• Another solution to the problem of missing southeast corner is letting a bright light shine directly on the wall (spotlight) to create a symbolic positive energy and increase opportunity luck and increase income business.
• A mirror placed on the southeast wall creates a virtual southeast space inside the mirror’s reflection be careful though when you use the mirror to make a missing southeast corner appear; the mirror should not reflect a toilet, a door, a wide window, a bed or a poison arrow corner or open shelves that symbolize cutting blades.
• A mirror in the dining room brings the best prosperity luck it signifies the multiplicity or doubling of food served on the table.
• Mirrors must reflect auspicious objects like wealth ships, tribute horses, wealth vase, and cashbox. Live or active water (fountain or aquarium) attracts good income luck.
• The fire of a stove or oven must never be reflected by a mirror because reflecting “raw” fire attracts energy of accidents and excessive “yang” energy which cause bad health, fatigue, “burning up”.
• Mirror in the bedroom cools off an otherwise good relationship or love. Reflecting a bed lead to infidelity or health problems.
• Display ceramic or metal fish in the office, living room or dining room. Fish signify abundance and wealth.
• An aquarium with colored carps, gold fish or arowana also enhances wealth luck in the office or living room.
• Place the aquarium in the southeast sector of the office or living room. Keep 9 goldfish (8 red and 1 black) to symbolize heaven and earth’s abundant blessings.
• On a window near the southeast corner, hang a multi- faceted crystal or sphere of about 1 - 2 inches in diameter or a prism to capture the multi-colored reflection of sunlight which creates yang chi.
• An image of any deity of saint (depends upon the religion you belong) like the Sto. Nino, The Holy Family, The Virgin Mary; Buddha, Kwan Yin, Kwan Kong, Tsli Shen Yeh; or Ganesh, Shiva, etc. can be used as a symbol of wealth or blessed protector on a table facing the main door.
• The legendary 3-legged frog sitting on wealth coins and with an ancient coin in its mouth is also a wealth enhancer. Place some everywhere in the office all facing the main entrance. Place them on low leveled areas, (not on the floor and not on high tables).
• When locating the southeast corner of the room, use a good compass and stand in the middle of the room. Make three to five readings to be sure.

• Moving or flowing water symbolizes wealth. Avoid using still or stagnant water. The water must flow in the auspicious or southeast direction. If placed incorrectly, it can cause business failure, misfortune or marriage break-up.
• Pictures of running water like cascades, waterfalls, meandering river, brook, and fountain can substitute live fountains.
• Do not let picture of moving water face a door or window; it will symbolize the wealth energy flowing out of the room.
• Be sure that when you activate wealth luck with water, you must consider the size of your office or living room. Use a picture or a fountain or aquarium just proportionate to the space available.
• Place three golden coins or ancient coins in your wallet or purse to invite money luck. The golden or ancient coin is one that has a square hole in the middle, the round coin represents earth luck and the square hole is the heaven luck.
• The three coins with red string to give the coins positive energy. Put these coins in important piles, contract, sales invoice, etc. to enhance good business transactions.
• Businessmen and women should wear a necklace or bracelet with 9 gold or ancient coins. They may be made of real gold with diamonds in the middle or of other metals or semi-precious or crystal gemstones. The effectivity is just the same.
• An arowana ring or necklace or a dragon bracelet can be an auspicious body ornament for businessmen and women specially those playing the stock market.
• A wealth ship or a merchant sailing ship is a replica or model of a galleon or trader’s ship filled with gemstones, crystals, gold ingots, ancient coins and other symbolic treasures. This can be in the form of painting and must be facing your sheng chi or wealth direction.
• The sun trigram-two solid horizontal yang lines above a broken yin line means “wind” which carries wealth by spreading seeds that root, sprout, grow, and bloom. Use this symbol on your office door, wall, calling card, etc. to give the idea of development, improvement, growth and progress.
• The golden rice bowl is the best and strongest symbol of asset accumulation when used by the “boss” or manager of the office or the breadwinner of the family. Place a gold colored bowl on the dining or conference or pantry table.
• The rice bin or container of a home or office must not be left empty. To protect the wealth luck at all times, always refill the bin when it becomes half empty.
• The rice bin should be always covered, hidden from sight and preferably made of clay or stone.
• Family wealth should not be displayed for it attracts envy or jealous spirits who will cause it to be lost or depleted.
• Place a red envelop or packet (ang pao) containing real money preferably in large denomination deep into the rice bin will keep the family’s wealth safe. Adding another packet each lunar year will make the money multiply.

