Dear Joey, Thanks for the great job in introducing fengshui the more scientific way, especially to the left-brained type people like me. I consider myself a 'advance amarteur' (just hobby, not practicing) in fengshui and is quite confused about certain things the more I read. 1. Some 'gurus' in Hongkong thrash '8 mansion' school saying it is not 'accurate' in their practice. Do you find it matches with reality in your experience? 2. What if 8-mansion and flying-stars gives totally opposite result? More 'gurus' in Hongkong advised to just look at flying star as it is more 'instant' & 'powerful'. Any research here? 3. I am of the impression that you don't believe in symbolic 'fengshui remedy' such as wind shime and crystal, but these remedies are claimed to be effective by many Hongkong 'gurus'. Have you done any research in this in your practice? Keep up the good job. Regards.

Dear Choy, You ask very good questions. I will try my best to answer them below:

1. Indeed some gurus (who only practice Xuan Kong Flying Stars) do trash 8 Mansions. Can't blame them when a majority of the 'popular' 8 Mansions publicized is only the "Life Gua" method. Obviously, they won't see much results. This is because there's lack of publicly available research material on 8 Mansions Feng Shui.

However, this is changing though. There are those who do acknowledge the effectiveness of 8 Mansions when they study the system in its entirety (meaning - the house gua, the 8 Wandering Stars' elements and the relationship between the palaces, stars and gua, along with the time element), they began to appreciate the beauty and effectiveness of the system. Also, 8 Mansions and Xuan Kong Flying Stars belong to the same "San Yuan" school of Feng Shui.

2. 8 Mansions and Flying Stars as I mentioned, belong to the same school - "San Yuan" system. They actually do not 'clash'. They give a 'different' perspective of the same house. Each method is used to diagnose or treat a house depending on the specific circumstances they see. They are meant to complement each other.

I do agree however that Flying Stars are more instant. 8 Mansions is more ‘long-term’ and its effects are indeed, slower. I will address this issue in greater detail in Episode 13.

3. One needs to understand the difference between the "symbolic" nature or the "elemental" nature of an item. I would subscribe to the use of wind-chimes as a "metal element" remedy. Crystals?.... Earth element. As for the other symbolic items - like paintings and figurines ... i would tend to give this much lesser importance. Symbols do not carry a physical elemental value and thus is usually not able to alter the Qi flow in a home. Furthermore, there's absolutely no mention of the use of symbolic objects in any ancient Feng Shui literature. If they were indeed an important component in Feng Shui, I'm sure our predecessors would have emphasized their use in their literature.

I would of course not discourage anyone from collecting these beautiful artifacts as a hobby. It's great art and excellent promotion of the Chinese culture. I personally love Chinese Art and décor. If anyone enjoys collecting these cultural artifacts, I think there's absolutely no harm in indulging. And if they do bring ‘peach of mind’ to some, why not?

Warm Regards, Joey