Chapter 12

The Flying Stars, Part 2

In This Chapter

Using a compass to determine your dwelling’s sitting and facing directions

Understanding the 24 mountains or directions

Assembling a floor plan of your dwelling

Dividing your dwelling into eight equal sections

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to locate your home or apartment’s sitting and facing side. Once you determine where your dwelling sits, you’ll take a compass reading to determine the trigram and mountain to which your dwelling belongs. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it seems. We’ll provide step-by-step instructions, making the process a snap!

Next, you’ll learn to divide your living and/or working space into eight equal portions that are then subdivided into three additional portions. Have ready your compass, your protractor, and your ruler. Please see Chapter 1 for more information about these items.

Determine Your Home’s Sitting and Facing Directions

Your house’s trigram is determined by its sitting direction. The sitting direction is the direction your house leans against. Imagine your house sitting in an armchair. Now, what direction corresponds with its backside? This is pretty easy to figure out. It’s the side corresponding to the backyard or alley.

Once you’ve located the sitting or backside of your dwelling, the facing side is magnetically opposite. Don’t allow the position of the front door to cloud your judgment. In classical feng shui, the front door plays no role in determining the sitting and facing sides of the building or unit in question. Using the chair analogy again, if you’re sitting in a chair, your back represents the sitting direction and your chest represents the facing direction, right? Now, say that your face represents the main entrance. Although the main entrance usually correlates with the facing side, in some cases, the front door might represent neither the sitting nor the facing side. For example, if you turn your head (front door) to the right, your chest or facing side hasn’t changed. Get the idea?

There are many factors to consider when determining your home’s orientation, but again, the fundamental rule to remember is that the sitting and facing directions are magnetically opposite. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind as you determine your home’s orientation:

The backyard corresponds to the sitting direction.

A back alleyway usually corresponds to the sitting direction.

The main entrance is usually on the facing direction.

The street address corresponds to the facing direction.

Traffic is heaviest on the facing direction.

Large windows might indicate the facing direction.

Room location may help determine the sitting and facing directions. Usually, the living/family rooms (the yang areas) are located on the facing side, while the bedrooms and kitchen (the yin areas) are located on the sitting side.

Understanding how to locate the sitting and facing directions is the most important aspect of performing a precise feng shui reading. But try not to overanalyze each situation. Instead, feel how the dwelling is oriented. Use your common sense. Go with your gut. Determining your home’s sitting and facing directions requires keen observation, practice, groundwork, and patience.

Determine Your Apartment’s Facing Direction

For an apartment, determining the sitting side is a little tricky because the sitting and facing sides of the unit might differ from the sitting and facing sides of the building. Some apartments might share the same facing side as the building. Others might face the backside of the building. Some apartments might face an inner courtyard. Others might face a neighboring building.

We suggest you imagine that your apartment is a standalone house. Disregarding the location of your entry door, where would you place the front yard and street? Where would the backyard be located? Now, with this imaginary picture in mind, focus on finding the facing side of your unit-cum-house. If you have large windows and/or a view, this usually corresponds to the front or facing side. For most apartment-dwellers, this area is the living room—the yang side of the unit where a lot of activity takes place. The area magnetically opposite the facing side is the sitting side. Although it’s irrelevant what rooms are located there, usually the sitting or backside contains the bedrooms—the yin areas of the unit.

The same guidelines apply for finding the facing side of an office unit.

Using a Compass to Determine Your Dwelling’s Trigram

You can obtain an accurate reading of your home and apartment unit’s sitting and facing directions using an ordinary Western-style compass. For our purposes here, we’ll use the Silva Explorer Model 203 compass that’s pictured in Chapter 1. (See that chapter for more detailed instructions regarding compass selection.) If you are unfamiliar with using a compass, spend a few minutes to become comfortable with it. Although it will probably be obvious to you, a little patience and caution will prevent inaccurate readings.