• During Lunar New Year, display real pineapples on the table or hang red paper pineapple lanterns to symbolize that good luck is coming or has arrived.
• Display, eat, exchange and give away mandarin orange or poncan or any juicy and round sweet orange colored fruits. Orange signifies gold both in English and Chinese languages. (or and kum respectively).
• Two lime trees with hundreds of yellow fruits flanking the office or home’s main door during the Lunar New Year will attract wealth luck.
• Red is the color of precious yang chi and should be worn or displayed during the Chinese New Year to carry the yang chi all year round.
• Homes or office buildings should be decorated with red lanterns during the first fifteen days of the lunar new year, it would be better if the lanterns are painted with “hok” in gold which means good luck.
• The loud noise of gongs, cymbals, drums; fireworks, lion and dragon dances. These attract the yang energy and drives away negative energy all year.
• Bats depict the coming of big wealth in the home or office. Symbolic red bats made of paper are hung overhead in homes, office or business establishments if there is no real bat that comes around. Do not disturb bat’s nest in your office or garden.
• A jade plant is succulent bush whose leaves look like jade, keep a few in your office, or home for “money luck”.
• Bonsai or stunted and dwarfed trees are a Feng Shui “no - no” because of the natural growth of trees are hindered and normal progress is symbolically stopped. Do not keep any in any office or home.
• Cacti should not be kept inside the home or office. Their stingy spines will hurt business, home wealth and wellbeing.
• The cacti plants may serve as guardians in the edge or gardens or outside the fence.
• Never place the stove in the northwest of your kitchen. In Feng Shui the stove will create fire at heaven’s gate.
• Place your rice cooker and kettle in your sheng chi direction. The plug must also point towards your sheng chi.
• When sitting at the dining table face your sheng chi (auspicious direction). Avoid the opposite.
• Do not place your dining table directly under a toilet on the next floor level. Move the table away to avoid bad luck.
• Prosperity luck is badly affected by a bathroom located above the main door. This means wealth will leak out steadily. To remedy, place a light that shines upward to “elevate” the yang chi.
• Do not face a door directly when eating, especially if it is a toilet door. This will prevent money from flowing to you. Move your chair away from that area.
• Avoid sitting with your back on bookshelves. They will affect your health and cut your finances.
• Bedroom and resting areas should be located in your sheng chi sector to create prosperity luck.

• Have your head pointed on your sheng chi direction for good health. Wall behind your head board (or your head protected by a solid wall). This will make your thinking stable.
• In the office sit on a chair with high back for security and stability.
• It is alright to move your bed at an angle to the wall to tap your sheng chi direction, but do not do it if the angle is too pronounced.
• Do not sleep under an overhead exposed beam and avoid being hit by the sharp edge of a protruding corner considered as a poison arrow. These affect health and wealth luck.
• Do not sleep with two doors on either sides of your bed. Use a screen or cover one door with a curtain.
• A brass bed is not recommended for a married couple. It “cools down” a relationship. Its headboard do not offer good head support.
• A round headboard gives better support than a fancy shaped one.
• Move your bed away a wall that is shared by a water closet of a toilet.
• Sales turnover in a shop will improve if you will install wall mirrors on two opposite sides to double your customers and profits.
• Do not face a mirror directly to the entrance of your shop because this will create a disappearing chi that is bad for business.
• A large mirror next to the cash register or cash box can enhance profit of your shop; it symbolizes doubling of money collected. A small mirror is ineffective.
• Do not place the cash register too near the door. The best place to keep it is deep inside the shop preferably concealed from customer’s view.
• Hang a small good sounding metal bells or six-rod metal chime to create positive chi when the shop door opens. The three ancient coins with red thread deep inside your shop to complement the bells or chimes.
• Place a blue rhinoceros figure on the east sector this year (up to February 4 next year) to protect your shop from “robbery” flying star this year (the position varies yearly.)
• Place a pair of “guardian fu dogs” at the entrance of your shop to prevent theft.
• The fu dogs must face each other. Place them at eye-level on each side of the door.
• The male fu dog (with a ball under its right foot) should be at the right of the door facing out, and the female (with a small fu dog at its right foot) at the left side facing out.
• Have hollow bamboo pipes or stems high above the cash register energized with red threads, at an angle such that the space between the bamboo is longer at the bottom than at the top.
• Attach three ancient coins to your cash register, cash box and sales book with very sticky tape. Be sure to tie these coins with red thread to energize them. These will make immediate sales improvement.
• Sign your name with prosperity strokes. Begin to sign your name and end it with both upward strokes. Make sure that there is no downward or backward movement toward the end of the signature.

