News

Where the Mind Goes, Qi Follows

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Derelle Ball

Continue Reading →

Posted in Classical Feng Shui, feng shui, feng shui consultations, feng shui for luck, feng shui my home

Don’t Underestimate the Effect of Landform on the Feng Shui of Your Property

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Derelle Ball

There are a lot of feng shui articles on the internet that place emphasis on the interior design, colour scheme and furniture layout of a dwelling, with little or no mention of the effect of the surrounding landform. In actual fact, around 80% of the feng shui is governed by the influence of surrounding landform, so my advice is to always look at the surrounding landform first before you even start assessing the interior of a building.

When I say ‘surrounding landform’ I’m referring to the natural and man-made forms surrounding the building, whether it’s a lake, river, mountain, pool, freeway, roundabout, cul-de-sac, deep storm water drain, a neighbouring building, power poles, driveway, trees, electricity pylon and so on.

The whole point of the exercise with feng shui is assessing the pathway and quality of Qi as it enters a property and affects the dwelling and occupants. The easiest definition of Qi is ‘living/transformative energy’ although this definition doesn’t really do justice to the highly complex wonder known as Qi. In reality it is the driving force for change (both the potential for change and the result of change) linking matter and spirit (form and the formless) in connection with the ever changing force of yin and yang.  

There are 4 main categories of Qi: Universal, Heaven, Earth and Human, with many off-shoots and definitions deriving from these main 4 labels. Qi is also made of up 2 main parts, the Hun (Yang Qi) and Po (Yin Qi) and these form the cycle of perpetual transformation. The process of this ever changing cycle is Spirit and the outcome of this ever changing cycle is Action.

So how does this relate to your house? Well think of it like this. The Po or Yin Qi affecting your home comes initially from the energy in the earth and the surrounding natural and man-made objects. Yang Qi comes to the facing side of the house (the Hun) via Water Star energy and how this affects your home (especially the finances of the occupants) depends on the character of the Water Star Qi, whether or not the facing side of the property allows you to collect and accumulate the Qi and how the occupants personally interact with this energy.

In some cases, the best Water Star energy to stimulate abundance opportunity for the occupants may enter your property from the side or rear of the block of land, so this is where you seek to capture and accumulate the Qi with a body of water strategically placed in the surrounding landform.

The whole concept of Yin and Yang can get pretty in depth and is relevant to whatever you are assessing and comparing. You can have a Yin mountain and a Yang river, but you can also have a Yin mountain and a Yang mountain or a Yin river and a Yang river. It all depends on what you are examining and comes back to the perpetual interaction and transformation of Yin and Yang.

Some people get too caught up in strict rules and definitions of Yin and Yang and thus miss the underlying beauty of perpetual cycles of transformative change. Yin Qi initiates the motion and calls out to the Yang Qi and the Yang Qi in turn responds with action.

Some feng shui professionals examine the Fei Xing/Flying Star Natal Chart of probability factors drawn over the floor plan of a home and automatically assume the energy on the chart is actually there in reality. In actual fact, the potential for the energy may be there however the reality may be that the energy trying to enter the property from that side is perpetually blocked or dispersed due to factors in the surrounding landform.

Sha Qi is when Yin and Yang Qi are in discord and thus create a state of disharmony.

I have witnessed Sha Qi generated via a man-made inclusion in the surrounding landform having a negative impact on the Water Star 9 Qi travelling towards the East facing orientation of an apartment on level 8 of the building. The facing side of the apartment contained 2 windows and a sliding door leading to a balcony attached to the living room.

There were 6 cranes located directly outside the balcony and at 7am each morning, 6 days a week, the main crane would start swinging and rotating randomly and very effectively dispersing the Qi of the Water Star 9. There’s a famous feng shui saying in regard to the Sha Qi effect of an object in the surrounding landform depending on its distance from the building being “within the distance of 1,000 horses”. So while not every sharp object in your surrounding landform is necessary cause for concern, the effect of the crane was actually very quick.  

The previous tenants of the apartment had happily lived there until the building works began and the crane was put into position, and within a short span of time the patriarch of the home suddenly developed health issues connected to the onset of vertigo which affected his ability to work or live in a high rise building and forced him to prematurely vacate the apartment.

