Level 3: The Eight House School, Part 1
In level 2, the Ba Gua is treated as a static feature that does not change with time or space. The North is always Water, the South is always Fire, the East is always Wood and the West is always Metal. The other four corner Palaces are also fixed. It is not only fixed in space but also fixed with time. The eight aspirations are only loose connections to the Ba Gua. In level 2a, the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist Feng Shui, the octagon they refer to as the Ba Gua is even fixed for every house. If simplicity is always good, then this is an improvement over level 2.
If you are a serious Feng Shui student, you will wonder why every house is the same. They should not be.
Base and Application
The Ba Gua is a base. It is the energy map on any piece of land, big as a city or small as a building lot. When a house is built, the energy map will change. It depends on how the house is oriented. Talking about changes, we must think of the Yi Jing (I Ching). It is the Book of Change.
When a house is built, the way the house *sits* defines the trigram of the house. This did not create any problem in the old days. The front and back of a house were very well defined. The back is the most quiet part of the house. It is the most *yin* part of the house. That is why it is also called the *mountain* side of the house. The front is always opposite to the back. It is the most active part of the house. It is the most *yang* part of the house. That is why it is also known as the *water* side of the house.
One fundamental concept every beginner must know is that "mountain is yin" and "water is yang" when mountain and water form the center of discourse. If this concept is not clear, then you are not qualified to talk about Feng Shui.
Perhaps this is also the reason why the front part of a house is taken by BTB School to be the "Career" station that has the origin in the Water Trigram. It is unfair to say that the BTB teachings are totally unfounded.
Today, it is not quite as easy to define the back and the front of a house. Some clever masters simply define the facing of a house as the facing of the main door. The main door is defined to be the door that is used most. This is then foolproof.
Some other masters define the house to be personalized. For example, if there are two doors in a house and the husband uses one while the wife uses the other. Then the energy map for the husband is not the same as the energy map for the wife.
Anyway, there is one thing in common to all these teachings. The sitting is always opposite to the facing. Therefore, if the facing is defined to be the facing of the door a person uses, then the sitting is simply opposite to this direction.
Now the trigram of a house is defined. It is the trigram of the sitting direction of a house.
When the lines in the trigram change (from yang to yin or from yin to yang), a new trigram is formed. This change sometimes yields fortunate energy but sometimes it yields evil energy. The resulting trigram indicates the direction where the intended energy due to the change is located. The result is a new energy map. It is different from the Ba Gua. The Ba Gua is still there. It is the base. What the changes bring about are the energies located in the eight Palaces.
The eight palaces of the Ba Gua are like eight containers. The new energies formed are like the contents of the containers. The people in the house are affected more by the contents than by the containers.
The energies formed by changing the lines (yao) of the house trigram are called "Wandering Stars". There are eight wandering stars, each occupying one palace of the house. These stars have different properties directly affecting the occupants. These stars also have their respective elemental structure. Using the relationship between different elements we can use *cures* to bring harmony and fortune.
To be continued ...
Joseph Yu, 1999, All Rights Reserved
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