• Make the number 8 a part of address, telephone number, business name, concept, etc. For 20 years starting in 2004, the number 8 will play a very important part in positive or auspicious chi.
• A wind chime with six rods will be the best defense against the effect of the annual deadly five yellow star. This year it is located in the north sector of the home, office, building or lot. If harmed or disturbed, misfortune may occur.
• Place a five element pagoda or five element bell to protect people who live or stay in the north. In February next year the direction will change.
• Do not turn your back to the direction of the “3 killings” or you will be cheated, fooled, suffer business losses. This is located in the east.
• Do not disturb this sector or run the risk of illness, accident, lawsuits and robberies, no renovation or building of any sort should be started or ended in this area this year.
• Place images of the 3 divine guardians or trinity of deities in this area or a blur rhinoceros to protect yourself from its ill effects.
• The three killings will be in the east during the year of the Ox (present); the Rooster (2005 and 2017); and Snake (2001, 2013).
• It will be in the west during the year of the Boar (2007 and 2019); Rabbit (1999 and 2011); and Goat (2003 and 2015). In the year of the Monkey (2004 and 2016); Rat (2008 and 2020); and Dragon (2000 and 2012) The three killings will fly to the south, and during the year of the Dog (2006 and 2018); Horse (2002 and 2014); and Tiger (1998 and 2010) it will be in the north.
• The Grand Duke Jupiter is the most fearsome and the northeast. This year must be respected and not disturbed by renovations or diggings. Also do not sit facing the northeast this year or you will suffer loss, misfortune, mishaps, accidents, money, power.
• Display a figure or picture of a dragon tortoise sitting on a bed of ingots and coins on the east sector to ensure long and short term wealth luck.
• For protection against financial loss wear a double fish symbol or a small gold dragon pendant.
• When using a dragon in your corporate logo, do not enclose or imprison the dragon with border, let it fly symbolically.
• Create a wealth vase by filling one made of clay or metal with three coins tied in red thread placed in a red packet, handful of soil, taken from a rich but kindhearted and generous man’s garden; 8 types of semi-precious stones, gold ingots and add one or two precious item each year. Keep the vase in a hidden part of your bedroom.
• Those with number 5 and 8 will enjoy good luck during the period 8 from Feb.2004 - Feb.2024
• A house or building facing a Y junction causes negative and harmful chi to the occupants. A convex mirror or a pa kwa hung above the door cuts or will repel the bad effect.
• A house or building that stands opposite a gap between two buildings across the street. Again the remedy is a convex mirror or a pa kwa hung above the door facing the gap.
• An inverted U-shaped road or the cutting edge of a cul-de-sac will affect the occupants of a building or a house. Likewise, here, the remedy is a pa kwa or convex mirror above the door or main entrance.
• Here are some more Feng Shui taboos which can make use of the pa kwa as remedy:
• A house or a building facing or beside a hospital, funeral home, slaughter house, police station, a church that accept funeral service or any establishment that has negative vibes from trauma, fear, pain, death, sickness, violence.
• A house or a building located at the dead end of a road; one with a river or a creek at the back; one beside an overpass or bridge or railroad curve with the bulk side towards the building or house; one facing an upturned T (also a dead end)
• Avoid having big posts and exposed overhead beams inside office or home
• Round-edged furniture and tables are better than pointed-cornered or sharp-edged ones in the office.

Looking to improve your Dining Room with Feng Shui? Here are some tips on giving your dining room a feng shui makeover!

• A mirror will be a wonderful feature in the dining room. It doubles the food on the table symbolically.
• The head of the family should have a seat which has a high back and arm rest. He should beat the head of the table.
• The head of the family should have his back on a solid wall and must not sit where his back is towards a door specially when open will drain his health and deplete the wealth luck of the family.
• If the dining room and kitchen share one space, a mirror must not be installed especially if it will reflect the fire of the stove. The doubling of fire in the reflection will produce a double yang energy which can put your house in danger of fire or your health may be affected. Hang pictures of ripe fruit and place a bowl of fruit on the dining table to symbolize bounty.
• Never keep the rice bin empty. Also keep the refrigerator well stocked.
• The best sector in the house is to have the dining room on the southeast, east or southwest.
• Avoid having the toilet door open to a dining room specially the dining table. If this exists, cover the toilet door with a rod curtain or put a divider to separate it from the dining room.
• A dining room should never be too close to the main entrance because the auspicious energy tends to dissipate fast or “go out soon”.
• Dining rooms should not have overhead exposed beams.
• A poison arrow or pointed corners protruding from an adjacent room or big cabinets pointing directly to the dining table will affect the health and wealth luck of the family.
• Cover this pointed corner with a tall plant or hang a small red pineapple lantern or a string of beads or shells at the ceiling where the sharp angle is, to cover the “poison arrow”.
• If a toilet is directly above the dining table, move it away to avoid depressing the auspicious energy.
• If a staircase leads to the dining table, move the dining table away or the downward flow of energy coming from the stairs may push away the “food luck”.
• Avoid using an overhead ceiling fan over a dining table. It affects the stability of auspicious energy in the dining room.
• Dining room level should be the same or a little higher than the living room.
• Paint the dining room with happy and bright but not loud colors.
• Avoid using religious images as decors in the dining room. These items should be in a quiet and respectable space in the house.

