The Ba-Gua

What is the Ba-Gua?

The Ba-Gua is a depiction of the first 8 trigrams of the I Ching. The image on the left is to be superimposed on your home according to the compass directions. You must use an accurate compass. A geomancer may use a Lo P'an which is just a specialized compass with additional markings, but really most any compass will work. The side of the house that is southerly will be the bottom using this sequence. The diagram at left is based on the Later Heaven arrangement and is based on Lillian Too's The Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui (78-9).

An excellent shape for a home would cover this diagram completely, thus Square or octagonal shapes work very well for Feng Shui. This is not always possible, and so the diagram must be stretched to fit the home in question. There is also the possibility that a home will be "L" shaped in which case you may not have space inside your home for all of the sections in the Ba-Gua. These missing parts may affect your environment adversely, and so you can augment your home's exterior with other things to help complete the shape. In many cases the planting of a bush or tree to finish off what would be a square shape is all that is needed to improve the site. Imagine the red lines to be the outline of a home arranged appropriately atop the Ba-Gua. The planting of a tree or bush in the northwest corner completes the home and gives it a symmetrical design that improves the section for helpful people. The tree is represented by the red dot in the upper left hand corner.

Back in the Form School section we looked at the monument in Glenfinnan. At both Glenfinnan and Culloden the Historic Scotland society has set up a monument to the clan members that died for the Jacobite cause. These honor the dead like the Chinese would do their own ancestors. I found the previous site of the Glenfinnan monument most interesting due to its shape, that of Ba-Gua. A most propitious shape for geomantic reasons as mentioned above. Eight is a very good number to the Chinese. An 8-sided house, mirror, table, or grave site is always a good thing. It happens that in the form school an octagonal grave site works very well to keep one's ancestors amiable. At Glennfinnan I found this key to the monument. While the actual orientation does not match the Ba-Gua above, we shall pretend that it does for purposes of illustrating the method of geomancy reading. My own clans: Grant, MacDonnell and MacDonald are would be in order.

Grant: Fame, a reddish purple flowering plant would do them honor. We can see from the diagram that a Scots Pine is there, my guess is that it is not a reddish purple flowering plant so it would have to go. (Remember that the directions are not correct, this is just an exercise)

MacDonnell: Education, a green plant with blue flowers would honor them. White heather is indicated on the key. White is a color of the afterworld and funerals in China. While it is not the green and blue combination the Ba-Gua is looking for my inclination would be to leave it be, unless a problem was found there.

MacDonald: Career, a black or dark blue item or plant would suit this corner. The garden actually has heather growing in this spot, a reddish purple plant. In this exercise that would be best to move to the Grant location.

Interestingly, the round tower in the center has spiral staircase leading up to the statue of Prince Charlie. The staircase makes an excellent Tai Ch'i symbol. Glenfinnan monument is so well laid out for Feng Shui readings that one has to wonder if a Chinese designer wasn't consulted.

Too,Lillian. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui