A Conversation With... Susan Chow

The Monthly Aspectarian: Susan, why don't we start out by talking about exactly what feng shui is. You represent real teaching from a real master?

Susan Chow: Western feng shui talks about the human psyche part of intention as well as color, design, aromatherapy and that type of thing. For instance, what color to paint your house. Or, for example, if you put two flowers in your marriage corner, then what will manifest is an enhanced relationship. On the other hand, the practice of authentic feng shui deals with your environment and the chi, or energies, that's in it.

We use a Chinese compass called a Luo Pan compass. Most masters make their own. It's an ancient compass that consists of a square base, and within that square base are seven to 36 different rings. Each ring has a different formula. You use the compass to take measurements of the incoming chi of your environment.

For example, certain roadways are in front of your house, or perhaps a river. We take measurements of what direction these are coming from as well as other surroundings such as mountains or hills or buildings. We believe that there is a natural chi that comes from specific directions that can either help nurture you or can hurt you. That's why we study land formations.

TMA: I've read that feng shui actually began as a way to find proper burial sites.

SC: The first practice of feng shui was not called that. It was called Kan Yu. And yes, the practice of Kan Yu was primarily used to find the most auspicious location to bury the dead for the emperor. That was an exterior land study.

TMA: How far back does that go?

SC: No one knows how old the actual practice is, but we believe it traces back to at least 5,000 years ago.

TMA: How did it evolve from there?

SC: In ancient times, when the Kan Yu masters, as they were known in those days, started studying the land formations, they began to realize that chi traveled in specific directions. Within the actual compass, each direction represents a specific chi that comes in from that direction. After many years of study, the masters started realizing that the actual land formation, the mountain, for example, brought on a specific type of chi. Also, they started realizing that the chi works in cycles. From there, they started thinking, "Wait a minute here, if chi is working in cycles, and we're able to find out where the chi comes in, and specific directions where good chi is from, we can maybe apply it to the way we live. That's how it became the practice of feng shui.

TMA: Do you have any idea of how the discoveries were made? Of what led to what?

SC: There have been many legends on how feng shui came into play. For example, the birth of compass. It was believed that the Luo Pan compass was actually a gift presented by the Goddess of the Ninth Heaven to the Emperor during a battle. It was believed that during this battle, the Emperor's enemy had a sorcerer produce a fog to fog in the Emperor and his troops, trapping them. The Emperor prayed to the Goddess to help him out, and her gift was the birth of the compass. It's very difficult to say how this whole study began, because there have been so many different legends. What we do know is that the first study was based on trying to find the most auspicious location to bury the dead for the Emperor and his family.

TMA: These compasses have actual moving parts?

SC: The center of the compass is an actual, real compass. The Heaven Dial, where the rings are, turns clockwise and counterclockwise. You turn the compass, and that's how you take your measurements and determine the formulas.

TMA: Do you align it to north?

SC: Every direction has a 360 degree direction, so you basically line it up to whichever direction that you're measuring.

TMA: Talk a little bit about your training and the master that you studied with.

SC: Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai is my teacher and my master. He's ranked one of the top five Grandmasters in the world in authentic feng shui, and in the last three years or so, he's come out to teach authentic feng shui. You see, even though Western feng shui has been around in North America since approximately the mid 1980s, the true practice of it has not been available to the Western-speaking countries, or at least has been very limited. The actual practice has always been kept secret. Because it's such a fast-growing, holistic practice, more and more people want to learn -- but they want to learn the authentic practice. Therefore, my teacher, the Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai, decided to try to restore the integrity and teach it to any Western or Asian students who want to learn. He resides in Malaysia, and the school that I studied under him is the Yap Cheng Hai Feng Shui Center of Excellence. It's the largest feng shui school in the world, and is considered one of the most reputable, teaching the most complete feng shui-systems. He travels to many countries throughout the year to teach his students.

The course is comprised of four different levels. In the professional series, Level One is the beginner's intensive course. This is a one-day course that gives a very solid introduction to those who may have had some feng shui training in the past, or newcomers who are interested in furthering their knowledge.

The second level is the practical feng shui level, a four-day course comprised of very advanced formulas. It helps set up a good foundation for the practice of feng shui.

And then there's Level Three, the advanced practical feng shui. In that particular module, we learn more advanced formulas as well as Yin feng shui, or Graybeard feng shui.

