|
"Feng Shui" as I may have
mentioned once or twice in other ARTicles, in Chinese literally means Wind and
Water and is the Chinese art of creating positive energy or Qi (Chi) flow. The
ancient Chinese believe that some environments are better than others and they
call the study of determining this Feng Shui. Feng Shui can be considered a
kind of astrological environmentalism with a lot of common sense thrown in for
good measure. The primary goal of Feng Shui is increasing harmony with nature.
Feng Shui is important in the building of both the exteriors and interiors
houses and buildings and also the placement of certain objects with them. It is
also important in the placement of doors and windows and rooms within the house
or building.
Qi or Chi is the name of
the energy that flows between air and water. According to the Taoist belief of
Yin and Yang there is both good and bad Qi (Chi). Basically bad Qi (Chi) flows
in a straight line, while good will circulate. That is why when building a house
it is not good to have the front and rear entrance to be in a straight line. If
the front and rear entrance happen to be in a straight line then a partition
should be erected to block a direct path between the to in order to increase air
circulation instead of direct air flow between the two.
In Feng Shui there are
believed to be five interrelated stages of matter elements: Water, Wood, Fire,
Earth, and Metal. The progression between these stages of matter always starts
with water. Water will sustain the trees (wood), which will burn to make Fire,
whose ashes become part of the Earth which is where Metal can be found. There is
also a destructive progression to these stages of matter, which is anything
which interferes with the natural progression.
One of the main ancient
Chinese Feng Shui legends holds that long ago there was a great flood along the
banks of the Lo River in south central China. So the local people tried to
appease the angry river god by offering a sacrifice. A giant turtle emerged from
the Lo River and on its shell was a most peculiar design. It contained patterns
of circular dots that were arranged in a tic-tac-toe pattern. The numbers,
represented by dot patterns, were arranged in such a way as to add up to 15
whether the addition was performed left to right in any row, from top to bottom
in any column, or in any diagonal direction. The numbers of the pattern are: 4 |
9 | 2 ------------- 3 | 5 | 7 ------------- 8 | 1 | 6 This pattern was said to
hold astrological powers and properties and was used by the ancient people of
the area to control the waters of the Lo River and was hence named the Lo Shu or
Square from the Lo River. The even numbers in the Lo Shu were said to hold
female or yin and dark properties. While the odd numbers of the Lo Shu square
were said to hold male or yang and light properties.
There is much more that
can be said about the Lo Shu but for our purposes, we will leave it by
mentioning that its grid can be used in the Flying Star Theory of Feng Shu to
help analyze a site, a house or building. But back to the older Eight House
Theory, from which the Flying Stars System came, itself has it roots in Chinese
Astrology. It is a method of relating energy patterns to the influences of the
Earth and other planets. In this system the Planet Jupiter brings wealth, good
fortune and good luck. The method uses a "luopan" or geomantic compass to
determine directional alignment of buildings. There are two primary groups of
Feng Shui that utilize the "luopan". The first is the East and West Group and
the second is called Xuan Kong.
The group we will concern
ourselves here with is the East and West Group which is also known as the Eight
House (sometimes Eight Mansion) theory. This practice examines the influence of
directions on people, places and buildings in an effort to find out the best way
to align one's self and one's possessions within the building. Under Eight House
theory, all houses and buildings are divided into eight types based on the eight
trigrams of the Later Heaven trigam. Each trigram represents forty-five degrees
of the compass thereby enpassing three hundred and sixty degrees. These eight
houses are further subdivided into two groups: the East Group and the West
Group.To identify what type of house a person has you simply use a compass to
determine the direction the front of your house is facing and the back is
sitting. Then find your house on the table below:
Group Direction Trigram
Matter State North Kan (1) Water East Shen (3) Wood EAST Southeast Xun (4) Wood
South Li (9) Fire
Southwest Kun (2) Earth
WEST Northwest Qian (6) Metal West Dui (7) Metal Northeast Gen (8) Earth
East Group structures are
in harmony with East Group structures and in disharmony with West Group Houses
and vice versa. Like the houses and buildings according to the Eight House
Theory, people are also divided into East Groups and West Groups. Depending on
the group you belong to this enables you to find out if a particular house or
building is good for you by determining your four favorable directions which are
named:
1) Prosperity (Sheng Chi)
wealth acquisition and success in all aspects of life. 2) Health (Tian Yi)
strengthens body and mind so that one is always to accomplish one's goals. 3)
Longevity( Nien Yan) is needed for good relationships be they nurturing, sexual,
or marital in nature. 4) Prime (Fu Wei) is necessary for personal growth,
development and mental alertness.
