Kua number and compass directions
Your Kua number comes from your year of birth and sex and shows four favourable compass directions, two for rest and two for activity.
Bagua the three-door Bagua and classical Feng Shui
The familiar three-door Bagua places a nine-field template against the entrance and does without compass directions. It is not an original Feng Shui system: Master Thomas Lin Yun developed it in the USA. In classical Feng Shui, each of the eight compass directions and the centre represents its own themes, an element and a family member. That is precisely what I work with in my consultations.
- Bagua8 symbolseight symbolsthe trigrams
- Classicalcompasseight directions and the centre
- Three doorsfrom the doorwithout a compass
What does Bagua mean?
Ba means eight; Gua means symbol. It refers to the eight trigrams, each made of three Yin or Yang lines. The Bagua arranges them in a circle according to the eight compass directions, with Tai Qi at the centre. There are two classical arrangements: Earlier Heaven and Later Heaven. For houses and rooms, Feng Shui generally uses Later Heaven. Each trigram is an information code for one compass direction. Two trigrams, one above the other, form a hexagram; read more under the hexagrams of the I Ching.
The classical Bagua: eight directions and the centre
In classical Feng Shui, each of the eight compass directions and the centre, the Tai Qi, has its own qualities: an element, a family member, colours and many themes. Just as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) fills thick books with each of the five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, one could do the same for every compass direction.
The aim is always to use a direction’s energy so that what happens there belongs there: a child’s room, bedroom, office, kitchen and so on. The direction should support the room’s function, giving a good result with as little effort of your own as possible. There are no templates, “corners” or quick fixes here. I work with the energies of the place, its architecture and compass directions. From these comes an individual solution for each house, raising the overall Qi level for its residents.
What are the eight trigrams?
Only a few keywords are given for each trigram here. The number is the direction’s Lo Shu number. A sheet to take away is available among the checklists and Feng Shui tips to download (PDF in German).
| Trigram | Compass direction | Family member | Phase of change | Colour | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 K’anThe Water | North | middle son | Water | Dark blue, black, blue | my (life) path, my own journey, gathering experience, flexibility |
| 2 KunThe Receptive | South-west | mother | great Earth | Yellow, orange | relationships, partner, marriage (happiness), love, openness |
| 3 ChenThe Thunder | East | eldest son | great Wood | Green | ancestors, forebears, family, impulse, my roots, mentors, new ideas |
| 4 SunThe Wind | South-east | eldest daughter | small Wood | Green, spring-like blue and yellow | creative power, career, profession, the ability to earn money, prosperity |
| 5 Tai Qithe middle | Centre | centre | Earth | light, open, according to the theme of the house | the central middle of my life, balance of Yin and Yang, being at ease with oneself |
| 6 Ch’ienThe Heaven | North-west | father | great Metal | White, grey, silver, metallic | strategy, analysis, guardian angel, decisions, assertiveness |
| 7 TuiThe Lake | West | youngest daughter | small Metal | White, grey, metallic shine | creativity, seduction, sensuality, desire, eroticism, art, fun |
| 8 KenThe Mountain | North-east | youngest son | small Earth | Brown, earthy, rocky | knowledge, wisdom, education, inner retreat, contemplation, meditation |
| 9 LiThe Clinging (Fire) | South | middle daughter | Fire | red colours, azure blue, hot blue | enlightenment, vision, fame, recognition, connection to heaven, inner fire |
Why compass directions matter so much
Anyone can understand that the south feels different from the north. The south is warm and bright, with the sun high in the sky. A south-facing room heats up quickly and stays light and warm well into a summer evening.
The north gets little sun and is darker and cooler. So, at least in the northern hemisphere, it generally makes sense to have the bedroom in the north and the living room in the south. I know architects cannot always plan it this way, but that would really be ideal.
Likewise, it makes sense to have the kitchen in the east, with the rising sun, to begin the day over breakfast, and the barbecue in the west, to end it in the evening sunshine. Who wants to sit around a barbecue in the eastern shade in the evening?
Compass directions shape our biorhythm and natural sense of the sun’s position, light and energy. They tell us what suits a direction and what suits it less. I explain arranging rooms by compass direction in a separate guide.
What is the three-door Bagua?
Where is the entrance door?
Almost everyone interested in Feng Shui is unaware that the “three-door Bagua” is not an original Feng Shui system, although it is “sold” as such to many people and praised in numerous books.
It became known worldwide because it is so simple. Lay a template over a floor plan and you have eight areas, so-called “corners” or “zones”. The template consists of eight equal squares plus the centre, labelled Wealth, Fame, Partnership, Family, Children, Knowledge, Career and Helpful Friends.
Where do you place the three-door Bagua?
Along the side of the plan containing the front door of the house or flat, you place the three squares Knowledge (or Stillness), Career and Helpful Friends, sometimes with similar labels. The entrance to the house, flat or office then falls within one of those three squares. The template shows where the other “corners” lie: wealth, health, partnership and so on. A very simple system that swept around the world.
Where did the three-door Bagua come from?
The well-known Feng Shui Master Thomas Lin Yun was born in Beijing, emigrated to Taiwan at seventeen and settled in Berkeley, California, in 1986. There he founded a temple of “Black Sect Tantric Buddhism” and a Feng Shui school, known in German-speaking countries as the “Black Hat Sect”. Lin Yun was a highly skilled and learned Feng Shui Master. But he had difficulty teaching Americans the techniques of classical Feng Shui, based on the many-layered energy systems of the eight compass directions.
