When I look out the window that faces into my garden, which direction is more important, the one I am facing or the layout of the garden? – Sharon
I’m relating your question to the article I wrote about how to create a Sacred Garden. It’s really a great question. Some Feng Shui consultants use the entrance to the garden as the Facing or front of the Bagua (nine-square grid), no matter what the actual directions are. My approach is to use the actual directions around the garden. This way I am applying yet one more actual attribute from the Yijing.
Here’s how I approach assigning the directions:
- The garden perimeter would be the outline for the Bagua.
- Divide this area into nine equal sectors.
- Using a compass, assign one of the eight directions to each sector.
- The center sector is direction-less.
There are two schools of thought as to how to assign the characteristics for each sector. The version above relates to actual directions. Another popular version uses the entrance to the garden as the side that is facing and doesn’t assign directions to each sector, only attributes. I believe that the actual direction approach, used by Lillian Too and others, is a more potent way to connect with as many attributes in the Bagua from the Yijing as possible. By using the actual direction, Trigram, number, color, shape, organ of the body, etc., I’m tying more directly with the Bagua. Actual directions are important.