Cecil Lee

Dear Mui Ling, We can draw a parallel to your question to the "purchase" of a car. For example, many aspire to buy a mercedes benz. And it is nice-to-have. But not necessary. Many can still go buy a car that can zoom us from A to B. Thus, it boils down to whether it is a "MUST" or "NICE-TO-HAVE". Frankly, often just selecting the auspicious move-in-date will do. The selection of a date for initial opening or ground breaking are in my opinion, nice-to-have. However, as we all know, there is relatively NO HARM in doing or performing more than just the date for moving-in. Nowadays, many clients expect more from their practitioners. Today, many clients would feel more comfortable if they have performed (nice-to-do) things like initial opening and ground breaking ceremonies. To do the ground breaking is really up-to you. As mentioned, it is often under the category "nice-to-have" rather than a "MUST". But since, the ground breaking is no harm, why not perform it, since you are "concerned" over this. Firstly, it does not cost much - nor much effort in doing so. I have attached a file for the Initial opening of door and on the day of move-in. As for the "ground breaking" : (Often the initial opening of door ceremony had been performed, earlier (at least a few days earlier). 1. At the appointed date and time, go to the home with some fruits. For those who pray, bring along incense and candles and pray at the centre of the living room. 2. Bring a small hammer (old or new is ok). Open the main door and often, afterwards,close to this location or in the living, saysomething like: "We seek permissionfrom all spiritswho dwellin this home to give way so that we can commence renovation of this home and apologise to all spirits who are affected." 3. After this knock three times on the ground (e.g.) any living room corner will do or at the centre of the living room. Butdo check where is the S-SW, this year. avoid knocking at the Grand Duke's sector, which is around the SW sector, this year. 4. For the Cantonese, they prefer to bring along5 types of fruits topray. Often the fruit to be avoided is the Pear. 5. Leave immediately after theritual. (For the incense / candles, please wait until they are extinguished before leaving home -- more for fire safety precaution). Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, In fact, it would be a better approach to apply the "holistic" approach to geomancy for wealth. For example, try to do a SEARCH for " Holy Trinity" of Luck to find out more about the approach to health, wealth and happiness by understanding: what is: Heaven Luck, Earth Luck and Human Luck Frankly, although the Eight House is an interesting subject that may seem to bring us "hope" of having a better future, but, in my opinion, it may not seem to be very practical. Other than to give one a sugar coated pill. Therefore, to agree with the idea that you may need to move to a southwest direction, is difficult to "swallow". It is like a lump of clay in my throat. This is because, often, even in a tiny country like Singapore, you see, once a while we get"silly" people who have the notion that they have to move or stay in the East instead of the West. But all of us know that this Eight House or 4 good /bad directions will definitely place each of us either in the EAST or WEST house. Or 50-50 percent. What if: 1. We are married? Does it mean that if suppose the husband is a WEST person, while the WIFE is an EAST person, because of the Eight House concept, they must "SEPARATE"? 2. What if they have children? So, does it mean that if all the children are WEST persons, the burden or responsibility of rearing all their "monsters" rest on the husband? What will society be like? In addition, we cannot be "blamed" if we are EAST group persons. This is because, for many east group persons, they often are favourable for NORTH and SOUTH. So, if one's excellent or prosperity is suppose to be North or South, and if we are currently e.g. staying in Singapore or Australia, does it mean that we must move to the South pole to work? So, if one is in the North e.g. Canada, does it mean that one has to move to North pole to work? Frankly, all this does not really make much sense. I would rather, that one fully grasp or understand the Holy Trinity of Luck, first. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Rebecca, The theme for the kitchen is where bothfire and water areused. In anykitchen, there will always be the water element versus thefireelement. Thekey essence is a good balance between yin and yang (water and fire)whichcan result in good fortune while the opposite can resultin amisfortune.Other aspects of kitchen Feng Shui includes the locationas wall asfacingof the stove. In addition, another element most commonlyfound in akitchenis the metal element such as cooking utensils. And thiselement isoftenused as a bridge between water and fire elements. In the kitchen the most importantconsideration is theposition of thekitchen and stove. In Feng Shui each compass direction isassociatedwith anelement. For example, the kitchen and stove should not belocated atnorthwhich is associated with the water element: water drownsfire. Anotherkeyimportant location to avoid is placing the kitchen andstove in thenorth-west or Heaven's gate. Here north-west alsorepresents the headof thehousehold i.e. father. The fridge and sink are important considerations alsobecause one shouldavoid placing them next to the stove as this can cause a conflict ofwaterversus fire. More importantly, the kitchen should be welllit andventilatedand preferably the person cooking can see the door. In fact, this and some of these notions are more important than to say that the stove and fridge is in my health sector. Here, we can only look at the Eight House for clues on this: If we do not spent time at this sector, we often are not "influnenced" by that sector. