Know Basics of Home Placement Before Shopping

Question: Should you consult a feng shui expert while you’re looking for a home or is it OK to wait until after you’ve bought?

JOANNA

Los Angeles

Answer: Joanna is not the only reader wondering about this. Kim and Justin in Orange County, Ruth Wilson in Inglewood and two or three others sent e-mail to ask about using feng shui when looking for a new home.

It’s not necessary to take a feng shui master with you on a house hunt, but you should be aware of some basic feng shui principles so you can at least know what to watch for.

You could do this by reading up on the subject or choosing a Realtor with some feng shui expertise. It’s not possible to name every possible problem you should look for when house shopping. But here are a few things to get you started.

The top of your feng shui checklist should be your initial reaction to the home. If you feel uncomfortable, depressed or uneasy when you walk in, turn around and walk out. No matter what other features the home offers, a bad feeling when you enter tells you all you need to know.

Some specific elements you want to think twice about:

Location close to a church, temple or cemetery. Such proximity brings too much yin, which represents (among other things) cold, darkness, death and passivity. Yin is not inherently bad; death is part of life, after all.

But when a great deal of yin exists with too few yang qualities to balance it (heat, light, life and action), yin can cause serious difficulties for those who dwell in its presence.

Indoor staircases that end at the front door and a front and back door in a straight line are among the more talked-about home designs with “bad” feng shui. In these floor plans, the chi (energy bringing good luck and prosperity) flows in but leaves quickly without circulating.

A location at the end of a cul de sac or dead-end street funnels negative chi (known as sha) into the house. This can also happen when a telephone pole or tree stands opposite the front door and when an angle from an adjacent building points at your building.

But take heart. If a home you like very much has some elements of bad feng shui, you may have some options. Some of these problems can be adjusted. You can call in a feng shui practitioner for consultation or read a few books on your own to gain information and insight that may help you counteract the problem.

Seeking the Right Feng Shui Practitioners

Q: Can you suggest any books? The ones I purchased went from one extreme to the other, not enough information to information overload. Also, do you know of an affordable feng shui master?

A: Many people have asked variations of these questions, and I think now is a good time to give some information about finding good books and affordable (and skilled) feng shui masters.

First decide on the type of feng shui you feel most comfortable with: either the Compass School or the Black Hat Sect. The first method uses compass directions to determine which parts of a room are important to different aspects of life.

The other, known as Black Hat, or BTB, uses the front door of a room or building to do the same thing.

Don’t ask me to reconcile these because I can’t. I can only tell you that I find the compass method more persuasive and consistent. Many people, however, subscribe to BTB. If you want books on BTB, look for those by Sarah Rossbach, who wrote the classics in the Black Hat school.

For the compass method, look at my books, which are mentioned at the end of the column and are good basic handbooks designed for those in the early years of study.

Lillian Too as another excellent source on compass school feng shui.

As to hiring a feng shui master or practitioner, masters must study for decades to achieve that rank. Some practitioners have taken only a few classes and printed up business cards advertising their services. Others have studied and practiced diligently for years to hone their skills and natural talent. But it’s up to you to distinguish them because there is no independently run certification process. All anyone needs is a business card. So choose carefully: Find some you feel comfortable with and ask them where and how they studied. Ask how long they’ve been practicing and ask for names of people they’ve worked with whom you can call. If they won’t give you references (at least three), move on.

To get names of practitioners, check adult school listings for feng shui classes and ask these people for names of colleagues in your area. Angi Ma Wong, who wrote the forward to my first book and who taught me much about feng shui, is an excellent practitioner in the Palos Verdes area.

Scan ads in alternative newspapers such as the L.A. Weekly and New Times for feng shui practitioners.

Check out any of the dozens of feng shui Web sites. I recommend you start with https://www.lilliantoo.com/ and https://www.worldoffengshui.com. From any of these, follow links to find others. But in every instance, use your judgment and be skeptical until you’ve verified a person’s credentials and made up your mind about his or her suitability to advise you on something as important as your home and your fortunes.

Using Feng Shui in the Workplace

Q: What should I do to have more harmony with my employees? They are always talking bad about me and stabbing me in the back. I provide fringe benefits including vacation, holidays, 401(k) plan and high salaries, but they are still very envious of my success. I believe that instead of being happy that we have work all the time, they try to sabotage me with my clients. Help! Basically what I need are cures and not to get down too deep into feng shui.

SILVIA

Orange County

A: First I’d like to make the point that feng shui is not magic and it can’t take the place of “doing the footwork” to solve any problem. It sounds as if you are doing your best to provide your employees with the basics, such as good salaries and benefits. But be sure to take a look at the way you relate to them. Ask yourself whether you respect them, whether you genuinely listen to their concerns and treat them well as people.

If this soul-searching doesn’t lead you to an answer, your next step is to consider the feng shui cures appropriate to relationships at work. Most important: Where is your office and where inside that office is your desk? The manager or owner of a business should be seated as far away from the front door as possible and should never sit closer to the door than her employees. If you’re closer to “going out the door” than the people you supervise, they will not respect your authority and may even be insubordinate.

Within your office--and this is essential--avoid sitting with your back to the door. When you can’t see the door, you’re always the last to know important things. Employees can surprise you with what they say or with what they do because your back is exposed in a literal and a symbolic way. You’re vulnerable to attack. Your letter suggests that you may be in this situation. It’s even possible to become paranoid when sitting in this position because at some level you are aware of your disadvantage and your relative powerlessness.

Try arranging your desk so that you can see the door and also see most of the room. This gives you visual command of the room and restores your power and authority. If it’s not physically possible to move your desk to face the door, you have a good option. Find an attractive mirror and hang it so you can see the door’s reflection. You’ll be able to see when someone approaches and have a better sense of what people are doing “behind your back.” When you buy the mirror, select one with a colorful frame that will also be part of the feng shui enhancement. Choose yellow, orange, peach or other sunset shades to improve relationships. Black encourages career and business success or try turquoise for wisdom.

Kirsten Lagatree is a Washington, D.C., writer whose books include “Feng Shui, Arranging Your Home to Change Your Life” (Villard 1996) and “Feng Shui at Work, Arranging Your Work Space for Peak Performance and Maximum Profit” (Villard 1998).

Mail your questions on feng shui to Kirsten Lagatree, Real Estate section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, fax them to (213) 237-4712, or e-mail them to kfengshui@aol.com or Real.Estate@LATimes.com. All questions will be considered for use but cannot be answered individually.