Early into my exposure to Feng Shui, I started hearing about the mysterious “water dragon”, generally in hushed tones and it made me wonder what all the discussion was about. It appeared to be the magical formula for wealth creation in an instant.

When you are new, you soak up everything like a sponge and I was no different. So I looked for the information and I share here what I found, without naming the sources:

• The water dragon is not a wet mythical beast, but an elaborate water formation created artificially.
  
• Among its various avatars, one version clearly defines it as a pool of water with a structured entry point at a particular degree and an exit point at another degree, both degrees clearly specified. In fact, these degrees were given out judiciously as “top secret”, and were closely guarded by us foolish students. Why foolish? Because years later, these not-so-secret secret exits were found printed in a 35-dollar book, THE TEN THOUSAND YEAR CALENDAR by Joey Yap.

I then chanced upon another book by a very famous hence seemingly credible writer. This book too had detailed instructions on how to become a millionaire in ten easy steps or something meant to sound like that. It sounded a bit confusing, and more like a lesson on landscaping, and I also found that it was eminently unusable in Mumbai, where I come from as we don't have mansions with gardens to try all these stunts.

The next step was to ask among the then-senior students what they knew about the water dragons. (I was yet in the learning and discovering process) I was given the name of 3 who I knew personally, two pretty well and the third, vaguely. They all had the good fortune of having some very senior person do it for them and were highly recommending that I follow suit.

Around that time, I moved into a house that had a large (by Mumbai standards) private garden in front. Just the stuff I needed to try out this mystical water dragon stuff. Armed with my secret formula, I followed the exact directions for the 5 Ghost Carry Treasure formula.

The house faces NW and the formula specified water in the Southwest, and a mountain in the Southeast. So far, so good. But the instructions also said, “measured from the main door”, so I sited the pool of water at what appeared to be the Southwest sector as measured from my main door. To my absolute delight, it was near the spot where we spent most of our time in the garden and the spot was perfect!

The house was on a hill slope so I already had a real mountain in the Southeast. Now all I had to do was wait and rake in the Moolah!

I waited.

And waited, and then wonder of wonders, the money started looking really good. My water dragon was working. The year was 2003. The Annual 8 was in the West .

My husband and I generally sit in a corner of the garden every night for a last cup of tea before we go to bed. One night in early March 2004, I was taking an early morning flight so we decided to skip the tea and go to bed early, so I could get some sleep. I had not yet touched the pillow when I heard a huge crash. A corner of the building ledge had crumbled and the concrete had fallen exactly where I would have been sitting, had we decided to have that cup of tea.

This really disturbed me, and I kept thinking that I had missed something.

Then I remembered a stray conversation that had taken place a year ago, and it hit me like a bolt out of the blue. When I had just set up this water dragon, in early 2003, Joey saw it and said: You have erred on two counts:

1. You have placed water in the West, in the big Tai chi, so you do not have Southwest water as you had imagined. This is Tui water NOT Kun water.
   
2. You cannot place water in the West as it violates the in-direct spirit rule. However, as the annual 8 is in the West this year, enjoy it in these exceptional circumstances for a year and then remove it.

I should have remembered this and removed the water before we hit Feb 4, 2004, and THIS is what had caused the problem. It was not the water dragon that had worked but the activation of the annual 8 in the West. Now the annual 7 was in the West and the water activating #7 Star in period 8 is not good at all.

I then was keen to find out the fate of the other water dragons. I was told they had worked, so why was mine a flop?

My findings:

One victim had become an emotional wreck, the other had divorced her husband of a quarter century and the third had gone bankrupt.

All I can say is that Joey's timely advice saved me from the same fate.

My assumption is that the water dragon formulas have a basis but they must bear in mind certain rules:

• You are never to violate the direct-indirect spirit rules. No matter what, you do not place water in the West, Northwest, South or the Northeast while making a water dragon.
• You must be supported by real landforms Outside to bring the qi inside. No point putting a 6 inch high “symbolic rock” when outside in the same direction you have a raging ocean.
• A building is not a mountain. No building with all the activity that goes on inside can be really Yin.
• You must use both the mountain and the specified water not one or the other. (the water supports the wealth and the mountain the people luck)
• The reference point is the center of the house.
• The formulas disregard the LOCATIONAL aspect while placing the dragon, and only concentrate on the entry-exit aspects.

This is no do-it-yourself home kit. You are not baking brownies from a package, you cannot afford to go wrong here, so this is best left to a professional.

Finally, your destiny has to be able to support this. If I am missing something I am open to correction. If anybody can prove to me that the water dragon has worked, I would love to have the information, after all who does not want to be a millionaire? The meaning of working here has to be a significant change in the bottom line.

I for one don't believe in the myth of these so called artificial water dragons.

So then are these books trash?

Why are we slaves to the printed word?

Everything printed is not the gospel truth. We need to learn by experience and observation, and a good dose of common sense. There are no shortcut methods to getting rich. Feng Shui can only help if done in the correct manner.