This lesson is for Advanced students.

[1] Luo Shu

As accepted by all Feng Shui practitioners, the Luo Shu was found on a giant turtle's shell in the form of colored dots in 9 places of the shell. There dots were not separated by lines. The turtle shell was not divided into 8 wedges or 9 squares.

[2] Heaven Heart

In Chinese Philosophy, the heart is all and the heart is nothing. This means that the heart covers the whole space and it covers no space.

In Xuan Kong Feng Shui, the heaven heart is the Period Star. This, together with the sitting and facing directions of a house, defines the Star Chart of the house.

[3] Central Palace

The word "Palace" is not necessarily used to mean a space. For example, "Life Palace" does not occupy any space. The central palace does not occupy any space but it is the most important palace in a star chart. Not only does it govern the location of all other stars in the eight direction, the facing star and sitting star at the center tell us a lot about the house.

[4] What is in the ancient books.

In books written over 100 years ago, diagrams were drawn free-handedly with the brush. These diagrams only have an indication how a chart is to be read. Attached to a rough floor plan there is a star chart (with no square grids) oriented in such a way as to show the direction of facing and sitting. It is not a 9 square grid superimposed on a floor plan. You have to imagine what direction contains the stars. In some modern books, the twenty-four mountain ring of the Luo Pan is superimposed on a floor plan so that all interior and exterior objects can be located as coming from each of the twenty-four mountains. This helps the readers to understand the situation better. I am sick of people insulting the good work done by these modern writers.

When I do an audit, I can tell from experience the location of the stars and objects in most houses. when in doubt, I still have to superimpose a template on the floor plan to locate exactly where the door and other exterior objects are. That is why it is necessary to locate the center of a house. This is called "zhong yang li ji".

[5] What is a Palace like?

Does a palace look like a rectangle, a wedge or a trapezium?

It does not look like any of these figures. We are interested only in the direction of objects relative to the center of the house. The template of the Luo Pan to be superimposed on the floor plan clearly indicates the directions of objects. It also clearly indicate from which direction the "stars" come.

Inside a house, each room may contain more than one palace. Then the room is subjected to the qi from these palaces. All combinations have to be considered. This is because "qi rides with the wind" and "qi will stop at a barrier". With no walls to separate different palaces, the qi will simply mix together. However, exterior forms only act on the stars in that particular palace.

You can easily visualize that if you use 9 rectangles in your chart, you cannot tell from which mountain does the qi come, from which mountain does a road originate, to which mountain is a road heading etc.

[PREVIOUS LESSON]
[Feng Shui 101]