65. The Bagua

Ignoring Fergus, Wisteria next showed us a bagua. This is a kind of map divided into nine sections, one for each direction and each trigram and one for the center. Each section is dedicated to something important in life.  

The first section is related to one's career, the second to marriage, the third to health, the fourth to wealth. The fifth section is the center and is related to everything. The sixth section is related to benefactors, the seventh to children, the eighth to education and the ninth to fame.

If one draws a map of one's house on onion paper and puts it on top of the bagua, one can see if all the nine sections are present in one's home. It has to be placed with the front door of the house on top of the direction in which it really is.

Since the bagua is round, it is convenient for one's house to be round too, so it will cover all the nine sections and none will be missing. If a section is missing, the luck linked to that section will be missing too. For example, if the section that represents wealth does not exist in one's house, one will always be lacking money. Square or rectangular houses may almost cover all the sections too, but L-shaped houses and houses with odd shapes are bound to have missing sections.  

Fortunately,  there are remedies that can help people with badly shaped houses. Mirrors can be placed where they will make it look as if missing sections exist. Rooms that disrupt the right shape can be never used, kept perpetually shut, and so on.

The potential of each section can be augmented by placing the right objects there. If one wants to marry, one can put a pair of swans in the second section.The swans are a symbol that will help attract a marriage partner.

In the same way, if you have too much of something you can put an incompatible element in the right section that will help reduce the potential of that section. For instance, if you have too much work and it is ruining your health, you can put a poster of people relaxing at a beautiful beach with a fine hotel behind them on a wall of the first section.

Each element has its own color, and painting the walls of a section the right color will help increase or decrease the presence of a desired element.  

  

Below is a list of things that represent each section.

SE–WEALTH                   SOUTH-FAME     SW-MARRIAGE     

Things made of wood         Fire                       Earth

Rectangular things              Triangles                Squares

The colour green                Red                       Pink, Yellow

Plants                                Lamps                   Pottery

Birds                                 Horses                   Ducks and Swans

EAST-HEALTH                 CENTER                WEST-CHILDREN        

Wood                                                                   Metal

Rectangles                                                            Circles

Brown                                                                  White

Fruits                                                                    Toys

Dragons                                                                Kittens

NE-EDUCATION        NORTH-CAREER        NW-BENEFACTORS

Earth                            Water                            Metal

Squares                        Waves                          Circles

Beige                            Black                            Silver, Gold

Books, Diplomas          Aquariums, Glass          Portraits of Mentors

Mountains                    Turtles                           Angels

“One can go crazy calculating the effect of every little detail in a house on the five elements,” scoffed Fergus. “Having looked something over is very convenient when explaining why things have gone wrong. I don’t think there is a way this can be controlled.”