Those familiar with my style of Feng Shui consulting know that I use Form School, Flying Star School, and aspects of the Eight Mansion School that I find practical, and not in contradiction to the Flying Star School. One of those reasons is because the Flying Star School takes into account timing, such as when a house was built, the changing yearly cycles and the changing big 20-year Cycles, called Periods.
Since 2023, I have been writing articles and informing clients about the significant things which will change in Period 9 (2024-2044) and that includes the use of outside water features for wealth luck.
Clients gave me feedback when reading their 2024 update reports and their challenges in doing some of the recommendations with regards to outside water features. Of course, house renters, apartment and condo dwellers have little to no control over the outside spaces surrounding their homes, but I gave out the information anyway in case it becomes relevant. Example: Let’s say you plan to move to another apartment building and you have a choice between two apartments. One apartment has a pool to the southeast of it and another available apartment has the pool to the south? Which one might be better?
For Period 9, clients learn that outside water to the north and the southeast are very good for garnering financial luck, whereas having water to the south can undermine financial luck. And for these directions I do mean the EXTERIORS, not the interior recommendations which will vary quite a bit from one house to the next. Placing exterior water, like a big fountain, is relative to the center of the house and one needs to work with a to-scale floor plan and a precise compass reading in order to properly locate these outside areas aligned with a house. For these calculations, I do the heavy-lifting. I figure out the location and inform the client, but in reality not everyone can place outside water in the ideal locations in any given Period.
Some people struggle with the logistics of placing a fountain in a far-flung area of their property where there is no current electrical outlet to plug in a fountain. Others bemoan that they will take on the expense of placing a fountain in an area of their property where they will hardly ever see it or make it difficult to clean or maintain. I get it. I have had those same issues at some of my properties over the decades.
In an effort to help clients have potentially one more option for outside water, I have dug up a little-used technique in my voluminous notes called the Water Road remedy. Here I believe the term “road” refers to the concept of how roads carry qi, life force energy and the placement of water in the correct location can capture that sheng qi and provide more financial luck for those who are in alignment with that qi. We also have a concept of “virtual” water, which is the same qi (air currents) flowing down a street, and even lower land level is called virtual water. For the Water Road technique, real water is used when possible.
This technique is ONLY based on the orientation of the house and specifically the facing direction. This is actually a departure from both Flying Star School and Eight Mansion school, where the “sitting” side (back) determines the house type. For example, a house that backs up to south is called a Li House because Li is the trigram associated with south. The house faces north, but its name is derived from its “spine” or strength which comes from the back. For your own physical body, your strength and stature come from your back as well, not from your face.
The trigrams as we use them routinely in Feng Shui, and the directions they are associated with, come from a template called the Post-Heaven or Later Heaven Luo Shu. The history behind these two distinct arrangements is beyond the scope of this article, so I won’t elaborate here. Clients and novices do not need to memorize this information, but I will provide here in this article some technical references for the more advanced student or practitioner. For the Water Road technique, we refer to the Post Heaven chart and then jump over to the Pre-Heaven or Earlier Heaven chart to get our final answer. It is a multi-step process which I will organize into a Table Chart.
The process for determining another good location for outside water for wealth luck is as follows:
- You determine the facing direction of the house using a compass. It should be noted that the facing side often has more than one directional sector. If you have a house that is square in shape or very wide, the facing side will also include another directional sector to the left and to the right of the center, which is the facing sector. Example: a house faces east, but the front left corner is the southeast sector and the front right corner area is the northeast sector. What you want to note is the facing direction which is the center area. Said differently, we want to know what the direction is of the entire facing wall of the house.
- Once you have the facing direction, take note of the “Tan Lang” direction associated with that trigram. It will be one of eight trigrams associated with the Eight Basic Directions. From the commonly used Later Heaven Luo Shu, that direction and trigram may be familiar to you. This comes out of basic Eight Mansion theory and practice for both the house and the person. Example: for a Dui House (sits West) and for a Dui person (based on birth year), the Tan Lang direction is Northwest. For this Water Road technique, you are focused on the FACING side however. “Tang Lang” refers to wealth luck.
- Take note of the facing direction and the Tan Lang trigram connected to it. Then locate that Tang Lang direction in the Pre-Heaven chart. Example: a house that faces Northwest is associated with the Qian trigram for this technique. For the Qian Trigram, the Tan Lang (major wealth) direction is West (Dui). And where is Dui located on the Pre-Heaven chart? It is located in the Southeast (not the west, which is the Post-Heaven chart). Thus, the NW facing house can have a water feature to its southeast to help attract financial luck. (Footnote: It is not uncommon to see Pre-Heaven Luo Shu charts depicted incorrectly on-line with the arrangement of the trigrams placed in error.)
With reference to the Table Chart, someone who does not study feng shui can just look at the plain English in Column 1 and then jump over to Column 3 for their answer.
***Referring to the Table Chart, Column 3: I have noted the range for each of the Eight Basic Directions. All directions are related to magnetic North, and not Geographic North. As well, I have shortened the usual 45-degree span for each direction so that you do not place water too close to the cut-off points between each of the major directions. For example: Southeast starts at 112.5 degrees, but I listed it as starting at 115 degrees because you don’t want to place water, in this example, too close to the border line where east and southeast meet. This is the case for all the eight directional sectors.
Footnote: You can see that for the West-facing House, the location for outside water is “south.” Remember, this is a formula that is not based on timing, only on direction. Yes, it’s true that this one orientation suggests a water location that is bad for Period 9! As the ancient Chinese masters used to say, “Oy Vey!”
This technique is not going to work for the West-facing house in Period 9. But alas, there is still another option to explore. It’s too technical to discuss in the scope of this article, but for my clients in West-facing houses, you can contact me for one more option, where we will see if the “wang water dragon” in your home is positioned in ANY location besides south. If so, you may be able to place water outside the sector where that particular flying star is located. To learn more about this technique, check out my Case Study, Mountain Dragons and Water Dragons. To understand the materials in this Case Study, you must already be proficient in Flying Star School Feng Shui.
The goal here is to give you another possibility for placing outside water if you cannot place any in the southeast or north for Period 9. Apartment dwellers often ask if an outside water feature on their balcony or patio will work. The ideal is to have the water completely detached from the structure, at least a few feet away. However, if you can only have water outside if it is hugging the wall, or if you can only have water on a balcony or patio that is part of the building’s structure, go ahead and do that, as you will get some benefit. You may not get spectacular results, but having some water in the right location is better than no water at all.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series
