How to Bring Luck to Your House

The Chinese invented the compass, not for navigation, according to Angi Ma Wong, creator of “The Practical Feng Shui Chart,” but to assist in choosing the best grave sites. “The theory was that if you properly buried your antecedents in a good location, they’d take care of you,” she said. This, Wong said, is the origin of feng shui, the ancient Chinese philosophy based on geography, meteorology, architectural design, the earth’s magnetic fields and other natural and supernatural phenomena. The words feng shui, mean “the wind and the water” and they stand for the power of the environment to affect the life of humankind.

No one has yet codified the definitive feng shui chart, but Wong has come up with her own practical guide that can serve as an introduction to the ancient practice. If you’d like to assess, or enhance, the feng shui of your home or office, clip the chart, grab a compass and follow these steps:

1--Pick any room in your house where you spend a lot of time and decide which aspect of your life (business, academic success, fame, family life, etc.) that you’d like to improve. For this example, let’s say you’re interested in promoting your business.

2--Stand at the center of the room, away from metal objects. Holding a compass flat in your palm, locate north, south, etc., in the room.

3--Now hold or place the chart so it lines up with the compass points. (South is placed at the top of the chart, because it is the most desirable of the directions, according to Chinese tradition.)

4--Look at the chart to see which of the compass points influence business. Although a few touch on it (east, prosperity, southeast, wealth), north, which governs career would be a good place to concentrate.

5--Note that for north the color is black, the animal is turtle, the element is water.

6--Use your own preferences and imagination to enhance the north area of the room with the appropriate color, element or animal motifs.

7--For example, put an aquarium with a turtle (water and animal) in that area, add a picture of the ocean in a black frame--whatever you like.

You can also evaluate your entire house by orienting the compass and chart with a floor plan. If, say, you’re interested in promoting academic success, find the northeast corner or your house and have the kids do their homework there. (If that happens to be the service porch or bathroom, just set up a study area in the northeast corner of their bedroom).

Have fun! Oh, and good luck!

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Adapted from “The Practical Feng Shui Chart” (Copyright 1992, Angi Ma Wong, P.O. Box 3017-K, Palos Verdes, Calif. 90274. The do-it-yourself kit, including chart, booklet and compass, sells for $36, including tax and shipping) .