Feng Shui Health Check

What feng shui screening is, and why it is worth doing

Many householders come to the Master when the house is already built and lived in for some years, yet the work keeps stalling, the family falls ill often, and money comes in and goes straight out. The Master often says, half in jest, that reading feng shui is like giving the house a general medical check. You do not wait until the illness is grave to treat it; you look early, to see what is good and should be kept, what is weak and should be strengthened, and what is at fault and should be remedied.

Feng shui screening means examining a house on several layers at once, not merely looking at the facing of the door as many suppose. A good house is one where the householder's destiny, the Li Qi 理氣 of the house through the times, and the landform around it all support one another. This tool is built on exactly that pattern, gathering the three great pillars of orthodox feng shui in one place, scoring them plainly, and then showing the householder what to do next.

The first pillar: Eight Mansions 八宅 and the Ming Gua 命卦

Eight Mansions 八宅 is the school of feng shui that binds a person to direction. Everyone is born with their own destiny trigram, called the Ming Gua 命卦 or the Cung Phi. From the Ming Gua, each person falls into one of two large groups. Someone of the East Four group 東四命 suits the four directions North, South, East and Southeast. Someone of the West Four group 西四命 suits Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and West.

For each destiny, the eight directions around a house divide into four auspicious and four inauspicious. The four good ones, in order, are Sinh Khí 生氣 governing wealth and career, Thiên Y 天醫 governing health and benefactors, Diên Niên 延年 governing marriage and long life, and Phục Vị 伏位 governing stability. The four bad ones are Họa Hại 禍害, Lục Sát 六煞, Ngũ Quỷ 五鬼, and heaviest of all Tuyệt Mệnh 絕命. When screening, the Master looks at whether the main door, the bed and the desk stand in the householder's good directions, while the stove and the lavatory should do the opposite and sit in the bad ones, using the inauspicious to suppress the inauspicious.

The second pillar: Flying Star Feng Shui 玄空飛星

If Eight Mansions 八宅 speaks of the person, Flying Star Feng Shui 玄空飛星 speaks of time. Heaven and earth turn in cycles: every twenty years the Period changes, and we are now in Period 9, running from 2024 to 2043. Every house, according to the year it was built and the direction it sits, has its own flying star chart of nine palaces, each holding a Period Star 運星, a Mountain Star 山星 and a Facing Star 向星.

Reading the flying star chart, the Master sees which structure a house falls into. The finest is Vượng Sơn Vượng Hướng 旺山旺向, where both people and means prosper. A house falling into Thượng Sơn Hạ Thủy 上山下水 loses people and money easily, and one must know it in order to place water and mountain in the right places and set it right. The tool draws this chart for the householder and colours the auspicious and inauspicious stars clearly, so that even a beginner can see which palace should hold the safe and which should be left alone.

The third pillar: Loan Đầu 巒頭 and the landform

The ancients said: Loan Đầu 巒頭 is the substance, Lý Khí 理氣 is the function. However fine the reckoning of the flying stars or the destiny trigram, if the land and the forms around are poor, the house will hardly prosper. Loan Đầu 巒頭 examines the four guardian creatures around a house. Behind is Huyền Vũ 玄武, which needs something solid to lean on, a hill or a tall building. In front is Chu Tước 朱雀, which needs a Bright Hall 明堂, open and light. On the left is Thanh Long 青龍 and on the right Bạch Hổ 白虎; the two must be balanced, and worst of all is the White Tiger raising its head above the Azure Dragon.

To this is added the lie of the water. Water curving around in front of a house gathers wealth, while water running straight at it or turning its back scatters the Qi. When filling in this part, the householder need only look with their own eyes and choose accordingly, and the tool will turn it into a score.

Hình Sát 形煞 and how to remedy it

Hình Sát 形煞 is whatever disturbs the Qi, some outside the house and some within. Outside, the common ones are Lộ Xung 路沖, where a road drives straight at the door; Thiên Trảm Sát 天斬煞, where a house faces the gap between two tall buildings; and Phản Cung Sát 反弓煞, where a house sits on the outside of a curving road. Inside there is Xuyên Đường Sát 穿堂煞, where the front door lines up with the back and the Qi slides straight through without gathering; a beam pressing over the bed; a stove facing the lavatory; and a lavatory placed in the middle of the house.

The virtue of orthodox feng shui is that it does not frighten people. Where a Sha is found, there is a way to dissolve it, from planting a tree, setting a screen wall or hanging a curtain, to using an object of the right phase to bridge the Qi. For each Sha the householder ticks, the tool lists a particular remedy at once, so that as far as you can act, you can be at ease.

The annual flying stars for 2026

Over the fixed ground of the house, a new layer of stars flies in each year, called the annual flying stars. This is the part a householder should look at every year. The year 2026 is Bính Ngọ 丙午, and the star entering the Central Palace 中宮 is Nhất Bạch 一白. Ngũ Hoàng 五黃, the great Sha, flies to the South, so this year one should absolutely avoid digging or breaking ground, large repairs, or placing a safe in the South.

The good news is that the wealth star Cửu Tử 九紫, the most prosperous star of Period 9, flies to the Southeast. The householder should spend time in that corner, open the windows to the light, and set the desk or the cash counter facing that way to receive wealth. The illness star Nhị Hắc 二黑 sits in the Northwest, and that direction should be kept clean and airy. In the results, the tool lays this year's star layer directly over your own house's flying star chart, so that you can see which room the prosperous and the adverse directions of this year actually fall in.

How to use the tool properly

The householder works through six steps in order. First, enter the Gregorian date of birth and the sex to obtain the Ming Gua 命卦. Then enter the facing of the house; it is best to measure with a compass and enter the degrees exactly, along with the year it was built or the year of the last large refurbishment. Next, look at the landform around for the Loan Đầu 巒頭 section, then mark the position of the door, the bedrooms, the stove, the altar and the lavatory on the nine palaces. In the fifth step, tick the Hình Sát 形煞 you are facing. Finally, press to see the result and receive the total score, the chart of the five pillars, the flying star chart and the list of remedies.

One small word of advice. The more exact the facing, the more accurate the flying star chart, so if you can, stand in the middle of the house looking out at the main door and measure there, keeping away from large metal objects that pull the compass needle. Everything you enter stays on your own device, and can be saved to your Records to open again next time.

The questions householders most often ask the Master

This article and tool were written by Master Ung Khiem following orthodox feng shui, and are for reference and guidance. For a house on complicated ground, the householder should let the Master see it in person for a thorough reading.