Master Class

To ensure an accurate compass reading, remove any metal adornments—including watches, cufflinks, belt buckles, and jewelry—that may influence the compass’s magnetic arrow. Also, make sure that you distance yourself from parking meters, cars, and even the building itself. Generally, a distance of 5 feet should be sufficient to ensure an accurate reading.

To determine your dwelling’s trigram, refer to the following illustration as you follow these simple procedures.

To determine the facing and sitting direction:

1. Stand in front of your house, the side corresponding to the facing side. Make sure that your back is perfectly square with the house. If you live in an apartment, you must take a compass reading outside the apartment building. Stand on the sidewalk in front of the building. If the front side of your unit shares the same facing as the building, stand with your back perfectly square with the building (as shown in the following illustration). If the front side of your unit faces a neighboring building or an inner courtyard, stand perpendicular to your apartment building. If your unit faces the backside of the building, stand facing the apartment building.

2. Holding your compass at waist level, rotate the compass dial until the red portion of the magnetic arrow aligns with north.

3. Read the compass grade at the index line (labeled the “bearing” line on the Silva Explorer Model 203). This is the facing direction. The grade magnetically opposite is the sitting direction.

4. Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3, taking a reading at two other locations parallel to the sitting side of your home as indicated by B and C in the following illustration. (If you live in an apartment, you might not be able to do this—especially if you live in a densely populated area like New York City.) Your compass reading should be the same. If it fluctuates, which can happen particularly in urban areas where metal parking meters, street signs, building material, and automobiles hinder an accurate reading, we suggest using two different compasses. If your building is on a parallel line with a neighboring one, take a reading of that building, too. Go with the common compass reading.

Take several compass readings until you are sure of an accurate one. This example shows a house facing southwest 210 degrees and sitting northeast 30 degrees.

Space: The 24 Mountains

As you learned in Chapter 7, each of the eight trigrams and their correlative directions hold a different kind of qi that describe a building’s inherent personality. In Flying Star methodology, the 8 fundamental directions are divided into 3 components each for a total of 24 directions (8 trigrams x 3 parts = 24 directions). Called the 24 mountains, these finer directional distinctions, coupled with the time your home was constructed, hold a lot of valuable information, as you shall soon learn.

Wise Words

The 24 mountains or directions of a luopan compass derive from the 8 fundamental trigrams: Each trigram constitutes 45 degrees of the compass (8 trigrams x 45 degrees = 360 degrees). Each trigram is subdivided into 3 equal parts of 15 degrees each (3 parts x 15 degrees = 45 degrees). The total number of subdivided parts (3 parts x 8 trigrams) comprises the 24 mountains, each of which has a Chinese name.

A simplified luopan compass.

Referring to the illustration of a simplified luopan compass, let’s take a closer look. Beginning with the Kan trigram at the bottom, notice that this northern trigram is divided into three mountains: Ren (north 1) at 337.5 degrees to 352.5 degrees, Zi (north 2) at 352.5 degrees to 7.5 degrees, and Gui (north 3) at 7.5 degrees to 22.5 degrees. Moving clockwise around the luopan, the northeastern trigram Gen follows. It’s comprised of Chou (northeast 1) at 22.5 to 37.5 degrees, Gen (northeast 2) at 37.5 degrees to 52.5 degrees, and Yin (northeast 3) at 52.5 degrees to 67.5 degrees. The 24 mountains and their magnetic affiliations continue around the luopan in this fashion.

But why are some mountains black and some white? Simply, the mountains in black are yang; the white ones are yin. We include these designations for the sake of completeness.

Do You Know Where Your House Is?

In the system of the Flying Stars, it is not enough to determine to which trigram your home belongs. Here, we need to be more exact. Referring to the first illustration in this chapter of the figure taking a compass reading of his home, the house sits 30 degrees northeast and faces 210 degrees southwest. Based on the sitting direction, the house belongs to the Gen trigram. Next, you need to determine what type of Gen house you have: Chou, Gen or Yin. In this case, the mountain is Chou, sitting NE1 and facing SW1. Let’s take another example. Say your home sits at 330 degrees. It belongs to the Qian trigram. The dwelling’s mountain is Hai (322.5 degrees to 337.5 degrees), sitting NW3 and facing SE3. Get the idea?

