An unfortunate by-product of the increased public awareness and knowledge of feng shui is the creation of the mentality that feng shui is all about the money and nothing else.

From the waving cat you're supposed to position on your cash register to money frogs under your table, from so-called trade secrets of specific feng shui lineages to high-sounding get-rich feng shui formulas, society is getting fed a barrage of information centred around how to get rich using feng shui.

Of course, the fact that many well-known Asian tycoons in Hong Kong and Taiwan make use of feng shui helps to perpetuate this view that feng shui is about making millionaires.

It is human nature to want wealth. And certainly, there is nothing wrong with a person wanting to have more money in life or aspiring to be rich. Let's face it, who wants to aspire to poverty?

But the problem with this perception is that it has made people vulnerable to what are sometimes very outrageous claims, which bear very little semblance to feng shui.

At the elementary and fairly harmless level, it encourages superstitious practices and creates false hopes for people. Sometimes, though, it can get to a serious and dangerous level.

I have heard of practitioners who claim to possess secret Water Dragon formulas that will turn the average individual into a billionaire and who charge hefty fees for the formula. Many people do not know that these ‘secret' Water Dragon formulas are cheaply and freely available in a Chinese bookstore!

The real cause for concern is the implementation of these formulas, which some practitioners have boiled down to as simple a task as digging a drain around your house, entering at a certain direction and exiting at a certain direction.

Making a Water Dragon is not that simple. For starters, it cannot be ‘made' with a drain. It has to be a natural formation in the land, with real water, not what comes out of the kitchen or drains out during a storm.

Also, instead of enhancing the feng shui of the property, this kind of ‘man-made' Water Dragon can, in some cases, create negative qi in the form of ‘Cutting Feet Water', which can have detrimental outcomes on the health of the occupants. Instead of becoming billionaires, they may end up with financial woes or health issues.

True meaning of wealth in feng shui

During my annual talk on the feng shui and astrology for the year, I outline the Flying Star chart for the year. I also provide pointers on what is generically referred to as the ‘Wealth Sector'. For many people, this translates to the ‘making money' sector.

In fact, in feng shui Flying Star terminology, there is no such term as ‘Wealth Sector' or ‘Wealth Qi'. Instead, there is something called ‘Wang Qi'. When translated, it means ‘Prosperous Qi'.

In the Eight Mansions feng shui system, which is where the personal favorable directions are derived, there is no reference to a ‘Wealth' direction either. Rather, Eight Mansions talks about the ‘Sheng Qi' or ‘Life Generating Qi'. However, this too, has been assumed as being synonymous with ‘Wealth Luck'.

Even from the days of the Tang Dynasty, the true concept behind feng shui has never been only about money. It is about prosperity and prospering.

Prosperity is a term that most Chinese people today associate with wealth. But that is far from what prosperity is all about. Prosperity is about good health, functioning at the top of your game, good relationships, enjoying peace and bliss and having good opportunities.

In feng shui, the goal is to place the individuals in a natural environment that is supportive of their personal growth and, above all, is a comfortable, energizing and healthy place to live in.

When the individuals are healthy, when they are thinking and acting at their most alert state, they are able to see opportunities, capitalize on opportunities and fulfill their potential, which includes making more money or achieving great wealth.

Feng Shui's role, first and foremost, is to make the home (or the office) a place where the individuals can function at their best – emotionally, physically and mentally. When all these are taken care of, the person will naturally prosper, do well in life and make money.

Myth of aquariums and money fish

If you study the ancient classics on feng shui, you will find that the techniques and formulas are mainly focused on collecting qi, qi flow, bringing the qi into the right parts of the home and keeping negative qi at bay. There is nothing about flowerhorn fish, arowana, gold fish, money frogs or aquariums.

Feng shui practitioners do sometimes advise clients on the placement of aquariums in certain sectors of their homes. But this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the aquariums or the fish inside the aquariums helping to transform their owners into billionaires.

The placement of aquariums makes use of the principles from the ‘Book of Burial' that ‘Qi is dispersed by the wind and gathers at the boundaries of Water'. By placing Water (in the form of an aquarium) at specific areas in the house, the feng shui consultant is looking to collect qi in certain sectors. As for the fish, they are simply placed in the aquarium to, firstly prevent the aquarium from looking out of place in the home or the office and, secondly, to keep the Water active.