Best Way to Use a Feng Shui Compass

The compass needs to have an outer dial that can be rotated to take bearings, and a means of aligning the body of your compass with your home. These are available in shops that specialize in camping and hiking equipment. A protractor is a round Perspex disk with 360 degrees marked on it, commonly available from stationary retailers.

Making a floor plan of your home

‘Your home’ refers to the space you own, rent, or occupy. In the case of an apartment concentrate solely on the parts that are yours.

• Using a long retractable steel measure, note the length and width of each floor of your home, then of each room, and of staircases and corridors.
• Convert the measurements to a convenient scale, for example1m=1cm. So if your room measures 5.2 x3.5m, the rectangle on the plan would have to measure 5.2 x3.5cm.
• Transfer the measurements to the plan in the appropriate positions. Add to the plan all windows, doors and fitted store cupboards, wardrobes and kitchen units. Indicate on the plan the way the doors open into the rooms.
• Mark on the plan all details relevant in Feng Shui terms. Mark the fixed features in one color, the movable ones in another, and the problem features in a third color.

Finding the eight directions of your home

Find a part of your home where you can obtain a consistent compass reading by walking around your home keeping the body of your compass pointing in the same direction. Things made of iron or steel or electrical appliances will alter the magnetic field. Steel beams, pipes or water tanks, can be concealed in a building and may distort your compass readings. Follow the steps below to make an accurate compass reading and find the eight directions of your home:

• Lay the drawing of the floor plan so that it is in line with your home in the area where you are sure to obtain a consistent compass reading.
• Now place your compass on the plan, so that the centre of your compass is over the centre of the drawing of your home.
• With a pencil make a mark on your drawing in the direction the needle points. Draw a line from the centre of your floor plan through the mark. This line will be pointing towards magnetic north.
• Photocopy the eight directions in the box on the right on to a transparency and put over the floor plan of your home so that the centre of your transparency is over the centre of your floor plan. Turn the transparency until the line pointing north on the transparency lines up with the line pointing north on your floor plan.
• To draw the eight directions on to your floor plan, mark the ends of the lines from the transparency on to the floor plan. Remove the transparency and draw lines through your marks and the centre of your floor plan. For greater clarity, draw these lines with a colored pencil.

Once you lay the transparency over your floor plan you will be able to use it to gain useful information about your home. The following provides simple examples:

• Look at your floor plan through the transparency and see which of the eight directions covers the greatest area and which the least. The direction that covers the least could be deficient in your home. For example, if there is little of the east on your floor plan you could find it harder to feel ambitious, be enthusiastic and start new projects. If this is the case, you could install a water feature, add some plants, use the color green and more wood in this part of your home, in order to increase the deficient eastern energy. See the ideas on the transparency.
• Check in which direction your bathroom, lavatories, utility rooms, sinks, stove, heating unit and fireplace are located.