In classical Feng Shui, we read the destiny of a house from the year the building was constructed. We look at the date the roof first covers the building and the last time the sun shines through and hits the floor. This moment is considered the birth of a home. Just as astrologers cast a chart from the moment a person takes that first breath, Feng Shui practitioners do the same for buildings. So, a classical Feng Shui analysis begins with the ‘birth date’, or simply the year the home was built.
During the recent Feng Shui practitioner training I held in Dublin, this issue of determining the age of an Irish home often proved challenging. In America most houses were constructed within the last few decades; however, in Ireland many homes are several hundred years old. And due to the age of these homes, many have been changed from their original purpose. A church or town hall, for instance, might have become a residence; or a one-room cottage may have been remodeled as a large modern house. When a building is repurposed or remodeled, this can also change the energy of the home.
Birth Energy of Buildings
Old homes may have many additions to convert it from cottage to family home, to accommodate growing families or the modern lifestyle. One beautiful cottage I saw, had even transformed the old animal pens into bedrooms. These changes to the floor plan of a home can change the ‘birth’ energy of it. It is best when the home retains its original shape, since these shifting energies can make a proper Feng Shui consultation difficult, though not impossible. In Feng Shui, the best shape for a home is a perfect square; otherwise we can have missing areas when dividing up the home in the nine sections of the bagua. An odd shaped home may be missing the best areas for wealth, love or health.
Similarly, when the roof has been removed during a remodel, the floor is exposed to sunlight and the energy of the birth cycle changes. Also, if the addition is larger than the old home, it overpowers the original home’s energy. Have you ever known a couple who had a home and were doing well, but after a remodel their luck changed? This may be because the remodel changed the birth cycle energy.
Birth Cycles
Once you know the birth cycle of the home—the twenty year period when it was built—you can reference which of the nine cycles it falls into and calculate the home’s energies from there. Charts of the cycles usually start with cycle 1 which begins in 1864. What do you do when the home is older than this? The simple answer is that the cycles repeat every twenty years – so the previous cycle begins in 1844 and is 9. Cycle 8 starts in 1824 and so on.
Once you have the birth cycle of the home, you simply take the house’s facing direction and use this to calculate the energy blueprint of the home. With this information, you find the home’s destiny. Will it support money or people? Will you have health and harmony?
Healing Water
If it not, what can you do to ‘cure’ your home. Your home can fall into a ‘20-year lock’ which could mean twenty years of bad money luck, or 20 years of bad luck for health and relationships. While it is beyond the scope of this article to explain how to determine if your home is in a lock, there is hope regardless! If you place a water remedy outside, such as a small pond or large fountain you can prevent this lock from ever happening. For a typical home you must have around 350 litres of flowing water for this cure to work. The best placement is in the southwest or to the east of your home until the year 2044.
Amanda Collins is the Founder and teacher at International Feng Shui School.
www.InternationalFengShuiSchool.com
