The Complete Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui (2nd Edition)

Reviewed by Feng Shui For Modern Living Magazine as "an American masterpiece that tops the lot," it is now considered the feng shui bible by classical practitioners, teachers, and students of feng shui. The Complete Idiot's GuideA (R) to Feng Shui, Second Edition will continue the first edition's success with the following two major additions.The revision includes coverage of the next level of a method of classical feng shui called Flying Start. And second, for those readers interested only in arranging one's furniture to allow qi to meander in a productive pattern, this section is expanded. More photographs and floorplans are included. Cover 1 Copyright 漏 2002 by Elizabeth Moran, Joseph Yu, and Val Biktashev 5 Contents at a Glance 6 Contents 9 Foreword 17 Introduction 19 Part 1 Let's Get Into Feng Shui 24 Chapter 1 What Is Feng Shui? 26 The Feng Shui IQ Test 27 What Feng Shui Is Not 28 What Feng Shui Is 30 Who Practices Feng Shui? 32 Feng Shui and You 34 What Do I Need to Practice Feng Shui? 34 Twenty Ways to Benefit from Feng Shui 36 Pinyin and Wade-Giles: Chinese Romanization 37 Chapter 2 Western Intellectual Heritage and the Holy Grail 40 Mind Power 101 41 In Search of the Holy Grail 43 United We Stand 45 Nature Speaks Mathematics, Too 47 A New World Vision for the Millennium 50 Chapter 3 The Great Wall of Knowledge and the Rise of Feng Shui 52 Made in China 53 China's Greater Nature 53 Skywatcher for Hire 54 Confucianism and Daoism: 56 Change Is in the Wind 58 How Does Feng Shui Fit In? 59 Feng Shui Today 62 Chapter 4 Qi Wiz! It's Life's Force! 64 What Is Qi? 65 Qi Around the World 66 The Three Forces of Qi Energy 66 Feeling Qi's Power 70 The Holy Trinity, Chinese Style 73 Part 2 The Fundamental Principles of Feng Shui 76 Chapter 5 The Principle of Yin and Yang 78 The Big Bang, Chinese Style 79 Which Way Is Up? 83 Yin and Yang Culture Clash 84 Yin and Yang and Feng Shui 85 Chapter 6 The Principle of the Five Phases 86 What Are the Five Phases? 87 If It's Fire, It Must Be Summer 87 The Productive Cycle 89 The Controlling Cycle 90 The Weakening Cycle 90 A Spoonful of Sugar 92 The Five Phases of Buildings 94 The Five Phases Quiz 95 Chapter 7 The Principle of the Eight Trigrams 98 Motion over Matter鈥擰i's Pattern of Movement 98 Eight Is Enough 99 Meet the Bagua Family 100 The Cyclic Pattern of the Bagua 103 Patterns of Numbers 105 Part 3 Understanding Your Environment 108 Chapter 8 Turtles, Tigers, and Dragons, Oh My: Evaluating Your Environment 110 Here a Totem, There a Totem 111 In Search of the Dragon's Lair 113 Climb Every Mountain 113 Chapter 9 Home Sweet Home: Evaluating Your House and Its Surroundings 120 Church Bells and Power Poles 121 Land Sakes Alive! 121 House of Shapes 125 A Grand Entrance 127 Room for Improvement 129 Moving Day 132 Part 4 Feng Shui Mechanics 101 134 Chapter 10 The Eight Houses, Part 1 136 About Face: The Eight House System 137 What's Your Trigram? 138 The Eight Wandering Stars 142 Changing Your Fortune 143 East Meets West 146 Are You Compatible? 148 Chapter 11 The Eight Houses, Part 2 152 Your House Has a Trigram, Too 153 Comparing Your Personal Trigram to a Home's Trigram 155 Determine Your Home's Sitting and Facing Directions 156 Using a Compass to Determine Your Home's Trigram 157 What's Your House Trigram? 159 Assembling a Simple Floor Plan 159 Great Grids! 