Now that the underlying theories of Feng Shui have been covered, we can move forward in our understanding of how to apply these concepts to improve our own lives. The first thing to realize is that people are different and therefore will have different needs within their environment. Feng Shui uses your Kua number and bagua map to custom tailor a given space to your specific energy needs.  Your Kua number is a calculation based on your birth date and gender to generate a number that is specific to you and your energy needs and can be determined as follows:

(NOTE: If you have a birthday in early January or February, make sure you double check your birth year with the Chinese calender as it begins on a different day each year and could affect your birth year.)

1. Add the last 2 digits of your birth year together

2. Bring that number to a single digit by adding the resulting numbers together (as many times as needed to bring it to a single digit)

*For example:
If your birth year is 1978 you would take 78 and add it together: 7+8 = 15. Then reduce 15 to a single digit by adding the digits together: 1+5 = 6. Once you get down to a single digit, you either have to add or subtract by a number depending on your gender.

MALE:
Reduce your single digit number by 10
*The calculation for the birth year of 1978 with a single digit of 6 would be: 10-6 = 4. The Kua number for a male born in 1978 is 4.

FEMALE:
Add 5 to your single digit number
*The calculation for the birth year of 1978 with a single digit of 6 would be: 6+5 = 11. (If your results are a double digit number, you must add those digits together to reduce it to a single digit number: 1+1=2). The Kua number for a female born in 1978 is 2.

In classical Feng Shui, people are divided into EAST and WEST groups depending on their Kua number.

EAST Group: 1, 3, 4, 9                              Favorable Directions: North, South, East, SE
WEST Group: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8                       Favorable Directions: West, SW, NW, NE

Once you have calculated your Kua number, you can use this information to understand more details about your character that you may have not realized before, including your best element, season, color, and direction. It can also help you determine which directions, colors, and materials to avoid using in your home. You can also use the bagua diagram below to see which of the 5 elements and Chinese zodiac animals best represents you based on your birth year. Don’t forget to double check your birth year with the Chinese lunar calendar before consulting the bagua below.

Before moving forward, it’s important to note that these directions are just the basic guidelines of Feng Shui and are not always right for every person. Some put too much emphasis on their Kua number and can easily lose focus of their main objective, leading to confusion and frustration. Also, these directions can be different when combined with a more advanced, deeper level of Feng Shui that utilizes Multidimensional Design to interpret the energy needs for your environment. But don’t get overwhelmed by Multidimensional Design, as it is something that will be covered later on and first requires a basic understanding of Feng Shui.

Now we can advance to analyzing the bagua which utilizes the principles of the 8 trigrams and the 5 elements of Feng Shui, as we have already discussed, to see how each of the trigrams relates to different aspects of life and corresponds to each of the cardinal directions. In Feng Shui, the bagua map features 8 areas which surround the Center. There is a strong emphasis placed on the Center of the home, where all energy originates and radiates throughout your home.

To see which areas of your home relate to the bagua areas above, you must first define the Center. Take the floor plan of your house and draw a line connecting opposite corners together. The point where these lines converge determines the Center. This is the area of the home that will generate positive energy and filter static, negative energy while connecting all of the other Feng Shui elements in your home together.

After you determine the Center, you can overlay a simplified version of the bagua areas onto the floor plan of your house to see which areas of your home correspond to specific areas of your life. Line up the bottom of the diagram with the side of your house that has the front door and then the remainder of your home can easily be divided into 9 equal areas. With this information, you can begin to compare how your environment may be helping or hindering certain aspects of your life and make adjustments to areas you feel are lacking by removing clutter, cleaning and rearranging the space according to your best directions.

Note that there are different methods for determining the bagua map of a space which could be more ideal depending on the preferences of the individual and the environment. Each person will also have a different focus for their Center depending on their Feng Shui Pillar and the areas of their life they want to emphasize. The location of the Center could also be different depending on the nature of the person, so using traditional methods to determine the Center and the 9 areas of the bagua in your home does not always hold true for every circumstance. It takes years of zen based study and practice to achieve this heightened level of Feng Shui mastery, so don’t be discouraged if there are some things you might not understand. I recommend consulting a Feng Shui Master to balance the Chi flow in your environment. However, having a basic knowledge of Feng Shui principles will help make the Feng Shui design process more clear and understandable.