The document summarizes 10 common misunderstandings about feng shui and provides clarification on each one based on the author's practical experience. Some misconceptions are only partially true if certain additional conditions are met, while others are outright false. The author aims to offer clearer understanding of feng shui and dispel confusion caused by incomplete or incorrect information spread through various sources. Feng shui is presented as one factor among others that can create beneficial conditions but not solve all problems or guarantee certain outcomes like wealth or love on its own.

2. I wrote this article in response to some of the more
commonly misunderstood and commonly believed
aspects of feng shui in order to offer a little clarity to
the customers I consult and also my readers. All of the
instances listed below are well-known feng shui
beliefs (by even people with just passing knowledge
of feng shui) although I found out most only have
surface understanding and often believed at face-
value, just because it was written in a book or said by
someone famous. Some of the misconception had
caused needless worry and in some cases panic.
The 10 common feng shui misconceptions below are
the findings based on my own practical feng shui
consultation experience while in the field and the
actual results I got back. I hope this article can offer
some clearer understanding and help clear up the
confusion.

3. 1) Doors directly facing each other will
cause bad blood and quarrels
Only if one of the doors is smaller than the
other and only if the doors happened to
open into the negative sector of your
property; plus both doors have to be open.
Just having doors facing each other by
itself does not create adversarial or
antagonistic feelings or situations.
More than anything my first reaction will be
to question the character/personality of the
occupants rather than the feng shui of the
doors.

4. Doors directly facing each other will cause
bad blood and quarrels - cont
When I was younger, I had been living in
public housing where the main doors were
directly opposite those of the neighbour’s in
close proximity (about 2 to 3m apart). The
doors are open most of the day and there
were hardly any quarrels. If anything,
everyone was friendly and visited each
other often. And this applied to many of the
neighbouring units too.
Plus nowadays in the newer apartment
blocks, most people will just keep their
doors closed even when they are at home
so it is not really a problem anymore.

5. Doors directly facing each other will cause
bad blood and quarrels - cont
Having said that, it is very undesirable if
yours and your neighbour’s house layout
happen to be like point number 5 and you
have a window-to-door-to-door-to-window
arrangement.
Especially when all the windows and doors
are all kept open.

6. 2) Door opening out onto a staircase and
stairs going down will cause your luck to
“flow” out of the house
Only if the door is very near the stairs
outside and the stairs themselves are
steep and long. This will create a negative
feng shui feature known as “Pulling Nose
Sha”.
If the stairs are wide, in a gentle incline and
short then we do not have this problem, at
least not at a scale that’s appreciable.

7. Door opening out onto a staircase and
stairs going down will cause your luck to
“flow” out of the house - cont
Or else many large hotels, shopping malls
and office buildings with these features
would had suffered lost and likely gone out
of business a long time ago. Likewise for
the people living in houses with steps lead
down from their main door.

8. 3) A house located at the end of a long
road will invite bad luck for its occupants
Only if the road is a busy one with fast
moving vehicles heading TOWARDS the
house, particularly if the main door is also
facing the oncoming traffic. This forms
what is known as the “Rushing Qi Sha”.
Often in the cul-de-sac there will be a
roundabout at the end. The house located
at the end of the cul-de-sac with the traffic
heading AWAY from it is not likely to be
affected.

9. A house located at the end of a long road
will invite bad luck for its occupants - cont
Often just a hedge placed on the lawn in
between the offending road and the house
is enough to correct the problem.
Alternatively, if the road is not heavily used,
has slow moving traffic and more
importantly, happens to have the main door
open into the house’s auspicious sector, it
may actually be very prosperous for the
occupants.
The same also applies to it’s close cousin,
the T-junction.

10. 4) In the kitchen, the stove cannot be
placed directly opposite the sink
This misconception has to do with the
sentence “fire and water clash opposite
each other” found in classical feng shui
texts.
In modern context, the belief that when the
stove or microwave or oven is opposite a
sink or fridge or washing machine is
inauspicious (what does that even mean
anyway?) is an exaggeration.

11. In the kitchen, the stove cannot be placed
directly opposite the sink - cont
Considering that in Singapore (and many
Asian countries) most of our public housing
is small and limited in space so the
chances of having a sink and stove next to
or directly opposite each other is almost a
given.
And if the statement “fire and water
opposite each other is inauspicious” then
we would see a lot of troubled families but
so far in my experience any problem
arising is mostly from locating the stove at
the incorrect location than having it
opposite a sink.

12. 5) Wealth luck will “leak away” if there is a
window directly in-line opposite the main
door
Yes and no. In feng shui, Qi comes in 2
basic forms; as Sha (negative) Qi if very
fast moving or Sheng (positive) Qi if slow
and gentle. So if you have both the window
and door open at the same time and both
of them are in-line with each other, very
fast moving Qi will just travel in from one
end and out the other without stopping and
not given a chance to “gather”.
Imagine a very strong wind coming into the
house then exiting the next second.

13. Wealth luck will “leak away” if there is a
window directly in-line opposite the main
door - cont
But please do not misunderstand me.
Having some wind blowing through your
house is good as it brings in fresh Qi and
moves the stagnant ones but it is quite
another story to have the house feel like a
wind tunnel for testing jet fighters.
The issue here is the speed. Qi must be
slow enough for it to be able to flow
throughout the whole house to benefit the
occupants before exiting again.

14. Wealth luck will “leak away” if there is a
window directly in-line opposite the main
door - cont
The simplest solution to this problem is just
to close either the door or the window or
just place a piece of furniture like a foldable
screen across the path between the door
and window to slow down the Qi, forcing it
to meander than to travel in a straight line.

