Now that you have determined your own Gua trigram, you have to find out your home’s trigram. The home’s trigram is also divided into two groups; East Group and West Group. They believe, if your own trigram belongs to the East Group it is best to live in an East Group house while a West Group person should live in a West Group House.
We will now find how to determine the group your house belongs to.
The home is divided into eight directions and you must find which direction your home faces and which way it sits. Basically, it sits in the opposite direction it faces. In general, the front door is considered the face of the house and if you are standing in the doorway looking outside, this is the direction we are looking for. The eight directions are: N, S, E, W, NE, SE, NW and SW.
The following divides the directions into the two groups:
- East Group: North- LI house, South- KAN house, West-ZHEN house and Northwest-XUN house
- West Group: East-DUI house, Southeast-QIAN house, Southwest-GEN house and Northeast-KUN house.
Since our example from yesterday belonged to the West Group, it would be best for him/her to live in a West Group house, meaning their house is most favorable if facing one of these four directions: E, SW, SE or NE.
Once you have both your personal trigram and your house trigram, your home is then divided into either eight or nine compartments. I say either number because it depends on which book you read. The trigram of your house has four auspicious directions and four inauspicious directions and is predetermined by a chart that is placed over the floor plan of your house. The four auspicious directions are; healing, stability, energy and longevity while the inauspicious directions are misfortune, fatal, six energy and five ghosts. I don’t know how they decided on these names but the negative ones are rather harsh in my opinion! Today, I don’t see these translations in many books because I think this would scare many westerners.
One problem that seems to arise is if husband and wife belong to different groups. The usual response is: compromise. It is a little difficult to compromise when they tell you exactly which directions are auspicious or inauspicious! How can you ask your loved one to sleep in a position knowing that it is auspicious for you and not for them??? Okay, that’s just my two cents.
I hope this simple, condensed introduction to the East-West school of feng shui, helped you understand that each school of feng shui uses very different methods to achieve harmony in a home. By learning how each school arrives at their analysis helps determine which school of feng shui is for you. If you have further questions please feel free to ask me.
Photo: Pixabay
How to decide the main entrance,it’s the main gate with the boundary wall ore the door to enter the house.second thing how to decide the directions of house,like which is east which is west.how to use pa-kua.thankyou so much
Hi Sonu,
In the East-West system, they consider the main entrance as the front door to the house or structure and not the main gate. The direction of the house is taken by using the front door. An easy way to do this is to stand with your back to the front door and face the exterior whether it is a road, yard or street. This facing direction is what you use. Hope this answers your question. I will write about the pa-kua on a later post. Thanks for reading!
Thanks Jerry.what if the group of the house and my own are different.thanks
Hi Sonu,
Yes, having a different house direction as your own is considered inauspicious in 8 House Feng shui. They recommend changing the energy by moving your furniture to auspicious positions. The problem with this theory is that sometimes you cannot move a bed in a particular direction due to the shape of the room and a door or window. If you think about how feng shui originally began, this theory lacks enough evidence to back up its methods. The main thing is to place your bed against a solid wall. You can find my post of blog placement to help you.
Hai Jenny,which fung shui school is the the best to follow.does the ba-gua method work well?or we should combine two or more methods?is fung shui somehow connected to Indian system of vaastu?thanks jenny
Hi Sonu,
I have been studying Form school feng shui because it works and makes most sense to me. The bagua system, which is very popular in the U.S.. began in the late 70’s by one man, Thomas Lin Yun who passed away in August. As it only has such a short history it has really not yet been proven and it’s not the traditional feng shui. The other popular school is Flying Star, which is similar to the astrology of your house, so you need to know when the house was built. I do not follow this school. You must find what you feel works best for you and sometimes if you combine more than one school, they will contradict each other.
I have only read one book on Vastu, and as I understand, it focuses on direction. If you live in India, that will work for you. However, in other parts of the world, climate and location may not be suitable for Vastu.
Hai Jenny,can we use magnetic compass in each room individually to identify the directions and then place different things like plants in south east of that room and earthen wears in the south west, means we are not following the ba Gua aspirations but using magnetic compass to identify the directions and than balancing with five elements and their Colours,without considering the Gus no.of ourselves or the house trigram
Thanks for you input Sonu. Can you tell me what school are you referring to?
Jenny, I know it is ideal for East Group people to live in East Group houses. What if East Group people (let’s say all the memebrs of a family) have to live in aWest Group house and this situation cannot easily be changed? All favourable directions sit in inauspicious directions and locations most often. What sort of compromise could there be?
@Kai Xin, thanks for your question. You’re right. They say East Group people should live in East Group houses and West Group folk should live in West Group houses. The trouble is that if you have a large family, this will inevitably become a problem. I personally do not follow the East/West system because I find that their rules and practices keeps contradicting each other. To me it just doesn’t make solid sense. You have to find what works best for you. For me, the best direction is based on location of sun, noise, traffic and the real environment.
What do you feel about septic tanks sitting on your wealth corner ???
@Susana, I do not practice Black Hat feng shui, so I can’t give you an answer for this.
However, in Form School we like to have the septic sitting on the yin side of the house.