Feng Sui Basic

Fast Feng Shui Ba Gua Q+A

THIS DOCUMENT IS A HOLIDAY GIFT TO FAST FENG SHUI READERS & SUBSCRIBERS.

It may not be changed, translated, packaged, or sold without permission from the publisher.

published by by Lotus Pond Press, LLC Hilo, Hawaii

www.FastFengShui.com

© 2010 Stephanie Roberts Serrano, all rights reserved

Aloha friends and readers, I’ve received many questions about the contemporary feng shui ba gua over the years, and thought it might be helpful to compile a set of questions and answers in one place for your reference.

The contents of this short ebook began as questions from readers of the Fast Feng Shui newsletter, books, blog, and web site. Most have previously been posted to the newsletter or blog. All have been anonymized and substantially pruned and edited for clarity, brevity, or to gently nudge an issue toward broader relevance. Where there are multiple questions on the same topic, I may have combined several answers into one. I hope you will find this information helpful. However, please be aware that this is in no way a complete introduction or explanation of the contemporary contemporary feng shui ba gua and how to use it! That information is covered in detail in my books, and in various articles and commentary on the FastFengShui.com website. This ebook is intended as a convenient supplement to general ba gua guidelines, and as a “thank you” to my subscribers. If you are new to feng shui, I am delighted in your interest, and caution that this is not the place to start learning about the ba gua. Please begin by reading any book about contemporary western feng shui (such as Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Transforming Your Life by Energizing Your Home) and then review the situations covered here to expand your understanding. I’ve used the term “contemporary” feng shui twice on this page already, but perhaps some new readers are not yet aware that it means the advice here is based on the modern, DOORWAY, use of the ba gua. If you follow any of the compass methods, including “8 Mansions” or “Flying Stars,” much of this advice may not mesh well with your specific tradition.

Wishing you all a delightful holiday season with family and friends, and a glorious New Year,

Stephanie


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The Contemporary Feng Shui Ba Gua

If you have a question about your floor plan or ba gua, please first learn and apply the guidelines in any of my Fast Feng Shui books, and learn from the details and examples provided here. My availability to advise —as time and mood allow —on unique or confusing layouts and to clarify areas of confusion should not be mistaken for an offer to do your floor plan analysis for you , explain basic principles amply covered elsewhere, or answer a question that I have already addressed multiple times online and/or in publications. Be sure to read the Q+A Guidelines here before sending me your question. Please do not email a general request for help such as, “I am having a hard time financially, please tell me what to do.” That’s what books, classes, websites, and consultations are for. My reply will direct you back to the Q+A Guidelines and suggest you read Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity or whatever title may best suit your needs. I wish I didn’t have to be th is blunt about it, but experience proves that I do. Thank you.


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Q. I understand each individual has a "kua" number (according to the date of birth) by which we can find our "power spots." I am confused about whether to use the ba gua or my kua number. Q. Referring to your book Fast Feng Shui for Prosperity, is hsun gua always located at the top left corner of the property/house/room, etc., regardless of the occupant's bazi, for everyone? I f ind this contradicting because oriental/asian Feng Shui masters suggest the prosperity spot based on the occupant's bazi. How do you explain this?

A. I am not an “oriental Feng Shui Master.” I am a contemporary American practitioner with “modern” training and opinions on the art and application of feng shui. There are those who feel strongly that there is only one “right” or “true” feng shui, and there are those (like me) who believe there is no right or wrong way, only different styles of feng shui that approach how to arrange your home most auspiciously with different methods and attitudes. Certainly there is a lot of confusion going around.

