It should never be displayed or hung anywhere inside the home. It should not be used to counter poison arrows that are present inside the home. In destroying the shar chi of the poison arrow, it will also harm residents who inadvertently get hit by the Pa Kua. I stress this very strenuously as I am aware of people masquerading as feng shui masters who sell Pa Kua mirrors and recommend they be hung inside the home. Please don’t do this, as it is very dangerous.
The Yin Pa Kua’s arrangement of trigrams create protective yin energy when placed outside the home.
15 – understanding the yang pa kua
This is the diagnostic Pa Kua that is used to analyze the feng shui and chi flow of all the rooms contained in homes and offices.
The arrangement of the trigrams in this Pa Kua is the Later Heaven Arrangement, and here they reflect the premise that the relationship between the opposites of the Early Heaven Arrangement has given way to changes. The philosophy behind this Pa Kua is the inevitability of change. So now the trigram that is placed in the south is no longer Ch’ien but is instead the trigram Li, and the trigram in the north is no longer K’un, but Kan. The ultimate yang and yin trigrams are now placed in the northwest and southwest respectively.
Placement of the trigrams
It is when you spend a little time taking note of the arrangement of trigrams and their placement around this Yang Pa Kua that you begin to really understand the fundamental basis of feng shui practice. For now it is sufficient to know that we use the Yang Pa Kua for analysis for our feng shui practice, and not the Yin Pa Kua, which is more suitable for yin dwellings, or graveyards. So to practice feng shui, learn the attributes of each of the sides of the Yang Pa Kua.
The Pa Kua contains six rings that give different information to the feng shui practitioner (see here) One ring gives the life aspiration, for example career prospects or recognition and fame; the second the compass direction; the third the color of the Element; the fourth the Element, such as Water or Fire; the fifth the trigram; and the sixth the trigram character itself.
The Yang Pa Kua is the one that is used in feng shui analysis. The difference between this and the Yin Pa Kua is the way the trigrams have been placed. The arrangement of trigrams here is known as the Later Heaven Arrangement. This reflects the essence of yang feng shui. It reflects the cyclical nature of energy and shows how this can be activated to create and accumulate quantities of precious yang energy. It is this yang energy that brings life, activity, success, and joyousness to living spaces. In advanced feng shui work, both the Pa Kuas are combined to analyze the landforms around the home.
16 – how to use the yang pa kua in feng shui practice
Now we come to the first and easiest way to practice feng shui. The Pa Kua has many different rings with varying attributes to enhance your home.
I call this the Eight Aspirations of Mankind method as signified by the eight root trigrams of the I Ching that are placed around the eight-sided Pa Kua. Note that each side represents one direction. So as there are eight sides, all the eight directions of the compass around a central point are accounted for.
From the preceding pages we have already learned how to take directions and how to identify the different directions and sectors of the home. Now we will need to analyze the Yang Pa Kua in order to transfer the attributes of each of the eight sides of the Pa Kua onto your home and to do this in such a way that the quality of the chi in each sector of your home is enhanced with preliminary, but extremely fundamental, feng shui techniques.
First study the many layers of meanings associated with each of the eight different sides of the Yang Pa Kua shown here. Note that every direction sector contains different attributes that offer clues to how that part of any living space can be activated, energized, and enhanced. The energy of each sector also has a yin or a yang aspect and every sector is representative of the Element energy assigned to that sector under this arrangement of the trigrams. In the following pages the practical implications of each of the layers shown in the Pa Kua will be explained. Later, when we learn to go deeper and start to use the formulas of feng shui, the attributes of the directions as shown in the Pa Kua will take on even deeper and greater significance, so do spend some time studying these attributes.
From the Yang Pa Kua may be derived many rings of characteristics and element symbolism that give meaning to compass sectors.
17 – assess the pa kua sectors separately
Each home sector should be carefully assessed to see if there are imbalances in the energy there that should be corrected using the attributes of the Pa Kua.
Using the Pa Kua highlights the effects of missing and protruding corners, which can be good or bad depending on how they impact on the personalized feng shui of residents. Detailed examination of the sectors also shows the effect of shapes, colors, and room usage on the overall luck of the family.
Here the way you assess the sectors depends on whether you use the Lo Shu method or the Pie Chart method. The space covered under the two methods differs quite considerably. If you examine the two methods used on the floor plans below, you will see how the rooms and corners of rooms deemed to fall into different directions of the compass sectors differ quite considerably. If you are unsure which method to use you might want to follow my example and do away with the Pie Chart method completely. I have always used the Lo Shu Square method to demarcate rooms as I find this to be the most practical.
In addition, readers may be interested to know that the Lo Shu numbers actually make up the base upon which many of the most powerful formulas of feng shui are formulated. Secondly, since most rooms of most houses are either square or rectangular, using the grid method is much easier from a practical viewpoint. Some of you may find that certain rooms fall into two, or even three, different sectors. In such cases, the conventional wisdom to which many feng shui masters of repute subscribe is to follow the attributes indicated by the largest floor area covered.
1. The entrance is in the north sector. 2. The living room is in the east and northeast, which protrudes so the east and northeast are emphasized. 3. Bedrooms are in the southeast and southwest. 4. Bathrooms and toilets are in the south. 5. The dining room is in the west
18 – the eight directions and the five elements
Probably the most significant