15. 6) Where you install you mirror and it’s
size will affect your feng shui
The idea most likely came from the convex
reflective surface found on a Taoist bagua
mirror that the olden day Chinese used to
hang above their entrances and doors to
deflect negative influences.
So by association, mirrors are thought to
be able to reflect or deflect feng shui
energy flow or Qi anywhere in the house
like a beam of light. The problem is, Qi is
not light.

16. Where you install you mirror and it’s size
will affect your feng shui - cont
For one thing, according to classical feng
shui text, Qi tends to “flow” from high to low
and it “gathers” at the lowest point of any
given place, very much like water does.
Light does not.
Another misconception is the “space”
created by a mirror’s reflection can be
influenced by feng shui. Such as using it to
create space in order to replace a sector of
the house that is physically missing. Feng
shui only works in the physical realm while
the mirrored space is an illusion.

17. 7) The bed cannot have a mirror or any
highly reflective surface facing it
This one is purely psychological and
common sense rather than feng shui per
se. When you first wake up from your sleep
most likely you will be a little disoriented
and your mind hazy.
The first impression of someone looking
back at you or in the same room as
you (especially if you live alone) created by
the reflection in a mirror during that mental
state will definitely come as a nasty
surprise for anyone.

18. The bed cannot have a mirror or any
highly reflective surface facing it - cont
By the way, if you claim you can see
images or shadows moving in your mirror
even while lying in bed, then feng shui
might not be your problem.

19. 8) The bed cannot be placed against or
below a window
Well, again yes and no. While it is
generally true that you should not have
your bed placed up against a window or
below it, it is not a major no-no.
Other more important factors need to taken
into consideration first; like not placing the
bed under a ceiling beam, not placing the
bed across the bedroom door or ensuite
toilet door and not placing the bed within a
negative sector in the bedroom.

20. The bed cannot be placed against or
below a window - cont
Sometimes in order to avoid these negative
aspects or even just because of something
mundane like space limitations within the
bedroom, you have no choice but to place
the bed under the window. But this is not a
big issue since most people will likely have
curtains or blinds installed on the windows.
Just close the curtains/blinds when you go
to sleep.
Poof! No more problem.

21. 9) Water is wealth
This is the worst culprit of all due to the
common belief that “Water = Wealth”. This
misconception perpetuated the desire for
swimming pools, lakes, ponds or any large
body of water in front of, or at least near,
the property.
Although water, if used and located
correctly, can bring about wealth
opportunities and sometimes windfall; if
used incorrectly or located at the wrong
location can bring about the opposite effect
or worst.

22. Water is wealth - cont
Then there are the various conditions to
the types of water; is it still? Is it moving? If
yes, then how fast? In feng shui, water is
merely an activator. It does not create nor
attract wealth by itself.
And since we are on the subject of water, I
might as well address the belief that the
type and number of fishes you have in an
aquarium will also bring wealth.

23. Water is wealth - cont
In reality they do not bring wealth unless
we are talking about keeping them as an
investment like a champion koi or prized
arrowana.
Then there is the, in lieu of real water,
pictures or paintings of water (often in the
form of “feng shui paintings”) being used.
How can a picture or photograph affect
one’s feng shui since it does absolutely
nothing to the Qi flow of a property?

24. Water is wealth - cont
The effect is like giving a person a picture
of a burger to stop his hunger when he is
starving instead of the real thing.
That said, like the fishes, they are fine if
used as a decoration or as an investment
but as a feng shui tool, the only people
laughing all the way to the bank will be the
sellers.

25. 10) Feng shui will solve all my problems
(and make me become rich/attract my true
love/become powerful)
This is the most common expectation that I
regularly have to manage with people who
come to me for advice. Consider this, if that
be true, feng shui practitioners will be the
most powerful people on the planet, no?
Anyway, feng shui is only just one third of
the equation. The other two being your
destiny and your own actions, or lack
thereof. What good feng shui really does is
to create a harmonic and conducive
environment for your health, to create and
increase more opportunities for love and/or
wealth.

26. Feng shui will solve all my problems (and
make me become rich/attract my true
love/become powerful) - cont
There is a Chinese saying that goes 一命二一命二一命二一命二
运运运运三三三三风风风风水四水四水四水四积荫积荫积荫积荫德五德五德五德五读书读书读书读书. Translated it
means first destiny, second luck, third feng
shui, fourth charity and fifth education.
There is also a saying that goes: “Your
destiny shows you the problem or potential
and feng shui offers the solution to both of
them”.

27. Feng shui will solve all my problems (and
make me become rich/attract my true
love/become powerful) - cont
In practice it goes like this: first know your
destiny and your (level of) luck then
strengthen it with feng shui, charity and
education. This makes perfect sense
because you need to identify the problem
before you can come up with a solution,
don’t you agree?

28. In today’s feng shui environment, erroneous
information and half-baked understanding are
perpetuated by the internet, books and even
some teachers; often “parroting” from other
magazines, books and teachers, and the cycle
goes on. Even so, we work hard to keep our
consults and workshops practical, logical and
based on actual experiences. If you want to
know what practical feng shui is and have
questions, please write to me on my email and
I will get back to you.
In addition to feng shui workshops in
Singapore, we also organise Astrology
workshops in Bali, Indonesia.

29. Thank you for viewing!
Please visit our blog
pureclassicalfengshui.com
for more authentic feng shui tips and information.
Or write to
stanley@tenki.sg
if you have any questions.