Eight Mansions also known as Ba Chai Feng Shui

PART I

By Sallie Tsui Sien

Eight Mansions (also known as Eight House Feng Shui, Ba Zhai Feng Shui) is one of the many components I use when analysing the Feng Shui of a property.

There are many aspects to Eight House Feng Shui which has sophisticated formulae for recognising sha (dangerous) qi (ch’i) from any given direction and for observing bad land structure in specific locations based on the house trigram, the 24 wandering stars (siao yui xing) and the Eight House Water Method to name but a few.

One of the easier and more popular methods of Eight Mansions addresses the different essence of qi (energy) from the eight magnetic compass directions. The qi from these directions is governed by what we call ‘yiu xing’ (wandering stars) which affect us, as individuals, either positively or negatively. The applicable formulae and calculations are based on the year an individual is born.

This method is used to determine the good and bad locations of a dwelling, to analyse whether you are compatible with the house and to find out your favourable and unfavourable personal directions which will help increase productivity at work and heighten opportunities and good fortune in every aspect of life.

To find your personal good and bad directions, you must first know your personal gua number. With exceptions in certain years, generally, a different Gua number is accorded to a male and female born in the same year.

Click here to find your Personal Gua Number

Your Personal Four Good Directions

You should strive to face one of the following directions whenever you can, especially if you are involved in something important, e.g. an interview, making a crucial decision or negotiating. Each of the four auspicious directions has a different level and offers differing kinds of benefits.

Sheng Chi is the prosperity star. It promotes a successful career and opportunities for advancement. If you are in senior and middle management, you should strive to sit facing this direction at work whenever you can. There are many other ways of maximising this prosperous star, such as with respect to fertility or promoting clever children, which I teach in detail in my course.

Tien Yi The main use of Tien Yi is as a cure. Apart from being a health star, Tien Yi can bring about helpful people to see you through difficult situations.

Yan Nien is another fortune star but is not as effective as the Sheng Chi star when it comes to wealth. It mainly governs longevity, marriage and relationships. If you are hoping to establish a productive relationship with someone, opportunities will increase if you sleep with your headboard to this direction. Those working in people-related fields such as human resources or personnel should sit facing this direction at work. This star helps strengthen your networking ability, open resourceful channels and create happy and amicable relationships with others.

Fu Wei is the weakest fortune star. Its purpose is to maintain peace and harmony. This is a good direction to face for meditation or when you are working on projects for self-development. For those in business or senior management, make sure that your office or shop doors are not open to this direction. If you are looking to move to a new office, choose an office with a main door that houses an auspicious facing star according to Flying Star Feng Shui and at the same time, the door should also open to your Sheng Chi direction.

Now let’s look at where are the four good directions for your Gua number.  

Your Four Auspicious Directions  

So let’s say, if you are a Gua 1 person, your personal four good directions are southeast, east, south and north. These directions do not change and are with you throughout your life wherever you are in the world. 

You can locate your four good auspicious locations within your home or office by dividing the floor plan into nine palaces (sectors) according to the property’s facing direction, one being in the centre and eight of which correspond to the eight magnetic directions.  

In the old days, these sectors were named according to their respective trigrams such as, Kan palace for the north sector, Li palace for south sector and so on. For ease of reference, we shall refer to these simply as the north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest sectors.

Each of the eight magnetic directions holds a different kind of qi (energy) which will influence the sector in question and the person living in it either favourably or unfavourably. In other words, the harmonics of the qi from a given direction or location can be in harmony or not with the harmonics of your own life Gua. 

In order to find which qi resides in which palace of the house, we must find out which direction the house, apartment or office faces. 

Finding your house or office direction 

It is easy if your front door (or most frequently used door) happens to be located on the same side as the facing of the house but this is not a standard rule in determining the facing of a home.  

You will need a good magnetic compass. It is best if you can find a compass that has readings in gradations of one degree as shown below.

Stand with your back parallel to the facing wall of the property. With the compass at waist height, align yourself and your body to look straight ahead and then take the readings as shown on your compass. 

Once you have your compass reading, you can refer to the table below to see which of the eight magnetic directions your house faces. You can also proceed to divide your floor plan into nine sectors and name them according to their magnetic directions. From here, you should be able to identify your personal good sectors and directions in relation to the property. 

For example, if your house faces between 67.5º to 112.4º east and if you are a Gua 3 person, your good directions are Sheng Chi in the south, Tien Yi in the north, Yan Nien in the southeast and Fu Wei in the east. (see diagram below). 

In the above example, if your office happened to be in the north sector of the floor plan, you would try to angle your sitting position to face the south in order to tap into your personal sheng chi direction. However, if this is a child’s room, it would be better if the writing desk could be angled to face his/her Fu Wei direction. 

Another point to bear in mind is that the location of the doors also plays an important role in determining the quality of Feng Shui that affects you.  

When you are looking to rent or buy a house, office or an apartment, look for one whose main door faces one of your auspicious directions, preferably your Sheng Chi direction.

Doors, leading into your study, office or bedroom, that face one of your personal favourable directions will also benefit you.

Your work desk should be orientated to face one of your personal good directions. Sheng Chi direction is the best but, if this is not possible, facing one of the good directions will do just fine.

Arrange for your child to sit facing one of their good directions when studying at home in the library or study. The Sheng Chi direction is better suited for teenagers studying for exams whereas young children will do well to face their personal Fu Wei direction.

Strive to sleep with the bed head orientated to your Yan Nian or Tien Yi direction. This is especially beneficial to those recuperating from health problems. If you are limited by the layout of the room or space, as long as your bed head is orientated to one of your four auspicious directions, it will do just as well.

To be continued…. Part II 

Sallie, a renowned Master Practitioner also teaches other Practitioners classical Feng Shui. She raises awareness and interests in the application of Feng Shui by working with and gives talks and seminars to architects and interior designers as well as at special social groups and associations.

For more information about her courses, please visit our course page.

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