161 Chapter 12 The Eight Houses, Part 3 164 Do You Know Where Your Palace Is? 165 Do You Know Where Your Wandering Star Is? 165 Qi-ing In on Qi 168 The Good, the Bad, and the Possibilities 168 The Rules of the Eight House Game 170 The Analysis 171 Part 5 Feng Shui Mechanics 201 174 Chapter 13 The Flying Stars, Part 1 176 What Is the Flying Star System? 177 Ancient Beginnings 177 The Nine Imperial Palaces 183 Chapter 14 The Flying Stars, Part 2 188 Space: The 24 Mountains 188 Time: Three Cycles and Nine Periods 192 It's All in the Numbers 193 A Number Is Worth a Thousand Words 195 Chapter 15 The Flying Stars, Part 3 200 Do Stars Fly? 200 Constructing a Flying Star Chart 203 Charted Floor Plan 207 Great Charts! 208 Chapter 16 The Flying Stars, Part 4 238 Yin and Yang, Mountain and Water 238 Fortunate Mountain Fortunate Water 240 Reversed Mountain and Water 241 The Double Facing Star Chart 243 The Double Sitting Star Chart 244 Chapter 17 The Flying Stars, Part 5 246 The Mountain, Water, and Time Stars 246 The Central Palace 248 It's All in the Stars: The Star Combination Chart 249 A Simple Analysis 255 Chapter 18 The Flying Stars, Part 6 258 The Annual Star 258 The Annual Star Chart 259 Flying the Annual Star 260 The Annual Star for 2002 260 The Annual Star for 2003 263 Part 6 Practical Application 266 Chapter 19 A House Hunting We Will Go 268 Doing Your Homework 268 There's No Place Like Home 271 Side-by-Side, Qi-by-Qi 274 The Analysis 276 Chapter 20 Does Your Office Measure Up? 280 Labor Pains 280 First Things First 281 Let's Get Compatible 282 Dui Have a Match? 282 Won't You Please Come In? 283 Sitting Pretty 285 A Means to an End 286 Part 7 Fate or Free Will: What's Your Destiny? 288 Chapter 21 Introducing the Twelve Animals of the Chinese Zodiac 290 What Is the Chinese Zodiac? 291 Twelve Animals, Twelve Earthly Branches 291 What's Your Animal Sign? 293 Who Are Your Friends? 295 Who Are Your Foes? 296 Good Year/Bad Year 297 Personality Profiles 297 Chapter 22 The Four Pillars of Destiny, Part 1 304 How Free Is Free Will? 305 What Is The Four Pillars of Destiny? 305 Time, Chinese Style 306 Calculating Your Four Pillars 310 Chapter 23 The Four Pillars of Destiny, Part 2 330 The All-Important Day-Master 330 Strong or Weak? 334 What Are Your Favorable and Unfavorable Phases? 336 The Phases of Our Lives 338 The Fate of Princess Diana 340 Chapter 24 The Four Pillars of Destiny, Part 3 342 The Axiom of Luck 343 Lucky Me 343 Wheel of Fortune 348 The Fate of Princess Diana, Part 2 351 Chapter 25 The Four Pillars of Destiny, Part 4 354 What's in a Horoscope? 355 That Was Then, This Is Now 355 Oh, What a Month! 359 Around and Around We Go: Determining a New Sixty-Day Cycle 361 Day by Day 361 Appendix A Glossary 368 Appendix B Common Questions and Practical Answers 376 Appendix C Learn More About Feng Shui 380 Books 380 Magazines 382 Websites 382 Yahoo! Discussion Groups 384 Feng Shui Products 385 Contact the Authors 385 Appendix D Chinese Periods and Dynasties 386 Appendix E Learn More About Taking a Proper Compass Reading Using the 24 Mountains 390 Index 394 Design your own life's path through feng shui - Understand the differences between faux and authentic schools of feng shui; Create a qi map of your living space; Discover how to enhance favorable qi and remedy unfavorable qi; learn how interior and exterior factors affect your health, wealth and relationships; join a couple in their search for a harmonious home. One of the most complete and easy-to-understand book on classical Feng Shui, this revision includes coverage of the next level of a method of classical feng shui called Flying Start. Photographs and floorplans are included.