The Bagua map is a staple element of Feng Shui design. As an industry professional, it’ll be your job to assist clients in creating optimal Ch’i energy flow within their living spaces. The Bagua map (pronounced “bah gwah”) is designed to help guide you towards achieving this goal.
In this two-part series, we’ll take a look at what the Bagua map is, as well as how to best understand it. We’ll even reveal our #1 secret to becoming a true Feng Shui Bagua master!
Why Understanding Energy is Important
Feng Shui is all about positive energy (or “Ch’i”). It holds the belief that this Ch’i is the vital energy force that brings life, and connects all things in existence. It’s what connects you to your home, your friends, your family, animals, the atmosphere, and even the planet itself!
Feng Shui design involves taking an active, thoughtful role in the way a home is set up and decorated. By doing this, one can unlock and maximize a constant flow of healthy, cleansing energy. Surrounding a living space in this kind of Ch’i can help one can live their very best life.
On the flip side, the way a home is set up can also cultivate plenty of unwanted, negative energy. Clutter, decor, furniture placement, and improper color schemes are just a few examples of common elements that can stifle a home and limit the flow of healthy Ch’i.
How a Feng Shui Designer Works with Energy
As a certified expert, you’ll know how to help clients unlock their homes’ full potential! Most people don’t understand how to design their living space in a way that creates the best overall energy flow. But you do! Your guidance can completely turn their home – and life – around!
Your professional Feng Shui training will teach you everything there is to know about how energy flows through a client’s surroundings. For instance, you’ll discover that there are certain ‘forces’ that operate in your client’s life, such as:
- Ch’i flow
- The Five Elements
- Yin and Yang forces
- The Celestial Animals
Your training will also introduce you to the Feng Shui Bagua map. The easiest way to approach the Bagua map is by thinking of it as your literal road map to positive energy flow. Once you properly understand how to read a Bagua map, you can use it to spot energy imbalances in your client’s floor plan.
This way, you can help them make the space better, in a way that promotes positive Ch’i flow!
What is the Bagua Map?
A fundamental tool in Western Feng Shui practice, you’ll regularly refer to the Bagua map when designing any home for a client. The very name tells us a lot about what a Bagua map consists of. In Standard Chinese, “ba” means “eight”. “Gua” means “trigram”. Quite literally, a traditional Bagua map is made up of eight trigrams.
Traditional Bagua Maps
The traditional Bagua map is depicted as an octagon with a Yin-Yang symbol in the center, which represents harmony and balance. It’s then divided into eight different sections. Each one consists of three lines (this is the trigram), broken up into its own unique pattern. Solid lines represent Yang Ch’i, while broken up lines represent Yin Ch’i. Importantly, each trigram symbolizes a different part of life.
Modern Bagua Maps
Though you can absolutely still refer to this traditional map, it’s also become common practice over the years to use a more modernized Bagua map. This modernized version opts for a square or rectangular adaption, instead of the octagon. Another primary difference is that modern Bagua maps are divided into nine sections.
Although any of these options are equally valid, square or rectangular Bagua maps are easier to align with a client’s floor plan. Because of this, many Feng Shui designers prefer to use modern Bagua maps in their practice. It just makes things a little bit easier!
How the Bagua Map Promotes Balance
I don’t know about you, but I used to have a really bad habit of prioritizing certain rooms over others within my home. My bedroom and living room would typically get the most of my attention and efforts. Sure, I’d keep other rooms clean. But that was about as far as I went in terms of actually caring about them.
Once it dawned on me that ALL the rooms in my home required equal care, my whole living space changed! Now, I make a conscious effort to give every room in my living space the same amount of thought, love, and care.
This is actually a pretty common occurrence. It’s easy to give higher priority to certain rooms in a home, and unintentionally neglect others.
But what your Feng Shui training will show you is that EVERY single room in a home plays an equal part in cultivating positive energy flow. You can then pass this game-changing knowledge to your clients once you enter the working world. The Bagua map is a perfect tool to visually illustrate for them how every room has an equal affect on a living space’s overall energy flow.
Want to Learn More?
Stay tuned for Part Two, where we’ll:
- Break down the nine sections of the modern Bagua map!
- Discuss how to align the Bagua map with your client’s floor plan!
- Reveal the #1 secret to becoming a Feng Shui Bagua expert!
