What is Annual Feng Shui Flying Stars and How to Prepare for It

You probably already know the basics of Feng Shui. They include the internal layout of the house, the external macro environment, the house’s Bagua, and your personal Feng Shui Kua number.

One factor that is often overlooked is TIME. That is what this article is about.

You’ve probably noticed this already. Every year, you’ll hear about the Feng Shui Annual Afflictions. You’ll hear about the sickness star, the wealth star, and the likes. They are quite powerful, and neglecting them can come at a great cost or loss of opportunities. 

But do you know what these stars are or how they’re interpreted? Do you know what to do with them? This article will give you these answers.

To start, let me show you what the 2017 Feng Shui annual afflictions look like.

These numbers probably don’t mean anything to you right now. But after reading this article, this chart will make a lot more sense to you.

What is the Feng Shui Annual Flying Star?

The annual afflictions come from the Xuan Kong Flying Star School of Feng Shui. It is a discipline that uses an astrological chart to analyze the positive and negative auras.

I asked Feng Shui Master Howard Choy to give a brief explanation:

The annual Flying Star is based on the Lo Shu, which is a general representation of the world according to the ancient Chinese. It is a pattern language using correlations to represent space-time and the constant cyclical changes in Nature.

Here’s another explanation from Feng Shui Master Laurent Langlais:

Feng Shui and Chinese astrology are connected: one speaks about space, the other time. They constantly interact together. For example, our living spaces are influenced by time events. In macro Feng Shui, for example, the shapes of mountains and the placement of rivers and oceans for a given city become auspicious or challenging depending of the time period we are in.

To me, this makes a lot of sense because time changes many things and follows a certain pattern in cycles.

For instance, the Earth’s rotation around the sun determines our four seasons year after year. Also, we sometimes see a pattern in history where we experience periods of conflict, drought, or prosperity. Perhaps the moon, stars, and planets have a hand in these up and down cycles?

If you don’t already know, the stars, planets, and the moon also rotate in cycles. That’s just how the solar system works, and it’s kind of how you can think of the Flying Stars Feng Shui.

An important thing to note is that these cycles are based on time. Each planet has a different rotation cycle. The Earth rotates around the sun in 365 days, whereas it takes Jupiter 11.86 Earth years to make one rotation around the sun.

The point is, there are different solar cycles, so does the Flying Star Feng Shui cycles.

How the Annual Flying Star Works

The Flying Stars work like astrology. It has multiple cycles based on time.

First, there’s the Nine Periods of the twenty-year cycle. Right now, we’re at Period 8 which ends on 2023.

In addition to this, there’s the annual, monthly, daily, and bi-hourly cycles. Each of them also go by specific cycles. For the purpose of this article, we’ll just focus on the annual afflictions.

Each year, different stars will “fly” to different “palaces”, or sectors in your home. There are 9 stars that’ll fly into the 9 palaces. The image below will give you a sense of what the 9 palaces are.

The idea is similar to applying the Bagua onto your home. You’ll need to divide your home into nine different sectors and then you begin applying the Flying Stars to each of the palace.

Here are the 9 Flying Stars along with their Five Elements and their relationship to us. Please note that the names of the stars can be lost in translation.

Star #1: Favorable Star (Water)

This star correlates with career, fortune, health, fame and academics. It has the tendency to bring new businesses, new beginnings, and happy events. In terms of family members, it’s related to the middle-son of the family. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the kidney, bladder, reproductive system, and ears.

Star #2: Illness Star (Earth)

This star correlates with sickness, accidents, stress, and poor health. It has the tendency to bringing persistent health problems. In terms of family members, it’s related to the mother or the housewife. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the digestive system including stomach and pancreas.

Star #3: Quarrelsome Star (Wood)

This star correlates with hostility, conflicts, and misunderstandings. It has the tendency to bring obstacles in your life, perhaps even litigation. In terms of family members, it’s related to the eldest son. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the liver, feet, and arms.

Star #4: Love and Academics Star (Wood)

This star correlates with romance, academics, and wisdom. It has a tendency to assist you with love and with your studies and research. In terms of family members, it’s related to the eldest daughter. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the liver, thigh, and the chest areas.

Star #5: Misfortune Star (Earth)

This star correlates with catastrophe, death, and is the worst among all the stars. This star is not correlated to any family member or body part because it symbolizes a core pillar.

Star #6: Heaven Star (Metal)

This star correlates with promotion, growth, and even windfall luck. It has the tendency to help you achieve recognition and sometimes attracting people that’ll assist you in your life. In terms of family members, this star is related to the father or husband. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the lungs, the large intestine, and bones.

Star #7: Robbery Star (Metal)

This star correlates with burglary, injuries, fire, and conflicts. It has the tendency to bring volatile emotions and cause disputes. In terms of family members, it’s related to the young daughters or girls. In terms of body parts, it’s related to the jaw, teeth, and mouth.

Star #8: Prosperity Star (Earth)

This star correlates with fortune, nobility, health, and is considered the luckiest star of all. In terms of family members, it’s related to the young sons or boys, including the heir(s). In terms of body parts, it’s related to fingers, toes, nose, and back.

Star #9: Future Prosperity Star (Fire)

This star correlates with future luck. It has the tendency to enhance long term gains and favors new beginnings. In terms of family members, it’s related to middle daughter. In terms of body parts, it’s related to small intestine, tongue, eye, and heart.

