DIY Feng Shui – Something the Feng Shui Masters will not reveal to you

Part One – Entrance Door

There are many conditions surround us that will affect the feng shui of our house, for instance, the surrounding environment, the entrance door, location of the master bed and study desk etc.  Among them, the most important one is the main entrance door. The reason is every day the family will come and go through the entrance door, which is similar to the mouth of the human body. As soon as it has problem, we need to heal the problem as soon as possible to prevent major illness. Thus, if the entrance door is properly designed accordingly to feng shui ideas, it will surely bring us tremendous luck both in terms of monetary and health.

So, does it mean that the roads or open space in front of the entrance door the wider the better in feng shui? The answer is not exactly!  For example, if the entrance door of a single detached house is facing a vast open space without any fence or vegetation in front of the door, it is not considered auspicious in feng shui because the chi got scattered by the wind and cannot be retained. This implies the occupants in the house will not have any intent to stay in the house and always like to wandering away from the house. On the other hand, this has less effect on a housing complex or high rise condominium.

1. The size of the entrance door must be in proportion with the total area of the house. It is not auspicious to have a big house will small entrance door and vice versa. For instance, if the house is small and the entrance door is big, this implies that the house cannot contain the chi when entering the house, in other words, the household will have difficulty saving money.

2. It is not auspicious to have the edge of the roof from other buildings or roads directly facing the entrance door. If the entrance door is directly facing a road (which is referred as "pistol sha" in feng shui), we can plant some trees to protect from the sha chi of the road or we can relocate the entrance door as countermeasures.

Note: In some cases where the timely facing star is located at the entrance star, and it is facing a road or "pistol sha", it will instead enhance the feng shui of the house. This is referred as “charging the joyful palace and creates precious treasure or [沖起樂宮無價寶] under the Xuan Kong Flying Star feng shui. This explains why some houses where the entrance doors are facing directly at a road are enjoying good feng shui. Nonetheless, the luck will change after the facing star becomes untimely based on the Three Eras and the Nine Cycles time span [三元九運].

3. It is not auspicious to have the entrance door facing a temple as it is believe that these buildings contain gods and spirits (yin energy). In feng shui, it is also not auspicious to have the back door facing a temple. This will cause the presence of spirits, drunkards, unconsciousness and idle behaviour in the household.

4.  When the entrance door is facing any knife-like sharp edges, for example, the edge of the roof of another building etc., this will cause health problems, conflicts and argument to the household.

5. If the entrance door is blocked by a large tree, this will affect the circulation of air and light into the house, furthermore, it will also block the negative energy from exiting the house; this will result in the culmination of too much yin energy in the house which is not auspicious.

6. It is not auspicious to have the entrance door facing an electric or light pole. The electromagnetic fields will affect our body and if facing it for a long time, it will affect our health and most likely the brain.

7. When an entrance door is facing a dead end alley or a solid wall, this will block the chi entering into the house. This will affect the promotion luck in work and passing of examination in study.

8. If the entrance door is facing a broken house, or a house with no windows and with no people living in it, it will cause spirits entering into the house, strange diseases and legal disputes.

9. If the entrance door is facing the same direction of the flowing water (roads) in front of the house, it denotes the difficulty of retaining money in the house.

10. If the entrance door is facing an alley way between two buildings, it will bring bad luck to the family, most likely thefts and accidents. If the alley way is facing the back door, it denotes internal thefts in the house. This effect will not be too strong if the alley way is wide, on the other hand, the effect will be very strong if the alley way is long and narrow.

11. If the entrance door is facing a river or a “Y” intersection of roadway, it will bring poor health and money luck.

12. It is not auspicious to have the entrance door directly in line with the back door. This is referred as “needle hanging sha” in feng shui.

13. If there is a high mountain in front of the entrance door, this will cause the happening of servant deceiving master, neurasthenia, unsuccessful career and poor promotion luck.

14. If there are large landscape rocks and waterfalls at the front of the house, it is not considered auspicious in feng shui. This may cause tumours in the body.  In fact, this kind of landscape features is more appropriate to locate at the sides of the house. If the landscaping feature is at a fair distance away from the entrance door and the occupants cannot hear the noise of the waterfalls, then the harmful effect is not as serious. Nonetheless, If the occupant can hear the noise of the waterfalls because it is very loud, then it implies arrogant and wasteful behaviour in the family.

15. There is one feng shui myth saying that the entrance door must be installed on the “green dragon side” (which is the left side of the house facing out), claiming that it is not auspicious to have the entrance door installed on the “white tiger” side (which is the left side of the house facing out). This saying is absolutely folly and without any feng shui grounds. If this is the absolute rule, then why do we still have to hire the feng shui professionals to decide the auspicious facing direction of the facing door?

16. Lastly, when deciding the feng shui of the entrance door, it is better to measure with the Lo Pan and the consideration of the outside environment, for example, the route of the water (roads), chi movement etc. It is not appropriate to base on the kua number or BaZi of a person to determine the facing direction of the entrance door. In other words, the kua number of the BaZi system is more appropriate in applying to the furniture layout inside the house.