It is worthwhile investing time and effort in learning Compass feng shui because once you know how to use the different methods, you will amaze yourself with how proficient you can become at this ancient way of living in harmony with the environment. Flying Star feng shui takes the guesswork out of feng shui. Eight mansions personalizes your practice. The compass enables you to get the best of feng shui at all times.
You do not need to invest in a Luo Pan – a genuine and authentic Luo Pan is expensive. The charts in this book have all the information and knowledge you require to practice Yang feng shui. What you do need is a good ordinary compass. If you live in seismic area (for example, California) you will need a heavy-duty compass to get accurate readings. Otherwise any compass should be adequate. If you wish, you might find it useful to get a compass with the 24 sub-directions marked in. Armed with the compass, the formulas, and a clear mind, you can start immediately. Good luck!
1. ORIGINS OF THE LUO PAN COMPASS
AN AUTHENTIC CHINESE FENG SHUI LUO PAN IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED INSTRUMENTS IN THE WORLD. IT IS AN EXTRAORDINARILY PRECISE COMPASS THAT CONTAINS A TREASURE TROVE OF FENG SHUI FORMULAS AND SECRETS. THESE ENABLE THE SERIOUS PRACTITIONER TO TAKE PRECISE READINGS OF THE ORIENTATION OF ANY BUILDING OR PROPERTY AND, IF THEY KNOW HOW TO READ AND INTERPRET THE MARKINGS, OFFER INSTANT DIAGNOSIS AND SOLUTIONS.
Feng shui afflictions take different forms under a whole melange of circumstances and orientations. These afflictions can be caused by physical structures within the vicinity of the landscape, the orientation of the building’s doors and entrances, or simply the energy changes of time. All these and more can be decoded from the information contained within the Luo Pan. The markings on the Luo Pan give immediate correlations of every degree of orientation thereby pinpointing to the user under which method or formula there might be a feng shui problem.
How did the Luo Pan originate?
A colorful Chinese legend tells of a beautiful Goddess, known as the Lady of the Nine Heavens, who gave the Luo Pan compass to the Yellow Emperor and revealed to him the secret knowledge of how to use this special tool. Using the Luo Pan, the Yellow Emperor succeeded in defeating his enemies. In the ensuing centuries the compass device was progressively enhanced by the Duke of Chou, his son King Wen, and his grandson. The knowledge of the compass was combined with that of the Book of Changes, the I Ching, and, in the process, concepts of worldly and divine clairvoyance were established. Thus was formulated what would eventually become the fundamental underpinnings of the science of feng shui, a combination of all the knowledge of heaven and earth. As a tool, the Luo Pan was used in unison with the I Ching, which had by then been condensed into the eight-sided symbol called the Pa Kua.
Each Kua of the eight-sided Pa Kua symbol represents one major direction of the compass. And on each side is arranged the eight primary trigrams. These trigrams are placed in different arrangements thereby creating the Pa Kua of the Early Heaven arrangement and the Pa Kua of the Later Heaven arrangement. Both these arrangements appear in all Luo Pans. At the same time, the Lo Shu and Ho Tu squares were discovered and the numbers of these two numerology sequences were also synthesized into the Pa Kua and into the Luo Pan.
As a feng shui tool, the Luo Pan has been in use since the time of the Yellow Emperor around 2700 BC. It was initially used as a compass for taking directions before being refined into a complicated instrument for analyzing the landscape. Basically the Luo Pan was used to decipher the directional forces of nature and their bearing on the luck of abodes and their residents. Through the centuries and under different dynasties of imperial rule, the practice of feng shui has waxed and waned, but the Luo Pan evolved to contain the different formulas developed by different prominent masters during succeeding dynastic rules. Feng shui masters through the ages condensed their valuable observations and discoveries into working formulas, and their precious knowledge was engraved into the Luo Pan, to be passed down to their disciples.
During the Sung dynasty the lineage of transmission of divinatory sciences from one recognized master to the next was carefully chronicled. These transmissions included feng shui. In those times recognized experts were highly esteemed and feng shui practice flourished. The next dynasty significant to the story of feng shui was that of the Ming dynasty. During this time, feng shui developed new styles and orientations – rules were simplified and mountains, rivers, and stones were reclassified. Time cycles of feng shui were said to have been “invented” at this time, with the introduction of the Sarn Yuan (three periods or three cycles) system. Each cycle lasted 60 years, made up of three cycles of 20 years. This was to eventually become the basis of the Flying Star system of feng shui, which is gaining increasing popularity today, perpetuated by masters of the Compass schools. Flying Star formulas found their way into the feng shui Luo Pan which, during the Ming period, also expanded from 17 to 36 rings. In the late Ming, however, feng shui took on a bad name as “fake” masters and books were said to have become rather widespread.
For this reason later feng shui scholars were extremely critical of Ming-period feng shui. During the Ching period, the practices expounded by the Ming scholars were censured and as a result there was movement towards embracing the more theoretical texts of the Sung practitioners.
2. THE FENG SHUI LUO PAN TODAY
Today the Luo Pan and its rings of symbols, trigrams, numbers, and Chinese words is regarded as an indispensable instrument by professional feng shui consultants. In the same way that the abacus continues to be used by Chinese merchants who prefer it to the modern-day calculator, feng shui practitioners of the old school prefer using the Luo Pan to the modern-day compass.
Of the many different feng shui techniques requiring the use of the compass the most popular and influential are:
The time cycle techniques also known as Time Dimension feng shui. This incorporates the Flying Star, or Shuan Kong, method of feng shui analysis.
The Three Harmony method which refers to the harmony between Heaven, Earth, and Man, as reflected in the Heaven Plate, the Earth Plate, and the Man Plate of the Luo Pan. This Luo Pan is very comprehensive and contains three sets of rings, each denoting one of the plates. This is a combination Luo Pan which has many Chinese words and is said to be the most complete as it also contains information on time cycle feng shui.
The feng shui Luo Pan is first and foremost a compass for measuring directions. So the most important part of the Luo Pan is the magnetic needle and directional marking in the center. It is vital never to compromise on the quality of this central needle since so many of the nuances of good and bad luck depend on accurate compass readings.
To reiterate: the Luo Pan divides directions into 360 degrees around a point of reference. This is divided into eight main directions and 24 sub-directions. These sub-directions are referred to as the