Feng Shui

[Taomeow]

2. The simple method to convert the Western Calender Year(WCY) to Lunar Year(LY).

 

1957, we add up all the digits of the WCY:

1 + 9 + 5 + 7 = 22, then

2 + 2 = 4

 

For male, subtract the number from 11:

11 - 4 = 7

 

For female, add 4 to the number:

4 + 4 = 8

 

Again, look up those numbers on the Luo Shu and the Later Day Ba Gua.

 

This is not western calendar to lunar year conversion. This is ming gua calculation.

[Bubbles]

Hi,

 

I haven't come much lately. But I can see that ChiDragon is striking again.

I have been studying Xuang Kong Fei xing, and Da Gua for a number of years.My goodness!... it take a lot more than a Black Hat sect book to understand what FS is all about.

 

ChiDragon, I don't doubt about your sincerity, but at some point and most of the time, your path turns out into blindness about what is real knowledge in those matters and what is not.

 

I won't be back soon so don't bother responding.

 

bubbles

[ChiDragon]

This is not western calendar to lunar year conversion. This is ming gua calculation.

 

1957 is a calender year. In the way, doing all this calculation was converting to the lunar year without your realization.... Yes, the final result is called the Ming Gua(命卦).

Edited March 17, 2012 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

This is Lin Yun's black sect nonsense.

 

I am just using it as a reference for the directions and the names of the Ba Gua and ignored the rest. Unless you can come out with a better one.

[Taomeow]

1957 is a calender year. In the way, doing all this calculation was converting to the lunar year without your realization.... Yes, the final result is called the Ming Gua(命卦).

 

Oh bother. "Without my realization." Nope, I pretty much know what I'm doing here.

 

January of 1957 is still a lunar month of 1956 by the lunar calendar. Someone born in January of this year would have to convert his or her year of birth to 1956 first (using the solar to lunar calendar converter based on Chinese New Year that falls on a different date of the Gregorian calendar every time) and THEN use the year obtained in order to calculate his or her ming gua. If you are using 1957 in the calculations you showed, it means you are already assuming 1957 is the lunar year of birth. But a January 1957 baby would have to use 1956.

 

Ming gua of your example is, in the case of the female, Gen8West. Please understand that you can only calculate the ming gua using the lunar calendar; that any and all conversions have to have been done prior to doing this; and that Gen8West means many exciting and profound things but "solar to lunar calendar conversion" is not one of them.

[Taomeow]

I am just using it as a reference for the directions and the names of the Ba Gua and ignored the rest. Unless you can come out with a better one.

 

Here's both -- xiantian in black, houtian in red. Notice that apart from those silly "sectors" or "life stations" invented by the black sect, another problem is eliminated from this one that the one you posted had -- namely, the unwarranted positioning of "earth" in the center AND in the SW simultaneously. The author of the diagram you posted confused two systems -- the diagram is of the bagua and the nine palaces, but the central earth is from one semi-traditional arrangement of wuxing (the more traditional one places wuxing phases in a circle, generating each other). In reality the center, both in xiantian and houtian bagua, is the 5th Palace, and this is a Flying Star and not "earth" from an entirely different ball of wax.

[ChiDragon]

Oh bother. "Without my realization." Nope, I pretty much know what I'm doing here.

 

January of 1957 is still a lunar month of 1956 by the lunar calendar. Someone born in January of this year would have to convert his or her year of birth to 1956 first (using the solar to lunar calendar converter based on Chinese New Year that falls on a different date of the Gregorian calendar every time) and THEN use the year obtained in order to calculate his or her ming gua. If you are using 1957 in the calculations you showed, it means you are already assuming 1957 is the lunar year of birth. But a January 1957 baby would have to use 1956.

 

Ming gua of your example is, in the case of the female, Gen8West. Please understand that you can only calculate the ming gua using the lunar calendar; that any and all conversions have to have been done prior to doing this; and that Gen8West means many exciting and profound things but "solar to lunar calendar conversion" is not one of them.

 

So far. I have only mentioned birth year to determine the Ming Gua. Now, you have introduced birthday in your understanding which raised a question for me to ask. How would you determine the Ming Gua with the birthday in the system which you had learned....???

Edited March 18, 2012 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

Oh bother. "Without my realization." Nope, I pretty much know what I'm doing here.

 

January of 1957 is still a lunar month of 1956 by the lunar calendar. Someone born in January of this year would have to convert his or her year of birth to 1956 first (using the solar to lunar calendar converter based on Chinese New Year that falls on a different date of the Gregorian calendar every time) and THEN use the year obtained in order to calculate his or her ming gua. If you are using 1957 in the calculations you showed, it means you are already assuming 1957 is the lunar year of birth. But a January 1957 baby would have to use 1956.