How is everyone? Here’s part 2 of Feng Shui Tips for Love. Hope you have a good love life!

• Marriage, romance and family’s happiness and relationship will be accepted if the southwest sector of your home or particularly your bedroom is afflicted.
• Place a big crystal or boulder if the southwest corner is missing. A missing southwest corner and family relationships may lack depth.
• Do not allow a mirror to reflect a door, a staircase, a toilet or a kitchen. It must reflect auspicious objects. When earth objects are reflected, love luck is enhanced.
• A southwest wall painted with bright red will create precious yang energy. Yellow and white can also do the same.
• A bright red lampshade is a good alternative to the chandelier in the southwest. Write or draw auspicious designs on the shade and keep the lights on for at least 3 hours each night.
• A faceted crystal ball of about 1- 2 inches in diameter can be hung on a southwest window to capture sunlight that can be converted to multi-colored chi energy.
• Place a bowl of water filled, and crystals, glass beads or semi-precious stones and floating candles on the southwest sector. Use 3 candles, never put 2 or 4 candles. They symbolize death or mourning.
• Do not over-energize the love sector or you might create an imbalance. Remember that Feng Shui is all about the right balance of yin and yang. Just one or two tips that are appealing to you and implement them.
• To get the correct location of the southwest sector, stand in the center of the house, room or the lot. And use a good compass, take a careful bearing.
• Have a good balance of the yang and yin with paintings, color schemes and decors. By not being excessive in the use of either masculine or feminine. This way, not only romance luck but also wealth luck will grow.
• Paint living and dining room with bright happy colors and the bedroom with restful, relaxing hues.
• Use a mystic knot to create continuous romance or love and harmonious relationship by sticking the red mystic knot onto pictures of you and your loved one or your family portrait.
• Red roses are good materials in bringing romance but when you send some, remove first the thorns so as not to “harm” relationships.
• Give 3, 5 or 7 flowers. These are the numbers of romance. Never send 2 or 4, because these are the numbers of death. Numbers 8, 10, 12 are for wealth luck and congratulatory wishes.
• Yellow flowers encourage romance, because yellow is the representative color of the earth. It is also the color of youth.
• Do not send white flowers. White has yin energy and is only given as offerings for the elder, and to God.
• A pair of Mandarin ducks made of ceramic, porcelain or crystal placed in the southwest sector of the bedroom will enhance romance in marriage. If you are single, this enhancer will help create love attraction.

• Crystal, jasper or porcelain are ideal materials for Mandarin ducks. But if your personalized love or romance sector according to your Kua Chart is east or southeast, colorful wooden ducks will be just as good.
• Mandarin ducks should be displayed in pair always. A single duck will signify loneliness, separation or celibacy for life.
• If your love partner avoids or is elusive of commitment place a big picture or painting of a pair of flying geese which symbolize eternal love and marriage destiny and happiness.
• If you are single and alone in your home, you may benefit from symbols of strong earth energy obtained from displaying beautiful rocks, crystals or a painting or a picture of mountains in the living room, this creates the chi of family luck.
• A sculpture with stone base stimulates earth energy and placing one made of marble or clay by the door will invite earth or love energy into your house.
• Women who wish to get a husband must use decors with yin energy. Do not overdo the energizing.
• Maintain a good balance of yin and yang energies by using equal amount of symbols for each like moon and sun; light and dark; black and white, cool and warm.
• Never place a water feature on the right side of the door (inside looking out) or on the south sector of the living room.
• Do not put aquariums, fountains, gold fish bowls, even paintings of waterscapes. They should never be placed inside the bedroom or they will cause loss of love, interest and coldness. They will cause sickness to the occupant.
• Water in the main entrance, whether inside or out of the house will cause the male of a couple to have his love interest change or wander, and thus play around, and get entangled in extra relationship.
• Swimming pool beside a bedroom on the southwest of a property can “drown” a relationship. It can cause loneliness or even separation.
• Keep cactus and thorny plants away from the southwest, the negative impact on your love life may be heightened.
• Never give your loved ones gifts that are prickly, pointed, sharp, and have cutting edge, such as letter openers, knives, etc. They cause severance of romance.
• Install a bright globe light 5 feet above the ground in your garden preferably in the southwest sector to draw the vital earth energy that activates romance.
• If your kitchen is in the southwest sector of your house, your love luck is suppressed. But if your stove is in the southwest sector of that kitchen, the bad effect is nullified because the fire strengthens the earth energy.
• Peony symbolizes happy love life and invites marriage luck to single men and women if they hang this in their bedroom especially in the southwest.
• If all children of the family are married, remove peony and all other love symbols and enhancement from the bedroom or the southwest sector of the house or the father of the family may become involved with a younger woman other than his wife.

