Have you ever heard of a feng shui bagua map? This powerful feng shui map has the potential to entirely recharge the energy of your home. Here’s what you need to know about the feng shui bagua map and how to put it to use.
What Is Feng Shui Bagua?
The feng shui bagua map (also called pa kua) is a symbol of abundance. It serves as a powerful tool for manifesting your goals by influencing the natural energy flow called qi (pronounced as ‘chi’).
It specifically shows which areas of your home or office to connect to the specific areas of your life which you want to change or improve.
In Daoist cosmology, the bagua is eight trigrams, used to represent the fundamental principles of reality seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts.
Each trigram consists of three lines and each line is either “broken” or “unbroken,” representing yin or yang, respectively.
The bagua map was designed to:
- Enhance beneficial energy
- Balance positive vibrations
- Focus intentions
- Identify and correct subliminal messages, and
- To create a sacred space that nourishes your mind, body, and spirit.
Why You Need a Feng Shui Bagua Map
Most challenges or problems you’re faced with in life are a result of blocked or imbalanced energies. These energies are most often locked in living and workspaces where you spend most of your time.
So, if you want more prosperity, you must create a home or work environment that allows the energies of wealth and abundance.
The bagua layout
There are two types of bagua layouts:
1. Early Heaven Sequence
2. Later Heaven Sequence
Both types were developed before the “Book of Changes” (the I Ching), which describes the cosmology and philosophy of ancient China. Both baguas are associated with the eight compass directions, and both use cardinal directions. But keep in mind that the bagua is quite powerful. So it’s essential to use it carefully and correctly.
Where Do You Put Bagua?
1. Southeast
Feng Shui Element: Wind
Life Area: Power, wealth, abundance, and prosperity.
This represents happiness, peace, and the ability to take advantage of opportunities.
2. South
Life Area: Fame and Reputation
This represents how others perceive you and how they value your contributions. It also corresponds to illumination from within, integrity and honesty.
Feng Shui Element: Fire
3. Southwest
Feng Shui Element: Earth
Life Area: Relationships and Love
This represents long-lasting, harmonious relationships built on mutual trust and unconditional love.
4. West
Feng Shui Element: Metal
Life Area: Creativity, Children, Legacy
This represents joy, fullness, creativity, and imagination, signifying your relationship with your children.
5. Northwest
Feng Shui Element: Heaven
Life Area: Helpful People, Compassion, Travel
This represents support, guidance, and love from close friends and unseen helpers, and denotes letting go of everything and everyone that doesn’t serve you.
6. North
Feng Shui Element: Water
Life Area: Self, Career, Work, Journey
This represents career, life purpose, and the flow of life.
7. Northeast
Feng Shui Element: Mountain
Life Area: Skills, Knowledge, Wisdom, Harmony
This represents personal strength, wisdom, resourcefulness, self-mastery, and self-control. It’s also the link between a calm and intelligent mind.
8. East
Feng Shui Element: Thunder, Wood
Life Area: Family, Health, Community
This represents strong health, loving family relations, honesty, forgiveness, and the foundations for life.
9. Centre
Feng Shui Element: Earth
Life Area: Health, Wellbeing, Balance, Vitality
This represents a balanced life.
Traditional bagua map (Octagon Shape)
3 Ways to Divide Space According to the Feng Shui Bagua Map
1. Place the bagua map over a simple, hand-drawn floor plan of the home or space.
This floor plan should include everything that is under your roof or is a part of the foundation, including your garage, patio, porch, or anything else that may be attached to your home. If you live in a two-story or even a three-story home or more, make a separate floor plan for each level. This includes the basement and the attic if they are walk-ins.
The first floor is the most important floor since this is typically where the most amount of activity occurs. It’s also where the qi/chi energy enters the area via the front door and then meanders throughout the rest of the home.
So, focus on the first floor first.
And when drawing the floor plan, include any bay windows, architectural extensions, and any indents or nuances to the shape.
2. Hold the bagua with the Wisdom/Career/Helpful people sections facing you and parallel to the main entryway wall.
The main entryway always falls in the wisdom, career, or helpful people areas.
3. Now divide the entire house according to the bagua sections as illustrated in the picture below.
If a room is not a full square or rectangular shape, draw an imaginary line out from both sides (over the margins) until the complete square or rectangle of the house is complete, and mark it accordingly even if it’s a small space.
Feng shui cures for each area
A “cure” simply means applying feng shui wisdom to create harmonious energy in any type of space — be it modern, classical, or mid-century.
Feng shui decorating or cures mean different things to different people, especially because there are so many viewpoints attached to traditional and modern methods.
The main objective, therefore — no matter what type of cure — is to stay true to the symbols and images that hold meaning to you, bringing elements into each individual section that make you feel connected, inspired, and joyous.
