Along with an accurate
compass direction, determining your sitting and facing direction
is critical to performing a precise Feng Shui consultation. We would
estimate that 70% of people get this wrong.
This area causes so much confusion, we have been
to so many consultations and told beforehand that a property faces
a certain direction and when we get there the direction of the front
door is totally different to the facing direction.
To give the answer is actually very hard, as
there are so many different views on how to find the front direction
of your home or office, in fact even a qualified Feng Shui consultant
can spend some time analysing a property before she/he makes a decision
on where the front is.
Forget your front door direction
Most people assume the front is the direction
your front door faces, try and imagine you are in my home (while
you are there can you do some ironing and dusting please) as you
stand in the centre of my home you will be in my dining room with
the living room and hallway and kitchen either side, I have five
large windows and one small facing north, there is a road outside
and a public footpath also my front garden, but I do not have a
front door there. On the east wall I have a main door with porch
and one window, which looks onto the next-door neighbours house.
Hopefully you will get the idea by now, because
my front door faces east it does not mean this is the front of my
home, my facing direction is north, this is where the most “Yang”
(activity) energy is, the road, footpath, people and cars going
by, the widest part of the building, if you were the architect designing
my home from scratch you would definitely put my front door there.
This part is very very important, as when you calculate any school
of Feng Shui you need to know which way your property faces. If
you take my house again (make sure you lift the ornaments and dust
underneath) although I may have a driveway leading to the garage
and front main door, for example assume at the back I now have a
main road, pedestrian footpath, lots of people and activity and
even a lovely stream, you guessed it, this would now be my front
direction as this is where all my Yang energy is, this is not uncommon
when you think about it, drive down any main road you will see many
homes with back gardens facing the road and yet they will always
think this is the rear in Feng Shui terms. This can be hard to judge
even for the most seasoned Master especially if you are on the top
floor of a block of flats or a large office building.
So
what is facing and sitting directions?
The facing direction is the front that faces
the “yang” (active) energy, the sitting direction is actually more
important this is the area that has the most “yin” (quiet) energy.
The sitting direction determines your properties Trigram. So if
your property faces 350 degrees north, the sitting direction is
170 degrees south, so the Trigram for this property is “Li”.
Now we know that this is a “Li” property we would
know that the best colour to paint this property on the outside
would be fire colours, red, orange, purple etc.
How
do I know which is Yin (sitting) and which is Yang (facing)?
Yang (facing): This is the most active
energy, energy that is lively:
v
A busy road.
v
A public footpath.
v
A flowing river.
v
The side of a property that has the most windows.
v
Your street sign.
v
The south (bright) is Yang and the north (dark) is
Yin.
v
A children’s playground or primary school.
v
The main entrance is usually (not always) the facing
direction.
v
A nice view.
v
The architects intention, try and guess how he felt
the sitting direction would be.
v
A living or family room is normally on the facing
side.
Just because your home may face a children’s
playground this does not automatically mean this is your facing
direction, you need to consider all the factors given on this page.
Yin (sitting direction): This is where
the least energy resides:
v
A back yard usually is your sitting direction or an
alleyway.
v
Tall dark trees at the back of your grounds.
v
Smaller darker rooms.
v
The north (dark) is Yin energy.
v
The quiet side of the property.
v
The kitchen and bathroom (not always) is normally
at the back.
v
Bedrooms are normally on the sitting side.
v
Utility or washrooms are normally in the sitting direction.
v
The sitting direction could look onto a large building
or a row of houses.
v
The side of the property that is not that attractive
to the eye, i.e. down-pipes from the bathroom, gutter pipes placed
sideways across the main-wall.
You will need to take a view on all of the above;
a good test to find your facing direction is, if you had to take
a photo of your home or office which angle would you take it from?
Would you take the picture of the front door that has nothing on
that wall except the main entrance or would you take the picture
of the side that has the most windows and is more pleasing to the
eye.
*** Tip***
Do you remember the details you had from the estate agents when
you bought your home, which angle did they take the photo from?
I can remember when we bought our last home, the amount of homes
we viewed from the pictures on the property details showing the
rear of the home, because this was the most attractive or bright
side, in fact I was amazed at how the estate agents actually managed
to capture the facing direction even though most people would have
thought this would have been the sitting direction.
Examples
of sitting and facing directions.
Example 1: This property has a main door
that faces east; this door looks onto their neighbour’s wall and
has no other windows on this wall.
Facing direction is different to front door direction.
The front looking out the living room window:
v
A busy road.
v
Faces north
v
A playing field beyond the road.
v
A street sign outside lounge window.
v
The most windows on a wall
The rear looking out the kitchen/dining room:
v
A patio/backyard.
v
Trees at the end of the garden.
v
Looks towards the south.
v
A public footpath.
v
The quieter side.
This is a simple diagnosis of facing and sitting
direction. Even though the main door faces east, this is not its
facing direction, this property clearly faces North and sits in
the south, even thought it does not have a door on the north wall.
You probably noticed I threw in a few little teasers, the front
faces north which is “Yin” (normally sitting) energy, however, if
you look at all the other “Yang” energy this does not dictate its
facing direction. The rear faces south which is a Yang energy and
it also looks onto a public footpath, however, the other factors
say that this its sitting direction.
Example 2:
This house is clear cut, the front door is on
the front main wall along with lots of windows, there is a pathway
leading to it. Trees are at the back and this clearly the way the
arictecth had designed it.
Now imagine the main door in the middle was on
a side wall, which way would it face then? It would still face the
same direction, even if the door was at the back of the house. Having
the main door on the front wall makes it easier to make a judgment
on facing direction, however modern homes are built nowadays with
the main door built in any location.
Example 3
Hopefully you have the idea by now. The above
house main door faces west, however the front of the house is clearly
the north wall where the four windows are. If you had to take one
photo of this house and only show one wall you would take it on
the north wall. So this house faces north and sits in the south.
Regardless of what books you have read telling
you to use your main door as a starting point, this is not what
a traditional practitioner would do, she or he will first determine
the sitting and facing direction and then take accurate compass
direction, then the door would be taken into account. For more details
on taking compass readings follow this link.
Now I know my directions,
what now?
So your property faces 319 degrees and sits 139 degrees,
use the chart below to find out the Trigram for your home. A property
that faces 319 degrees is a Sun (Xun) house. Having this information
will tell you that this year 2002, you will need to activate the
north-east for wealth and more importantly you need to weaken the
deadly 2 - 5 stars in the east otherwise your health, wealth and
luck will be affected. This is going into a more detailed version
of traditional Feng Shui if you would like further details on our
comprehensive on-line
consultations click here. These reports are very in-depth and
do not just take into account your home they also analyse you and
your family as individuals to make sure you face your best direction
when working, sleeping, relaxing etc.
Example Flying star for a
Sun Trigram house.
Compass graduations and their
corresponding house Trigrams.