• Do not put fresh, dried or artificial flowers in the bedroom of a married couple or either of them may look for extra-marital affair.

• Do not place a mirror in the bedroom especially if it reflects the bed. It can cause infidelity and extra-marital affairs, even sickness and separation.

• Two single mattresses placed on a double bed frame signify separation because this creates an invisible barrier. A married couple should not sleep on this.

• The married couple should sleep on a double bed with a double mattress or two single beds placed side by side. Beds facing different directions will not affect or harm the Feng Shui.

• Exposed overhead beams affect the couple sleeping under them. If the beam cuts the bodies horizontally, their love life and health will be affected. If vertically, the cut will cause separation.

• Couples should not sleep with their feet pointed towards the door. This simulates the “death” position either one may lose the “other”. Move the bed away or change its position to avoid the door.

• Heart-shaped crystals, specially pink or red placed under the pillow or inside a velvet pouch and placed on the night table in a bedroom will enhance the relationship of a married couple.

• Energize the crystal by bathing it in sunlight for 3 hours for 7 consecutive days. Morning sun is the best.

• To magnify the love chi or the heart-shaped crystal, place it under the light of the full moon.

• During engagement or marriage, wear a double happiness ring for conjugal bliss. This is a potent symbol in Feng Shui you can wear. This can also be worn as a pendant for both couple.

• You can decorate your bedroom with the double happiness symbol on a curtain, bed sheet, furniture, etc. but remember not to overdo it because you should always maintain good balance in Feng Shui.sss

• The double happiness symbol will be more meaningful if combined with the energy of light. Have it painted on a red lamp-shade to brighten up your marriage.

• The eight mansion formula will help you find out your personal love sector. Through your birth year and gender (in Kua Chart).

• Your kua number is based on the calendar of the Chinese. If you were born before February 4 of a year, you belong to the previous year of the Gregorian calendar.
• Add the last two digits of your birth year. Keep on doing this until you have just a single digit as the result. For males, deduct the resulting number from 10 and for females, add 5 to the resulting number and again keep on adding the two digits until you just have one as a result.
• For those born in the year 2000, deduct from 9 for males and add 6 for females.
• If your kua number is 1 - your love direction is south; if 2 - northeast; 3 - southeast; 4 - east; 5 - (male northwest) (female west); 6 - southwest; 7 - northeast; 8 - west; 9 - north.
• Use your own kua romance direction to energize love luck. Say your wishes, aspirations and prayers for love or meditate towards this direction.
• If you are talking to or dating the one you love, face towards your love direction.