The BA GUA is a map of energetic influences in your space. It has eight perimeter sections (and a central area, in the western/doorway style), each of which is associated with a particular life aspect or “aspiration,” such as wealth, career, family, marriage, and so on. The ba gua can be oriented according to the compass directions (with Career in the north, Fame in the south, Wealth in the southeast, and so on), or it can be applied relative to the main doorway (with Career in the center of the front of the house, Fame in the center of the back of the house, and Wealth in the back left corner). I have a strong personal preference for the doorway method, but if you feel more comfortable with one of the compass methods you should use that instead. Your PERSONAL KUA NUMBER has nothing to do with the ba gua. The kua number determines which compass directions are supposedly lucky for you, and which are unlucky. However, these are not the same as the life aspirations defined by the ba gua. “Power spots” is my own term for the areas in your home that most closely match your current life priorities, according to the life aspirations defined by the ba gua. Power spots and kua directions are not the same thing. I want to stress that I give very little importance to personal kua numbers in my practice. Kua numbers can be helpful if you are choosing or building a house with your kua number/directions in mind. It is often very difficult to benefit from this method if you try to retrofit a space that was not built or selected to suit your kua number. I'm not saying that you should ignore your personal lucky/unlucky directions if you wish to use them. Do be aware, though, that facing or sleeping in your lucky direction is pointless unless that position also conforms to all the other guidelines for good feng shui. For example, your lucky directions may indicate that your best sleeping direction for health is with your head pointing NW, but in your home that might place your bed in a position that exposes you to harmful EMF radiation or some other form of sha chi while you sleep, which means that bed position will do you more harm than good. I only use the personal kua Fast Feng Shui Ba Gua Q+A

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directions when all the other guidelines for good feng shui can also be met, and suggest that you do the same. If you don't know your kua number, and want to find out what directions are lucky or unlucky for you, just go online and Google “kua number calculator”, then input your birth date/gender into any of the sites that will show up in the results. Read more about why I prefer the contemporary Western style of feng shui here and here.

Q: When placing the ba gua, is north always in front of me if I stand in the door facing in the room or

house? Is west always on my left, or is it according to the real direction in which the west is?

A: It seems that you are mixing up the compass directions with the doorway orientation of the ba gua. These are two different methods, and should be approached separately.

METHOD A: COMPASS If you follow the compass directions, the career area ( kan gua) is always in the NORTH, according to the compass, regardless of where that is in your home. West is always west, east is always east. The location of the doorway and/or the layout of the home or of a specific room is not a factor in determining which guas are where. METHOD B: DOORWAY If you follow the Contemporary method of placing the ba gua according to the front door, the compass directions are irrelevant. Location of each gua is determined relative to the entry to that space (whether a building, apartment, or room). The career area (kan gua) is always in the CENTER of the wall that you enter through, but not necessarily at the doorway itself. BTW, dui gua (Children and Creativity)—the area that the compass associates with West—will always be in the center of the RIGHT side of the room, not on your left. I’ve written about this topic in more depth in the article, “The Compass or the Doorway,” which you can read online here.

You have to choose which method you are going to follow. Or, you can look at both ba guas separately, and then compare the two to see what you can learn by how they overlap. For example, your career area when determined by the doorway may be in the SW sector of your home. In the compass method, SW is associated with relationships. So now you see that your career area is influenced by relationships. For greater career success, you would be wise to focus on building strong business relationships and doing lots of networking. I do not recommend this type of combined view if you are new to feng shui. Start exploring your home according the doorway method, and leave the compass directions for later. In my own practice I give more weight to the doorway orientation for interior spaces, but I do look at the compass directions as well for additional insight.


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Q. In your book, you say that "li gua is always at the center of the wall opposite you." If my front door is to the left of the house (looking into the house), does it mean that my house is missing most of the hsun, jen, and ken areas?

A: No. If your door is on the left, you are not missing those guas. Sorry this was not clear. Li gua is not necessarily opposite you. It is in the center of the wall that is opposite the door. It is a common misunderstanding that Li gua is always directly across from the door, or that the ba gua is always placed so that Kan gua is at the door. These are only true if the door is in the middle of its wall.

If the door is in Ken gua (off-center to the left), then Hsun gua is across from the door. If the door is in Chien gua (off-center to the right) then Kun gua is across from the door. Li gua is always in the middle of the far wall, regardless of which position the door is in.

Q. If we enter our home from the attached garage (and never through the actual front door of the house) is this where I place the bottom of the ba gua?

A. No. The formal front door to your home is your “mouth of chi” and is always the main entry, regardless of whether or not you ever use it. If you aren’t sure which door that is, forget for a moment how you usually go in and out, and imagine that you are the architect or builder of your home, standing proudly before it admiring your design/construction: which door would you call the “front” or “main” one?

