If you are a Feng Shui practitioner, you are going to get this one question asked of you all the time, in the most inconvenient of places and quite frequently, by people whom you have never met till that very moment of their question.

"Can you tell me if the house I am planning to buy has good Feng Shui or not?"

I am sure you will agree with me that being a psychic would usually help in these circumstances since you, the Feng Shui practitioner, will usually not be presented with any information at all with regards to the property.

Prevention is better than cure - so it is always better to undertake a Feng Shui consultation of your property prior to buying a house. So, what I will try and do today is give you one or two guidelines that will help when you are out hunting for your dream home.

One other thing before we proceed, certain houses need no cure (I will elaborate more on this later) and with other houses, there is simply no cost effective way to make them Feng Shui compliant; it would simply cost too much. A great deal (i.e. of running into either of such houses) depends on your luck.

Fortunately, finding a totally disastrous house is quite a rare possibility, so don't get ahead of yourself with worry just as yet.

Feng Shui - The Real Thing

Your immediate environment exerts the largest influence in the overall Feng Shui of your home - where you are LOCATED is one of the key factors to consider when buying a new home. When engaging a Feng Shui consultant, assuming you have some leeway in this, ask him or her where in your town or city is a good spot to build or purchase a home.

Different areas of a city or town have Qi (energies) that are sourced from different mountains (we call these dragon veins in Feng Shui). The real study of Feng Shui revolves around how to locate the 'correct' spot where the Qi will support your endeavors. Keep in mind that one man's meat is still another's man poison - a spot may not be as suitable for you as it would be for your neighbour.

Obviously, the structure and formation of mountains and Qi flow in the environment (meaning Classical Luan Tou Feng Shui) is out of reach of the average Feng Shui enthusiast at this point in time. However when you engage your consultant, you need to check with him your area's Landform Feng Shui and which choice plots you are able to tap to these Qi.

Many people are under the mistaken assumption that landform Feng Shui is primarily about looking out for "poison" arrows and "sha qi" features from your neighbors. To some extent, these are the basics to look out for but keep in mind that we are taking into consideration the MACRO Feng Shui of your property - the WHOLE area. It only makes sense to pick an area that is good from the beginning to work with.

To even attempt to teach you Luan Tou in a short article is wishful thinking at best, however, let me see what we can work with from an "end user" point of view to determine if your plot of land or area that you are looking into has good Qi.

Land And House Selection Criteria

Let's take an example of an area, you arrive to find that the area is extremely windy - BAD Feng Shui. Why? Because wind disperses the Qi. In Kuo-Pu's Burial Book, known as the main source book of all Feng Shui studies today, it is clearly stated that the Wind disperse the Qi. So, if your area has very strong winds, you can be sure that the Qi in your area is not very positive, so give this area a miss.

• Merciless Tiger and Dragon Embrace

  Merciless what?! , I can already hear the worried cries for help now. The Tiger and Dragon refer to the left and right surrounding hills or even houses. If they do not 'embrace' your land area and instead is outward moving as in the diagram below, this land is one that will not be very suitable. The Qi in this area cannot be contained and you are better off looking elsewhere.

• Piercing Water

  Water in the practice of Feng Shui can help enhance Qi and can just as well do the exact opposite and cause harmful Sha Qi. If the water path (usually in the from of drains or gutters) directly in front of your main door rushes in a straight line, it is known as "Wu Qing Shui" -Merciless Water.
  This type of water not only drains the Qi of your house, but ultimately emits Sha Qi.
  If you see such a structure, it would be futile to try and fix this property.

• Bright Hall

  The bright hall refers to the generous space in front of your property. Check that you do indeed have a bright hall and that it is not TOO tight or TOO spacious. If it is too tight, no Qi can accumulate, if it is too broad, then Qi disperses without having a chances to collect. When faced with such structures, move on and keep looking.

• Hills at the Back and Water in Front?

  Contrary to popular belief, it is not always necessary to have mountains at the back and a water feature or a lake at the front. This really depends on the overall structure of your landform. Sometimes it can actually be better to face a good mountain to receive Qi directly from the dragon veins.

I know many readers of the Mastery Journal are seeking basic guidelines. What are the basic rules to follow if you decide to do it yourself? Let's say that you have managed to select an area that is GOOD. We now need to look at the immediate environment to ensure that it is free of negative Qi. Next month, I will discuss some of these short pointers to help you select the best land or best house.