• The southwest is the universal sector for love and romance. If you wish that love grows and stays in your home, activate and protect this sector. You can create the energy of good relationship.
• With an accurate compass you can find the exact location of the southwest. Energize both the big chi or the whole house and the small chi or the individual rooms separately.
• Use white, red, yellow or pink light to energize the love sector which is the southwest.
• Place a cluster of quartz crystal in the southwest portion of a table (preferably the table should be in the southwest sector of your room). Crystals carry the excellent chi of the earth, they will simulate the element of the earth (love).
• If a toilet or bathroom exists on your southwest sector, your love luck will be badly affected. Hang a five-rod windchime above the toilet bowl or paint the inside of the door bright red or place a mirror on the outside of the toilet door.
• If your room or house does not have a southwest corner, focus a light on the southwest wall of your living or dining room. This activates the small tai chi which is just as effective as the big tai chi.
• If family luck is missing in the house, life and love are not fulfilled. Romance, love and marriage are important to the family.
• If the southwest has overhead exposed beams, cover the edges of the beams with soft patterns or hang small windchimes. This can soften the effect of the killing chi.
• Flowers and plants whether fresh or artificial deplete the energy of earth
• Take note that the southwest is the earth’s sector and wood represented by plants as destructive to earth in the Feng Shui cycle. Love may not flourish because of this.
• Decorate this sector with objects made of clay, porcelain, ceramic or crystal, never of wood or fresh flowers and plants.
• Do not put water in the southwest. Earth and water are not compatible in Feng Shui. Water will affect the relationship of the residents of the house in this case quarreling will always prevail.
• Activate romance and luck by decorating the southwest sector of the room with crystal chandelier, ceramic vase or porcelain urns.
• Heart-shaped rose quartz crystals on a red cloth is an excellent energizer to attract love luck if placed on the southwest.
• Another powerful energizers in the earth sectors of the home are natural quartz crystals and jasper. If placed in the southwest they will activate romance luck and in the northeast, they will bring intelligence and artistic energies.
• The kun trigram of the southwest can be used by including three yin broken lines onto the designs of curtains, walls, ceilings, furnitures, etc., kun activates marriage luck.
• Hang a painting of picture of high mountains in the southwest, you create a powerful chi of big earth, this will enhance a harmonious relationship and establish goodwill between you and people around you.
• Do not use plants of windchimes to remove the bad effect of a “poison arrow” or protruding corner if ever one exists in the southwest corner of your house. Instead use a bright light focused directly on the edge of the corner to dissolve the negative effect.

1. Feng Shui makes the essence of positive chi in the home or office. It protects the owner or the occupant from negative spots or areas like overhead beams; poison arrow corners; sectors visited by unlucky or harmful flying stars. Through enhancers and symbols, Feng Shui activates wealth, abundance and harmony in positive sectors.

2. Killing chi causes misfortunes. You must defend yourself from the negative or bad effect of the killing chi by placing the adequate protectors in the proper areas. These will bring out the wealth luck and good energies.

3. The source of killing chi or negative energy comes from all things sharp, pointed, angular, hostile, straight, cutting edges that appear to directly hit at your front door, main gate, and window.

4. Heavy exposed overhead beams, when you are eating, working or sleeping affect your health, thinking and even your wealth luck. Keep away from these areas to avoid harmful effect.

5. If your main door is directly hit by a straight road, pathway or driveway, place a pakwa mirror above the door outside to repel the killing chi. A convex mirror can be used in lieu of the pakwa mirror.

6. The same pakwa or convex mirror can be used to repel the bad effect of the pointed edge of a neighbor’s roof directly hits your front door; or a lamp post, a tree, a tower, a smoke stack, a water tank sends killing chi to your front door.

7. The sides or edge of tall buildings serve as poison arrows. Their cutting or slicing effect can be blocked by high walls or trees.

8. If your main door or gate is greatly affected by the mentioned killing chi, use another door if possible and close the afflicted door permanently.

9. If you wish door direction, consult the new flying star natal chart and find out your auspicious kua direction. Door directions are important in clearing the best wealth luck.

10. Your kua direction is determined by your birth year and gender. If you were born before February 4, you belong to the previous animal sign of the Chinese zodiac.

11. The Chinese New Year’s date varies every year. Those born in the last ten days of January or the first two weeks of February may need to find out which sign they belong (to be more accurate) from the Chinese lunar calendar.

12. Add the last two digits of your birth year. Keep adding until you get a single number as a result. If you are a male, subtract the resulting number from 10. If you are a female add 5 to the resulting number. Again if the result is two digits, keep on adding until you get just one digit. This therefore is your kua number.

13. Your most auspicious wealth direction according to your kua number is called “sheng chi”.

14. Here is the sheng chi direction for: Kua number 1- southeast 2 - northeast 3 - south 4 - north  5 (male) - northeast; 5 (female) -southwest  6 - west 7 - northwest 8 - southwest 9 - east

15. This is your success direction based on one of the most powerful Feng Shui formulas known as the Eight Mansion’s Formula.

16. Only those with kua numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 can use their own shen chi for the main door. Directly face your main door to your own sheng chi without getting hit by poison arrow.

17. Those having kua numbers 1 and 9 will benefit from homes whose main doors facing north or south. Those with kua numbers 6 and 7 will benefit from main doors facing southwest or northeast.

18. If your main door is in the garage, use the orientation of the house’s frontage to benefit from your sheng chi. If your sheng chi direction is facing the road, the source of maximum “Yang” (positive) energy.

19. The sheng chi direction is taken from the inside facing outward.

20. If your main door or house orientation does not face your sheng chi direction, look for an alternative (second) door that does, and use it to get in and out of your house.