There are some folks out there quoting “chi flows where people go” (true; I say it, too, see below) and using that to justify calling whichever entry you use most often the “main” entry of the space (not so true). The most-often-used factor is only applicable to a room or other area within the home or building . It does not apply to the house/apartment/building as a whole. In other words, a back or side door, or the door to an attached garage, is not, and never will be your “mouth of chi” and does not determine the house ba gua. The door to an attached garage is not even an exterior door; it delivers you into the garage, which is usually not a shining example of great feng shui (think clutter, garbage bins, and stale exhaust smells).


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BTW: Your “mouth of chi” is a very important feature of your home. It is associated with luck and opportunities (or the lack thereof if it is not well‐situated or maintained), so it’s a good idea to USE it from time to time!

Q. There are two doors to my bedroom. Which one do I use for placing the ba gua?

A. Where there is more than one entry to a room, determining how to orient the ba gua is based on the following factors (listed here in order of importance):

1. Which doorway/entry is architecturally more prominent? Can you tell which door the architect had in mind as the main entry to the room? It might help to imagine that you were brought into the room blindfolded; when the blindfold is removed and you look around, which door would you go to first if you were looking for the best way out? 2. If the doors are the same size and appearance, think about traffic flow. “Chi flows where people go,” so if one door is frequently used, and the other is rarely used, the door used more often is the main one. This rule applies only to interior rooms where multiple entries are identical in size and prominence. It does not apply to the ba gua for the house as a whole.

3. If the doors are equal in size and in traffic, look at what part of the house each entry leads to/from. Typically one entry will be to a more active space, main hallway, or the front of the house, and the other will lead to a smaller hallway, quieter or more yin area, or to the back of the house. The entry that connects the room to the livelier, louder, more public, or more yang parts of the house will be the main entry.

Q. My ranch‐style house is shaped like a side‐ways "T", with a porch along most of the front. The front door is perpendicular to the street, and opens onto the left side of the porch. If my wealth area is the back left corner of the house, does this mean that I am missing parts of fame and relationships?

A. This is counterintuitive, but the ba gua does not always line up with the street side of a home. While it is correct that “the wealth area is the back left corner,” the second half of that rule is “when you are standing in the doorway looking into your space.”

With the doorway method, the lower edge of the ba gua is always aligned with the main entry, regardless of the shape of the home. Here’s an example: the FRONT DOOR is shown by the red arrow. If your door is perpendicular to the street (i.e., “turned sideways”), then so is your ba gua.


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In this case, your wealth corner is actually in the front of the house, relative to the street, and you have a HUGE extension in the career area. This is a good thing, unless you are hoping to work from home. Because this large extension is “outside” the hous e ba gua, it may indicate that your career will keep you away from home a lot.

Q. I am having a problem figuring out which door to use as my reference point. The house I live in was originally a summer cottage that has been renovated for year-round living. Many renovations have reoriented the entrance and changed the original floor plan.

The original entrance was in the south, with an open porch reached by a stairway, and a nice view of the ocean. The stairway has been removed and the porch enclosed to create a sunroom, so there is no longer an entrance to the house on that side. The entrance we use, on the north side of the house, was cut into the rear of the house and opens to the kitchen by the main bath. I always refer to it as the back door even though it is now our main entrance. There is a more formal door on the west side, but we never use it because it is small, dark, and unwelcoming. Which door do you think I should use as the "entrance"? We cannot afford to rebuild, although I often think that is the only solution in this frustrating house.

A. Although I can't provide a definitive answer without seeing the house for myself, entry confusion is certainly an issue here. Also, the fact that this was originally a vacation home, now converted to year-round residence, adds an element of confused purpose as well.

Yes, ideally, the best solution would be to remodel, either redoing the door on the west side to make it brighter and more welcoming, or creating a new main entry on the south side, so that the entry and facing direction (that nice ocean view) are the same. Since remodeling is not an option for you, look for ways to create more of a main door look and feel to the north-side door that you use. The west door, although more formal than the door you are using now, was not the original front door so it's okay to go on not using that one. Making the north entry more welcoming may include painting the door to stand out more (black or dark blue would be appropriate colors for the north side of the house), adding planter boxes or landscaping, improving the path, house numbers, outdoor lights, etc. Anything you can do to create a clear path to your chosen door, and a feeling of "yes, this is the way in," will help. Do what you can to create the impression of a defined entry space inside as well. A small bookcase or cabinet and an area rug just inside the doorway will help to define a place to pause and deposit keys and mail.


