone I have met in person, compared to a complete stranger.  David and I both started our feng shui studies with Master Sang, through the American Feng Shui Institute, in the early 1990’s.  It’s obvious that David, like me, studied with other masters or schools because he includes in his book a few things which Master Sang never taught or spoke about in class.

The author went on to become a doctor of Chinese medicine, a Qi Gong master and Chinese astrologer, and has since published several other books on acupuncture and related topics. In checking the availability of his book, which he describes himself as a “manual,” there were mixed reviews on Amazon in the presentation style, more than the material itself.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Twicken’s style is a pared down, no frills description of classic Flying Star formulas. For other reviewers, there were not enough examples, so I will address that in my review.  Even though I appreciate the straight-forward approach, I know that it is also impossible for me to read any feng shui book as a beginner. Newbies might be lost with some of the chart types if they have not been exposed to these applications previously.

What I recall as refreshing when I read the book for the first time, shortly after it came out in 2002, is that he dispenses authentic Feng Shui techniques, one of the first books in English to do so, and for the modest charge of the book’s price.  Compare this to courses led by feng shui masters who charged and continue to charge thousands of dollars for the same information.

This also, among so much other feng shui “clutter,” in the trendy-but-misguided offerings by those who became feng shui celebrities at the time.  If anything, Twicken’s pared down instructions more closely resembles Old School feng shui books written in Chinese, some of which leave important details out, intentionally or unintentionally.

I like Twicken’s description of Qi in the opening chapters, pointing out the omnipresence of Qi in its many forms. He used the transformation of water as an example, where H2O can be solid, liquid or steam. Instead of describing the Five Element relationships as “productive” or “destructive,” he uses the less common words “promoting” and “controlling.” It can get a little confusing when an author uses different words to describe the same concept.

There is an actual error on page 17 when the controlling cycle has the promoting cycle images below it. It is the same image as the promoting cycle shown on page 15.  Perhaps this has been corrected in updated versions of the book.

In harkening back to Feng Shui’s roots to the I-Ching (Book of Changes), I appreciate the nuance where Twicken explains that feng shui’s purpose is to help people live, not just in harmony with nature (a vague concept for non-Taoists), but in harmony with change. Everything is in a state of flux, and to borrow a New Age phrase, people are happier when they can “go with the flow,” as opposed to resisting.

Twicken gives a quick run down of the cycles of the Elements without examples.  I don’t need them, but beginners could absorb the material easier if there was something memorable to cling to.  For example, on page 34 he notes that Water controls Fire. He continues that Wood is the reductive Element which draws from Water and nurtures Fire. This is one way to balance a clash of the Elements.  However, the reader at this point doesn’t know why this is so important.

Had I been the editor for this book, I would have asked the author to include a few examples, such as the case being that when Water Controls (Destroys) Fire, it can cause heart or eye problems. Really?  This could make the reader wonder if that is why their grandfather just had a heart attack or why mom had a detached retina. The reader should realize right away that he or she could learn something practical here!

In the chapter on the Luo Pan Compass, Twicken provides three separate Table Charts defining the 24 different (mountains) which are 15-degree sectors of the compass. They are redundant and only the third chart is needed. But it would have also been good to show those directions on an illustration of a round 360-degree compass. His description for taking an accurate compass reading is straight forward, but I would have inserted here a floor plan with a compass overlay to show how the information is directly applied.

He moves into descriptions of timely and untimely stars, the phases they go through and the meanings of the stars in a stand-alone format. Twicken does mention how the interpretation of the stars and the treatment of the stars will be reliant on context without showing us. He also lists brief, but solid examples of the Five Elements, without any trace of folk remedies or placebos, which filled so many New Age books that exploited Feng Shui for marketing purposes.

As a doctor, he uses some medical metaphors, such as “View the stars as internal organs and the Forms and Five Element remedies as blood and energy, which brings life to organs.”  This is also a reminder that many Feng Shui energies are dormant until activated. This should be comforting to those who read the scary definitions of the stars.

Like other Flying Star authors who came out with books in Period 7 or 8, some of the definitions and priorities are specific to those Periods. Back then, Period 9 (2024-2044) seemed so far away, but here we are. The ideal is to have an understanding of all the stars and their influence when both timely and untimely. The author provides a brief list on page 70.

As a preface to the chapter on the 81 flying star combinations, he mentions that you can also consider the original Five Element energy “in each palace” and how it affects the host and guest stars (otherwise known as mountain dragon, water dragon and annual stars).

The energy of each “palace” refers to one of the directions.  For example, if you have a 5 star in the south (associated with fire), it is going to be more active than a 5 star in the west sector (associated with metal). This is because metal weakens the 5 earth star, while fire promotes the 5 earth star.

In the section defining the 81-star combinations, Twicken is spot on, but some of the more obscure definitions might not be understood unless someone is already very familiar with the stars as trigrams.  I nodded my head through most of this section and will only comment on a few entries.  Some of the definitions came as a surprise and I will attempt to explain why. And in a few instances, his definitions almost allude to Nine Star Ki interpretations. Nine Star Ki is a whole other separate predictive art.

1-1: He notes this combination could cause legal problems (bad) or scholastic achievement (good).  How could the same stars represent two such opposing outcomes? This is an example where context is important.

1-2: This is technically a domination cycle of 2 earth dominating 1 water. In this case, we usually focus on the “underdog” which would be the 1 star.  He sites this combination as related to gynecological problems, which is a 2-star issue. The 1 star is more related to the male sexual organs, so I would have assumed this could just as easily manifest as male problems.