Feng Alert

If the compass reading corresponding to your home is on the boundary between two mountains (at 292.5, 307.5, or 322.5, for example), you might want to find a digital compass that can provide a more precise reading. If the reading is still on the line, then you cannot proceed. In these cases, there is a special treatment that is beyond the scope of this book.

The Luopan Charted

The following table shows a charted version of the luopan compass. You might find it easier on your eye than the circular representation.

Before we proceed, please determine to which mountain your home sits in and faces toward. For our purposes, after you have determined to which mountain your home corresponds, the magnetic designations are no longer needed. Record your information as follows:

Example: My home belongs to the Dui trigram. It sits in W2 and faces toward E2.

My home belongs to the _______ trigram. It sits in ____ and faces toward ____.

You have now determined the magnetic space your home occupies.

Assembling a Simple Floor Plan

If you’re lucky enough to have a to-scale floor plan of your home, you’re ahead of the game. But most of you probably don’t. Assembling one is no big deal. Your goal is to draw a simple plan with the sitting direction oriented on the bottom of the page. To get a better idea of your task at hand, refer to the following illustration. Your floor plan should include the following:

All exterior and interior entrances and doorways

All windows

All beds

All desks

To avoid wasting time, don’t try to eyeball the measurements. Why not? Because ultimately, you’re going to divide the whole of your dwelling into eight equal wedges. An inaccurate measurement will ensure an incorrect analysis of which areas hold positive and negative qi. Instead, spend an extra 15 minutes to measure the length and width of your dwelling. You can do this in a few ways:

Get one of those nifty electronic measuring devices found in most hardware or building supply stores. The one we use is the Starrett DigiTape, which costs about $24. All you have to do is run the tape measure. The measurement will illuminate in the display window.

Use a plain old tape measure or ruler. It’ll take a couple more minutes, but what’s the hurry?

Use the tried-and-true, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other method. It’s a little less exact, but it gets the job done. Counting one step as a measurement of one foot in length, just place your right heel parallel to the wall, then place your left foot at the right’s toe. Continue walking, heel to toe, counting the number of steps to the end of the wall.

We suggest first measuring the length of each room. Begin with the back wall connected to the sitting side of your dwelling. Jot down its measurement. Next, measure the room adjacent to the length of the wall you just measured. (Don’t forget to consider the wall space separating each room.) Jot down its measurement. Continue this procedure until the last room adjacent to the length of the wall in question is measured. Repeat this procedure to obtain the width of each room. Based on these measurements, you now can draw a simple to-scale floor plan. We suggest using a pencil as you might have to make changes.

If your home is more than one story or if it is a split-level home, you must draw a plan for each floor or level. Any part of your dwelling that falls under the roof and is contained within the main frame of the house is considered part of the house and should be included in your floor plan. This includes an attached garage and an enclosed porch. If you have an outside porch or a balcony, you can include these areas in your floor plan, but they do not count when you proceed to determine the center of your home.

The next step is to find the center of the house by dividing the total length and width by two. For example, if the total length is 60 feet, the midpoint is 30 feet. If the total width is 45 feet, the midpoint is 22¹⁄₂ feet. The point where the midsections converge corresponds to the center of your dwelling. Mark the center of your home. Now, orient your floor plan so that the sitting side is flush with the bottom of the page (as shown in the following illustration). Note the sitting and facing directions using the sitting and facing symbols. Note the sitting and facing degrees (as illustrated). Your final step is to label the plan. Inside, label each room. Outside, label each of the eight directions (not shown in this illustration).

A simple floor plan. Note the sitting direction is oriented on the bottom of the page; and the plan is labeled both inside and outside. This is a Gen house, belonging to the mountain Chou. It sits NE1 (30 degrees) and faces SW1 at 210 degrees.