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Q. My family is about to move to a new flat and I would like to apply some of the feng shui knowledge I acquired from your book. But in the new flat I am going to have two main doors, because my elderly father-in-law owns one flat and we bought the flat next to it. We are breaking through a wall to connect both flats into a bigger one. My husband and children and I will use the entry to the new flat, while my father-in-law will continue using his main door. How do I place the ba gua over this combined space?

A. In a situation like this it all depends on how you end up using the space. If you find you think in terms of “his” space (your father in law’s apt.) and “our” space, even though you’ve broken through a wall, I would still treat it as two separate ba guas, one for the new apartment, and one for your father-in-law's.

If you all end up using the entire, joined space more or less equally, then you should look at the entire space as one ba gua. However, that probably won’t be the case right awa y, as all of you adjust to the new arrangement. By the time you’ve stopped thinking “our half, his half”, you’ll also probably be using one of the original doors more than the other, and then that will be the “main” one. If you can't figure out how to place the ba gua according to the entry, you might feel more comfortable using the compass directions. Or you can not worry about the overall ba gua and focus on working with the ba gua in each room.

Q. I am looking at apartments, and saw one recently that I liked. The building was originally a one-family home, but has been converted into a duplex with two separate living spaces and two different addresses. What does this do to the ba gua for the house? If I take this apartment, will I be living in just one half of the ba gua? Or are there now two ba guas, one for each unit?

A. There are now two ba guas, one for each unit of the duplex. Conversion of older, larger homes into apartments is quite common. When this happens each individual unit has a new ba gua that applies just to that space.

Placement of each apartment ba gua is now determined by the main entry to each apartment, not by the building entry (as it would have been for the original single-family home).

Q. Is an attached garage considered part of the house ba gua?

A. Yes, so long as there is a connecting door between the house and the garage. If there is no interior connection, the house and garage each have their own ba gua.


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Q. My whole apt is on the second level. I come in my front door or the garage door and proceed up stairs then there’s a landing and a turn with 3 more steps to a short hallway before I enter my apartment. Where would my ba gua start?

A. When you live in a multi-unit building your ba gua starts at the point where you unlock the door to your apartment. Whatever roundabout route you may take to get to that point from the street door of the building doesn’t matter. (Well, it does have some feng shui issues, but not ones that determine where your ba gua begins.)

If you haven’t put your key in the apartment door lock yet, you’re not there yet, no matter how many steps you are away from “outside.”

Q. I laid the ba gua map over my floor plan and discovered that my "Helpful Friends" area is in the carport. It's open and I’ve put a w ind chime there and flowers around. What else can I do there?

A. Your carport is not considered part of the house ba gua, because it is not an enclosed, interior space. Only fully enclosed spaces—four walls and a roof—are part of the house ba gua. Carports, patios, decks, balconies, screened porches, etc., are not in cluded in the house ba gua.

This may affect the positioning of the ba gua for your house, so go back to your floor plan and start fresh, this time placing the ba gua only over the interior parts of the house. You may end up with Helpful Friends inside, or it may be a “missing area” where the carport is.

Q. I have made some feng shui adjustments, but am not sure I have placed the ba gua correctly. I live in a house that is built in a straight line. I have chosen the end room at the back of the house as my hsun gua, and have turned it into an office. Do I have the right room? It is on the right side of the house as you look at the front door. I hope that you will be able to help as most houses are squares or rectangles but this is in a line.

A. If I’ve understood your description correctly, your home is a long, narrow rectangle. The ba gua applies the same way as it does for any other space; it’s just stretched or narrowed to accommodate the dimensions of the home.

When you use the doorway method for placing the ba gua, hsun gua (the “wealth” area) is the far LEFT corner as you stand in the main doorway looking INTO the space. If the room you have made into your office is on the right side of the house, then it is in kun gua (Relationships), not the wealth area.


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Q. I cannot figure out how to use the ba gua grid for my mobile home. It is 14x60 feet. When I enter, there is only about 8 feet to the right (the kitchen) and 50 feet to the left (everything else) and the whole place is just 14 feet wide, so it is very oblong. Also there are no appropriate walls for the bed.

