While there’s still plenty of time to prepare for the coming year of the Metal Ox, here are some things you may want to think about when planning for the shift of the energy in your own home. You can use this information to set up, but keep in mind that while it’s accurate and helpful, by nature it’s generic. If your purpose is to go beyond the basics, the application of Feng Shui must be tailored to you and your home.

Even this general stuff is a bit complicated this year so skip down to the guidelines if that’s how you scroll.

Tai Sui, Sui Po and San Sha

The Year of the Metal Ox opens on December 21, 2020 at 18:54. The Tai Sui or Year Boss is in the NE. That’s the Ox. For real. If you’re not already familiar with the concept of the Tai Sui you can think of it as the ruling energy of the year. In some years people born under the same Animal branch as the year are considered to be offending the Tai Sui. In my opinion this isn’t one of them.

Opposite the Ox in the NE is the Sheep in the SW. That means in 2021 the Sheep is called the Sui Po or “year breaker”. The Sheep is considered to be in opposition to the Ox. Their relationship is a clash. Energetically the Ox sends force towards or pressures the Sheep. This is an earth clash so you can envision it as a “piling on”. It’s an accumulation of earth element mainly.

The area between NE3 (Tiger) and SE1 (Dragon) is called the San Sha or Three killings in 2021. It covers the entire area between and including Tiger and Dragon. The Rabbit (centering at 90 degrees) is the most difficult area. The energy in the San Sha this year is metal element (west) vs wood element (east).

Lest you get lost in the technical stuff, it’s important to remember that Feng Shui is all about relationships. Stick to first principles. If you want to know how the energy moves around, it’s elemental and elementary.

The annual calculations are expressions of the relationships of elements. They point out the Tai Sui, Sui Po, and San Sha: the relationships that may need more of your attention in any given year. You can think of them as roles we may be called to play.

Guidelines for 2021

1. Don’t face NE, meaning the Ox who is centered at 30 degrees. You can spend time in the NE location of your house but don’t face that direction. Having your back to the NE is fine with the exception of Tiger (see caveat 2 below). Don’t activate this area without professional advice.
2. Avoid Rabbit (E2) and the areas directly adjacent. The scope of the San Sha covers Tiger-Dragon (52.5-127.5 degrees). Avoid digging, drilling or other activations in this area. Keep it quiet. Otherwise, consult a professional (like me) who can tell you what to do, when, and where.
3. If your house faces NE or SW it would be helpful to consult a professional to evaluate your home and mitigate any potential issues, especially if a door is located here. I’d recommend the same if your house faces NW or SE.
4. You can spend time in these locations of your house: W, NW, NE, SW, S and N. These locations can be fine tuned further by applying Ba Zhai (8 House or 8 Mansions). In 2021 there’s more support for West Group houses and people.

Flying Stars

Flying Stars is a system used to identify energy pockets within a building, city, country…The base energy for each area is indicated by the traditional Lo Shu where Star 5 is in the center:

SE		S		SW
	4	9	2
E	3	5	7	W
	8	1	6
NE		N		NW

In addition to these base stars which are static, each house has it’s own collection of Flying Stars, which some would say is similar to a natal chart. The best results come when you’ve understood and dealt with these static and underlying energies first.

Once you’ve done that, there are the annual stars which move each year to play with. There are also monthly Flying Stars and daily Flying Stars which you may be familiar with if you read my daily forecasts.

Each star corresponds to a trigram from the Later Heaven Bagua and so each one also has an elemental nature. Some stars naturally pair up. Some stars play well together and some don’t. Some are helpful and some not so much. I won’t try to explain it more here.

The map below will tell you the locations of the annual Flying Stars within your home for the Metal Ox year. They will interact with the monthly Flying Stars in a guest/host relationship. This interaction of the annual and monthly stars is used for forecasting.

Annual Flying Stars for Metal Ox 2021

SE		S		SW
	5	1	3
E	4	6	8	W
	9	2	7
NE		N		NW

1. As a general practice, we want to avoid the annual Wu Huang or 5 yellow, so don’t spend time in the SE location of your home. That’s 112.5-157.5 degrees on the compass. Keep it as quiet as possible. No activations here.
2. The 6 star is in the middle (the home of base star 5). Authority and Fathers with a capital F are the center of attention. There’s significant power to work with here if you know how.

When to Act

Moving things around the house, changing rooms, and placing Feng Shui cures and enhancements is best done between December 21st 2020 and February 3rd 2021. You can maximize results by using date selection. If you want help with that, I invite you to subscribe to my monthly newsletter or, contact me to find a date that’s specific to you and your house.

If you’re familiar with applying Feng Shui you can use the information in this article to set up your house. You’ll also need to know your Ming Gua to make the most of the energy of 2021. Just compare your good directions with the “rules”. And of course I’m available if you want to enhance or mitigate rather than simply avoid.