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Jo Jo, Currently, I have clients that have changed to Period 8 with "mixed-results". For example, I met a business client and after having changed to Period 8 (NW3) and because their office premises can place a large water feature at water star #8 and in the MD's room, which is directly at that opposite back, with a mountain #8. The MD mentioned that after the renovations, his sales improved greatly and even a division that did not do well, had a great change. However, for another client, who is running a child-care centre from a private landed home, (a smaller place) did not make major changes, had not improved. Thus, generally, it is more important that for a change to Period 8, often, a larger mass or location should see changes. But for smaller premises or even an apartment, sometimes, it may either have to depend on the larger (premises) or building or more should be done rather than e.g. re-painting. In your case, perhaps, try to add more yang qi into the home by: 1. Having an appropriate "celebration(s)" e.g. birthday celebration, new year celebration. 2. Burying of "ancient Chinese coins" is symbolic of placing wealth into the home. 3. If you are changing the floor tiles, you can follow the example in the attachment in burying coins at the main door area and also at corners of the living /dining of the home. And also use a format for the frontage of the main entrance. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Danielle, In my opinion, the method that you are currently using is often known as the "trip and fall" method. Touch wood! But, imagine, a one-time visitor or a new visitonr in your home - - visiting in the evening. Suddenly, there is a momentary power-outage. Because of the 'odd' or unusual placement of the furniture, the guest may perhaps, trip and fall! Again, this is like the stories we hear in the US, where someone blames the government for placing the lamp post at the wrong place - which resulted in a car "kissing-it". Best directions or facing best directions are considered as "nice-to-have". If can face a good direction - very good. If not, what the "heck!". More importantly, or higher weightge should go to the Shapes and Forms of the site, building, first. And interior furniture should equally be placed in (first choice) best Shapes and forms, then it is "nice" to have furniture especially, the work or the bed. Other furnitures are often less of a major consideration. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Mario, In my opinion, Feng Shui is not a cure all. To put logos in the right perspective:- 1. Ideally, if we are applying Geomancy, then a company signage or logo should preferably have three colours instead of one or two. Here, three stands for progress while one or two stands for death. 2. For a small business or sole proprietorship, the logo can be based on the Ba Zi of the owner. For example, if the owner is a weak water person, then, preferably, the company logo should have colours such as :- Metal (white or gold) Water (Blue black or grey). Since each element has a specific shape, i.e. metal = round and water wavy, for the company logo, perhaps, it could have something like a round shape and/or wavy design. These are the major considerationsunder Geomancy for a businesslogo. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Nancy, This year Grand Duke is located at SW and not South. While South is the location to avoid renovations. Thus, there is no issue facing South, this year. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Nancy, This year Grand Duke is located at SW and not South. While South is the location to avoid renovations. Thus, there is no issue facing South, this year. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, If you are in control of the direction your working chair is facing, you can try to optimize your sitting position to the "Excellent" or "Prosperity" sector. You should first generate a free Eight House chart or use any of the tables or charts provided to determine your Gua (Kua) number. A sample illustration, is attached. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, Please see below:-

Dear Hoa Luong, Structural engineers or foundation experts are similar to doctors. In fact, many of them are certified in their profession. And given their professional accrediations, it is best to rely on their judgement. Surprisingly, sometimes, good quality wood may even lasts much longer than as mentioned the unexpected high expansion and contraction. It is best therefore to leave it to the professional competence of these people. In fact, often under building regulations, (touch wood) but should there be a structural problem in the future, these people, may be held accountable. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Deepak, Please see below:

