Feng Shui.

To some, it's a bunch of superstitious mumbo jumbo. To others, it's a science that holds the key to improving one's quality of life.

To me, I don't really care as long as it brings me benefits.

As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, my house has been re-painted (pink) and my family then decided to go one step further. We decided to call in a Feng Shui expert to assess the house, since we were thinking of moving some of the furniture about in an attempt to maximize space. My family's luck hasn't been too great lately, and we've been experiencing quite a few incidents of general suay-ness. So it was that we decided to "invest" my first month's internship salary (which wasn't much to begin with T.T) into improving our wealth, fortune, health, harmony and happiness.

I had gone home early yesterday in order to get up earlier and tidy up the house for our visitor, Master Richard, a bona fide Feng Shui consultant that was recommended by one of my mum's friends. When he came in at around 12 noon today, he was everything I expected a Feng Shui expert to be. He was a portly, middle-aged Chinese gentleman, who wore a white cheena-looking long-sleeved top and black pants. He was holding some things and he stepped in after we greeted him.

After this, he surveyed the house and consulted what he was holding, which turned out to be a luo pan. It looks something like this.

The area in the centre is a compass with a north-pointing needle. The luo pan itself is embedded in a red square or holder, with the width slightly smaller than the length of A4 paper.

He gave us suggestions on how to arrange the furniture in each room, as well as certain auspicious objects to place in the house. My mum was relieved we didn't have to buy a fish tank, and I was relieved I wouldn't have to be in charge of it.

He also taught us some things about houses.

Apparently, in every house, there will always be a "dead" area, or a place where the negative qi collects. It could be anywhere, depending on position, and in this case it was our store room. qi, he said, is like flowing water. It must have the freedom to move. When stagnated, negative qi accumulates and the energy of the area becomes "dead". This "dead" area can be energized by placing auspicious objects or facilitating the flow of positive qi into it. He also advised us to open up the windows now and then to let in fresh air, as well as to facilitate the inflow of positive qi.

He also noted on how we had quite a few wooden statues and figurines. He advised us against keeping so many, in addition to empty containers. Statues are believed to contain spirits, who understandably get restless if they don't do anything but sit on a shelf all day. Empty or hollow objects can also serve as receptacles for spirits to inhabit.

And thus, he told us to throw out any unused containers, and use any that we wanted to keep. Something as simple as using an object that's been neglected for some time gets rid of the negative qi.

He also told us that much like houses, people need to be re-charged as well. He advised us to take a walk around MacRitchie reservoir, cos he believes a dragon vein is located there.

The 5 official dragon veins of Singapore. A dragon vein is essentially a line of positive energy, and its good to tap into it every once in a while. Notice how 3 of them converge in the south, where Singapore's financial district is located. Coincidence or fact? You decide.

The lift shaft was also causing some additional problems. Being the first unit on the left, my house was close to a lot of bad electromagnetic energy. It was kinda true cos when Richard told me to hold the luo pan and go out, I noticed its effects.

When I was inside the house, the needle pointed north. When I entered the corridor, it began to shake unsteadily to the right. As I neared the lift shaft, the shaking got more violent, which kinda creeped me out.

The whole consultation session lasted 2 hours, after which he told us that he would tell us more when we went to see him at his shop. Apparently, he didn't want to erm... warn the "enemy" of our plans??

So until then, we've all got a lot of cleaning up to do. On top of that, from the number of empty containers and figurines we have (more in the store room), I would say my unit is one of the "spookiest" in the block.

Just great.