The Borderline Compass Readings case study  is one of the most important in the group, with all of them part of my Advanced Module in Kartar’s School of Traditional Feng Shui. The borderline compass readings are the cut-off points between major and minor directions. For example, 202.5 degrees is the cut-off degree between South and Southwest. Knowing the correct orientation of a house or building is fundamental to an accurate reading.

When a house or building sits or faces on one of these borderline compass points, it is a structure type called Out of Trigram. These can be very difficult places to evaluate and equally difficult to remedy. The Out of Trigram chart can reveal why the occupants may be psychologically unstable.

This case study shows how to create a Replacement Star chart. It also discusses how the compass reading can change over long periods of time. The case study gives you the tools to determine the correct compass reading, using aerial views, a remote compass reading tool, as well as use of a Magnetic Declination calculator.

The case study also features a strange, but popular building in downtown Los Angeles in the Fashion District.

Excerpt:

“What are the Replacement Star Charts?

In Xuan Kong Fei Xing, we have 216 different flying star charts, based on the twenty-four mountains and the 9 Periods.  As well, the Replacement Stars are a whole other set of 216 flying star charts, which are derived by making changes to the stars you place in the center of the chart. The Period Stars from the sitting and facing sectors get “replaced.”

What you end up with are many strange looking flying star charts. If you did not know you were looking at a Replacement Star chart, you might assume that someone had floated the stars incorrectly.

Not all Feng Shui Masters believe in or use the Replacement Stars.  My first teacher could not relate to them and never taught them in his school. He dismissed them as not making any sense.  Other Feng Shui masters I have studied with do employ the Replacement Stars, but all do so with caution.

I have since started using them and they sometimes ring true for the client, more so than the flying star charts on either side of the cut-off degree.

In the charts provided at the end of this case study, you will see that there is a 3-degree leeway or span from the cut off degree, which would qualify as “out of trigram.”  Many people feel that if you can get a stable reading, even only a couple of degrees away from the cut-off point, then you are not dealing with a truly Out of Trigram situation.

For example, one potentially Out of Trigram chart is provided when the reading is anywhere between 22.5- 25.5 degrees.  The cut-off degree is 22.5 (between North-3 and NE-1).  I have performed plenty of readings where the house faced 25 degrees and I felt very comfortable initiating the consultation with the assumption that the house was facing Northeast-1 (and that it would not be necessary to consider a Replacement Star chart.)  The 3 degree leeway seems too much for some practitioners.

Then again, always consider the age of the building and look into the plausibility that the compass reading may have shifted a couple degrees over decades since the structure was originally built.”

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R)

From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series