true or false?

Fire does destroy metal.

Some argue, though, that just a little bit of an element's opposite can do good things, too. Like.. water destroys fire, but just a little bit of water with the fire will turn to steam; metal destroys wood, but just a little metal can shape the wood to something useful (carving, house, etc). Perhaps you could make the same argument for a little bit of fire tempering the metal. Just make sure the destroyer is WAY the minority.

..what I really meant was, is metal always west and north-west as they say, or does it go by property and compass sometimes...?

You can choose by how you orient your feng shui. You can choose to have the actual compass directions decide the quadrants, or you can count your front door as facing south.

Either way, west and northwest are always metal.

...that's helpful to know...thank you!

I wouldn't ever put tons of candles in the metal areas, but one or two that you're not planning on lighting on a regular basis, especially if they're in lovely metal holders, should be fine (bonus points if their colors match those sectors...).

if you have overwhelming metal energy, it's most certainly NOT true.

the thing about feng shui is that it's so aggravatingly dependent...:)

...that's the part that bugs me...there are different systems, and I tend to favour the classical, and thought the Complete Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui is very helpful in that regard, and yet I get through yet another chapter, do the little charts etc., and then they say 'oh, but now there are flying stars or something, so what you've learned so far is still kind of useless at this point...' and I say curse words and ignore the book for months (it's on the floor right here). I want my efforts to learn to be rewarded with knowledge, and to have it somehow that it never seems sufficient, but you never are quite told that it's going to be *that* insufficient, is frustrating...I want it to be that 'I dug up my own orientation/birthchart information, and the house's, so just give me a grid or something to write them in, and then take if from there'...and yet it hasn't happened like that. I hate to admit it, because I'm sort of snobby about classical being 'better', but when this very-new-to-it-all lady came in as part of her 'training'and did this simple-minded american thing about, 'oh this corner is always romance and this one is always helpful people' etc., I actually was given a gift of $15,000.00 unexpectedly within a week or two, and other similar things happened...so, I naively or prejudicedly assume that going along with classical would be even better somehow, but can't make it *&$%^#%^% usable at all, which depresses me...

well, just look it this way. the more advanced you get, the more exceedingly accurate you'll be. form will give you results, but throwing compass directions, kua numbers, astrology and geography will give you even more information.

i like to tell people that form is like arithimetic- which is accurate- but flying star is like calculus. currently i practice 8-house, and if it makes you feel any better, i'm paying $6000 to make sense of my flying star books and calculation devices. :)

...nah, actually it just makes me think 'forget it'. ahahaha! I'm a buddhist priest in a Tibetan lineage, and have too much other practice to do to apply myself to this subject in any great detail...

trust me, i know what you mean. :)

just follow your instincts, dear siddhi. :)

...I do fine when I just do my practice (these days it's 200,000 hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantras, and dream practice), but I also wanted reference to this other system as well...I think it works best when I just talk to the 'invisibles' here or whatever, or just say, "Hey, Buddhas, please fix things up for me. Thanks!"...

:)

Northwest is 6/white metal and west is 7/brass-red metal. Each represents a different character. In general, and I do mean general, avoid fire in those areas is a good idea. It avoids conflicts between metal and fire. Keep in mind that energies do change directions.

However, if by any means that you wish to weaken metal, use water.