All consultations begin with you prioritizing the 9 main areas of your life. To aid you in this, Feng Shui employs a template called a “Bagua”. Each of the 9 sections is called a “gua”, and the whole thing is called “The Bagua”.
The picture below is a stylized version, to give people an idea of the meaning of each area.
[From Wikipedia]
The Bagua (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bā guà; Wade-Giles: pa kua; literally “eight symbols”) are eight diagrams used in several Chinese doctrines to represent a range of interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each either “broken” or “unbroken,” representing a yin line or a yang line, respectively.
Due to their tripartite structure, they are often referred to as “trigrams” in English.
[Yikes! This is too much for me right now. I just want to know how to get started.]
The trigrams are related to Taiji philosophy and the Wu Xing, or The Five Elements philosophy. The ancient Chinese classic I Ching consists of the 64 pairs of trigrams (called “hexagrams”) and commentary on them. The interrelationships among the trigrams are represented in two arrangements, the Primordial (先天八卦), “Earlier Heaven” or “Fuxi” bagua (伏羲八卦), and the Manifested (後天八卦), “Later Heaven,” or “King Wen” bagua. The trigrams have correspondances in astronomy, astrology, geography, geomancy, anatomy, the family, and elsewhere.
The eight trigrams are: Qian 天, “Heaven;” Xun 風, “Wind;” Kan 水, “Water;” Gen 山, “Mountain;” Kun 地, “Earth,” Zhen 雷 “Thunder,” Li火, “Fire;” and Dui 泽, “Lake.”
[I now understand why I should hire a Feng Shui Master. How do I get started?]
Bagua used in Feng Shui
The Bagua is an essential tool in the majority of Feng Shui schools. The Bagua used in Feng shui can appear in two different versions: the Earlier Heaven Bagua, used for burial sites and the Later Heaven Bagua, used for the residences. When people refer to Feng Shui these days, they are invariably talking about the Later Heaven Bagua.
A bagua map is a tool used in modern forms of Feng shui to map a room or location and see how the different sections correspond to different aspects in one’s life. These sections are believed to relate to every area or aspect of our lives and are divided into such categories as: fame, relationships/marriage, children/creativity, helpful people/travel, career, inner knowledge, family/ancestors/health, and wealth/blessings.
In this system, the map is intended to be used over the land, one’s home, office or desk to find areas lacking good chi, and to show where there are negative or missing spaces and what may need rectifying or enhancing in life or the environment.
For example, if the Bagua grid is placed over the entire house plan and it shows the toilet, bathroom, laundry, or kitchen in the wealth/blessings area it would be considered that the money coming into that particular environment would disappear very fast, as if to be ‘going down the drain.’
Whew! I can’t believe I read all that. Now how do I get started?
