Star 5
Star 5, Yellow Earth, Lian Zhen. The most harmful of the nine: misfortune, losses, sudden trouble. The only star with no trigram and no palace of its own.
What the star means
The 5 sits in the center of the Lo Shu magic square and belongs to none of the eight directions. In feng shui it's called Wu Huang and treated with more caution than any of the others.
It isn't read as a sentence: the 5 is believed to manifest when it's disturbed — by renovation, noise, fire or rearranging.
When it's dangerous
Especially when the annual 5 lands on a palace where it's already present in the building's chart, and when renovation is under way in that palace. The 5 and 2 combination is considered the worst in the chart.
How to weaken it
With metal and stillness. Six metal coins, a metal hanging, light tones. The main remedy is to leave the palace alone: don't break into the walls, don't put noisy appliances there, don't burn candles.
What to avoid
Fire and earth strengthen the 5. Red, candles, ceramics, stone surfaces — the tradition advises removing all of these from its palace, not adding them.