Dear Tigger's Mom, Please see below:- However, if the plot of land is almost flat or level and if there is a view towards NE, than one can also arrange the home to become a NE facing home. Or alternatively, if the home so happens to have a double 8 at a specific sector, one can make this the busiest part of the home. What you can do is to do "zero base" Feng Shui, or work out the best placement of e.g. living room, main door, bedroom areas etc... i.e. several alternatives to see if one can further fine tune the layout to optimize on as many Feng Shui factors such as Eight House best directions (Ba Zhai) and also work on the Flying Star numbers: the purpose is to optimize on the layout plan for good measure. In addition, Shapes and Forms Feng Shui should also be taken into consideration. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Joan, To be more accurate, usually, the three components are looked at i.e. MS#, WS# and Base # to come to a better understanding of that specific sector. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Glenetta, Frankly, you can goto this url: http://www.geomancy-online.com to generate a free ba zi report. The report will provide you with a more accurate "element and strength" e.g. weak wood , strong wood etc... Here, your best colour schemes are also mentioned in the free report. This method or Eight Characters/ Ba Zi is preferred over the kua definition. Since kua or gua takes into account only the Year of birth, while the Ba Zi report used here, analyses the Year, Month, Day, Time (and two other pillars - house of life and house of conception). Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Mary, Frankly, there is no major issue in the installation of finials other than that it / or a wall be built so high that it looks more like a prison. Overall, if your aim is for privacy, the common overlapping wooden / often maintenance free wooden fence is acceptable either in wood tone colours or white. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Hoa Luong, In the sample, the compass direction pointing North. Here, if the facing direction is North, then take the orientation of North as the compass marking. Since the home is orientated North -- South, determine the facing direction by checking e.g. where is usually the main entrance or drive-up area. In your sample, the facing direction can only be either North, South or also East or west. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Mansi, It is best to you consult a Feng Shui master or you may have to "work hard" to digest and understand all the various Feng Shui concepts. For a start, you can try to generate the free Eight House report(s) for your family members. There are already quite alot of resources on this concept. Equally important are the : Shapes and Forms and Flying star Feng Shui. If you want to do it on your own, please note the saying " Rome is not built in a day". So, if you really want to pursue individually or D.I.Y., please make sure that you have a true understanding of all the concepts. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Stanley, Appreciate if you can provide the location of this new building. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Sullivan, Apologies; what I was talking about has more to do with "openings" in a home that e.g. allow light to filter into it. Therefore, the idea is that, for example, if one side of the home is littered with lots of windows, doors, balcony, patio or sliding doors; therefore, it implies that with so many openings, there is a higher probability that this side is the facing direction. Although, a side where there is higher intensity could SEEM to be the facing side. But, often, this is not the main consideration. For example, for a bungalow that has four sides, and if the facing direction is North-South facing (e.g North - facing and South - sitting), just because of the intensity of sunlight coming from east or west, this does not imply that East-West sides are or should be the facing direction.

Dear Anon, I can understand your concern. But, are you "buying" the business or studying in the institute. To be honest, when taking a course, most of us depend more on our "study / examination technique" than from the school in which we are considering studying in. Most of the questions that you had posed requires an on-site audit to determine e.g. the suitability of facade facilities and design(s). What is equally more important is the type of course that you are considering, which has an impact on your keeness, future earnings and a satisfactory career. Cheers! Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Elena, In fact, a Feng Shui investigation takes into consideration 3 factors: 1. Shapes and Forms Feng Shui 2. Flying Star Feng Shui 3. The trigram associations. Para 1 and 2, is pretty much documented or mentioned in many of the messages. Under Para 3, the trigram associations or commonly known as life associations, NW for some Feng Shui practitioners is believed to be the most important trigram in a home. This is because, it is suppose to be the Heaven trigram or the father or the head of the home. Let me give you an example: Many Feng Shui practitioners do not like the kitchen or stove situated here because, to them NW is the "Heaven's gate". And, a stove is equivalent of = a fire element. Here, the common term applies: " Fire at the Heaven's gate" which is very inauspicious. Looking at the issue of water. it is also similar