Essential: Backing

You have learned that the first condition of good Feng Shui is to have 'backing' at the rear. Let us start our Feng Shui 'tour' as we guide you in choosing a place for a client to set up his residence, office or commercial outlet.

In the absence of a tall structure, a big tree at the rear of a house could act as 'backing'.

A big tree in the North West of a house strengthens the position of the master of the house. In Feng Shui, North West is the position of authority and having a big tree here connotes support to the authority of the master of the house as the tree brings up the chi of this area.

No mountain or 'backing' at the rear violates the first basic condition of good Feng Shui.

In Feng Shui, the mountain(or high ground) governs the size of the family or the number of children the family will have. Living in a place where there is no 'backing' insinuates a decreasing clan or that the next generation's accomplishments will not be able to surpass that of the present generation. The front of a plot is synonymous to the present stage or generation and the rear of the plot represents the future.

If your house has the rear lower than the front street level, the remedies are:

• Set up a pole with a 24-hour low wattage lamp on top of the pole, the height of which should be above the street level. This pole is to be installed at the rear portion of the house. This will bring up the chi level at the rear to a level higher than the front.

• Reorient your house to come in from the rear, i.e., the main door and the living room are located at the rear of the plot. This will have a psychological connotation on your mind that as you enter your house, you will be going up instead of going down.

This will inculcate in your mind to adopt a positive attitude toward life.

When we have moving lines(flowing water) at the rear of the house, this connotes loss of support from friends and household members which could adversely affect family fortune. This condition holds true even if the plot has an even elevation.

The most common violation to this Feng Shui concept is when the swimming pool is located right behind the house.

The worst case is having a creek at the rear of the house and a tall structure or building in front of it. This violates the second basic condition of good Feng Shui that is, to have lower grounds in front of the plot.

In the case of an empty plot that slopes towards its rear, the best thing to do is to fill up the plot with filling materials to make the rear higher than the front.