Once we complete module Three, there's an examination process and you have to get a certain percentage to pass. From there, you're able to continue on to Module Four, the Mastery Level, which takes place in Malaysia. This is a nine-day intensive course that consists of many levels of examinations as well as classroom practice. It's in that level that Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai gives us his secret Water Dragon formulas, which he is world renowned for.

TMA: You've gone through all four levels yourself?

SC: Yes, I have. The Mastery Level offered was in Malaysia last September. At that time, what they did was to open up a limited amount of seats by invitation. They restricted it to 30 students from around the world. To go through the examination process, we had to go through the process of do Master feng shui arts. We had to do the art of feng shui at a casino in Malaysia. 13 feng shui masters had done this previously, and it was up to each person in our class to figure out what kind of formulas were used by those masters. We also did a major water theme park and other properties. We found out afterwards whether we had passed or not.

Out of the 30 students, they allowed 15 of us to stay on board to participate in their professional instructors program. Of the 15, I was the only Canadian who's been licensed to teach Module One on behalf of the Yap Cheng Hai Feng Shui Center of Excellence.

TMA: Were there other North Americans?

SC: There are only three people from North America. I'm the only Canadian, and there are two Americans.

TMA: What is the difference between the feng shui that's being practiced out there and what you're speaking of as being authentic?

SC: Feng shui is the fastest growing holistic practice in the world. There's a big demand for practitioners. Up until three years ago, the practice of authentic feng shui was not available. North Americans were only exposed to Western School feng shui, such as the Black Hat Sect feng shui and Symbolic feng shui. Black Hat Sect feng shui takes a ba-gua grid and places it over your house. A corner is designated to eight different parts of your life aspirations. For example, in the Black Hat Sect, they deal more with the human psyche, where if you want to activate your wealth, you put anything that's valuable to you in the specified corner. If you want to activate your fame corner, you place trophies or crystals to activate it. If you want to activate your relationship corner, they say to put two flowers or two mandarin ducks there. All that stuff is to do with what I call the psychology of a soul. It's almost like the power of suggestion. If something is in a specific place and you're reminded every day that you would like to attract, say, a relationship, those two flowers or those two mandarin ducks or those pairs of things will serve to remind you that that's what you're looking for.

The difference is, with authentic feng shui we address two types of possible schools of feng shui. Number one is San He, the study of land formation, and there's also the study of something called Pa Chai. I call this personalized feng shui where you tap into the individual's naturally good directions. Everybody has four good directions and four bad directions. Once we identify what people's good directions are by using a formula based on their date and year of birth, we're able to allocate where is a good place to sleep, to place their bed, to choose an office. That's what we use for placement of furniture.

Also under the San He practice is the Water Dragon formula. As I mentioned earlier, Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai is world renowned for this. You build a water structure on your property to enhance money and prosperity. There's also something called San Yu An, also known as Flying Stars. With the practice of San Yu An, we address the chi that's coming into your house, the type of energy that permeates your home. Using a formula, we identify what kind of chi is coming in. Is it good chi? Is it bad? In this practice, we use certain elements to either suppress a negative energy or enhance a good, positive one.

Authentic feng shui is basically a study of the ancient texts. The practice is, first and foremost, passed down through generations of master to student. The Western school has been around only since the 1980s.

TMA: I've noticed, and this is probably at its most simplistic, that if my office is cluttered, the chi is stagnated. If I clean it, the chi flows more smoothly through it. I don't think I'm making that up. I really do experience it.

SC: If you pick up most articles or books on it, they do discuss this in one way or another. When you think about it, it's really common sense. If you have a messy room and you see it every day when you walk into it, of course it's not going to make you happy. Of course it's going to make you feel, "Oh my god, I'm so burdened by the mess." If you have a nice clean, orderly office where it's esthetically pleasing and everything is in order, it's uncluttered, of course it's going to make you feel better.

A lot of books and articles talk about making sure that your house is well-positioned in a way that will help the chi enter. This is correct in some sense; however, having said that, you need to know what kind of chi is coming in. Is it good chi or bad chi? If it's bad chi that's entering, it may affect you. If it's good chi, then of course it's going to help balance you and nourish you and help harmonize your environment. In the practice of San Yu An, what we address is the chi that comes in.