The Feng Shui Bagua is like the roadmap to your home, and how it affects your life. Feng Shui practitioners use the Feng Shui Bagua to determine which areas of your living or working space or auspicious, and how we can influence our environments to better our lives. The Feng Shui Bagua is not a mystical map - it is a clear and practical outline of what needs to be done.

The Feng Shui Bagua is an eight-sided map or diagram that helps practitioners of Feng Shui properly align the elements of their homes or environment. If you've ever stepped into someone's house or office, and instantly felt uncomfortable or that you just had to get out of there - that's a sign that something is wrong with the flow of qi in the room. On the other hand, if you've ever entered someone's home and immediately felt welcome- that's a sign that Feng Shui may be at work. And it all links back to the Feng Shui Bagua.

Boxes are the basic building blocks of The Feng Shui -- they help form the The Feng Shui road map.

The three-by-three grid is especially important. Its earliest form shows up in the Chinese "Book of Changes" also called the Magic Square.
Boxes are the basic building blocks of The Feng Shui -- they help form the The Feng Shui road map.

The three-by-three grid is especially important. Its earliest form shows up in the Chinese "Book of Changes" also called the Magic Square.

The numbers in the Magic Square add up to 15 vertically, horizontally and diagonally. This is the same number of days in a lunar cycle, which is why much of Feng Shui i is rooted in Chinese astrology.

The Bagua grid connects the elements to the Magic Square. There are still relations between the numbers and the elements (for example, the number five is considered an earthly, centering number), but depending on the user, there can be a variety of related material associated with a square.

The symbols representing the squares are called the trigram, and these eight multiply to make the 64 hexagrams that figure prominently in the mathematical calculations of the scientific-formula-based The Feng Shui The Bagua grid evolves into the Bagua Map.

Let's take a look at a Bagua Map, and how each area corresponds to the Bagua grid.

It's a map that can be laid over a map or representation of a room or environment to determine the most auspicious locations for items and decor. There is a lot of debate over how the Feng Shui Bagua should exactly be used for a given space, but the basic rule is to stand facing the space you wish to apply the Feng Shui Bagua to, and hold the Feng Shui Bagua in your hand with the black (career) gua facing you.

The following would promote each area:

• Black (Career): Mirrors, Fountains

• Blue (Skills and Wisdom): Books, Computers

• Green (Family): Plants, Family Photos

• Purple (Prosperity): Sailing Ships and Related Materials, Healthy Plants

• Red (Fame and Reputation): Awards, Animal- Related Items

• Pink (Love and Relationships): Paired Items, Pictures of Loved Ones

• White (Creativity and Children): Artwork, Children's Photos (according to Feng Shui practitioners, this area must be kept neat if you want happy, well-behaved children)

• Gray (Helpful People, Travel): Religious Items, Travel Souvenirs

• Yellow (Health): Pottery, Stone Objects

One common problem that many people have using the Feng Shui Bagua is that they are unsure if they should use it just on their bedroom, or on their entire home, especially if they live with others. In traditional Feng Shui, one's quarters are a microcosmic reflection of one's general living environments, and they both affect each other. In this case, use the Feng Shui Bagua to determine how changes made to your general living environment will affect the qi in your bedroom, as well as using the Feng Shui Bagua in your bedroom to compensate for inconsistencies in your general environment.

See Also :

• Article :  A Painting, As Well As A Chandelier Above The Bed, Can Be Bad ? 
• Article :  Feng Shui Design - How Does It Help You Enhance Chi In Your Home ?