Bagua

Bagua is again a famous Chinese jargon, used by experts and in books. ‘Ba’ means eight and ‘gua’ means sectors or sections. Thus ba gua means the eight directions. A ‘pakua’ is depicted as an octagon with a mirror inside and lines denoting the eight different directions. A bagua in a compass indicates the eight main directions that make up our surroundings. The ba gua is derived from I-ching-the book of changes. A bagua is like a map that we superimpose on a house or cemetery to find which section of the place occupies which direction. For eg: by superimposing the model of a ba gua, we can determine if the bedroom is in the North or northeast.

From the bagua, we can also say that there are four directions are supposed to be good for the house and four that are bad. There are four good directions used for a person and four not so good ones used personally. Directions for the house and for a person may or may not match. Thus, a practitioner will be able to gauge whether a hill outside is to the south or the southwest! Also, while placing cures like a water fountain etc, with the help of the ba gua, a practitioner will tell you where exactly it has to be placed. If he says, place your fish tank in the south, you will not know exactly which 45 degrees is occupied by south, as you will only know vaguely where South of your house is. But, with the help of a ba gua, you will be able to point a finger at exact South! Besides, the ba gua can also tell which sector in the house is missing, thus giving a clue to the shape of the house.

Each section represents a relation like northwest is the father. It also represents an organ in the human body like the head. It can mean a person born in a year dominated by the northwest qi, it can mean the main bread winner, head of state, etc. Thus, the ba gua is an imperative tool in the study of feng shui.

A bagua (8 directions) depicted in eight directions forms an octagon. A ba gua (8 directions) depicted in a box, forms a square, with the centre also forming a square!