Ba-Gua, Wierd Word, Key To Your Feng Shui Energy

Feng Shui : Ba-Gua: "Feng Shui : Ba-Gua

by Jane Alexander

Different practitioners of feng shui use the ba-gua in different ways. However all the feng shui consultants I have met so far use this format which is, to my mind, also the most straightforward to learn. If you already know a fair amount about feng shui and are already using another method, stick with that by all means.

To work out the ba-gua of any room or house, the position of the main door is important. If you live in an apartment or a single room you will need to take the door into your space as the main door, rather than the door that leads into the building as a whole. Now imagine yourself standing with your back to the door: depending on the position of the main door you will be standing in either the knowledge, career or helpful people corner of the ba-gua. Now envisage the ba-gua laid over your space. The wealth corner will be off in the far-left hand corner, the marriage corner in the far right-hand corner. You may find it easier to take the map of your home you drew earlier and sketch the ba-gua over it, giving you an immediate idea of which corner lies in which room.

You can apply the ba-gua to any building or room, as illustrated here.

To start with, we want to look at the overall picture of your home. First of all check to see if any areas are "missing". Not all houses are built perfectly square and symmetrical and often you will find an area of the ba-gua missing. This means that the energy of that corner is lacking. A clear example comes with L-shaped houses which are often missing either their marriage or wealth areas. This was my first experience of feng shui. I was living in a terraced L-shaped house in London and, to be honest, my finances were a walking disaster. Then I interviewed my first feng shui expert, William Spear, over the telephone from New York. Bill told me about missing corners and I realized that money was my missing corner. Jokingly I asked Bill for a cure and he promptly told me to put a huge terracotta pot with a vigorous green plant to "square off" the missing corner. I did so, chuckling all the way, but soon stopped laughing when, within weeks, my income quadrupled without any effort on my part. I have taken feng shui very seriously since. When we moved into this house, I had a consultation from Sarah Shurety who was, to put it mildly, concerned. The chi was very undisciplined and would cause disputes, problems and anxiety. Her "cures" were quite extreme. We had to knock down several partition walls in our bedroom, losing our en-suite bathroom and a large walk-in closet. Several doors needed removing and the walls plastered up. Some rooms needed re-decorating in better colors and we were advised to hang a round mirror on our neighbors' gate. Our neighbors were not, however, convinced by this and so a large shiny ball had to be hung from a tree instead! We made the changes and the turmoil in the house did settle down. Interestingly Sarah also noted that, once again, we were missing our wealth corner - not as much as before, but there was still a marked indentation in that area. Apparently it's very common for us to repeat the same patterns in our lives by choosing houses which have the same feng shui problems. So watch out for that if you are moving. Another fascinating point came up when Sarah looked at our house. She explained that people who live in houses frequently follow the same pattern as those who lived there before - its technical name is "predecessor chi". Not surprising really when you think you are living in the same feng shui configuration so your energy will be moved in the same way. We were amazed when we realized that the people who had lived in the house before us complained that the husband had to work away from home all week and only returned for weekends. We were in exactly the same situation. However, once we made the changes, Adrian was able to shift his working pattern and work most of the week from home.

Take some time to become accustomed to the ba-gua superimposed on your house. Figure out which rooms lie in which corners. Are there any areas missing? Are any areas over-developed? Does it make sense, given your circumstances? Now look at it the other way around. Think about each corner of your house in turn. Are these areas well represented in your life? Are they well balanced? Which do you feel are missing or under- or over-developed?

About the Author:

Jane Alexander is well-trusted as an expert in natural medicine, holistic living and contemporary spirituality. Her aim is to simplify the often arcane concepts behind alternative health and spirituality and make them accessible and meaningful to everybody. She is the author of sixteen books on holistic living, including Spirit of the Home, Live Well (a western guide to ayurveda), The Detox Plan, The Five Minute Healer and The Weekend Healer. Her website was recently given 5 star top rating by The Good Web Guide who said "If she didn't exist, you'd have to invent her and the Mind Body Spirit movement probably owes her a great debt of gratitude..her books are all worth buying." Visit JaneAlexander.org and find out why."

Ok, this really didnt turn out the way I wanted it to. I promise better articles are coming (because I don't seem to be calm, focused, and collected myself at the moment).

Sam, Feng Shui Tips