Feng Shui and The Bagua of the eight aspirations – also called the Bagua Map!
The Bagua (bagua map) is used in Feng Shui as a tool to map a home or business. Different sections are known to correspond with different aspects in peoples life. Each one of the sections relates to every aspect of life and is divided into categories such as Name, Fame, Fortune, Relationships and Marriage, Spirituality and Creativity, Career Advancements, and Power, Health and Wealth.
"The Bagua map is used in Feng Shui as a tool to map a home or business."
The map is intended to be used over the land, a home, office or desk to find areas lacking good chi, and to show where there are negative or positive zones that may need to be adjusted to enhance the environment.
When placing the bagua grid over the entire floor plan of a home or business it shows the locations of bathrooms, closets, laundry and kitchen. In general: If these rooms would fall into the wealth area it would be considered that money coming into these particular zone will vanish quickly. Although the explanation in itself is correct, it is over-simplified and abused by many “Feng Shui Consultants”. The correct placing of the bagua grid is the first step to an accurate Feng Shui Consultation while many more calculations and aspects have to be considered for a complete Feng Shui Reading.
Ba Gua, bā guà; literally translated means "eight symbols". These are eight diagrams used in Taoism to represent the principles of reality. They are seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each line either "unbroken" or "broken," respectively representing Yin and Yang. They are often referred to as "trigrams" in English due to their three line structure.
The 64 possible pairs of trigrams are related to I - Ching philosophy and the “five elements” (wu xing). The trigrams have correspondences in astrology, astronomy, geomancy, geography and anatomy.
Each trigram corresponds to an aspect of life which, in its turn, corresponds to one of the eight compass directions. Traditional Feng Shui Masters call it “New Feng Shui” because of its simplicity. Form of the landscape/ environment nor the influence of time or the annual cycles are taken into account. Today, many books are written based on the Bagua ignoring the importance of the cycles of time. The Bagua map should be applied to a floor plan by the use of a compass – not by using the main entrance to a building. By using the main entrance as a reference point, and ignoring the use of a compass to find out cardinal directions it is clear that this method is an even more simplified use without any sense.
The trigrams are related to the five elements used by Feng Shui Practitioners and in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Those are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. The Bagua is an essential tool in Feng Shui. The Bagua used in Feng Shui can appear in two different versions: The“Earlier Heaven Bagua” is used for burial sites and the “Later Heaven Bagua” is used for homes and businesses.
A good Feng Shui practitioner must know all information related to the Eight Trigrams. Those with a good grasp of Feng Shui know the importance of how to place the Bagua correctly over any floor plan after a correct compass (LoPan) reading. This is of importance before being able to continue with further calculations.
This is the very first step to a successful Feng Shui Consultation!
