The first thing most people need to know about an Eight House reading is whether they are an "East House Person" or a "West House Person." This refers to the favorable and unfavorable directions I mentioned in the last post.
The East or West designation is determined by the following diagram. This is not the complete HeTu diagram; I've erased the center and drawn a dividing line so you could clearly see the East and West House groups by trigram and number.
The trigrams/energy-phase in the East Group include the symbols in the directions of east and south (the left and the top of the diagram respectively): water/water (7) and wind/wood (2) combined with thunder/wood (8) and fire/fire (3). The West Group is represented by the trigrams for earth/earth (1) and mountain/earth (6) in the direction of north (at the bottom), combined with lake/metal (4), and sky/metal in the west (on the left side).
In the cycle of the five phases of energy, the East Group contains the creative cycle energies of water (which creates) wood (which creates) fire. The West Group contains the creative cycle and energies of earth (which creates) metal.
You'll notice that if you sum-up the numbers in the groups, east+south and north+west, they will add up to 5, 10, or 15. If you subtract the same-side numbers, the result is 5. This shows favorability and harmony between the signs of each group since 5 represents heaven, 10 represents earth, and 15 represents the harmonious combination of the two. (Usually, the HeTu diagram has five white/yang dots in the center representing heaven, framed by ten black/yin dots representing earth. To see the complete diagram, see my previous post The Correct Orientation of the Yin/Yang Symbol)
For example, in the East Group, 7-2=5, 8-3=5; 2+3=5, 2+8=10, 3+7=10, 7+8=15.
In the West Group, 6-1=5, 9-4=5; 4+1=5, 1+9=10, 4+6=10, and 6+9=15.
Moving along, we're going rearrange the symbols from the HeTu to correspond to the annual cycles of earthly energy phases, and to correspond to the growth, climax, and decline of earthly yin and yang. To show these changes, a new diagram was created, the Luo Shu.
You will notice that, like a crazy game of musical chairs, all the trigrams and most of the numbers changed places! The thing that remains constant is the favorable trigrams – but not the numbers!
You saved your ming gua from last time, right? If you did, skip down to "Ready to continue?" If you didn't save it, or if you didn't read the last post, don't worry! Here are those instructions again:
First, determine your birth year. I know, that sounds a bit like a no-brainer, but the cycle used to determine annual energy in feng shui begins on February 4th or 5th depending on the position of the sun. For people born on a date from January 1 through February 3, you will use the number for the previous year: i.e. if your birth date is January 14, 1972, you will use 1971 as your year of birth. If your date of birth is February 4 or 5, you will need to find out the solar calendar new year date for that year.
Once you have your proper year of birth:
First, add together the four digits of your birth year: 1 + 9 + 7 + 1 = 18
Second, if needed, continue adding until you have a single digit: 1 + 8 = 9
Third, for a woman: add 4 to the number from step two: 4 + 9 = 13. If this results in a two-digit number, add those together to get a single-digit number: 1 + 3 = 4.
Third, for a man: subtract from 11 the number from step two: 11 – 9 = 2.
Fourth, for men and women, if the calculations in step three result in 5, women use the number 8 as your ming gua, and men use the number 2 as your ming gua. We transform the number 5 into either 2 or 8 because 5 is reserved for the center and is not assigned a direction or a trigram.
Ready to continue?
In the table immediately below, find your ming gua in the top row. This will also tell you your Harmony direction, your trigram, and your personal energy phase for the purposes of feng shui.
The first four numbers, 1, 3, 4, and 9 belong to the East House Group; the last four numbers belong to the West House Group. You may notice that even though the numbers have changed, the trigrams have stayed with their East or West Group affiliation as originally shown in the first diagram above, the HeTu: water-wood-fire, and earth-metal.
| Ming gua > Trigram&phase Influences V | 1 N water water | 3 E thunder wood | 4 SE wind wood | 9 S fire fire | 2 SW earth earth | 6 NW sky metal | 7 W lake metal | 8 NE mountain earth |
| Wealth | SE | S | N | E | NE | W | NW | SW |
| Health | E | N | S | SE | W | NE | SW | NW |
| Longevity | S | SE | E | N | NW | SW | NE | W |
| Harmony | N | E | SE | S | SW | NW | W | NE |
| Accidents | W | SW | NW | NE | E | SE | N | S |
| Obstacles | NE | NW | SW | W | SE | E | S | N |
| Loss | NW | NE | W | SW | S | N | SE | E |
| Exhaustion | SW | W | NE | NW | N | S | E | SE |
The directions are standard abbreviations:
E – East, SE – South East, S – South, SW – Southwest, W – West, NW – Northwest, N – North, NE – Northeast.
From most favorable to least favorable (though there is some debate on the proper order of Accidents, Obstacles, and Loss), the influences the directions have on you are listed down the left side, and the directions spread across the row in the table. For example, say your ming gua is 3 and you want to know your Wealth direction. Follow the row for Wealth until you intersect with the column for 3 and you will see that S (south) is your Wealth direction.
