Part 1
By
Stephen Buss
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The idea of owning a dream cottage in rural France has always been a popular one, never more so than today. Many of us have taken up the challenge, however, there’s more to it than just bricks, mortar and a phrase book.
Ten years ago, we moved to Normandy in Northern France and, just like on the TV programs, we converted one of our smaller buildings into a holiday cottage, or gîte, that we now let out for the summer season. At the time, we gave little consideration to any Feng Shui aspects, just to getting the thing up and running, making it comfortable and attracting people to stay in it. We’re glad to say it worked very well and still continues to do so.
About five years ago we thought it would be a good idea to find another old ruin with a view to renovating it and turning it into a second holiday cottage. The difference this time is that we would use traditional Chinese Feng Shui to select a property and design the layout accordingly.
Selecting a suitable property
Apart from its suitability for a holiday let, the building and its surroundings would need to conform to the ‘armchair’ principle of having high ground at the back, representing the black turtle, and some land features on each side to support the white tiger and cerulean dragon. The facing would preferably have an open area, look south and have a quiet road passing by.
The building we eventually found that fitted the bill was in a state of complete ruin, having no electricity, water or sanitation, |
or anything much at all apart from 4 solid walls. This had a certain appeal as we could mould the fabric and energy of it to our own designs and also wouldn’t be taking on somebody else’s botched conversion.
The facing direction
The first thing to establish was the facing direction. I use a normal sighting compass for this which is accurately marked in degrees, I then find the Chinese direction from tables. After careful measurement from outside the building, I determined that it faces roughly South at exactly 183 degrees. By interpolation, the sitting direction is in the North, or Kan, sector on the second mountain - Zi.
The time period
The next thing to establish was the time period so that I could draw up the flying star chart. Work had to begin soon, but the period was due to change in 3 years time on the 4th February 2004. It was better to wait until after that to start work in order to benefit from the change of qi which would then last for the next 20 years, |
rather than use the waning qi of period 7.
Now, I have to confess at this point that the reason for the roof going on in July 2004 was not so much the conscious decision to benefit fully from the new energy of period 8, but more the fact that it was about the earliest our roofer could get round to finishing it. I tried to console myself with the idea that this was the hand of destiny guiding things our way, but the connection between cosmic destiny and the planning schedule of the average French artisan has to a very flimsy one at best!
However, it did determine the time period for the flying star chart and so we could now begin to plan the internal layout and garden. We had our roof, we had our planning permission, we had our builders ready to begin. Find out how we applied all this to the final design of the cottage in the next part.
STEPHEN BUSS |
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Feng Shui for your home, house, residence, manoir, chateau, business space, office, shop, property. Fengshui in the Southwest of UK, Devon, Exeter, also France, Normandy. Stephen Buss trained and qualified by Master Joseph Yu of Feng Shui Research Centre (FSRC), Toronto.