My Training to be a Feng Shui Consultant

The Traditional Feng Shui training programme was devised centuries ago for artisans. At that time, most people were not able to read or write, so the knowledge was passed down verbally. Everything was shown to the student by the trainer, who was an experienced practitioner.

In my training programme, the students were trained individually or in small groups in the theory, practicals and practical skills as they did in ancient China.

The theory was based on the basic tenets of feng shui. Students were encouraged to develop personal skills to use their senses to identify the quality and quantity of the energy flows.

The external design was about the gathering of the appropriate energy from the environment to the point of entry. Internal design was about the distribution of the energy to the relevant parts of the building with minimal loss.

The aim of the training is to turn the student to a consultant who will do the work with “well-executed simplicity” and carry on the good name of the lineage founder.

1. Why an Artisan?

2. Lineage and Selection of Students

3. Feng Shui Fundamentals

4. Field Trips and Practical Work:

5. Homework

6. Compass Direction

7. Methods and Personal Skills

8. Quality of Energy

9. Understanding Energy Flows

10. Energy Visualisations

11. Personality Training

12. Apprenticeships and Trainee positions

13. Why an Artisan?

Definition of an artisan: “A person or company that makes a high-quality or distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods.”

When using traditional feng shui, the consultant uses methods based on the fundamentals, the building blocks of feng shui. Then, the use of senses and the skills are developed, practised and refined over time to work with the quantity and quality of the energy. These 2 elements, feng shui fundamentals and energy, are the very foundations of the technical aspects of feng shui.

The consultant then crafts a solution by working with established methods that have been used over a number of millennia.

I often use this analogy – a chef who prepares food from first principles and a cook who uses ready-made or pre-prepared food.

Sidebar: A chef selects the basic ingredients and uses his skill to prepare a dish. This could be in a chef's Michelin star or a proper restaurant. They do not use pre-prepared or frozen food. It is the skill of the chef to use these basic ingredients to prepare a dish consistent with his skill and reputation. He is an artisan or a craftsman.

Secondly, when you use raw and fresh materials, you know their origins (provenance), and you know what you are working with. The taste will be natural and authentic. When you are using pre-prepared packaged food, it is quicker and more convenient, but do you know what is used in the preparations?

When you work with a feng shui formula, do you know the true history or how the formula was derived? Do you know its characteristics – its strength, weaknesses and contradictions?

Traditional Feng Shui is delivered and passed on down the centuries via the ‘lineage system’, which is part of Chinese culture.

This is one of the most important decisions for the Lineage Holder. The aim is to find a student or students who will practise this knowledge responsibly, maintain high ethical standards and do good for society for the future of the next generation. Most importantly, this student has a passion for the subject and is prepared to be trained and mentored for about ten years. 

Instructions are given verbally with practice to reinforce the learning. Key parts of the knowledge are in rhyming couplets. There is no written documentation going back over this period, as only the scholars were literate. This training usually lasts ten years. This is how proprietary knowledge is faithfully replicated and kept within a closed circle of people. 

In my case, there was a group of eight students to train and work as a team.

The classroom sessions were on the fundamentals of feng shui which is common in Chinese Metaphysics.

These form the basis of traditional feng shui. Their characteristics and interactions are well documented. A thorough knowledge contributes to the skill and abilities of a feng shui consultant.

This information is on outside of the compass of the LoPan, which acts as a “cheat sheet” or “aide memoir”.

If this information is memorised, there is no need to use this cheat sheet or the LoPan. A simple pocket compass would suffice.

The LoPan adds weight to the kit. This is particularly noticeable when working on the site all day.

Luopan. The compass is in the centre with the “Cheat Sheet” or “Aide Memoire” around the central compass. It is the elder feng shui consultants that use the simpler LoPan as the characters are larger.

We visited numerous residential, government and commercial properties in cities across the world. Also, we had practice sessions on designs in building improvements and new builds on various types of building plots.

We made many field trips to residential properties – small to large, including apartments in various parts of North America. More importantly, we visited the important cities where there was political power (capitals), significant financial Centres, natural feng shui sites etc.

Political Power (Washington DC, London, Singapore, Bangkok)

Financial Centres (New York, City of London, Canary Wharf), Singapore

Cities with naturally good feng shui – New York, London, Barcelona, Singapore, Toronto, Dubai

Cities with incorporated Feng Shui designs: Singapore, Penang (GeorgeTown),

Important buildings: HSBC (Hong Kong, Canary Wharf), Bank of China & Governor’s House (Hong Kong), Marina Sands, Grand Hyatt Hotel and Suntec Conference Centre (Singapore)

Visits were made for a specific purpose – Shopping Centres, Hotels, Head offices and various buildings in Las Vegas, hospitals, theme parks.

We were assigned to do an external audit of various properties at a rate of one or two a day. I started with residential properties in my hometown, then commercial and town designs. After five years of doing this regularly, I not only covered towns and cities in the UK but of other nations, including feng shui hot spots of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

The attitude of the Traditional Chinese was to train the person with the skill to solve the problem. In the west, technology is used to solve the problem.

Using the example of a traditional Chinese chef: He uses a cleaver, chopping board, a wok and a powerful gas burner with the usual Chinese sauces.

The heavy cleaver can be used to dissect a duck or chicken and then be used to finely dice some beans. Only one instrument is used for all the cutting tasks. The chef is trained to use his skill for use in a wide range of materials. The wok can not only do stir-frying, steaming, baking and many other things.