1-3: Success when traveling. This is not a common description of the 1-3 pairing, although he does also list the typical 3 star traits-arguments, gossip, lawsuits.  I find it interesting that he mentions the 3 star in relation to travel as it certainly is in Nine Star Ki (3 can be symbolic of a high-speed train or an electric car).

2-9: He lists this combination as related to romance for women.  More often, we attribute the 4 star with sex and romance.  However, the 2 (older woman) and the 9 star (middle-aged woman) can be associated with their trigrams.  Peach Blossom romance energy can also identify a woman who might make poor choices and end up betrayed and heart broken.  I find this funny since the 2-9 or 9-2 combination has also been described as a “stupid” person or a person who makes poor choices.  Maybe this combination gets to the cause of the romantic heart break!

3-8: He lists that as indicative of homosexuality. Going back to the 1-1 combination (symbolic of two penises), I would have guessed the 1-1 stars being more about gay men.  The 3 wood star (eldest son) paired with the 8 star (youngest son) might just create the kind of chemistry that also results in a union of two males. “Not that there is anything wrong with that,” to quote Jerry Seinfeld, for those who remember his sitcom.

4-6: Here Twicken notes possible miscarriage and this might come as a surprise to those who have only thought about the 2 star, which is more directly related to bleeding, the womb and miscarriage.  But let’s unpack this one. The 6 metal dominates the 4 wood. The 4 wood is therefore under pressure. The 4 wood star is related to the hips.  The hips act like a cradle and support for the whole pelvic area and womb. This is why the 4-6 combination can make the pregnancy vulnerable.

4-9: Aside from noting this combination as an inspiration for creativity and genius, he lists “female homosexuality.” The 4 wood represents the eldest daughter as a trigram and the 9 star is the middle daughter as a trigram. Perhaps this pairing double female energy alone can attract a lesbian couple to a certain house.

8-5: He lists 8-5 and 5-8 as contributing to paralysis. This is one of the more unusual descriptions for this combination. When I think of paralysis, I think more of the nervous system (3 star), but the 8 star is related to the muscles and the 5 star can cause any kind of mishap to the star it joins. Muscle paralysis is the end result of damaged nerves failing to transmit signals to the muscles.

When Twicken offers a brief description of what qualifies as a Water or Mountain Form remedy, he does not elaborate or present a hierarchy of what works best.  Rather, he compares what is a “real” remedy vs. a “virtual” remedy.  From my experience the real remedy works so much better than the virtual that I think it is worth mentioning, such as a real water fountain working better than lower ground level or a road passing by the property.

I appreciate that the author states more than once that the Four Major House types lose their title after they surpass their original Construction Period.  For example, a house built between 2004-2023 was a Period 8 House. Starting in 2024, it stopped being one of the Four Major House types. This has been misunderstood by many Flying Star practitioners. Twicken’s sequential list identifying the most important parts of the house is also spot on. It could even render the House Type as irrelevant when we consider these important parts of the house and how they are used.

Proceeding through the second half of the book, Twicken prepares the reader for a section on Prosperity Methods which he states have nothing to do with the Flying Star School and come from other branches of Feng Shui.  What follows are a “Greatest Hits” buffet of Special House Types (very much a part of the Flying Star School), as well as some methods from The Eight Mansion or other schools not reliant on time factors.  Most frustrating are the Castle Gate formulas as they often conflict with the Flying Star School.

For example, with the Castle Gate Table Chart: A Southeast-2 facing house can have a water feature aligned outside to the South-2 range.  This is done to stimulate financial luck. However, in Period 9 specifically, outside water to the South is the worst location. This is revealed from his section on the Primary Direct and Indirect Palaces formula.

He shares with readers the main Construction Sha directions to be aware of, as well as Table Charts for Annual Stars and Monthly Stars, but no examples of how they interact with the permanent stars, subject to timely and untimely definitions as well.

There is no mention of which school or method to prioritize. Twicken’s book presents many advanced concepts and formulas which welcomes more elaboration. For instance, he provides a one paragraph description about the “Evil Lines.”  He describes the chart type where the sitting or facing direction is right on the line between the first and second sector of the eight basic directions. Aside from this only being half the list for the borderline compass cut-off points, he sums it up as a house which can cause instability and lack of clarity (for the occupants).  That would be putting it mildly.

In my own first book, Feng Shui for Skeptics, I describe this as the “Crazy House” because the occupants can have serious mental illness and I related some of my actual audits of this house type.  The Borderline Compass Reading house (also called the Out of Trigram House) is actually one of the most difficult house types of all and I routinely steer clients away from moving into this house type. This very real and negative potential should be a deal-breaker.

David Twicken’s Flying Star Feng Shui Made Easy is definitely a valuable book for classical practitioners in that it’s packed with formulas and advanced techniques, all in one place.  This is also a great reference book, especially for those who are lousy note-takers. (I love Table Charts!)

However, this one book could have easily been turned into four books if each concept and formula had just been fleshed out more, with context and a floor plan or illustration.(It took me three books to cover most of this same material).  Not only would that have helped the reader who is new to all this information, but it could inspire even more interest to experiment with these amazing techniques.  He does not instruct readers in how to create a Flying Star chart, but all 216 charts are categorized in the Appendix.

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Book Review Blog Series