Naturally the other four
directions would be your unfavorable directions and are named:
1) Disaster (Jueh Ming)
the most harmful energy causes harm to one's career, loss of money and illness.
2) Five Ghosts (Wu Gui) causes one to be disagreeable and possibly disturbed.
Ones hope will not come to fruition. 3) Six Sha (Liu Shar) This energy causes
hardship in your relationships be they at work or romantic in nature. 4) Death (Huo
Hai) This energy is the way to failure and hardship to people.
EAST GROUP DIRECTIONS: Kua
Good Directions Bad Directions Number| Sheng |Tian |Nien | Fu | Jueh | Wu | Liu
|Huo Chi | Yi |Yan | Wei | Ming | Gui | Shar |Hai 1 SE E S
N SW NE NW W 3 S N SE E W NW NE SW 4 N S E SE NE SW W NW 9 E SE N S NW W SW NE
WEST GROUP DIRECTIONS: Kua
Good Directions Bad Directions Number|Sheng |Tian | Nie | Fu | | Jueh | Wu | Liu
| Huo | Chi | Yi | Yan | Wei | | Ming | Gui | Shar | Hai 2 NE W NW SW N SE S E 6
W NE SW NW S E N SE 7 NW SW NE W E S SE N 8 SW NW W NE SE N E S All that remains
now is to learn to find your Kua number. East Group people have Kua numbers of
one, three, four and nine while West Group people have Kua numbers of two, six,
seven and eight. Kua numbers are not always the same for men and women. By now
it should be obvious why there is no Kua number of five. But for the readers who
can't figure it out all you have to do is let just about anyone else read this
ARTicle and ask them once they're through. As to the good news I was referring
to earlier it is this: Naturally it is only necessary to remember our favorable
directions because the ones that are not our favorable directions are our
unfavorable directions. This little fact only makes our task half as hard
because it eliminates half the directions.
That said on to the bad
news. The bad news is this: Like much of the theory and lore having to do with
Feng Shui there are to ways to go about finding your Kua number and they don't
always yield the same result. What??? I said much of the teachings of Feng Shui
are contradictory and the two ways of arriving at your Kua number don't always
yield the same result. If for your particular date of birth you arrive at the
same number using both systems then that would definitely be your Kua number and
you have no problem. For those of you who don't arrive at the same number then
the only answer that I have for your dilemma is: I don't know. If you talk to
one hundred Feng Shui consultants you will have fifty who will go with the
number from the birth date calculation method I will show you in Method One. The
other fifty will swear by the method that I will show you in Method Two but some
of these will not agree with all of my values for the chart. The only advice
that I can offer is that the process of Feng Shui is as much art as science so
try each number and go with the one that is yielding the better results for you
personally. So now with no more ado here is Method One:
Kua Number Calculation
Method One
To calculate your Kua
number you take the year of your birth. (One exception here is if you were born
between January 1st and February 7th you must subtract one from your year of
birth) Add the last two digits of your year of birth together. If you are a male
then you subtract this number from ten and the absolute value (remove any minus
sign) of this result is your Kua number. If you are a female then you take the
result of adding the last two numbers of your birth year and add five. If your
new result is a double digit number then add those two digits together to arrive
at your Kua number. Since there is no Kua number of zero or five if your result
is zero then use two, if your result is five then use eight as your Kua number.
Here is an example:
Let's say you are female
and born on January 21st, 1964.
1st since you are born
before February 7th you would subtract one from your birth year making your
adjusted birth year 1963. Next add the last two digits: 6 + 3 = 9. Next add five
to the results: 9 + 5 = 14. Since we have a two digit answer you would add these
two number together: 1 + 4 = 5. Since there is no Kua number of five (as
explained above) our Kua number is 8.