If you’re having trouble finding the center of your dwelling because it is an odd shape, keep reading! If you found your dwelling’s center, skip the next section. It’s now time to divide your home into eight equal sections. You’ll need a clear plastic 6-inch, 360-degree protractor with half-inch gradations to help with this task. We recommend the Mars College protractor, found in any office supply store.

Great Grids!

But, you ask, what if my house isn’t square? What if it’s a rectangle, an L-shape, or it has some funky alcoves? What if my house is missing a section? The following illustrations show some examples of irregularly shaped houses divided properly.

In the following figure, illustration A shows a house with a missing section. Is this bad luck? No! A missing section is a missing section. It is not unlucky. End of story.

Illustration B also has sections missing to varying degrees. Again, you can’t make something out of nothing. To find the center of a house with a trapezoid shape, connect the midpoint of the upper and lower sides. Because the house is broader at the base (or sitting side), the center is one third to halfway from the base.

Proper division of irregularly shaped houses.

Illustration C shows a house with a small extension. If an extended area is one quarter or less than the main body of the house, then the extension becomes part of the wedge in question, as in illustration C. However, if an extended area is greater than one quarter of the main body of the house, then it is representative of an L-shaped house. Follow the instructions provided for illustration D below.

Illustration D shows an L-shaped house. To locate the center of the house, first find the center of each wing. The center of the house will be along the line joining the centers of the wings. But be careful. If the two wings comprising the L-shape are equal, the center would be the exact midpoint of this line. However, in this example, the north-south wing is bigger than its smaller east-west counterpart. Therefore, the center will be closer to center of the larger rectangle. Represented by an “x,” the point marks the center for the whole house.

Master Class

Some feng shui masters divide a house by creating a grid of nine equal cells—an idea that conforms to the nine-celled Luoshu numeric diagram. Although this is an acceptable practice, we believe the pie-shaped wedges conform to the movement of qi through the perpetual cycle of nature (birth, growth, decay, and death). Also, as you’ll learn in Chapter 13, the Chinese believe time is cyclic rather than linear.

A Pie Is Eight Slices

The next step is to divide your floor plan into eight equal sections corresponding to the eight fundamental directions (trigrams):

A properly divided Gen dwelling NE1 and SW1 at 210 degrees.

1. Overlay your protractor onto your newly created floor plan. Reading the inside grades that ascend around the circular instrument, align the facing degree with the facing of your dwelling (as shown in the House A illustration).

2. With a pencil, mark the point where each of the eight directions begin and end (as illustrated). Label each direction. It is not necessary to notate each direction’s corresponding trigram or the degrees dividing each wedge. We include this information for learning purposes only. Before you proceed, it might be a good idea to compare the protractor with the figure of the simplified luopan compass presented earlier in this chapter. (If you want to purchase a luopan, please go to Joseph Yu’s website at www.astro-fengshui.com.)

3. Now, connect the dots to form eight equal wedges.

The House B illustration shows the same house sitting NE2 and facing SW2 at 225 degrees.

A properly divided Gen dwelling NE2 and SW2 at 225 degrees.

The House C illustration shows the same apartment sitting NE3 and facing SW3 at 240 degrees.

A properly divided Gen dwelling NE3 and SW3 at 240 degrees.

Taken together, you can see that depending on the facing degree, the sections are oriented somewhat differently for each of the three types of Gen dwellings (mountains Chou, Gen, and Yin).

Now that you’ve properly divided and labeled your house or apartment unit, we bet you’re eager to analyze and remedy your dwelling’s qi! Well, not just yet. In the next chapter, you’ll learn about the Chinese concept of time—specifically, how it relates to human events, characteristics, and health.

The Least You Need to Know

A dwelling’s sitting and facing directions can sometimes be difficult to ascertain.

A dwelling’s trigram is determined by its sitting direction. The facing direction is magnetically opposite the sitting direction.

The sitting direction is determined by a compass reading.

In a Flying Star reading, 24 mountains or directions are considered.

Creating a to-scale floor plan ensures an accurate analysis.