In Feng Shui, every home and room is divided into different “energy centers” that represent important areas of life. The Bagua map shows their locations. Bagua in Chinese means “eight areas.”
Bagua basics: locating the energy centers
The Bagua is one of the main tools Feng Shui practitioners use to determine the regions of a home, workplace or garden. Some variations of the Bagua show the eight regions in a square grid, other versions are octagonal.
In the Traditional or Compass school of Feng Shui, practitioners use a compass to determine the exact direction of the front door. Next, they place that compass point of the Bagua on that area of the floor plan. This can be used for the door or doorway of each room.
In the Western or BTB (Black Sect Tantric Buddhist) School of Feng Shui, practitioners use a square compass with eight areas and health in the center. The area for north on the bagua is always placed on the wall of the front door—the area of life is Career.
This method can also be used for the door or doorway of each room. Centering the Career region of the Bagua on the wall of your front door (no matter what the compass says), the other eight areas are determined based on their location relative to the home or room’s entrance.
Traditional (Compass) Bagua Locations:
North: Career
Northeast: Knowledge and Self-Cultivation
East: Family
Southeast: Wealth & Prosperity
South: Fame & Recognition
Southwest: Relationships
West: Children & Creativity
Northwest: Helpful People & Travel
Middle: Health
Putting the Bagua into Action
Once you have determined the location of the entrance to a home, workplace or room, look at what’s in each of the eight areas, as well as in the center:
- Is there a lot of clutter?
- Are there old or broken objects? Relics from your past?
- Is there a jumble of wires and cords from electronic devices?
- Do you have enough light or is this a dark spot?
Is it in the Wealth & Prosperity or relationship area of your home or room? Depending on what you see in each area, if that is an area that you to expand and grow, it’s certainly a good place to start with clearing out the clutter, fixing broken items or letting go of old relics, etc.
While it’s always best to consult a professional, especially if you plan to do anything structural to your home, your intuition is a powerful guide. Once you use the Bagua, glaring blockages or issues will probably jump out at you.
Experiment by decluttering or doing small things (such as hiding visible cords and wires) and track how events in your life change after you remove the obstacle, physical or energetic.
Working with Difficult Spaces
While using the Bagua may help with some things, especially the more obvious issues, you may find that there’s a tough impediment, such as a bathroom in your health, romance or prosperity region, or a dark stairwell in your spirituality and inner peace zone. Or you are not sure why nothing seems to be changing, and it could be blocked energy that you can’t see.
This is where consulting with a seasoned Feng Shui professional can really help. For most issues, they will be able to provide Feng Shui cures or adjustments that remove or release blocked energy and balance the flow in an aesthetically pleasing way—without you having to move or rebuild an entire room of your house. In my entire career, there have only been two occasions where I had to tell clients, you need to move because this home is making you sick or the design of the house is problematic and you shouldn’t buy it.
Colors and the Feng Shui Bagua
Each area on the Bagua is associated with a color and its correlating aspects in your life. If there is an area of life that you want to work on or enhance, incorporate the corresponding color into the room(s) of that area. You can either paint a room that color or a permutation of that color, or you can add accents of that color to a room with pillows, art, candles or imagery. Throughout your home, add colors that will increase your energy in that area of life.
