Feng Shui,  Happy Life,  Inspiration

风水 Feng Shui & Home Design – the devil’s in the detail

Lately, I talked about the life force Qi and that Feng Shui is all about directing the Qi into our space to enhance our overall well-being. But how can I do this with Feng Shui?

One of the main pillars of classical Feng Shui is the Ba Zhai – the teachings of direction, also known as eight mansion school or Bagua (Feng-shut-institute.org).

 

8 Mansion, Bagua or Trigrams – understanding the concept behind it

 

“The Bagua are eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each symbol or trigram consists of three lines, each line either “broken” or “unbroken”, respectively representing yin or yang.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Flying Star Feng Shui, Dr. Stephen Skinner, 2002

 

These trigrams refer to the concept of Ying and Yang, the opposed forces of light and dark or night and day. Chinese astrology believes that here is a natural connection between heaven earth and man, symbolized through 3 lines. The 8 possible combinations of these lines lead to 8 trigrams, which form the Bagua. They are directly connected to the eight compass points. 4 of which are pointing to the cardinal directions North, East, South, West and another 4, which direct in the inter-cardinal directions: NW, NE, SW, SE.

 

The Chinese found out, that depending on your date of birth, you can be allocated to one of those 8 different trigrams, represented by the so-called Gua (or Kua) number. Acoording to these number, out of the 8 compass directions you have 4 favorable and 4 less beneficial. (Kua number calculator)

 

How can I know, which directions are beneficial for me?

 

There are many sources in the internet to find information about your Gua number. Attached please find an overview I created out of the extensive Feng Shui teachings I attended: (other sources for example: the spruce.com)

  West GroupEast Group
 Kua Number:28761439
Sheng QiGrowing QiNESWNWWSENSE
Tien YiHeavenly DoctorWNWSWNEESNSE
Yin NianHarmonious YearsNWWNESWSESEN
Fu We iStabilitySWNEWNWNSEES
Huo HaiMinor disasterESWNSEWNWSWNE
WU GuiFive ghostSENSENESWNWW
Liu ShaSix killingsSESENNWWNESW
Jui MingKilling QiNSEESSWNEWNW
          
Diagram. © Melanie Schöngassner       

The auspicious directions have different balance points. Whereas Sheng Qi is the most auspicious direction and symbolizes good fortune, growth and energy Tien Yi is called the heavenly doctor and is strongly connected to your health and well-being. The other two beneficial directions stand for harmony, especially in family matters, good public relations, stability, and clear thinking. Feng Shui practitioners will help you place your bed, your desk or your main sitting area so that your head is pointing in the auspicious directions. As these directions are closely related to areas of your life, you can use this for your own benefit.

 

  • If you want to support your career: face Sheng Qi sitting at your desk.
  • Support your health: place your bed so that your head is direction to Tien Yi.
  • To promote your relationships or family life: sit, or sleep direction Yan Nien.

 

The opposite of Sheng Qi is known as Jui Ming or total mischief, bringing you suffer, disease and disaster. Knowing this harmful direction gives you the opportunity to avoid this energy as best as you can in your home. Other inauspicious directions are Liu Sha, the six killings, supporting stubbornness, arguing and lack of harmony, as well as Wu Gui, the five ghost, leading to health problems and bad temper and Huo Hai, minor disasters and mishaps.

 

How can I find out these directions in my home?

 

The easiest way is to take your floor plan and place it in front of you with the entry door at the bottom. Now you draw a 9 folded square about the floor plan. Standing with the front door in your back, you can measure north (0 degree) and note this in the according square of your floor plan. You can use a compass app on your device but note that these are less accurate than the traditional Feng Shui compass or Luo Pan. After defining your North square, you can enter all other directions onto your map.

This already gives you an idea, where these auspicious directions are in your home. But not only are the directions auspicious but also the sectors in which these directions lay. Rooms in the sector of your auspicious direction are favorable for bedrooms or studies.

 

May Gua number for example is 7, the most auspicious direction is Northwest (Sheng Qi). I always try to have my bedroom in the Northwest corner of the house, and if that´s not possible, I try to have it in the Southwest (Health direction) or Northeast (love and relationships). In addition, I would place the bed, so that my head is pointing in the Northwest direction, while I´m sleeping.

 

A great part of attention in Feng Shui is given to the entrance and the kitchen. What it´s all about will be explained in my next post.

 

Feng Shui Myth or the toilet lid should always be closed?

 

For Feng Shui Master’s water is always seen as Qi, the life force. And water, which leaves the house (with the flush) will sweep away energy. An open toilet lid draws more energy from the surrounding into the toilet and flushes it away. If you have your lid closed, this string of energy will be stopped.

 

The good thing about rooms, which deplete energy like bathrooms or closets is, that they are beneficial to counter the negative energy of the inauspicious directions. In Feng Shui terms, negative energy from a negative sector, which will be swept away, clears the room and turns into positive energy.

 

Summary

 

The Bagua or 8 mansion school splits people according to their Gua number, derived from the date of birth, to one of the trigrams, called Guas. These belong to either West- or East group. In each group you have 4 auspicious and 4 inauspicious directions, which can be used to select the most favorable rooms in your home and use the negative sectors to place less important rooms as bathrooms or closets to counter the negative energies. In order to use those energies, you draw a nine-fold square (Lo Shu) over your floor plan and enter the according directions.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

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