1. When building on the height, seek to face the flat or lower ground. As illustrated above this going with the flow has a very practical result. The building itself sits on the mountain and is thus supported by it. Conversely, you will see that entry to and from the building is from the lower ground to the higher and thus going against the flow. An interesting exercise is to reflect on a building as a human body. Both have feet (foundations), both have skeletons, their super-structures. They have shells or skins. They have hats or roofs. Both have faces. The face can be detected most frequently by the location and direction of the mouth (main used doors) and the eyes (windows or other sources of greatest light and activity). To further the analogy we might like to consider this action of flow in buildings or units that have no…

The Pa Chai (Ba Dzai in Mandarin) or Eight Mansions system of traditional feng shui is one of the most respected and utilised in Asia today. However, it is not so well known in the West and there are few consultants who know how to use it properly. Many of those who do use it use only one method of application. It is sometimes dismissed for being too simplistic in its approach, especially by those who advocate the San Yuen (Three Periods) or Flying Stars School. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that Pa Chai as a system for examining the feng shui of any building, is simply one aspect of three that make up the San He or Three Combinations School. It cannot therefore be taken in isolation from the other two factors. System Basics The basis of the system has to do with what are usually referred to as…

The Flying Stars are arguably one of the strangest and most difficult to understand aspects of the traditional methods of feng shui. It is, in essence, a study of the changes that the passage of time has over space. In simple terms it means there is a method for calculating the ‘seasons’ of a building, just as we might read the weather for a specific period of time. Looking at the calendar and knowing what month it is, we can know that we would do well to carry an umbrella with us during a particular season or a warm coat in another. We are all aware that as seasons come and go, so too does the weather change for that time of year. George Santayana the famous philosopher expressed this by saying, Repetition is the only form of permanence Nature can achieve. If we recognise in this truth that it…