i.e. " Water at the Heaven's gate". Imagine, water "flooding the heaven's gate". *JOKE* No one can become angels anymore! Therefore, if one can see, Feng Shui is quite complex, having to grasp so many concepts and considerations. But, there is hope. Besides Shapes and Forms Feng Shui, if all else gets too confusing, then, one could actually apply Flying Star Feng Shui. For example, what are the stars at the NW sector? If one has metal stars such as WS#8 at this sector or WS#6 or WS#7 or WS#1, we can use water at the position to increase wealth. But, if there are mountain stars such as MS #8 or #9 at that sector, then water can drown our wealth. Since MS #8 belongs to the earth element while #9 belongs to the fire element. Water will extinguish the fire! Under Flying Star Feng Shui, in this Period 8, it is best to pay special attention to: #7 past prosperity - if possible, down it with water #8 current prosperity - if it is a mountain star, depending on the location, it canbe activated with a solid object with mass. If it is a water star #8, then water can be activated, here #9 future prosperity -it belongs to the fire element and if it is a MS#9 can be enhanced with wood (also depends on the interaction of the base number with the water star number). For example, if there is a mix of #9 with #5 (misfortune and sickness), wood element can be applied in this situation. Since a #9 with #5 is not particuarly good since fire (9) can further inflame (5). #1 water star is equally important under Period 8, since this is the future, future wealth sector. In my opinion, it is still best to investigate whether to place a water position, by first using the Flying Star Feng Shui. This is better than the generalised statements "given" as to whether it is good or bad to place such a water position. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, Actually, in my opinion, it depends. This is because, in Feng Shui, we often see homes on a hill. The advise here is that homes should not be on extremely steep hill side. Often a gentler slop is preferred. In such a situation, we can imagine your question. Here, for some homes on a slope, we do notice that the opposite is true! The back of the house is higher than the front. Usually, in my opinion, it has more to do with the "design" of the home. The reason why it is very important under Flying Star Feng Shui to find out where is the facing and sitting direction, has to do with : How best we can tap beneificial qi into the home. In a few of my recent write-ups in the forum, I mentioned that facing direction is often considered as the "mouth" of the home. So it does not really matter - general or not. For example, if the basement is at the back (visible) or not, then, often, this area is not an area of activity. Thus, most likely, is the sitting position. But say, if one, has a lovely patio, and perhaps, the configuration of the entire house is geared to make full use of this "sloping" side for especially living / activity area / bedroom balcony, windows over looking this area i.e. we spent more at this part of the home (overlooking the view there) then, most likely, this side (the current basement) side may thus become our facing direction. Therefore, what I feel is that, we humans with planning or if we had already purchased a home planned in such a manner, we may have to determine the "mouth" of the home, based on some of these considerations. It is like the saying that the facing direction could be the location where "most light" i..e. most windows or openings are. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Florence, Usually for relationships, Chinese astrology or horoscope is the equivalent of the Western zodiac signs. Feel free to check out : http://www.lovesigns.net Here, you can compare and check out the characteristics of a person's Chinese zodiac (horoscope). Like : He is a "PIG" ! He is a real "RAT".... Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, Please see below:- I can say that you are a "privilge" group because, for most part, many people are unable to sleep in the living room because they have a large family. And, often sleeping in the living room has less privacy for these people. As well as if one has large sized family members. Imagine, being trampled by them, also. In the case of sleeping on a flat bed, or on the floor, there are lots of people around the world who often sleep on such a surface. Even in Singapore, many (many) parents for fear of their young ones, falling off a bed, often, simply lay mattress on the floor. And sometimes, the entire family sleep together (cosy). So far, no ill effects. In many countries, such as Japan, they sleep on tatami mat and have slept for many generations. The only "issue" is that preferably, bedrooms could use parquet flooring or wood based flooring in the bedroom. This is because of the excellent insulation properties of wood. Often, when we wake up, stepping onto wood / wood floor does not feel cold. But if we step on ceramic, marble, homgenous or granite tiles, they feel cold to the feet. The idea is that life is short, so, why do we want to make ourselves more miserable? If one feel good, just do it! Who cares about what others say! For example, again it is ridiculous to hear people say do not place a tv set in the bedroom. Who cares! What others say! You do it, I do it, they do it! So, go on doing it! Cheers! Warmest Regards, Cecil