So he “invented” the three-door Bagua, which “does without compass directions”, on the premise that all Qi, all life energy, comes only through the front door, never through windows, balconies or patio doors. This removes the need to analyse the eight directions with their many layers of meaning and makes everything wonderfully simple: lay a plastic template on the floor plan and I know where my Feng Shui “corners” are.
But if creating good Feng Shui is so simple, why are not all users of this method happy, healthy and successful?
Misinterpretations in the three-door Bagua
The three-door Bagua takes no interest in the natural relationships of compass directions. In my view, there are also serious mislabellings. I can hardly believe they came from Lin Yun himself. They probably go back to mistranslations and his students, were never corrected and became so familiar that hardly anyone questions them. Every book on the three-door Bagua seems to repeat them without asking questions. Are they simply copying one another? I find myself wondering that again and again.
North does not mean career
The three-door Bagua assigns “Career” to the north. That is wrong. Everyone thinks of a professional career. In classical Feng Shui, however, the north belongs to Water and the energy system of the second son, among many other themes. We develop as human beings in water, our mother’s amniotic fluid, and receive our deep inner imprint there: why we are born into this world, to fulfil our life’s purpose.
The second son stands for fear, experience and overcoming obstacles, just as water flows. He could not take over the farm or business; that was the first son’s role. He had to go out into the world to find himself and his life’s purpose. So the north does not stand for “Career”, but for life’s purpose and overcoming obstacles to arrive at one’s own essence. A career may develop from that, but need not. Profession, career and finances belong, among other things, to the south-east for good reason, not the north.
West does not mean children
The west almost always stands for “Children” in the three-door Bagua. Wrong! In so many consultations, I have found the western room made into a child’s bedroom because the three-door Bagua says so. In the five-element teaching, Wu Xing, childhood belongs to Wood, while the west belongs to Metal. Metal, the saw, attacks Wood. How can that be good for a child? It may make sense for a hyperactive child, but that is a particular case.
The west belongs to the third daughter’s energy system, among many other themes. It is the time of sunset, relaxation, a long drink and getting to know one another. The third daughter stands, among other things, for seduction, eroticism and sensuality. The west, with its Metal element, also stands for beauty and aesthetics. Metal is associated with Venus, for example. So the west stands for seduction, and thus possibly planting the seed for a child, but not children as such. A child may result from seduction, but need not.
Wealth corners and partnership corners
North and west are just two examples of misinterpretations in the three-door Bagua that have travelled around the world and continue to do so. I personally reject the three-door Bagua and its popular terms “wealth corner” and “partnership corner”, because these labels fall far short. In classical Feng Shui, money does not belong in a fixed corner measured from the door. It depends on compass direction, the house’s alignment and its residents. The south-east stands for wind and the first daughter, among other things, as well as profession and prosperity. The south-west stands for Earth and the mother, and also for relationships and partnership.
Missing areas in a floor plan
A missing area occurs when the floor plan of a house or flat is not rectangular or square. Every compass direction has its own qualities. Over the centuries, generations of Feng Shui Masters have recorded their experiences of such missing areas in ever finer detail. The north, for example, has many layers that a missing area can activate: the second son, the mother or woman of the house, fear, but also profound life experiences, travel and communication, to name just a few.
Balancing a missing area
A Feng Shui consultant generally tries to balance these missing areas. The best way is to build around the missing area, with a conservatory for example. Then it is no longer missing. Very often that is impossible, so we try to minimise its effect in other ways. Measures connected with the north and its themes can help: pictures of water, activating the space through frequent use (a herb spiral, for example), visual boundaries of light, plants or stones, terracing, particular colours, energetic support for the family members concerned and so on.
During a consultation, it is important to identify the missing area and ask clients how it might show itself in daily life. I then recommend measures to help them deal with the challenges a missing area often brings.
From my consultations
A difficult plan near Bremen
A very difficult plot near Bremen is missing large sections in the south-east and south. My first advice is always to buy the missing pieces from the neighbours, making the plot a harmonious, balanced rectangle. I describe how I proceeded without buying extra land in a difficult plan near Bremen.
Balancing with trigrams and runes
A few years ago, I began using the eight trigrams to balance missing areas, alongside other symbols, such as the Flower of Life as a harmonising element, and runes, which have a close energetic connection with Feng Shui. Mounted on steles, they mark boundaries or balance a missing area with the trigram of its compass direction.
Further reading
Your Kua number indicates which compass directions suit you personally. I show you how to calculate your Kua number on a separate page. The school I work with is Imperial Feng Shui.
The 5 elements in Feng Shui
The five elements Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are more accurately called phases of change, because they describe a dynamic process.
Room layout with Feng Shui
In classical Feng Shui, each compass direction should support the room’s function, with the bedroom in the quiet north and the kitchen in the east.
Flying Stars
Flying Stars connect time and space, as each compass direction receives a different number with its own quality every year.
Where is your south?
I travel throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, measuring on site with the Lo Pan, the Chinese compass, to establish which direction supports each room. I explain how it works under Feng Shui consultation.