A. The ba gua shrinks or stretches to accommodate the dimensions of your home. When your home is a wide, shallow oblong, you have a wide, shallow ba gua:

If your entry is on the right, it’s in chien gua, the Travel & Helpful Friends area. Many spaces do not offer an “ideal” feng shui placement for the bed or other key furniture. If that’s the case, then you do the best you can with the space you’ve got. Evaluate what’s not so good about the bed position, then use feng shui remedies to lessen the impact of those features.

Q. The front door to my flat faces the back door (fully glass with a view of the fire escape), across a very short hallway. If I lay the ba gua out over my front door I have couple of feet of self/career and ditto of knowledge/wisdom in living room (left of front door) and helpful people/compassion in kitchen to right of front door, but everything else is missing. What can I do?

A. You may have some missing areas, but it is just not possible for the entire rear two thirds of the ba gua to be missing. The ba gua fits the space between the front entry and the rear of the flat. If that is a very shallow space, you have a very shallow, compressed ba gua.

The area to the left of the entry, from the line of the entry to the back wall of the flat, will include knowledge, family/community, and wealth. On the right: helpful friends, creativity/children, and relationships. But you may only have a very small area of each. Whatever is behind you to the left and right when you stand at the front door (i.e., you turn 180 degrees to get to it) will be extensions of knowledge, career, or helpful friends. Fast Feng Shui Ba Gua Q+A

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There’s no way to fix such an awkward layout, and no reason you would want to emphasize it. Instead, what you can and should do is work with the ba gua within each major room, instead of focusing on the ba gua of the entire flat. So, for example, if relationships are an issue, focus on the relationships area of your bedroom. For prosperity, find that area w ithin your kitchen, living room, and bedroom. And so on.

BTW, it is not good to have a glass exit door directly in line with the front door. I highly recommend covering it with a shade or curtain, and hanging a faceted crystal ball somewhere between the two doors where it will best redirect chi into the rest of the flat.

Q. I have purchased a new apartment, and am confused about how to place the ba gua over the fanshaped space.

A. Think of your floor plan as a rectangle that has been “fanned out” to be wider on one end, then “fan” or spread the ba gua as well.

The “top” row of your ba gua [wealth/fame/relationships] has bigger areas compared to the other guas; this is considered auspicious, and should bring you good luck in those areas.

This looks like a nice apartment; I wish you great success and happiness in your new home.

Q. My partner and I have recently leased a shop with living space in the rear, and I’m not sure how to use the ba gua. The shop has two rear doors: one connects to the residence and the other opens onto a narrow path leading to the parking area behind the building. The residence also has a door in the kitchen, that connects to the parking area.

I am confused as to whether to include the shop with the residence when placing the bagua on the floorplan, or to do it separately. Both shop and residence share one street number. If I use two ba guas, which door is the “front” door to the living area?


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A. In this situation I would use two separate ba guas: one for the shop and one for the home, since your business and residence are very different activities and two separate parts of your life—even if they are not as widely separated as for most people. For each space, use the main OUTSIDE entrance as the “front door”, even if you frequently go back and forth between the two by an interior door.

Q. Last month I moved into an apartment in an old townhouse. Once I moved in, I realized that the ‘L’ shape of the apartment left out the whole LOVE corner!?! Is this possible?

A. It looks to me as though what you’ve got is a large extension on the left side of your apartment in the wealth area and also a little bit of “fame.” Remember, with the doorway method, the far side of the ba gua (from the entry), will align with whatever wall spans more than half the width of the space. This is easier to see than describe: in example A, below, the broadest part of the space is “all the way at the back”, so the area beside that is indeed a “missing” Relationship corner.

Compare that to example B: here we see the broadest “back” wall is not the farthest point of the apartment. There is no missing area in this floorplan; instead, the part that sticks out is an extension of the Wealth area. A small difference in dimension can make a big difference to your ba gua: who wouldn’t rather have an enlarged wealth area than a missing love corner? According to your diagram, you’ve got a wealth extension, not missing relationships, so there’s no need to panic. Extensions and Missing Areas are covered in more detail in any of my books.


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Q. The addition on the back of our house is 24 feet across, with the remaining back of the house another 26 feet across. There is only a 2 foot difference between having an enhancement or a missing area --- so am I correct in considering the addition an enhancement … rather than the o ther 26 feet a missing area?