The center of your house is a strong energy vortex, so remember it should strongly radiate with elements that represent health, balance, and wellbeing.
Which Is the Wealth Corner of the House?
If you’re looking for the ideal spot to place feng shui wealth symbols, you’ll want to find the wealth corner of your home.
Traditionally, the southeast corner of any room, house, office, or garden is the wealth corner.
This is the ideal place to add wealth symbols, such as the laughing Buddha, lucky cat, or money tree.
Learn more: Feng Shui Bedroom Layout Tips for Romance, Health & Wisdom
Feng Shui Elements and Corresponding Colors
Each area of the bagua has a corresponding color and element which are outlined on the bagua map.
The five vital elements mostly used by feng shui masters are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water — although there are more elements to draw inspiration from such as lakes, marsh, mountains, river, thunder, air, heaven, and ether (space).
Each one of these elements has a unique energy quality that’s expressed in specific colors, shapes, textures, and sounds. And each has complex ways in which they interact with each other.
1. The fire element
The fire element should be nourished and strengthened in the south, southwest, northeast, and center areas of the bagua.
Fire is best expressed in colors red, purple, orange, strong yellow, magenta, and pink — with triangular and star shapes.
Bring in a fire when you lack creative expression, when you feel cold and lonely, or when your energy feels weak.
2. The earth element
Earth is strengthened in the southwest, northeast, and center areas. Some of the best examples of earth element colors are ivory, beiges, soft browns, and bronze.
Strengthen the earth element in the decor when you need to reach a place of centered calm, stability, and peace, and create a strong, nurturing, and supportive foundation to keep your creative fire burning steadily, instead of in quick exhausting bursts.
Earth gives a sense of groundedness and inner power.
3. The water element
Water is needed in the north, east, and southeast, and is an ancient symbol of abundance.
The healing, life-giving and mysterious energy of water can be expressed in colors blue and black, in a variety of water features, in flowing shapes, images of water, and mirrors.
Just as water is essential for life on earth, so is this element essential in your decorating, expressed in flowing and meandering ways. Bring in a variety of blue to calm, cool, refresh your space, and promote a deeper sense of connection to life’s mysteries.
4. The wood element
Wood should be nourished and strengthened in the east, best expressed in colors green and brown, rectangular shapes, and beautiful healthy plants.
Bring in the wood when you need a breakthrough, when your vision seems unclear, when your energy is low and confused, or when you want to strengthen your health or encourage abundance.
5. The metal element
Metal is needed in the west, northwest, and north. The freshness, clarity, and strong cooling energy of metal, can be expressed in colors white, beige and gray, a variety of metallic finishes, round shapes, and plenty of decor items made from metal.
Work with metal when you need crisp, clear, fresh, and dynamic energy in your home or office. You might need a stronger presence of metal if you feel frustrated, overwhelmed when you lack direction in life, or just experience low, lazy energy. It’s good to add metal when you start new business projects or want to move on to a whole new level with your life experiences.
How the Elements Interact With Each Other
For illustration purposes, here’s how elements interact in nature.
- The roots of a tree (wood) absorb water and minerals necessary for growth on earth.
- The tree breathes (air) through its leaves and receives light and warmth from sunbeams (fire).
- If you set the wood of a tree on fire, the water will evaporate, and the oxygen (air) will be released.
- It will all turn to ash (earth) and become once again a source of minerals (metal) for other forms of life.
In pairs, elements can heal or correct imbalance, promote well-being, and strengthen and balance growth into the future.
For example, water and earth produce and nourish — like a plant that’s been watered, physical joy and well-being down to the roots.
And each of the elements also has a shadow side.
For example:
- Too much earth can feel heavy, weighed down, lethargic, sluggish, burdened, stuck in the mud, or in counterproductive
- Water in excess can be too sensitive, wishy-washy, too changeable, malleable, melodramatic, hysterical, over-emotional
- Too much fire can “scream,” be too excessive, be destructive, unbalanced, destabilize
Study the elements and learn how they interact so you can create balance and harmony when using elements in each section.
Ask yourself:
- What element is most present? What’s lacking?
- What, if any, is clearly dominant in its effect at any given time of day?
- What is in excess, and what element (quality or principle) can I cultivate to bring greater balance?
Use the ancient spirit of bagua like a monk
The more you develop your skills in bagua, the greater your chances of realizing its full physical and spiritual value.
Not only will you design a beautiful, harmonious home with good chi, but you’ll also train your mind and body to accept change, especially now, where change is so rapid that stress and physical tension have become a modern-day disease.
Like the ancient monks that developed the bagua, so can you develop and maintain a solid internal balance and flow to open up all possibilities to achieve calmness, stillness, and clarity.
You can generate a strong, healthy, disease-free body with relaxed nerves and great stamina — and experience an inner world of peace and prosperity.
