Q & A: i have a bagua question…

Q: “i have had a bagua question that i’ve been meaning to ask for some time. i love how you lay it out clearly in your workbook in terms of the 9 spaces. what i am confused about is the difference between naming the spaces according to their relation to the front door, versus where they are in terms of geographic direction. if it were based on direction, my spaces would layout differently. i am getting ready to paint, so naturally, i’m re-assessing E-VER-Y-THING!”

A: so, your bagua Q is a common knot for people.

Compass Shui orients the map directionally. so, it is still all 8 life areas and the center. however, they are defined by direction. if you follow those, your map would configure like this:

career / life journey = north

skills / self cultivation / spirituality = northeast

family / ancestors / new beginnings = east

wealth / prosperity = southeast

fame / reputation = south

love / relationships = southwest

children / creativity = west

helpful people / travel = northwest

health / unity / gratitude = center

Western, or BTB, Shui uses the 3-door entry. this means the front door typically (but not always) falls into one of the bottom bagua squares: skills / self-cultivation; career / life journey; or helpful people / travel. there are a lot of reasons this Feng Shui method was developed, but distilled down simply, it mostly caters to how we live here in the west.

let me emphasize this: both methods are correct. both work. and all things remain the same for each life gua (element, color, number, etc.) in both approaches.

the only thing i recommend is to choose one approach instead of trying to overlap both methods. otherwise, it gets confusing quickly, and it will usually give you ambiguous results.

hope that helps, and good luck with the painting! xo