A. Yes, your addition is an extension, as determined by the difference in wi dth (even though that difference is small one). Keep in mind that the ba gua applies to any space, not just to the whole house. With such a large addition, you might want to take a look at the ba gua just for that area, too. Any addition, by definition, is built at a later time than the original house. Usually it simply changes the house ba gua, but it’s possible to look at the addition ba gua separately as well.

The less the addition feels/looks like an integral part of the home, the more I’d look at the ba gua of the addition separately. This will depend on many factors, including how the space is or is not divided inside, whether it is the same height as the rest of the house (for example, if addition is only one-story, when the rest of the house i s two), how strongly (or not) the addition feels seamlessly integrated into the original floor plan when you are inside the house, and how that space is used. A “mother -in-law” apartment, for example, is much more a separate space than an expanded or new family room. There’s no one-size-fits-all rule to follow on this so I can’t give you a definitive answer. Just go with your gut on it.

Q. According to your instructions, my indented front door would be at the front edge of the ba gua in the career gua. And the rooms to the front left and front right that stick out into my front yard would be considered extensions of the knowledge and helpful people guas.

However, when I contacted Allexperts.Com, I got entirely different instructions! I was told that BTB feng shui teaches that the ba gua should be stretched to fit over my entire floor plan and does not allow for, or recognize, extensions, so the result for my home would be missing corners in Career, Knowledge, Wealth and Fame. Please help me solve this.

A. I do not recommend relying on advice from “AllExperts.Com” or any similar site, unless the specific article is written by someone you recognize as an expert in that topic. "Expert” sites are designed to generate revenue through pay-per-click advertising; anyone can put one up, and most will accept any article so long as it creates a new page to put ads on. There is no way for a user to confirm that the author of a particular article has appropriate training in that area, unless the bio block specifically details credentials. Some experts on these sites are knowledgeable, and some articles do provide valuable information, but there is a risk that what you are reading may provide inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete information.

Furthermore, this statement: “BTB feng shui teaches that the bagua should be stretched to fit over my entire floorplan and does not allow for, or recognize, extensions …" is not correct! The compass-based (i.e., old-school Chinese) methods are the ones that do not recognize


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extensions and missing areas. My knowledge of the extensions/missing areas philosophy comes directly from my extensive training in the BTB method, and I stand by my method of placement. If you ask someone with different training and background, you may very well get a different answer, and I’m sure there are practitioners who disagree with a lot of what I teach. There are many different styles of feng shui practice; who you choose to follow and listen to is up to you.

Q. Is there a way to map a 5th wheel recreational vehicle to make it feng shui friendly?

A. Since the whole point of an RV is that it is mobile, the compass‐based methods of feng shui are useless here. Use the western method of placing the ba gua according to the entry, and map the space that way.

I am not very familiar with RVs, but it seems to me that this would put the driver in kun gua (relationships), and the front passenger seat in chien gua (helpful friends). That’s a good place for wrestling with maps, reading directions, digging out change for the tolls, making phone calls to confirm appointments/arrival times/reservations, and rummaging for snacks and refreshments, all of which are best handled by someone other than the driver. Basically, all the standard feng shui principles will apply, just as they would in any other space.

Q. We recently built a new home and I'm not sure how to apply the ba gua to the second floor, which is

smaller than the ground floor of the house. When applying the ba gua to the 2nd floor, do I lay the ba gua just over that area, or does it go over the entire outline of the home?

A. The ba gua for the second floor only applies to that space. If the second floor does not have the same footprint as the ground floor, then the ba gua will be different. Keep in mind that, when looking at the second floor, the "entry" is wherever you enter that level of the home at the top of the stairs. Therefore, the entry location to the second floor may be very different from the entry to the main floor.

However, the second floor ba gua, in my opinion, is not very important. Usually, this floor is divided into bedrooms for various family members, whereas the ground floor usually contains the kitchen, dining room, family and living rooms: spaces shared by the entire family. I very often ignore the ba gua for any floor above (or below) the main/ground level and just concentrate on ba gua and layout of each individual room. For example, if your main issue is prosperity, focus on the Wealth area (hsun gua) of the main floor, and on hsun gua within your bedroom, as well as any other important rooms, such as the kitchen, living room, and a home office, if you have one.


