In flying star feng shui, the mountain star and water star takes center stage as practitioners try to make the best use of them from the natal charts.
From the natal charts, which is considered the birth chart of a house, they are the two stars on the top left and right of each grid.
Careful planning of how to use them can drastically change the luck of someone for the better… or the worse when you get it wrong.
But the ultimate question that is bouncing around in your mind is… do we call it the mountain and water star or sitting and facing star?
Does it have dual nationality and thus, two passports?
What’s in a name
In a lot of books, there are various references to these two stars as mountain star (山星) and water star (水星), and sitting star (坐星) and facing star (向星).
The former pair is because of their relation to mountain landscapes and water formations. And if you’ve read up a little about how natal charts are generated, you’d intuitively understand why calling them the latter makes perfect sense.
So there is no right or wrong way to call them here.
However, the term water star can often lead to confusion between water energy, the white water star 1, and the facing star.
Therefore, it is often suggested that rookies to feng shui refer to water stars as facing stars.
On top of that, in more advanced practice of flying stars feng shui, and when experienced geomancers discuss this subject with each other, the terms water and mountain stars are used to refer to landscape features with regards to flying stars.
And when discussing life aspects that these two stars have an impact on, the terms facing and sitting stars are commonly used.
So while the two different sets of terms actually refer to the same thing, which label to use depends on the context of the discussion.
It’s sort of like referring to your husband as a gentleman in front of your friends but calling him an idiot at home. 😀
It’s just a shame that sometimes practitioners try to sound clever by calling out others for using the “wrong” word description.
It must be said that the general consensus (veterans and newbies) call them mountain and water stars. This is why when conversations about which terms to use, it is always about one side trying to convince another to use sitting and facing stars instead of mountain and water stars.
Not the other way around.
Me?
I say mountain and water exclusively… unless someone is confused with what is being referred to.
What does the two stars do?
Many feng shui practitioners are fixated on designating these two stars as focal points in feng shui consultations. And for good reason.
This is because the influence they play on overall feng shui has a high potency rate. Gamers might call this the hit-rate.
They govern every aspect of life. Seasoned practitioners who know their stuff can even pinpoint very specific things to do to trigger positive impacts on very specific life aspects.
However, everything the two stars govern falls down on the umbrella or wealth, health and relationships.
The mountain star affects health and relationships. While the water stars governs wealth.
Activating water and mountain stars
There are basically 3 ways to activate the two stars. And there is a clear priority order to them.
- Presence of mountain or water
- Activity or inactivity
- Elemental enhancement
The naming of them as mountain and water stars are the most obvious indication of their nature and how they are activated.
When there are natural water features such as rivers, lakes, and streams, then the water star is activated. When there are hills or mountains, the mountain star is activated.
This also works in reverse.
This means that to deactivate a water star, use mountains. And use water to do the same to a sector of a house with an unfavorable mountain star.
In modern times, virtual water like crowds and traffic is taken into account. And virtual mountains take the form of skyscrapers and other massive buildings.
And even though natural formations such as lakes are preferred, man-made water features such as swimming pools or ponds can achieve the same effect, albeit to a lesser extent.
The second way of activating the stars is with activity and movement. We can also call them yin or yang activities.
Activity in a particular sector of the house will trigger the water star into action like flipping a switch. While inactivity will be best for nurturing mountain stars.
This means that the living room for example is a place where a lot of activity happens. So it is a living space which is ideal to house a favorable facing star.
A storeroom however, is a space that sees little activity. So the powers of a favorable sitting star can be harnessed in it.
Lastly, don’t forget that while the star numbers indicated on water and mountain stars show whether they are favorable or not, they also show the elemental nature of them.
This means that they can be enhanced by the rules of the 5 elements.
Keep in mind that we are talking about enhancement and strengthening here. Not activation and deactivation.
Enhancing the stars is like upgrading the performance of your car with better parts, better engine oil, and higher grade petrol.
The other side of enhancement is controlling and weakening. Also based on the relationship of the 5 elements.
This is particularly useful when unfavorable stars are active and there is no practical way to reverse it. So weakening them is the best action to take.
This for example, can happen when a the misfortune star 5 take position as the mountain star in a store room. Since you can’t fill the room with activity by converting it into an entertainment room, the next best course of action is to weaken it’s strength.
Sort of like self-imposing a $100 credit limit to your credit card. The cash is there, but you can’t do much damage with it.
Finally when we talk about flying star feng shui, don’t forget about overrides to the nature of water and mountain stars which can sometimes occur.
Certain natal star charts belong to special categories which can render bad stars into good ones. Or become part of a group of auspicious star formations.
So keep an eye out for them and avoid assumptions.
