Compass School

The Compass School

The Compass School relies on the earth's magnetic field to find the lines of Ch'i or energy. The geomancer's compass is called a Lo P'an. It is very important in the study of Feng Shui. Lo means reticulated or netted, and P'an means a plate or dish from Derek Walter's Feng Shui Handbook (165-7).

There are Lo P'an that have thirty five or more rings each crammed full of useful divination markings. My personal Lo P'an is still under construction but will have only a dozen rings or so.

The base of the Lo P'an is a simple square housing in which the circular compass needle and rings sit. Many people assume this is just a protective casing for the compass, but there are perpendicular lines stretching from top to bottom and side to side across the rings. These lines serve to help define the areas of interest to the Feng Shui master. The square base plate represents the Earth (yin), and the circular rotating plate represents Heaven (yang). The two plates are an expression of the yin-yang principles of the Tao.

The dial plate is the part that has the strata of esoteric characters a Feng Shui practitioner makes use of. In its center lies a magnetic compass needle to align the plate with magnetic south. Remembering that the north is a direction from which comes invaders and evil forces, the ancient Chinese used the southern tip of the needle to map and divine with. The needle itself sits in what is called the Heaven Pool. The Heaven Pool would be the water used to float the needle on the Heaven plate in the center of the Lo P'an (167).

The rings start from the center and progress outward to the square Earth plate. The first ring beyond the Heaven Pool is usually the Ba-Gua, or the eight trigrams upon which the I Ching is based. They map out the four primary directions of the compass north, south, east, and west. Then the intermediate directions: south east, south west, north east, and north west.The initial eight trigrams were created in 3000 BC, and as such they were based in part on the heavenly formations in the skies at that time. They have been adjusted to fit the changes in our night skies over time. The new forms were realigned according to the sage-king Wan. These are known as the Former Heaven sequence. The Ba-Gua image in the previous section is in the Former Heaven sequence. After the eight trigrams there is usually some variation from Lo P'an to Lo P'an, according to Stephen Skinner'sThe Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui included at some level is: the (12) Heavenly Stems, the Five Elements, (the 10) Earthly Branches, (the 8) Directional Points, Sexagenary Points, Dragons, 360 Degrees in a circle, and Days in the year. (94)

It is possible that the Lo P'an's use of the magnetic compass might actually predate the navigational use of such a device. Feng Shui was certainly the mother of the systematic use of magnetism, navigation and geography, just as astrology was of astronomy, and alchemy of chemistry. (98)

The use of the Lo P'an comes into play when the natural forms of the land are not obvious. Frequently the Feng Shui master will employ it where a stream disappears under ground, or where a hill meets the flat. From this point there might not be ocular evidence of Ch'i. The Lo P'an would be positioned to the correct direction, and from the rings the geomancer could point out good and bad areas for a grave or house. Extensive knowledge of the Chinese calendar can make the compass more useful still. The Feng Shui adept can match a location precisely to the patron if his birthdate is known.