Ba Chai and the Eight Mansions

The Compass school studies the cardinal directions and time, using the complex Chinese Luo Pan Compass and mathematical formulas based on Lo Shu – the magic square.

The ba chai (8 Mansions / Houses) can be used in three different ways. The first way is to calculate your personal Kua number (based on your date of birth) and learn about the good and bad cardinal directions for you. The second way is to learn about the good and bad cardinal directions of your home, based on the 8 types of homes with varying energy distribution. The third way is learning both, your personal Kua number and that of your home, and comparing them to each other.

Many people choose to use the simplest approach – determine the type of their home and learn about its good and bad sectors, regardless of their personal Kua. We will discuss this method below.

All homes fall into numerous types based on primary and secondary cardinal directions. In total, there are 8 main types of homes based on their facade direction. The direction of the facade usually coincides with that of the main entrance. Having determined the direction of your home, you can find out which of its sectors are good and bad for people, using special tables.

There are also some common suggestions for all homes. For instance, having water in front of a home is typically considered to be good, as it reinforces the Shen Chi – the sector of continuous improvement and growth responsible for the success of the occupants. However, it’s important to keep in mind that any home will have its individual location of the good and bad sectors.

Good sectors are Fu Wei, Tien Yi, Nien Yen, and Shen Chi; they need to be strengthened. Bad sectors are Chueh Ming (big loss), Lui Shar (six deaths), Wu Kwei (five ghosts), and Ho Hai; they need to be suppressed. It’s good if a bathroom, kitchen or pantry is located in a bad sector, as it will weaken its bad energy. As we mentioned above, the good and bad sectors vary depending on the type of your home. Therefore, you need to use special tables to determine these for your home in particular.

Varying schools of Feng Shui continue to struggle with each other and provoke controversy, but it’s not an obstacle to study this powerful teaching. Different points of view are always enriching to a notion, and help to prevent it from becoming stagnant. Any science evolves and tries to adapt to the lifestyles of different generations. The core values of feng shui, however, are always the same. They are the search for harmony and balance of the positive energy Sheng Qi, and simultaneous elimination of the negative energy Sha Qi. Simply use your intuition and common sense, and you may soon learn to choose good places quite intuitively.