Feng Shui Master Marites Allen had her fair share of bad luck in life.

MARITES Allen: I was born poor and I intend to die rich so I said I want to do feng shui. / PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF FB/MARITES ALLEN

Though the odds weren’t in her favor for some time, she worked her way up and found prosperity through the science of Feng Shui.

Allen, the only Filipino dubbed as Master of Feng Shui by the International Feng Shui Association, recently graced Daily Tribune’s Spotlight to share a bit of her life story and how she defied what was written in the stars.

Daily Tribune (DT): What’s a regular day like in the life of a Feng Shui Master?

Marites Allen (MA): It’s very normal. I always wake up with the attitude of gratitude. I always begin and end my day in prayers. That’s very important for me. I have to have my me-time. I spend a couple of minutes just doing a bit of yoga. I have to meditate, go to shower, have coffee and breakfast. Then I begin again.

I’m very honored that I have this job and this position because I can connect with anyone in the world. The pandemic honestly has given me a greater reach to a lot of people. It has been very positive so far.

DT: You’ve gone a long way since you started. Have you always wanted to be a feng shui expert?

MA: It’s funny because I was born poor and I intend to die rich so I said I want to do feng shui.

DT: How did you get this worldwide reach?

MA: There were so many malas (bad luck) in my life. I was annulled from my first marriage. In the late 1990s I used to live in Cebu. I had three very small kids. The youngest was six months old, the second was one and a half, and my eldest then was three years old. I was a single mother. I lost my mother in a very tragic accident. There was this boat that caught on fire. It was one of the world’s worst maritime disasters. It was traveling from Cebu to Masbate. My mom was one of the casualties.

How come there were so many malas in my life? When you are going through bad luck, you have to make a change. You have to make a shift. I was lucky then in my career. I used to be one of the officers for an Australian aid agency company. They offered me a job to go to Manila at that time. I was running a business center at the Pacific Star. I left everything in Cebu. All I wanted were my kids. At that time, I only had P5,000 in my pocket. It was my first time in Manila. It was very tough. I used to tell that my life story was pampelikula (like a movie). I had to leave my children to my neighbor who was a labandera before going to Makati to work.

My bosses really loved my work. I was managing a hundred people. I had also been reading feng shui then. It taught me that if you want to be successful in your career you have to wear a certain color, make sure that the table is facing the success luck direction or when you talk to your bosses make sure that it’s on a good day. It’s been successful. They even sponsored my MBA studies at Ateneo. At that time, I thought my career was doing okay. I have a good pay. I managed to get a yaya and moved to a small apartment in Makati. It has improved my life.

(Then came) time to enhance my love. I had to activate the southwest of my bedroom and I was wearing pampaswerte. One of the visiting clients of the business center was so persistent. I told him I’m not special, I have three kids. I am nobody. Ang sabi niya (he said) that he doesn’t care whether I have 50 kids. He still loves me the same. He took me and my kids to England to meet his parents. His parents loved my children.

My husband took me to a bookstore at Chinatown here in London. One of the books I saw on the shelf was about feng shui. I wanted to learn anything about feng shui. I was so fixated. The title of the book was The Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui. When I opened it, it had a picture of Philippine President Ramos with a P500. It was an interview from Reuters Press Agency. It said that President Ramos listened to the advice of a geomancer who said he had to cut the two trees flanking Malacañang because it’s stopping the flow of energy. The P500 bill photo was so auspicious to the country because it had 13 people, 13 stars, the number 500 appeared 13 times.

We went back to Manila, got married and got blessed with another baby. He took me to Hawaii during one of his business trips. I kid you not, the one giving the speech at the Ala Moana Hotel was the author of the book.