The effect can be even more devastating when a natural landform feature is somehow corrupted or put into Sha motion.

For example, I had a client who had enjoyed a high level of spiritual connectedness and nurturing health Qi drawn from a very well located benevolent mountain supporting the Mountain Star 8 energy in and around her home.   Her health then started to dramatically decline and when I spoke to her over the phone trying to work out if there was a potential feng shui connection, I asked her to look out towards the mountain and tell me what she saw. She described the way in which a new large estate development had taken over the side of the mountain facing towards her property and it was being significantly cleared, sliced and diced and was now very upsetting for her to look at. Coincidence? What do you think?

Australian Feng Shui Master/Consultant, Derelle Ball can help you enhance the health, wealth and nurturing Feng Shui potential of your home with a detailed user-friendly Feng Shui Report.  For further information click: Off-Site Residential Feng Shui Consultation.  

Posted in Feng Shui for Property Investors, feng shui health, feng shui landform

Feng Shui New Age or Current Age?

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Derelle Ball

Continue Reading →

Posted in Classical Feng Shui, New Age Feng Shui

Feng Shui and Your Main Door

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Derelle Ball

When I decided to write about the topic of feng shui and your main door I soon realised there is so much to cover just on this one topic alone, so I’ve broken up this article into a series of sub sections discussing the main feng shui considerations when it comes to assessing the quality of qi (transformative energy) at your main door.  

What Do You First See When Entering Your Home?

When a visitor to your home first enters via the main door, what do they see upon entering your home?  This first initial visual inside your home tells us a lot about the occupants.  Is a visitor confronted with a blank wall, a dark or well-lit entry, a beautiful artwork, a large mirror reflecting energy back towards the door, fearsome statues, a stairway pointing directly towards the door, or perhaps a clear unobstructed view directly towards the back door?

Psychologically, the entry foyer conveys a lot about the occupants of your home, so it pays to keep the entry foyer (and main door) well maintained, clutter free, aesthetically pleasing to the senses and decorated in such a way as to tie in with your personal character and values as well as addressing the inherent Fei Xing (Flying Star) Feng Shui energy flow affecting the main ‘water mouth’ entry into your home. 

The quality and character of qi in regard to the water star energy at your main door tells us a lot about the abundance potential of the home and ways in which you can attract and accumulate this energy, or if necessary, harmonise, drain or reduce qi. 

If you regularly keep both the main door and rear door open at the same time and there is no furniture positioned between the 2 doorways, then energy is being regularly pulled into and out of your home between the open doorways too quickly before it has time to accumulate and meander into the rest of your home. 

If there is a long straight stairway directly confronting you as you stand in the main doorway looking in, then energy is pushing towards you as you enter and thus unbalancing the qi flow.  There are various ways in which to partially ground the energy at the base of the stairs, depending on the inherent energy and how far away the base of the stairway is from the main door.  

For some homes, there is great potential to attract very fortunate energy via the strategic placement of an external water feature such as a pond or fountain which has the capability of communicating abundance energy directly towards the door which (if properly activated) can become a perpetual transmitter/receiver of the positive energy.  Various Xuan Kong Water Formulae and Da Gua methodologies, when correctly applied, can help you tap into the purest and most potent source of qi at your main door and direct it into your home where it can quickly benefit the occupants. 

Of course, not all main doors should automatically have ponds or fountains positioned nearby.  In many cases, this is actually the worst thing you could do for the financial ‘luck’ of your home.  Now when I say luck, I’m really referring to Labour Under Correct Knowledge.  When you apply authentic Xuan Kong Feng Shui to your home and surrounding landform, it’s possible to ascertain an inherent energy blue print indicating the directional flow of energy that converges towards the centre of your home (in conjunction with surrounding landform).  This indicates the potential strengths and weaknesses and probability factors more likely to affect the occupants of your home, and the correct application of various Xuan Kong methodologies in connection to the 4 Pillars astrology of each individual living in your home, can help you make the most of the energy in that location. 

