Dear Lillian,
I am a strong believer in feng shui and your big fan. As the Chinese saying goes, “first is our life path; second is luck and third is feng shui” to determine our life path. My name is Raymond Wong and I am 43. I was born at 11:32pm on Nov 25, 1965 in the year of the Snake. I am the youngest in a family of four siblings and I am still single. I work as a marketing manager in an insurance firm. All this while I have been very obliging - someone who does not know how to say no. Sometimes I feel people take advantage of my obliging nature which frustrates me.

My personal life has gone through many ups and downs and is mostly down especially in terms of money and relationship luck I have had a few failed relationships and my last break-up was about five years ago. Now I am a bachelor and my parents are very worried. They want me to get married soon as they are old. My mum is 75 and my father is 73.

A few months back, I bought a black nine-eyed Dzi Bead string to wear as a neck­lace. I also wear a Buddha green jade on a gold chain. I wear a tiger eye bracelet during weekdays to boost my self-confidence at work.

Recently, I faced financial problems and tried my luck at 4-D outlets in the hope of a windfall but have never won. I hope you can give me some feng shui tips to boost my personal luck in the second half of 2008 and for 2009. I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me what to do and what I should display in my house and workplace to improve my personal luck.

Thank you very much.
Raymond

Dear Raymond,
OK, to summarise your “problems” you are still unmarried and you have some money problems. You wish to get married but cannot seem to “connect” with anyone suitable. Well to start with, please get our astrology book for the SNAKE person and implement all the suggestions we offer from month to month. It is easier if you take a systematic approach and use the suggestions in the book to enhance both your love luck and your income luck.

The Snake person will have excellent luck in 2009 so this is a year you can look forward to with great confidence. I suggest you think seriously about carrying the love amulets we always come out with each year as this has proven to be very effective. Also place your peach blossom animal - the horse in the South - as doing this bring opportunities for you in the marriage stakes.

As for incomes, this is best done by installing, proper wealth enhancing water features than by gambling on the 4-D. I am not a great believer in trying to get “instant windfalls”. I prefer to use good feng shui.

There are many suggestions offered in my books and if you prefer a simple book, get the 365 Easy Feng Shui Tips book and see which of the income enhancing tips suit you best and then go for it.

Dear Lillian,
We finished a big renovation job on our house in the year 2000 when we gutted the house and put in a second floor. I was not into feng shui at the time. We are now adding a new bedroom and suite on top of an existing double garage. Our old bedroom will be surrendered to one of our twins, who is five.

The house is facing a water canal in the NE2 (40 degrees) with mountains in the distance. Half of the new bedroom is in the West and the other half is in the South-West facing the road (battle-axe property). The bed will be placed in the West side of our new room with a sleep direction in the NW area. My kua is 1 (monkey) and my husband is 2 (snake). My questions are:-

1. Will this addition be enough to change the period of the house to period 8? There will be no change to the rest of the house as we will only make a hole in the wall for a doorway to connect the upstairs area with the new addition. The garage will be left open during, the construction period of 6 weeks.
   
   I read your book Feng Shui For Period 8. It seems  that the layout of my house will be worse in a period 8 chart than a period 7 chart. Our luck so far has been good in a period 7 house.
   
   I am confused, if the period 8 chart is worse, do I still have to consider changing the house period to 8? Your book says that if the house is facing NE2, the water (in my case, natural water) will bring misfortune.
   
   
2. As my husband and I have different groups, will the sleeping location in the West, facing NW bring me bad luck? If yes, can you suggest any cure?
   
   
3. We also would like to do some landscaping in the garden at the facing side once we complete the renovations before Christmas. As the Grand Duke resides in N1 this year, if the work starts from the East side to North side of the garden and we put a small Pi Yao in the North side of the house (indoors), will it be sufficient to “respect” the Grand Duke?

Dear Ping,
To answer your questions one at a lime, the answer is yes! It will change your house period especially if you add a new roof.

Actually a house facing NE in period 8 enjoys the “specials” which is a parent string special and you will find that this helps you to negate the water in the NE affliction. As you are facing NE2, the water star 8 is at the back of the house so you will need water at the back and mountain in the front.

This is what we call a reverse water - reverse mountain direction. If you can install water at the back it will be helpful. The canal in front should flow froth right to left (inside looking out) for the canal to bring wealth luck.

Changing the house to a period 8 is definitely going to be better than the period 7 which is currently bringing a great deal of misfortune to many people.

The current financial mess in the USA is due in large measure to the change of period. People who have not yet changed their homes to period 8 are really suffering.

Usually the sleeping directions, should favour the husband and what brings him luck is also believed to bring you luck since you are secret friends (snake and monkey) who bring luck to each other. As to the landscaping job, to work from the East to the North side is correct. Just do not start or end in the North.