Classical Feng Shui - Putting out the fire

FIRE at Heaven’s Gate is a serious feng shui affliction that affects the head of the household, or the breadwinner. It happens when the stove is located in the northwest sector of the house.
It can result in serious losses to the breadwinner – usually the father – including losing a job, money, and even ended up as a bankrupt. Losses can also include accidents or illnesses.
While Fire at Heaven’s Gate usually means locating the stove in the northwest sector, this simple explanation is not complete.
Here, I will explain why the northwest sector is the most afflicted, and other instances of Fire at Heaven’s Gate affliction.
There are two popular arrangements of the bagua (or eight trigram), namely the Early Heaven and Later Heaven.
The Later Heaven arrangement, as shown in Diagram A, is most often used in feng shui. In this arrangement, the Qian Gua, which represents the head of the household, is located in the northwest. Its element is yang metal, and it also means money.
For context, I have shown the location of the remaining seven guas – their gua number, polarities and association with the members of a family.
The stove (and I would also include the fireplace) represents the Fire element. In the controlling cycle of the Five Elements, Fire controls Metal.
Therefore, placing a stove (or fireplace) in the northwest sector is equivalent to fire (stove) controlling the head of the household (Qian) and his finances.
Controlling also means destroying (melting, to be exact) and hence, the reason why a stove or fireplace in the northwest is so detrimental to the breadwinner.
In the Xuan Kong (Flying Star) system, Fire at Heaven’s Gate also refers to the combination of the No.6 and No.9 stars (see Diagram B).
In the current Period 8, star No.8 occupies the centre, star No.9 in the northwest, and so on. For context, I have shown the positions and elements of the nine stars in the Period 8.
From the table, you can see that the element of star No.9 is Fire. The Qian Gua is No.6, resulting in a combination between the No.6 of the bagua, and the No.9 of the Period 8 Lo Shu.
This is another reason why practitioners are particularly concerned about the stove in the northwest sector in Period 8 houses!
What is the solution? Quite straightforward actually. Just make sure that the stove or fireplace is not situated in the northwest sector of the house.
There are some families who do very little cooking (or not at all). In this case, having a stove or fireplace in the northwest area is not likely to do much harm.
Similarly, I would also advise that other than the stove, kitchen appliances that are a source of heat, including the oven, induction cooker, etc, should not be located in this sector.
But what if you have absolutely no choice, or if you live in a small apartment? And the entire kitchen is located in the northwest and you cannot relocate it anywhere else?
The solution (sort of) is to place the stove in another sector (other than the northwest) in the kitchen.
If you are a little into Xuan Kong feng shui, you will know that water, mountain, yearly, monthly and daily stars have a number associated with it.
Hence, the No.6 and No.9 combination can also be between the water and mountain star, or the water star and year star, or between the yearly and monthly star, which results in different degree of inauspiciousness for the father (or head of the household).
Henry Fong is an electronic engineer by qualification and he approaches feng shui with the same analytical and investigative approach he uses in his training. Readers can write to him at lifestyle.henryfong@thesundaily.com.