Say you are a ming gua 2 and you want to avoid your worst direction: follow Exhaustion across the row until it intersects with your ming gua from the top row; a 2 person is going to want to avoid the direction North! (You sure aren't going to want to activate any energy, or even spend much time in that direction!)
Now for your house!
You need to use a compass and find the direction your house faces. There are some exceptions, but generally speaking the wall that contains your front door is the "face" of your house and is called the "facing" or "faces" direction; the back or opposite side of your house is called the "sitting" or "sits" direction.
Set aside your jewelry while you do this. Stand with your back to the front door but away from the door frame or beams so the metal or nails don't affect the compass reading of the direction you are facing. (If your front door were your home's eyes, you and your house should be looking in the same direction, facing the same way.) Write down the degree number on the compass; i.e. if your home faces due south, the compass should read close to 180 degrees. You may also take a couple more readings from different places along the front of your home, but facing in the same direction, just to make sure there is nothing affecting the compass reading. You will use the number and direction from the reading to determine the areas and energies of your home.
If the compass reading is between 22.5 and 67.5 your house faces NE and sits SW
If the compass reading is between 67.5 and 112.5 your house faces E and sits W
If the compass reading is between 112.5 and 157.5 your house faces SE and sits NW
If the compass reading is between 157.5 and 202.5 your house faces S and sits N
If the compass reading is between 202.5 and 247.5 your house faces SW and sits NE
If the compass reading is between 247.5 and 292.5 your house faces W and sits E
If the compass reading is between 292.5 and 337.5 your house faces NW and sits SE
If the compass reading is between 337.5 and 22.5 your house faces N and sits S
Ok? Now comes the interesting part, matching you with your house.
Get some 10-squares-to-the-inch graph paper and draw your house using the scale one foot equals one square and cut around the edges so you have just your house. Then, click on the circle below and print it out. When you're done, click the back button to return to the article.
Write into each section of the "pie" you just printed the meaning that area has for you as outlined in the table above according to your ming gua number. (i.e. if your ming gua was 1, you would write "Wealth" in the southeast section, "Health" in the east section, etc. As closely as you can, placing the center of your house on the center of the "pie," match the facing direction of your house with the degree around the outer edge of the circle. (If the compass reading was 163, do your best to set your graph-paper house on the circle so it is facing the 163 degree mark.)
Now you evaluate!
In what area of the "pie" is your front door (or your garage door, or the exit you most often use)? Where is your bedroom? These should be in one of your four favorable directions. See if the areas you spend most of your time in are your favorable or unfavorable areas (see explanation below). If you find that you are often in unfavorable areas, you should consider leaving home in the morning from a door in a better direction if possible, or changing bedrooms if your sleep area is in an unfavorable location.
Here is what each direction means:
Wealth: This area is the highest-energy area. It is a good direction for your front door if you work outside the home, or a home office if you work at home. The energy of this area has the potential for above-average good fortune in all areas of life, especially money. However, it also has the potential to make you work too hard or too long! This area may be too energetic for your bedroom or area where you like to relax.
Health: This area has the potential to keep you healthy, or to help you recover from an illness. It is a good area for any sort of self-improvement or health maintenance, mental and physical. This is a good area for your bedroom and should bring restful, regenerating sleep.
Longevity: The potential of Longevity is favorable over time; want a long life, a long marriage? How about staying a long time in your job, or improving communications between yourself and others? If so, you want your bedroom or front door in this area.
Harmony: The potential of this area is pretty quiet and relaxing. If your bedroom is here, you will most likely enjoy overall good health and have a harmonious marriage. If your front door is here, you probably will make enough money to live comfortably, but not earn great wealth; you will probably have a job you like, but won't work too hard.
Accidents: The potential of this area is for "things" to happen; annoying things but not overly awful things. You get a nice bonus at work and then the car breaks down and guess what – the cost of repairing the car eats your whole bonus. People misunderstand something you've said and get mad or annoyed at you causing arguments or backbiting. If your bedroom is in this area, you may have trouble sleeping.
Obstacles: This is a "bad luck" sort of area. If your front door is in this area, you could experience bad luck in financial or legal matters. No matter what you try to do, something is always getting in your way, keeping you from getting ahead at work or at home with your family. If your bedroom is in this area, you could experience frequent illness and sleep problems.
Loss: Just what it says: loss. If your front door is here, you could experience loss of job, loss of wealth, loss of business. The losses could be through natural disaster like a fire or flood, or human intervention as when your boss "downsizes" you or a thief robs you. This area is very poor for heath, so you don't want your bedroom here.
Exhaustion: This is the worst area, with the potential for serious misfortune in wealth and luck, serious illnesses, early death, tragedies and injuries, accidents, loss of family. You definitely do not want a door or bedroom in this area, and shouldn't spend much time here.
To recap: It is good to have your front door and bedroom in one of your four good directions, especially for the primary wage earner. If you would like to increase your wealth, exit your home from a door in your Wealth area, but be prepared to work harder! Have your bedroom in one of the other three favorable areas.
Try to avoid having a front door in any of your unfavorable directions. These are more suited to the bathroom (where you don't spend a lot of time) and the kitchen where the heat from the stove is said to symbolically "burn off" the harmful energies.
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