You then compare this with a Western chef, and the chef an array of equipment – knives, spoons, cooking pots, stoves, different types of ovens etc. The western trained chef would use a different knife for different types of material—the large knife for big heavy cuts to a small knife for the delicate cutting.

We see images of feng shui teachers and their students carrying LoPan or Chinese feng shui compass.

Is this used in traditional feng shui?

For us, all we need is to identify where the North or South direction is. We can then work out the other directions and their characteristics without the assistance of a LoPan. A LoPan is a compass in the centre with a cheat sheet around it. If you know the characteristics of the various direction in your head, you do not need to use the cheat sheet of the lo-pan. A basic pocket compass would suffice.

How do we identify the North or South direction?

There are some who use the small pocket compass, but there are others who can naturally identify either the North or South directions. There are senior members who can accurately determine the direction to less than 5 degrees accuracy. John Edward Huth in the book “The Lost Art of Navigating Your Way” states that humans have a magnetoreceptor in their brains, but it needs to be developed.

I do not need a compass to identify the South direction.

Sidebar: The Chinese found that a lodestone had magnetic properties and was used to identify the north and south compass directions. From what I have heard, this device was not easily transportable and not taken to the site. The consultants could identify the North or South directions by themselves.

Ancient Chinese Compass for Feng Shui. The “Spoon” in the centre is moveable and aligns itself with the North/South Axis Compass Directions.

The quality of the energy is determined by the incoming direction, the interaction with the elements and the time period within the feng shui calendar. These combinations would be committed to memory by the student

We were trained to look at the big picture – where the energy comes from, it flows, how much flow to the property of interest. Other information includes the quantity and quality of the energy.

John Edward Huth’s book (The Lost Art of Navigating Your Way) monitored the brains of people who were using natural navigation based on their knowledge. Their brains lit up. When they were using instrumentation like GPS., their brains just felt dead as there was no activity.

I know a Traditional Feng Shui consultant and he uses his senses and brain for compass directions and energy-sensing to carry out the analysis. He is thinking continually and is very aware of the environment.

From my experience, when I am not using any instrumentation, I am very aware of the surroundings. There are times my body responds to the changes in energy in the location – hairs at the back of my neck standing, the pit of my stomach contracts or changes in smells. These signals alert me to the various changes that are happening.

When I am in this mode, I spot the changes faster and more accurately. I do a better job.

When I use instrumentation, I do not feel connected with the environment as I am focussed on the instruments rather than the surroundings.

Sidebar: The awareness of the surroundings when I drive to a destination with GPS assistance and without.

GPS assistance: When I finally arrived at the destination, I was unaware of the surrounding of the journey as I was focused on the GPS instructions. I would be unable to repeat this journey without GPS assistance.

Without GPS assistance: I followed the map and road signs for the journey and became very aware of the surroundings. Therefore, I could easily repeat this journey.

Traditional Feng Shui works directly with the energy flows.

We were trained to look at the big picture – where the energy comes from, its flows, how much flow to the property.

Other information includes the quantity and quality of the energy. We have to take into account the speed of the flow, fast, slow, still, turbulent or uneven. Then there is the behaviour – reflects, refracts, turns etc.

Therefore, you have to understand precisely how the energy flows. Even better is the ability, like some senior consultants, to visualise or feel this energy.

When we go through life, we have achieved what we have done and have found it difficult to make further improvements. Personality Training is to help the students go beyond their limits and reach new and even greater attainments.

The example being:

We can go through 10 years of our life; we either

1. Setting goals and use of affirmations
2. Changing a negative outlook to a positive outlook
3. They are getting rid of negative memories so that the person is not encumbered by the past. Examples: fear of heights, past memory of trauma re-occurring like the fear of public speaking and many more. The damaging part is when emotion gets involved when these memories occur.
4. Comfort Zone: Expanding a person’s comfort zone is essential for a person to expand one’s horizons or to take on new challenges. To get out of the comfort zone to the growth zone, you have to pass the ring of fear surrounding the comfort zone. This method gets rid of the fear and other inhibitions to enable the person to get to the growth zone faster.

After these sessions, I could feel the difference – more confidence and the willingness to do previously unimaginable and unattainable tasks.

I worked as an apprentice in teams on developmental projects which my Master led. This involved the preparation, design proposals and delivery of the offer to the client.

1. Traditional Feng Shui is an integrated or unified system.

The aim of the practice is to get the best available energies present in the environment to the targeted locations within the property.

Exteriors

a. An exploration of the surrounding area to locate the source or sources of the energy. It is a landform that determines the flow of energy to the property.

b. The energy going into the property is governed by two factors – The quantity and the quality of the energy.

c. The quality of the energy is determined by two factors

. feng shui fundamentals mentioned earlier (link)

. the flow characteristics – it is fast, slow, moderate, turbulence from an obstacle etc

d. The consultant then devises a “channel” for the energy to flow to the entrance of the property. The energy has to be “suitable” for the entrance –

. The energy is suitable for the characteristics of the door.

. The physical flow of the energy is slow and calm.

There can be one or more entrances for the energy to enter.
Interiors

e. The entrance hallway way is the distribution centre for the property.

The internal design in the property is to direct the energy to the appropriate locations and also, away from the locations where energy can be lost – external doors, toilets etc.

The appropriate locations can be for a –

Residential: bedroom, living room, study

Business: Sales area, offices of decision-makers.

It is important to have feedback of knowing the quality and quantity of energy flowing at the various stages. Otherwise, the consultant would be working “blind”.

London 2nd Financial Centre – Canary Wharf. Note the feng shui aspects of the design with the Tortoise at the back with dragon and tiger arms together with the bright hall in the centre.