(A tongue and cheek look at Feng Shui)
So you want to fail at Feng Shui?
You want to really mess it up? Here are the top 7 ways to screw up your Feng Shui:
1. Follow the advice of all the Feng Shui books on the market. So many of them are such wonderful [...]

On February 4th at 7:03pm, the new Solar Year begins. This brings in the new qi for 2008. This new energy has both good and unfavorable effects. The key is to knowing which directional energy you need to watch out for and which are areas in which you should spend time.
In 2008, [...]

The Tai Sui (literally Great Year) is the controlling influence for the current year. It corresponds to the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness for the year. Each year it relates to a different direction depending upon the current year. In 2008, it is to the Zi direction or North. Zi relates to the [...]

All buildings need a Ming Tong. What is a Ming Tong? It is the flat space in the facing side of the building. It literally means “Bright Hall.” In the front of your house, is the area directly in front beautiful, welcoming, and have a good balance of light and dark? [...]

Originally posted June 14, 1999:
Dear 168 Feng Shui Advisors:
I am at a loss to find a source of information–just fundamental, basic principals–regarding the use of Feng Shui in planning landscaping and plant installations for a new home (or any home!). Any suggestions? I’m needing to know sizes of plant material, which sides of the house [...]

Feng Shui literally means wind and water. The ancient Chinese used Feng Shui to study the effects of qi (pronounced “chi” and meaning “Life Energy”) on people and buildings and to create environments that were supportive and prosperous. “Wind disperses qi and Water holds qi” is a common axiom in Feng Shui. Water is one [...]

There is often confusion on which way to position yourself; with your good direction facing you or behind you? Many authors say you should face your good direction and have your back to the bad directions. This is not correct. You want to have your facing towards the opposition and [...]

There are 5 elements in Feng Shui. These are the remedies that are used in correcting the qi. Here is a quick primer on the elements and some basics on their application. You can use colors as a substitute, but the actual element is the preferred recommendation.
Wood: Wood is simply plants or [...]

The Eight Trigrams
The Ba Gua diagram (literally 8 houses, also spelled as Pa Kua) is the basic tool for tool for Feng Shui analysis.  When a Feng Shui analysis is performed, the practitioner refers to these basic concepts to analyze the situation within each area of the building.  From this representation, the basis of the [...]

Many people who are beginning to learn Feng Shui are sometimes confused with the many different forms of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is like peeling an onion. There are layers after layers of information and contexts. This is also why there are so many conflicting trains of thoughts out there. [...]