 

I see where the confusion was. The Chinese do not use number for the year to begin with. They use the combination of the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches to keep track of the years. Every sixty years was considered to be one cycle(元甲，Yuan2 Jia3 ). It happens to be that the lunar year of 丁酉(Ding1 You3) falls in the year of 1957. The Chinese use 丁酉(Ding1 You3) to look up the Ming Gua on a predetermined chart. 丁酉(Ding1 You3) is already limited itself to the lunar calender. It was just a coincidence that the number was happened to be very suitable for the calculation of the Ming Gua. If the year was 1956, then 丙申(Bing1 Shen1）would have had been used to look up in the chart.

 

BTY The the Ming Gua was also known as a Year Gua since the year was used to calculate the Ming Gua.

[ChiDragon]

Here's both -- xiantian in black, houtian in red. Notice that apart from those silly "sectors" or "life stations" invented by the black sect, another problem is eliminated from this one that the one you posted had -- namely, the unwarranted positioning of "earth" in the center AND in the SW simultaneously. The author of the diagram you posted confused two systems -- the diagram is of the bagua and the nine palaces, but the central earth is from one semi-traditional arrangement of wuxing (the more traditional one places wuxing phases in a circle, generating each other). In reality the center, both in xiantian and houtian bagua, is the 5th Palace, and this is a Flying Star and not "earth" from an entirely different ball of wax.

 

Thank you very much. That's all I want to hear from you about the 5th palace and the Flying Star. Yes, if we go into this, then it will be an entirely different ball of wax....

[Taomeow]

Thank you very much. That's all I want to hear from you about the 5th palace and the Flying Star. Yes, if we go into this, then it will be an entirely different ball of wax....

 

Yes, it will be feng shui then.

[Birch]

This Flying Star stuff is pretty complicated...

 

Anyway, I'm not even off to much of a start with the Flying Star method so far as I am unable to get a stable magnetic compass reading for now. It seems to oscillate between 2 directions - one which is extremely 'bad news' if I follow the Flying Star approach and another which is pretty alright. I know which one I'd prefer:-). If anyone knows a different way to get an accurate magnetic compass reading, that would be of interest to me.

 

When I first tried Feng Shui over 10 years ago, it was definitely 'black sect' - that's sort of embarrassing to admit now, but I've also tried things like 'intention-setting' or 'affirmations' in the past prior to cultivation also somewhat embarrassing to admit.) All of the latter seem to me to leverage buddhist-like principles backwards. Somewhat like rearranging the mental furniture, if your unconscious is the equivalent of the Titanic, I wonder how much good that stuff does. So I'm thinking, if the actual qi of a place/time is also the equivalent of the Titantic,...

[Taomeow]

This Flying Star stuff is pretty complicated...

 

Anyway, I'm not even off to much of a start with the Flying Star method so far as I am unable to get a stable magnetic compass reading for now. It seems to oscillate between 2 directions - one which is extremely 'bad news' if I follow the Flying Star approach and another which is pretty alright. I know which one I'd prefer:-). If anyone knows a different way to get an accurate magnetic compass reading, that would be of interest to me.

 

When I first tried Feng Shui over 10 years ago, it was definitely 'black sect' - that's sort of embarrassing to admit now, but I've also tried things like 'intention-setting' or 'affirmations' in the past prior to cultivation also somewhat embarrassing to admit.) All of the latter seem to me to leverage buddhist-like principles backwards. Somewhat like rearranging the mental furniture, if your unconscious is the equivalent of the Titanic, I wonder how much good that stuff does. So I'm thinking, if the actual qi of a place/time is also the equivalent of the Titantic,...

 

Love the metaphor -- spot on! yes, rearranging furniture on the Titanic didn't do much for the several hundred industrialists who opposed the installation of the Federal Reserve... but don't let me deviate from the subject too far into alternative, and true, history.

 

Rule of thumb is,

the larger (cosmic, planetary) feng shui takes precedence over the local landscape and climate;

the local landscape and climate take precedence over the architecture and orientation of the dwelling;

the architecture and orientation of the dwelling (as well as its energy supply and waste disposal, i.e. electricity and plumbing) take precedence over the arrangement of the furniture inside;

the arrangement of the furniture takes precedence over routine maintenance;

routine maintenance takes precedence over feng shui remedies selected with xuan kong methods;

feng shui remedies are very efficient if all the bases mentioned above as taking precedence are covered, and unable to function otherwise.

 

Another rule of thumb:

if everything in the house is good FS compliant but things go wrong all the time, look to ancestral graves for the problem, and fix it if possible. (It's not always possible. The second best way to enlist ancestral help is to install an altar and feed them. I'm not kidding.) Asians who use FS spend about 10 times more on yin feng shui (for the graves) than on yang feng shui (for their own dwellings).

 

As for the compass readings,

first, you need a good reliable compass. If yours is funky, get a good one. (I had a military one before I got a luopan.) Next, store it away from electromagnetic fields, and take measurements where no electrical anything is interfering. Make sure it's on a level surface when you take the measurements. If it's still acting weird, see if you can find out what lies beneath...

[joeblast]

/\

[Sloppy Zhang]

Just wanted to say thanks to Taomeow for posting awesome stuff!