21. Even if your main door faces your sheng chi, your wealth luck will be in serious danger if this door is hit by killing chi such as the pointed roof, lamp post, smoke crack, etc. Hence see to it that none of these affect the main entrance.

22. The southeast sector of the workplace, building, home, office or store is the universal wealth sector or corner or wall. The element that energizes this sector is wood. Thus, to energize the wealth of chi of your home of office place wooden decors or materials.

23. Lush, healthy young plants whose energy is very auspicious and symbolizes growth and continuity.

24. From Feng Shui point of view artificial flowers and silk and plastic plants can represent the wood element and will work just as well as the real thing as long as they look real and kept clean.

25. Dry flowers and leaves, dead tree trunks must be used as décor in the interior because they symbolize extreme negative or yin energy. Use potpourri only in the toilet (especially if the toilet is in the southeast).

26. If the toilet is in the southeast sector, place a small round mirror directly above the toilet bowl on the ceiling to reflect water flushing to symbolize “fountain gushing” energy.

27. When the southeast corner of a home or office is missing because of the room’s shape, wealth luck tends to be temporary or short-lived. To remedy this, place a plant in the corner opposite the southeast and put a mirror facing the plant to create the enhancing symbol.

One must have the right combination of luck to have a well-balanced, auspicious and healthy life. These are the heaven luck, the earth luck and the man luck. For man to obtain his life’s objective, he should work hard. This is called man luck. Together with this, he needs the support of other people around him. He then must have the right place or setting to have his talent in the right venue. The heaven luck comes in the form of the right timing for his goals to realize. Read the rest of this entry

The opening of the New Year holds many uncertainties and doubts for many people all over the world. These uncertainties make one so insecure that he will try to hold or depend on anything, even superstitions to allay his fears or assure him that everything will be alright. He keeps charms and talisman, sees fortune-tellers and reads horoscopes to get assurance of good fortune. Even the garden is not spared from superstitious beliefs. Read the rest of this entry

The kitchen is part of the home that nourishes and sustains life. This is the part of the home that puts the members of the family in good or bad health depending on how it is designed, constructed, and positioned in feng shui. Here are some pointers in feng shui that will bring auspicious fortune in the home, office, business, work place, study, and recreation.

Here are some tips for an auspicious kitchen:

• Do not hang family pictures, mirrors or pictures of animals.
• Don’t use a strong dominant color of red in the kitchen.
• Avoid placing the kitchen in the northwest of the house.
• Do not place the stove in the northwest of the kitchen.
• The cook’s back should not be turned at the kitchen door.
• The rice bin must always be covered. Clay, ceramic, or porcelain rice containers are ideal.
• The sink and refrigerator (or freezer) must not be opposite the stove.
• Open fire cooking must be done outside the house.
• Do not place the kitchen in the center of the house. The same goes for the stove.
• The kitchen must not face the door of the main entrance.
• The sink must not be too close to the stove although they can be aligned on one side.
• The toilet and bath should not be above the kitchen.
• The ‘mouth’ of the oven or stove should face the ‘kwa’ direction of the family bread winner.
• Kitchen location is ideally at the back. There must be a big window for good ventilation and lighting. The back portion where the kitchen is located must have the backing of a fence, sloping, ground, or big trees (about 5 or more).
• Shelves and cabinets must have doors to cover the ill effect of the shelves that signify “cutting blades”.
• There must be no bedroom above the kitchen. If ever one exists in your home, keep the bed away from the direct position above the stove. There must be no heavy furniture above the kitchen.
• If a bedroom is above the kitchen, place a blue rug or carpet on the center of the bedroom floor and/or paint the kitchen ceiling light blue or grey.
• The south is the fire sector and the north is the water sector in the home. A kitchen should not be placed in either sector.
• Ideal colors for a kitchen: Beige, white, pastel colors and yellow.
• The kitchen must be placed in either one of the bad direction of the patriarch according to his ‘kwa’ chart, the kitchen will suppress bad luck.
• But even if the kitchen is placed in one of the bad directions, the stove must face in any one of the patriarch’s best direction.
• If the kitchen is placed in your wealth, love, or health growth area according to your ‘kwa’ number then bad luck may occur in the corresponding aspect.
• If your kitchen is located in any of your bad luck directions, your bad luck will be suppressed.
• If your kitchen is in the northwest, put still water in a clay urn about and a half feet deep and at least one foot wide.
• A kitchen should be spacious, bright, and airy. Avoid clutter in the kitchen and use cement tiles, not wood for flooring.
• Feng shui helps homeowners, builders, professionals in architecture. Knowing the basic tips in furniture and appliance positions and placements of rooms and other parts of the house will help people live harmoniously with the yin and yang energies that surround them.

