Feng Shui

The direction of the front door should matter more than most other Feng Shui considerations and is considered to be the “mouth” as the most all-important ch’i enters the building through this direction.

The direction in which the door points determines the kind of ch’i that enters the house. We know from reading about eight Trigrams, the pa kua, that each of the eight directions is attributed to one of the Trigrams. The sort of ch’i that enters a door facing South is that which is conditioned by the ch’ien or Heaven trigram. It is a strong, masculine yang ch’i and the exact opposite of the ch’i that enters through a door facing North, which will receive the more yin type of ch’i associated with the k’un or Earth Trigram. This is why the direction in which the door faces is most important and why it affects more advanced feng shui like Flying Star feng shui.

The door itself should be solid and preferably not punctured by a vulnerable glass panel - for crime prevention as well as feng shui reasons.

The next thing you should do is check to see if any alignment is aimed at your front door, generating “poison arrows”. A “poison arrow” is created where ch’i is able to gather momentum up a long straight street for example. If such a configuration exists pointing towards the front door, try to deflect it with a hedge, or something similar to block it. If this fails and the “poison arrow” is caused by a major alignment, then hang an octagonal pa kua mirror over your door, pointing in the offending direction, to send back the sha ch’i whence it came.

Never just hang pa kua mirrors up for fun and certainly never inside your home or office. If this fails too, a more drastic step is to re-orient the whole front door, but this has other impacts on the feng shui of the building and should be done only with expert advice.

- The front door should open onto an uncramped hall space containing no clutter
- It should not face a bathroom door, mirror or have obstructions.
- The front door should not lead in to a hall that passes straight through the house and out of the back door, otherwise the ch’i entering will be immediately conducted out of the house again without benefiting the occupants. If this is the case, hang wind chimes or place potted plants in the hall to deflect or slow down the ch’i.

Hall

Leading from the front entrance, the hall should be well lit to encourage the entry of ch’i. A hall that is a “through” hall, passing directly to the back door is bad feng shui, as ch’i will pass straight through the house without accumulating. In such a case add decorative features like indoor plants or a hall table to deflect the ch’i from its direct path. Another cure is to hang wind chimes from the ceiling of the hall to slow the passage of the ch’i.

Corridors and stairs are very similar from a feng shui point of view, both being narrow passages from one part of the house to another. The only difference is that stairs are inclined passages. Like halls, which carry the ch’i from one room or another.

- Long corridors leading from the front door should be screened off or wind chimes be placed.
- Halls should be brightly lit as they conduct ch’i from one part of the house to another.

Stairs

In many Western houses the staircase often follows on almost directly after a short stretch of hall. This allows ch’i to come in the front door and rush straight up the stairs. This is not advisable - remember that the best ch’i flows slowly and not in direct straight lines. The solution to this problem is the hanging of wind chimes between the door and the stairs to slow down the ch’i. Ideally the staircase should turn away from the front door.

On difficult staircases, it is sometimes useful to place stronger lights on the stairs themselves or in extreme circumstances place a barber’s pole on a landing. The pole promotes the movement of ch’i up the stairs and moves in a spiral fashion.

- Spiral staircases are not considered good feng shui because they act like “screwdrivers” accelerating ch’i upwards and downwards at a rapid pace.
- The front door should not face a staircase directly, a screen should be put in place.