| Those who had a go at using the Life Gua system from last week’s article would probably have noticed a major dilemma, especially in homes with more than one resident and where certain areas are used together.
To recap, the Life Gua system enables individuals to determine their personal favorable and unfavorable directions, based on the mathematical calculation using the year of their birth.
You may have noticed that if two different persons from different direction groups share a house, the Life Gua method creates a dilemma.
Let’s say from your Gua number, you know that you are part of the East group of directions but your housemate is part of the West group of directions.
Which direction then should your main door face? Which person’s favorable direction should be given priority?
What if you’re a husband and wife, each from different group of directions?
Do you sleep in separate bedrooms? Or do you sleep in different directions on the matrimonial bed? Imagine a husband and wife having to sleep facing each other’s feet just to tap into their Favorable Directions at night!
As I have said many times, feng shui does not make you do silly, frivolous or strange things in the name of Qi, as it were. It was not designed so that couples would have to sleep in separate rooms just to tap into their personal favorable directions.
Inconsistencies and impractical outcomes such as the above do not stem from the system itself.
The Life Gua system has its function and purpose within the broader Eight Mansions system. It does not mean the feng shui is nonsensical or Eight Mansions is a flawed system.
Unfortunately, many people simply hear about the favorable and unfavorable personal directions part of Eight Mansions feng shui and assume that personal directions are the be all and end all of Eight Mansions, or even of feng shui.
The House Gua Method
The second component of the Eight Mansions system, the House Gua method is designed to be used in tandem with the Life Gua method.
The Life Gua method enables us to understand the favorable and unfavorable personal directions of the individual while the House Gua system is designed to enable us to understand the favorable and unfavorable sectors of the house or property by enabling us to assess, through calculations, its Qi map.
Sheng Qi, Tian Yi, Yan Nian and Fu Wei are the positive or favorable sectors, and Huo Hai, Liu Sha, Wu Gui and Jue Ming are the negative or unfavorable sectors.
The Life Gua method is direction – based while the House Gua method is location – based.
And the two go hand – in – hand because Eight Mansions, in essence, aims to match the house with the individual. Its goal is to combine the usage of the best sectors of the house with the individual’s best directions.
The House Gua method us also best used to qualify forms – based observations made by the consultant. So, for example, a negative landform, such as a pylon or lamp post, in a certain sector may not be so bad if the sector that it affects is a favorable sector based on the House Gua method of calculating the Qi map of the house.
Location and Direction in Eight Mansions
The key to appreciating how the House Gua and Life Gua method are synergistic systems is to know the difference between location and direction.
Location relates to the sector such as North, South, East or Southwest, while direction relates to the 360 degree of directions on the compass. In feng shui, the philosophy is to always be located in a good sector AND facing your good direction.
But if you have to choose between being located in a good sector OR facing your good direction, always choose to be located in a good sector. Location yourself in a good sector means you can tap the beneficial Qi of the sector and your personal favorable direction.
However, if you are located in a bad sector, you have no beneficial Qi to tap into from the sector and you can only make use of your personal favorable direction, which is limited in its benefits.
For example, your personal favorable direction is East. You can face the East direction from any of the eight sectors within a property.
Hence, it is best if you can locate yourself in a favorable sector (such as the Sheng Qi) and then face East in that sector.
If, for some reason, you cannot face East in that sector, at least you can still benefit from the Sheng Qi in that sector.
When the House Gua method is used especially in tandem with the Life Gua method, many of the problems or dilemmas posed by the Life Gua method alone no longer become problems.
Thus, in a house where there is more than one resident or there are residents from East and West groups, there is no issue of having to favour one resident over the another, or do silly things like sleep in different directions on the same bed or different rooms in the case of couples.
Instead, the residents all make use of the favorable sectors of the house collectively, and then, where possible, fine – tune the feng shui further by facing their personal favorable directions.
Using the House Gua Method
To use the House Gua method, you must first be able to ascertain the facing direction of your house. This is quite easy; you can do it with a simple compass and taking the direction of the house based on the direction it has been built to face. Once you have obtained the facing direction, check against the diagram above to see which one of the eight types of houses in Eight Mansions feng shui corresponds with yours.
If your house faces South, you have a Kan house. If it faces West, you have a Zhen house.
There are a few ways to use the House Gua method. First, see if your main door is located in any of the positive sectors. You should also check if your bedroom is located in a positive sector. The kitchen is the only exception to the rule: this should be located in a negative sector.
What do you do if you don’t have a bedroom or main door in any of the positive sectors and you cannot relocate it? An easy way is to benefit from the Qi in those positive sectors is simply to make use of those areas more. Place your activity room or your television or Playstation there and spend more time in those areas.
Beyond House and Life Gua
The idea behind Eight Mansions is that each house has a unique energy pattern and the goal is to try to match the house with the residents. This seems to suggest that the entire system boils down to eight types of houses and eight types of people.
But remember, in feng shui there is always the Yin and the Yang aspects and that everything has a static and dynamic component to it.
Yes, there may be only eight types of houses, but the permutations when it comes to the macro environment and the natural external forms around the area are endless.
Also, the interior of a property makes a difference in terms of how two houses facing the same direction can direct, channel and tap into Qi.
For example, House A facing North might have a negative environmental formation that affects its main door, which House B, also facing North, does not have. House B therefore is better able to tap the Qi in the environment compared to House A.
Or House A facing North might have a negative environmental feature inside the house, such as a pillar in front of the main door, or a beam over the main door, which House B does not have.
House A obviously has a problem with Qi collection. Hence House A and House B, whilst both facing the same direction, will receive, collect and circulate Qi very differently.
The House Gua and Life Gua methods are only starting points of Eight Mansions feng shui. It goes much deeper with techniques like the Palace vs Star method and, of course, there is the added component of time calculations that feature in Eight Mansions feng shui.
Nonetheless, for most feng shui hobbyists and enthusiasts looking to make use of feng shui themselves, these two methods, in particular the House Gua system, are excellent ways to bring a little positive feng shui into your life, without the need for substantial renovations or at great cost.
|