Feng Shui - PaKua

The PaKua is another common tool (this time Chinese) which is used to find the 8 influences. It is very similar to the BaGua, and we find that people often get confused between them.

We have even seen them drawn the same way sometimes.

The main difference is in the way they are used. The PaKua is lined up using the magnetic compass so that “Career & Business” is centred on Magnetic North (whereas the BaGua is lined up on the wall containing the main entrance).

The 8 influences are now aligned to the compass positions (instead of according to the position on the main door as is the case with the BaGua). So that :-

Career & Businessis in the North
Education & Knowledge is in the North East
Family & Health is in the East
Wealth & Prosperity is in the South East
Fame is in the South
Marriage & Partnerships is in the Southwest
Creativity is in the West
and Helpful People is in the North West

Also the PaKua is correctly used as a “pie slice” analysis, whereas the BaGua is a 3 x 3 grid.

A question which we often get asked at this point in our seminars and workshops is “Which one is correct, the BaGua or the PaKua?”.

The answer is both of them.

There are two “Marriage” areas in a building for instance, one located by the PaKua and one located by the BaGua. Occasionally they coincide, and then that area is doubly powerful in its effects. For instance we’ve noticed that where the rear left corner of a building is missing (Wealth on the Bagua) and that is also in the Southeast (Wealth on the Pakua), those buildings often have weaknesses where money is concerned.

We’ve also noticed that where Sha lines strike the outside of a building it also has a detrimental effect, though it seems to be the PaKua which is the more influential in determining what those are. For instance a Sha line striking the Southwest of a building is likely to adversely influence relationships in that building.

There are interactions between colours, bathrooms and kitchens that can cause problems if they are in the wrong location. For example a lot of blue, or a bathroom in the Southwest (“marriage” area) will often weaken a marriage unless counter measures are put into place.

This is also the clue on how to work with the PaKua. The DIY tip below tells you to put two red roses in the Southwest to improve a marriage.

So how does that work ? Red is Fire element, Two is an Earth number and the Marriage influence is in the Southwest which is also Earth. If you run those through the 5 Element cycle in the page on Colours, you’ll find that the pair of Red roses actually strengthens the Marriage influence. There is also one more aspect - TWO roses resonates with TWO people. 9 roses (Fire number) or 8 roses (Earth number) would still work but not quite so well, you might for instance end up with a series of affairs rather than one faithful partner.

In the same way, putting a Money plant in the Southeast can help Wealth - run the number and the element through the 5 Element cycle like we just did for Marriage and see if you can figure out how it works. Also think about the symbolism, the “Money” plant works better than other plants in this regard.

In our experience the Pakua is generally the more useful of the two to use to look at the whole building and the BaGua is the more useful to look at individual rooms. So for instance placing your two red roses in the Southwest of the house is far more likely to work than placing them in the Southwest of the room.

The PaKua above is for use indoors only.

Like the BaGua, there are actually TWO PaKua’s.

Contrary to the claims made in many books, especially those about Feng Shui and gardens, out doors the trigrams & everything else are in different places. The colours on the above PaKua are also only correct for the inside of buildings.

Outdoors the elements and colours are assigned to the compass directions in a different way, so that Southwest for example is no longer “Earth” element, nor for that matter does it influence “Marriage”.

DIY TIP

You can usually improve a marriage by placing two red roses in the Southwest, or improve wealth by placing 3 Chinese coins connected together with red thread in the Southeast.

But remember that where you place things also connects to the BaGua areas within a room. Within rooms these are more powerful than the PaKua influences and could have an adverse effect