We have just encountered the summer months, and we’ve bathed in the heat of the sun. Though many of us would prefer the cooler months, and would rather stay indoors in an air conditioned room, studies show that a little sun can really do the body some good.

According to experts, the right amount of sunshine can have healing and cleansing effects on the body. Having too much or too little sunlight exposure can have its negative health effects, too.

In the late 1800’s, it was discovered that sunlight can destroy harmful bacteria. Today, sunlight is still used to treat bacterial infections. It disinfects and destroys bacterial viruses and molds, and helps increase the body’s immune system. It has been observed that sunlight therapy can help cure most of the fungal infections of the skin, because moderate exposure to ultraviolet light or sunlight can increase antibody levels, while neutrophils are stimulated to engulf bacteria more rapidly.

Mothers know all too well the benefit of sunlight for their newly born babies. With the help of the early morning sun, jaundice (yellow skin) is often reduced in children and in adults as well. It is believed that repeated short exposure to the sun could also help lower cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Many skin diseases, including acne and psoriasis, are also said to improve with mild exposure to the sun.

Some researchers even attest that moderate exposure to sunlight can help lower the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40%. It has also been found that because of light’s influence on the body’s various physiological and psychological functions, moderate sunlight may significantly influence the mood and fertility and women. Even PMS (premenstrual syndrome) is believed to respond positively to light treatment. It appears that sunlight affects the serotonin levels in the brain, a hormone that can elevate or improve a person’s mood. Women who are exposed to ample amounts of sunlight are said to experience less depression, fewer mood swings, better sleep, more energy, increased concentration and greater mental alertness. Sunlight is also said to benefit those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, insomnia and bulimia as well.

Moreover, it has been found that fifteen minutes of sunlight every day could prevent most osteoporosis cases. Because sunlight stimulates the skin to promote Vitamin D which is crucial for calcium absorption and utilization, it is obvious that sunlight is necessary for good bone heath. However, as people age, their ability to produce vitamins sufficiently through the skin also diminishes. That is why most of the elderly and bedridden are likely to develop osteoporosis more than the others.

However, skin experts also agree that people should sunbathe with caution. Although darker skinned people (like most Filipinos) can tolerate more sun than lighter-skinned people, it is nonetheless wiser to get your dose of sunlight during the earlier or later hours of the day (before 11am or after 3pm).

Photo by Colby Otero

A brightly lit chandelier hung in the center of your home brings excellent feng shui. The feng shui chart indicates 2009 is a double earth ox year, so crystal chandeliers symbolize these 2 harmonizing elements. This is also a year when the quarrelsome star flies into the northeast of the home or any building. The best remedy to suppress and exhaust this negative star is to put Ksitigarbha’s fireball or Manjushri’s flaming sword in the northeast and employ fire energy. Hung in the center of the home, a brightly lit crystal chandelier becomes a fashionable decorative piece with a difference. It will also enhance the elements of the year while at the same time lessening tensions and disharmony.

Chandeliers make wonderful effect in lighting which works well, if not better than harsh halogens and designer lights. Chandeliers are the jewels glittering on your ceilings and walls, lighting the living room in the home with the fire energy associated with recognition luck and a great amount of yang energy.

The energy of chandeliers comes from lights shining on beautiful crystals. If you can’t afford these, at least invest in little balls of cut crystals that you can hang around the home. These crystal drops are very strong in suppressing hostile energy that afflicts the center of all homes. Hang them by your windows as well so they catch the sunlight, which provides natural fire energy.

The best kinds of chandeliers are circular and look like mandalas. Do not get chandeliers whose crystal points look threatening. They must look like the sun or moon, and not appear like they will fall on you.

Before chandeliers were seen only in the grand ballrooms of palaces, hotels and country homes. Today they are available in all sizes at very affordable prices. So they are no longer for the rich but something of their previous associations still clings on.

In feng shui, chandeliers always bring good energy because they suggest wealth and prosperity. To have them in homes has little or no bad effect, but do not overdo the effect of chandeliers. Go for warm bulbs rather than white light. Make your chandeliers warm rather than cold. Let their light embrace you, not hurt your eyes. In feng shui, one needs to be embraced by energy, not hit by it. When lights become so bright; that they dazzle your eyes and cause you to squint in their glare, or give you an uncomfortable feeling, their good effects transform into something bad. Too much of anything is always harmful.