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Q. I've read that you can Feng Shui your house and an individual room, but how does that work? If you do your house, then do a room, does one overlap the other? Let's say for example, I feng shui my prosperity gua for my house (which is my bedroom). Then in the bedroom, I feng shui the relationship gua but not the prosperity gua, I'm confused as to if one overrides the other. Q. Which takes priority, the ba gua for the whole house or the ba gua for each room? I have recently decided to try and feng shui each room but have run into issues like the fame area in a room being in the career area of the house. What should take precedence? Is it better to feng shui each room or is it better to do the whole house?

A. The ba gua can be applied to any space: an entire plot of land, the house as a whole, a specific room within the house, even the surface of your stove or desk. There is a ba gua for the entire house, and also for each room. There is a relationship corner for the house, and a relationship corner in each room.

Think of all these different ba guas as options you get to choose from when implementing feng shui. There is no priority of one over the other. What makes the difference is your intention. If you place something in the fame area of a room, with the intention to activate fame, then that's what you are doing. The career area of the house will not override that. That doesn't mean it disappears, though. Certainly you want to look at the ba gua of the entire house to identify any specific challenges or advantages that may be present. The room ba guas are important because they can enhance whatever feng shui strategies you are using with the energy of that particular space. For example, the fame area of a room within the career area of the house is a good place for something intended to help bring you greater fame and recognition in your career. If you think about this, you’ll immediate see that the Fame area of the room that is in the Fame area of your house is a very powerful location for any feng shui enhancements intended to boost your recognition. Romance cures are stronger in the romance area of the bedroom than in the romance area of the house, because the bedroom is the space most closely related to your romantic relationships.

If you wish to enhance prosperity, start by finding ALL the prosperity guas for your space. For example, you say your bedroom is in the prosperity gua for the house. Then find the prosperity gua within your bedroom. This is a key "power spot" because it falls within both the prosperity gua for the house and the prosperity gua for the bedroom. Now, if you have a piece of furniture (a nightstand, dresser, bookcase, etc.) in that corner of your bedroom, place a wealth symbol or object in the prosperity gua of the top of that piece of furniture (i.e., the rear left corner). If an area of the ba gua is weak for the overall house, you can enhance that area within individual rooms to counteract the weakness of the overall layout and bring the house energy into greater balance. For example, if the wealth corner of your house is “missing”, Fast Feng Shui Ba Gua Q+A

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you can add feng shui enhancements to the wealth areas in your living room, kitchen, dining room, home office, and bedroom to remedy the imbalance caused by the missing area. By using this layered ba gua approach, your feng shui cures will have a stronger effect. Keep in mind that your PURPOSE and INTENTION are the driving factors, and are much stronger than any difference in magnitude between a room or a house ba gua. Principle 2 in my Fast Feng Shui book is all about how to locate your personal power spots by locating the ba guas for your home according to your priority issues. You may find this helpful in deciding where to place your feng shui "cures."

Q. I have read many things on placement of the ba gua over a room, but I still am confused as to what to

do. When I look into my bedroom or living room, from the only door to each room, I see a wall. I must turn to the left in both situations to be able to fully look into the space. Should I turn to the left and place the ba gua from that point?

A. The ba gua always starts at the door, so it will extend to the left the width of the room, and forward to the far wall of the room. When you stand in the doorway facing forward you will be in the lower right corner of the ba gua (helpful friends).

The area blocked off by the facing wall will be “missing” from the ba gua, so you may want to take some feng shui action to correct that. Depending on the distance between the door and the wall, you may also have a “blocked” entry to that room.

Guidelines for correcting Missing areas and Blocked entries are covered in Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Transforming Your Life by Energizing Your Home .


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Q. My bedroom is basically rectangular, but the door is on an angled wall that cuts across one corner. How do I place the ba gua over this room if the door is on an angle?

A. The placement of the ba gua will be determined by where your attention goes when you enter the room, which will depend on a combination of how the windows and furnishings direct the flow of energy in the room and how the furniture is arranged.

What does the shape of the room feel like to you? Would you describe the room as "short and wide" or as "long and narrow"? If the room feels short and wide, you are entering through chien gua. The lower edge of the ba gua will be along the long wall on your left.