And unfortunately there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ scenario that can automatically be applied to every building around the world no matter where it’s located or when it was constructed.  I wish!  Do not assume the Southeast Sector or far left hand corner of your home is automatically your ‘wealth’ corner and so on.  This is bogus and gets a lot of people into real trouble when they install large water features or paint walls red on the assumption that this cookie cutter approach automatically applies to every building.

If you place a dragon headed tortoise near your main door, you cannot assume this figurine will magically attract good fortune to your home while you, meanwhile sit on your butt and do nothing.  This is like the ridiculous belief that, “when I grow up I will not have to attain any education or need to work, learn or grow in real life experience in order to make make a living and find my life’s purpose.  I just have to win lotto or wait for my Prince or Princess to magically find me and solve all my problems”.  

Good fortune symbols connect to your personal goals and aspirations via their symbolic meaning and help serve as positive reminders of the path you aim to take.  They are symbolic - not magic!

Main Door on Different Side to the Facing Side of Your Home

Some people wrongly assume the main door to your home automatically equates to the ‘facing side’ when determining the Fei Xing Feng Shui orientation and subsequent Natal Chart of energy flow affecting the building.  For some this is certainly the case, however there are many cases where the main door is located on the side of the home or (depending on the surrounding landform) what would be considered the rear or 'sitting/yin side' of the home.  This can occur (for example) in regard to a home with a road, main door and garage on one side and an expansive view of the ocean or a lake on the other side.  

Another example is apartments with an internal main door accessed from inside the building.  Often the facing side of the apartment is the side where you have a large balcony attached to a main living area.

Ming Tang

When you stand in your main doorway looking out, what do you see?  Is the view pleasing to the senses?  One thing I’ve learnt over the 20+ years I’ve been practicing feng shui professionally is that qi responds very well to beauty and aesthetics.  If you take pride in your front yard and look after it and make an effort to ensure it is visually pleasing to the eye, then it will be less problematic for you in the long run.

The Ming Tang is the area outside the main door.  This is a very important location because the energy generated and retained in this location can be positive or negative for the occupants of the home and should be addressed accordingly. 

If you have a water star 5 qi entering your property from the South and your main door also faces towards South, this can indicate potential financial stress and misfortune for the occupants unless, for example, they are associated with the military career-wise or run a morgue as a business attached to their home, in which case it can actually be quite positive for generating income for their business and occupation.

If the water star energy in the Ming Tang is deemed unsuitable for the occupants of the home, then consideration needs to be put into deciding whether or not to mainly use an alternative door and how to make use of the character of the qi and re-balance the energy in the Ming Tang via strategic use of harmonising elements.  For example, if you have a water star 5 qi at your main door and you are not able to make positive use of its inherent character, then metal element can be useful (via colour, sound and form) as well as higher ground in the Ming Tang and screening of the main door.

If there is negative landform affecting your main door (eg via a poison arrow feature from a pole directly opposite the main door) then it is a good idea to screen the view of the offending feature from the main door and redirect and/or calm the energy using the right elements in the surrounding landform. 

I’m personally not a big fan of Bagua Mirrors.  In many cases I don’t think the tiny mirror is really big enough or able to be correctly angled to properly reflect and disperse enough qi from a landform poison arrow feature aimed towards a main door.  I’ve also come across quite a few with the hook at the back incorrectly attached which means the Qian Trigram (ie the Trigram with 3 straight lines) is not at the top of the Bagua. 

I also think Bagua mirrors can psychologically convey to the outside world that there is something inherently wrong with  or threatening this house, and therefore strongly recommend you remove a Bagua mirror if trying to sell your home.  Some neighbours living across the road may also become offended if they realise a Bagua has been hung opposite and facing towards their home.  Larger reflective surfaces designed into the main entry facade and/or careful screening can often produce much better and less threatening results.

That being said, it always makes me smile when I see stall holders selling feng shui trinkets with lots of Bagua Mirrors hanging around the exterior perimeter of their stall.  Are they trying to repel their customers?