[tccii]

Agreed, this is one of the better discussions of the subject. There is not much to add to what has already been said, except perhaps for sharing an example of the problems with getting an accurate compass reading.

 

As has been mentioned, magnetic fields can throw off the accuracy of the compass reading. Major sources of interference during the reading are metal in the door frames, walls (including wires) and floors. We had this problem earlier in the week while performing an analysis for a client who just bought a new apartment. Due to the layout, the apartment had an usually high concentration of metal near the entrance. In addition, not only was the door frame metal, but the door was metal and the walls had commercial metal framing instead of the wood generally used in houses. The floors were reinforced concrete. This case required dozens of reading from various distances to find a place sufficiently free of interference. It took a long time, much to the owner's surprise, but it is worth the effort to get an accurate reading.

[ChiDragon]

Has anybody ever considered looking into the "true north" and "magnetic north"....???

Magnetic North

[tccii]

We use magnetic north.

[ChiDragon]

Yes, mostly lightly, it is impossible to use "true north" with an ordinary compass.

[Aetherous]

As has been mentioned, magnetic fields can throw off the accuracy of the compass reading.

 

This is interesting...if the reading must be based on magnetic north rather than true north, then why are localized fluctuations in the magnetic field ignored? You'd think, since the reading and results depend on magnetism, those things would be taken into account and utilized. Why is only magnetic north considered and not the true magnetics of the place?

[ChiDragon]

This is interesting...if the reading must be based on magnetic north rather than true north, then why are localized fluctuations in the magnetic field ignored? You'd think, since the reading and results depend on magnetism, those things would be taken into account and utilized. Why is only magnetic north considered and not the true magnetics of the place?

It was suffice to find the approximation of the North direction. The magnetic north can be only 15 degree off in different seasons. However, the Feng Shui reading does not require to have a high accuracy as the military does.

[Taomeow]

This is interesting...if the reading must be based on magnetic north rather than true north, then why are localized fluctuations in the magnetic field ignored? You'd think, since the reading and results depend on magnetism, those things would be taken into account and utilized. Why is only magnetic north considered and not the true magnetics of the place?

 

Great question.

 

You actually use both true north and magnetic north in feng shui. Magnetic readings relate to qi of the Earthly Branches, and that's what you're working with when you take compass readings. True north relates to qi of the Heavenly Stems and is also taken into account but by different methods. Feng shui in its entirety is a study of interactions of heavenly, earthly, and man-made qi. So you take into account the action of the period, yearly, monthly cosmic qi on a particular configuration of earthly qi in a particular place. Man-made qi in the form of all manner of electrical devices (e.g.), metal doors, etc., mostly distorts the flow of earthly qi (a phenomenon known as "electromagnetic pollution") unless they are installed with knowledge of the appropriate placement (hardly ever the case). So when they interfere with your compass readings, you have to understand that not only must you re-take the readings away from such interferences but also note their existence and be aware that they interfere with YOUR magnetic field (and your qi) as much as they do with your compass. This "stray" or "distorted" qi (known to the Yellow Emperor as Ni Ta Qi, meaning "emptiness in a weak state exposed to perturbing forces") is not always man-made, much of xuan kong feng shui is dedicated to detecting and avoiding it. (Feng shui, like all Chinese health sciences, is highly preventive.)

[Taomeow]

It was suffice to find the approximation of the North direction. The magnetic north can be only 15 degree off in different seasons. However, the Feng Shui reading does not require to have a high accuracy as the military does.

 

Good luck "approximately" not placing your bed on a Killer Line.

[Aetherous]

Great question.

 

You actually use both true north and magnetic north in feng shui. Magnetic readings relate to qi of the Earthly Branches, and that's what you're working with when you take compass readings. True north relates to qi of the Heavenly Stems and is also taken into account but by different methods. Feng shui in its entirety is a study of interactions of heavenly, earthly, and man-made qi. So you take into account the action of the period, yearly, monthly cosmic qi on a particular configuration of earthly qi in a particular place. Man-made qi in the form of all manner of electrical devices (e.g.), metal doors, etc., mostly distorts the flow of earthly qi (a phenomenon known as "electromagnetic pollution") unless they are installed with knowledge of the appropriate placement (hardly ever the case). So when they interfere with your compass readings, you have to understand that not only must you re-take the readings away from such interferences but also note their existence and be aware that they interfere with YOUR magnetic field (and your qi) as much as they do with your compass. This "stray" or "distorted" qi (known to the Yellow Emperor as Ni Ta Qi, meaning "emptiness in a weak state exposed to perturbing forces") is not always man-made, much of xuan kong feng shui is dedicated to detecting and avoiding it. (Feng shui, like all Chinese health sciences, is highly preventive.)

 

Wow, nice answer...thanks!

[ChiDragon]

Good luck "approximately" not placing your bed on a Killer Line.

Do you have an instrument to detect the "true north" line....???

[Taomeow]

Do you have an instrument to detect the "true north" line....???

 

Yes. This one.