If the room feels long and narrow, you are entering through ken gua, and the lower edge of the ba gua will be along the short wall to your right. These diagrams may not closely match your room, but should help you understand how the placement of windows and furniture affects the flow of chi and determines how you experience the shape of the room.

Keep in mind that there are many different schools of thought about the placement and use of the ba gua. Some teachers I have studied with would tell you that the ba gua should be turned to align just with that little angle of the doorway, so that ALL your corners are missing. However, I disagree with this, because it does not reflect how we experience the space. When you walk into the room, you experience it as entering a rectangular room from the corner, so that's how I would work with that space.


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Q. My restaurant is in a corner location with the main door kitty-corner to the building. The building is 120 years old, and either street could be the front of the building. Not now or historically has one side been dominant. I think the doorway is a missing piece, but d on’t know how the ba gua goes.

A. Corner locations---especially when the door itself cuts across the corner —are generally auspicious for retail establishments (including restaurants). Rather than limiting incoming chi to one street or the other, you can potentially benefit from both.

The degree of benefit you gain from the location has a lot to do with traffic flow, both on the street and foot traffic on sidewalks. However, one-way streets can either drive chi toward, or pull it away from, your corner doorway, depending on the direction of traffic flow. Although modern feng shui defines the ba gua according to the location of the doorway, there are other factors involved in determining “front” and “back” of a space. If one street is a busy thoroughfare, and the other would be most accurately described as a side street, then probably the side of the building on the busier street is the front. You might also consider, if you get a lot of foot traffic, which direction those patrons come in from. Or where your parking lot is located. And which side of the building has more or larger windows. And where your signage is placed. Use of the interior space can also affect which side of the building might be considered the “front.” You can judge this by where your attention g oes when you step inside, and which way your customers naturally turn (or not) when they step through your door. Where are the kitchen and bathrooms located? Often this will feel like the “back of the house,” although they could be “off to the side.” Whi ch phrase would you use to describe them? That should tell you something. I suspect that if you give yourself permission to define “front” and “back” yourself— without worrying about how the space may have been used in the past—you’ll intuitively know which way is the better match for your restaurant. If business is good, then most likely your doorway position is not a problem and I wouldn’t worry about it.

Q. My garage is attached to my home and even with my front door, so it covers three key areas on the left side of the ba gua, including my wealth area. What can I do about this?

A. It is very common in newer American homes for the garage to dominate a large portion of the floor plan. Generally this indicates that your family is "on the go" a lot (certainly true of many American families), and this is especially true if the garage is prominent at the front of the house.


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There isn't a great deal you can do with a garage, other than keep it clean, well-organized, and de-cluttered. Think about your car as a symbol of your ability to be self-directed and to get where you want to go in life. If your garage is dirty and cluttered, that ability may be compromised or misdirected. Remember that the ba gua applies to each room in your house, as well as to the home overall. Many people focus so much on the ba gua of the house that they forget they can also work with the ba gua within each room. In your case, since you are concerned about the garage occupying your wealth area, pay special attention to what's going on in the wealth area within the garage. If you keep garbage or recycling bins in the garage, be sure to place them where they are not in the wealth corner. Then look at the wealth areas within the main rooms of your house: your living room, kitchen, bedroom, and home office (if you have one). Remove or correct any weakening influences, and add symbols/enhancements to strengthen your wealth chi.

Q. What can I do if our wealth area is our garage? We live in Florida, and we spend 6 months out of the year moving everything in our yard into piles in the garage, preparing for hurricanes. We also have no basement, so things like the lawn mower, gas cans, generators, etc. all end up in the garage, too.

A. In an ideal world you wouldn't have to fill up your garage with stuff. But in the real world, compromises are often required. It's better to have all those things stored in the garage than in your living room or blown out of the yard in the next big storm, right?

Your garage is providing a safe haven for your stuff. That's not a bad thing, even if it is your wealth corner. I'm sure many people in the world would consider owning a power lawn mower and a portable generator to be substantial blessings and an indication of great prosperity—and you have a garage to keep them in, even better! Also keep in mind that the ba gua applies to every space, so there is a ba gua for each room within your home, as well as your overall floor plan. If you are looking for ways to enhance the wealth area, work with that corner within your kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Do your best to keep the garage tidy and organized, and don't worry about it beyond that.


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Feng Sui Basic

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