If you have a favourable water star qi in the Ming Tang outside your main door, this does not automatically mean you will enjoy excellent wealth luck in your home.  You need to assess the character and element of the water star energy, how it interacts with the surrounding landform and work out the best way to attract and accumulate the qi with water.  The Xuan Kong Feng Shui energy blue print (also known as the Fei Xing Natal Chart) is a guide as to potential qi flow, however it does not indicate the qi is automatically there or tell you about the quality of the qi in relation to the surrounding landform.  You must carefully observe all these factors in order to work out the best use for activation or reduction of energy.

If your front yard attracts a water star 9 qi and you also have land sloping down away from the main door and towards the road, with no fence or hedge along the front border and no water feature in the water star 9 location, then you have the potential for attracting positive abundance qi here however you are not currently gaining anything from the potential.

Facing a Line of Emptiness

Sometimes we come across homes that face towards a line of emptiness on the Luo Pan compass.  When this happens, the energy tends to become confused and can create a stagnant type of qi which connects to hoarders, clutter and/or confusion.  In the property investing world, these are the types of homes known as ‘rogue homes’ – ie they are continually back on the market and often experience recurring problematic rental occupants. 

Sometimes we need to work out a replacement chart reflecting the irregular energy flow for this type of home and many of these configurations generate quite stagnant energy that is not conducive to good health and harmony and is reflected in the ongoing health and/or relationship issues experienced by the occupants.

When assessing the overall quality of qi flow affecting a home, a lot depends on the actual facing orientation of the building and the facing orientation of external doors.  If the facing orientation of your main door taps into a Zheng Shen orientation (according to Xuan Kong Da Gua) with access to favourable flying star energies, then we can stimulate very positive feng shui for the occupants with clever Ling Shen communication via strategically placed water and/or harmonising element forms during specific timing that further communicates with Hexagrams associated with location, direction and the owner of the home when measured from the centre of the main door.

If you have a main door that faces towards your personal Hexagram (according to your day or year of birth in 4 Pillars astrology), it’s possible to add yet another layer of support so the energy affecting your home can be communicated to you even when you are not physically there.  This is especially helpful for households where one of the occupants is often travelling for work.  In some cases you can even tilt a door in order to tap into a better facing orientation that connects the Hexagram of the direction the door faces towards, with the owner's Tai Sui Hexagram of birth.

Colour and Symbolic Objects for Your Main Door

Some feng shui writers would have you believe a red main door is always lucky for you.  Well, sorry to dispel that myth, but seriously, as I said before, there is no ‘one size fits all’ scenario when it comes to determining the quality and character of energy flow affecting your home.  In some cases, a red main door may be awesome, however in other cases it has the potential to stir up problematic energy depending on the inherent energy flow and surrounding landform in the Ming Tang.

Many people place guardian statues at their main door and a favourite I see a lot is the lions or fu dogs.  This is fine if you like the look and symbology of these items, however be assured their presence will not automatically prevent theft or people with bad intentions from entering your home.  You still need to be pragmatic with your home security. 

Also, if you do place guardian animal statues such as Fu Dogs or Guardian Lions either side of your main door, have a look under the paws of each statue.  The male will have a ball and the female will have a cub.  Then standing outside facing towards your main door, make sure the cub and ball are on the inside paw of the guardians (ie between the parent guardians) and not on the outside paw.

Australian Feng Shui Master Consultant, Derelle Ball can help you enhance the health, wealth and nurturing Feng Shui potential of your home with a detailed user-friendly Feng Shui Report.  For further information click: Off-Site Residential Feng Shui Consultation.  

Posted in feng shui and your main door, Feng Shui for Property Investors, feng shui front door, feng shui landform, feng shui tips, feng shui wealth

Derelle won the Best Feng Shui Commercial Case Study Award at AFSC Gala Dinner & Excellence Awards 2012-13

Posted on February 06, 2013 by Derelle Ball

Derelle being presented with the Best Commercial Case Study Award from Valerie Mack, National Council Member of the Design Institute of Australia

Australian Feng Shui Master Consultant, Derelle Ball can help you enhance the health, wealth and nurturing Feng Shui potential of your home with a detailed user-friendly Feng Shui Report.  For further information visit: Off-Site Residential Feng Shui Consultation.  

Posted in Classical Feng Shui, feng shui excellence award