For a male using the same
birthday of January 21st, 1964.
1st since you are born
before February 7th you would subtract one from your birth year making your
adjusted birth year 1963. Next add the last two digits: 6 + 3 = 9. Next subtract
this result from 10: 10 - 9 = 1. Your Kua number is 1.
The methodology behind
method two is complicated and unfortunately has to be edited out in this
excerpted version of the article due to space limitations. For the full version
of this article please visit
Ye Old Art Shoppe so just find your date of birth in the list and next to
it is your Kua number:
Date of Male Female
Date of Male Female Kua Kua Kua Kua
New Year Number Number New Year Number Number 2/5/1931 6 9 2/4/1970
3 3 2/5/1932 2 1 2/4/1971 2 4
2/4/1933 4 2 2/5/1972 1 8
2/4/1934 3 3 2/4/1973 9 6
2/5/1935 2 4 2/4/1974 8 7
2/5/1936 1 8 2/4/1975 7 8
2/4/1937 9 6 2/5/1976 6 9
2/4/1938 8 7 2/4/1977 2 1
2/5/1939 7 8 2/4/1978 4 2
2/5/1940 6 9 2/4/1979 3
3 2/4/1941 2 1 2/5/1980 2 4
2/4/1942 4 2 2/4/1981 1 8
2/5/1943 3 3 2/4/1982 9 6
2/5/1944 2 4 2/4/1983 8 7
2/4/1945 1 8 2/4/1984 7 8
2/4/1946 9 6 2/4/1985 6 9
2/4/1947 8 7 2/4/1986 2
1 2/5/1948 7 8 2/4/1987 4 2
2/4/1949 6 9 2/4/1988 3 3
2/4/1950 2 1 2/4/1989 2 4
2/4/1951 4 2 2/4/1990 1 8
2/5/1952 3 3 2/4/1991 9 6
2/4/1953 2 4 2/4/1992 8 7
2/4/1954 1 8 2/4/1993 7
8 2/4/1955 9 6 2/4/1994 6 9
2/5/1956 8 7 2/4/1995 2 1
2/4/1957 7 8 2/4/1996 4 2
2/4/1958 6 9 2/4/1997 3 3
2/4/1959 2 1 2/4/1998 2 4
2/5/1960 4 2 2/4/1999 1 8
2/4/1961 3 3 2/4/2000 9
6 2/4/1963 2 4 2/4/2001 8 7
2/4/1963 1 8 2/4/2002 7 8
2/5/1964 9 6 2/4/2003 6 9
2/4/1965 8 7 2/4/2004 2 1
2/4/1966 7 8 2/4/2005 4 2
2/4/1967 6 9 2/4/2006 3 3
2/5/1968 2 1 2/4/2007 2
4 2/4/1969 4 2 2/4/2008 1 8
We will now close this
article with a few examples of how to apply your Feng Shui Kua Numbers once
you've found them:
1) The front entrance of
your house should be facing in the Sheng Chi direction of the highest paid
worker within the household because it is their financial good fortune that is
in the best interest of the household to maintain.
2) Everyone within a
household, as far as is possible, should select a bedroom that is in their Nien
Yen direction to best support and improve their relationship situation.
3) Within their bedroom
their bed should be placed so that the occupant sleeps facing their Nien Yen
Direction.
4) At one's home and place
of business ones desk and/or one's cash register should always face his Sheng
Chi direction.
5) At meals one should
always face his Tien Yi direction.
Finally since one cannot
always comply with these tips it is a good idea to place a Turtle Dragon in the
vicinity to ward off the bad luck, (Qi or Chi). And the best place, as always,
to get only the best in Oriental Art, Feng Shui Art, Feng Shui Information, and
Sculpture and Gift Items from around the world is
Ye Old Art Shoppe I
hope this ARTicle has been in some way helpful in your understanding of Feng Chi
and Kua Numbers and the significance of Kua number, especially your Sheng Chi
number to living a life using a Feng Chi philosophy. :)
About
the author: Neal Morton is a career computer professional and an avid supporter
of the arts.
|