In addition to the 9 stars, you’d also have to pay attention to the following afflictions as they also move through the 9 palaces each year:

Grand Duke Jupiter (Tai Sui)

The Tai Sui is a very specific negative energy. Its effects can be good or bad depending on which annual Flying Star it pairs with. In general, this whole area within the nine palace should be left undisturbed because its energy is too strong.

Three Killings (San Sha)

The Three Killings is correlated to three different types of bad luck – accident, financial loss, and illness. This area also needs to be left undisturbed. That means no renovations or no re-decorations.

Year Breaker (Sui Po)

The Year Breaker, if disturbed, has the tendency to bring health problems, especially to the elders. In general, this area should also be left undisturbed.

These are the stars that move around the 9 palaces each year. Some of them sound pretty scary, and some really fancy. How do we interpret them?

Do NOT Interpret the Flying Stars Annual Affliction Literally

From earlier, you learned that the stars and afflictions are related to both our organs and our family members while being correlated to specific luck and events in our life. However, these are not to be taken literally.

Here’s how Feng Shui Expert Howard Choy explains it:

The annual flying star is not meant to be a specific picture of what would happen in the coming year in the 8 directions. It is there to stimulate us, using correlative thinking, to think about our relationship to our environment with our fears and longings in the present so we can plan for the year.

The effects in the different directions suggested by the annual Flying Star of all sorts should not be taken literally. This is similar to our correlation to a certain animal when we are born in a certain year. This animal is only a metaphor of what we could and can be, we are NOT literally that animal.

For example, don’t panic if there is an indication of theft and robbery in the Southwest because the Star #7 Red Metal “Broken Army” Star of Robbery has landed in this direction in 2017. Star #7 is not going to cause you trouble literally, it is just an indication that there could be some issues in this direction.

When you try to interpret the Flying Stars, it is important to understand what “correlative thinking” is. In short, it means that the interpretations mentioned above should not be taken too literally.

Correlative thinking is similar to metaphors. This TED Talk presentation will help you understand more about this concept:

This is similar to how we use our language to communicate, such as using phrases like “the elephant in the room”. There’s literally not an elephant in the room, but just a metaphorical expression for an obvious problem that no one wants to discuss or challenge.

What You Can Do with the Annual Afflictions to Your Benefit

Every year, you will hear people selling many Feng Shui cures to counter the negative annual afflictions. One of these items include the auspicious talisman “Prosperous Stars Shining Above” that’s used to cure the Three Killings.

But using special talisman as cures is just one way. Another way is to weaken or strengthen its respective Five elements using colors or shapes. Again, here’s how Feng Shui Master Howard Choy puts it:

This information can be used to examine different space in our house. The Flying Stars chart can be used to reflect on our hopes and fears for the coming year and also how to plan and manage another 12 months, knowing that things will always go up and down in cycles.

Let’s go back to that example of Star #7, the Robbery Star, that landed in the Southwest. What you should do is to check what is there. Is the security sound? Did you renew you household insurance for next year? So on and so forth. And if it still worries you, put up a picture with blue color or with a water scene there because Water can weaken Metal, which is the element of Star #7. This way, you can begin to redecorate and refresh your home for the new year as well.

However, applying these cures could be tricky.

Applying Elemental Cures for Annual Afflictions can be Tricky

Here’s the special case – what happens when that sector’s Five Elements based on the Bagua conflicts with the Five Elements based on the annual Flying Stars?

According to Feng Shui Expert Rodika Tchi, what you need to do is that the Five Element based on the Bagua is NOT the strongest or predominant element.

Here’s the example that was given. In 2009, the annual affliction Love and Academics Star #4 was located in the South with Wood as its element. To feed the Wood energy, wavy shaped objects or blue objects with Water elements can be used.

However, South is a Fire element according to the Bagua. This doesn’t mean you need to renovate that area and remove all the existing Fire element decorations. You can keep the existing decorations, but just make sure that Fire is NOT the dominant element in that area.

Here’s another example. Southeast in the Bagua is the wealth corner with Wood as its element. It can be energized by the presence of water because Water strengthens the Wood. But if a hostile star, say the Quarrelsome Star #3 (also a Wood element), flies to the Southeast, should we energize this area? Wouldn’t energizing this wealth area with Water also means energizing the Quarrelsome Star at the same time?

According to some experts, if you MUST energize this area, you should find ways to exhaust the Quarrelsome Star #3. One way is to ensure you have bright lights shining in this area. If not, your wealth can come with hostility, conflicts, and misunderstandings – but only for that year.

Conclusion

The Feng Shui annual afflictions can have a great impact on you over that year. I’ve personally seen its effects in one person’s life. She suffered a great deal that year, especially in terms of career. You can read about it in my ebook if you’re interested.

Lastly, I suggest that you find an expert to help you with your Flying Stars annual afflictions. If you don’t take the proper classes and training, it is easy to make mistakes when you plot the chart and apply the wrong cures. If not done properly, the cost can be too much for you to bear. In other words, when you’re in doubt, take courses and train yourself or consult with an expert in Flying Stars!

Have you experienced or witnessed the effects of the Flying Star annual affliction? If so, please share your story by commenting below!

Victor Cheung

Feng Shui practitioner and blogger of Feng Shui Nexus. I’ve witnessed the efficacy of Feng Shui, astrology and divination. Here, I share my knowledge and experiences with you to get you closer to your goals and dreams. Subscribe to get email updates or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.