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Which way does my property face?

Along with an accurate compass direction, determining your sitting and facing direction is critical to performing a precise Feng Shui consultation. We would estimate that 70% of people get this wrong.

This area causes so much confusion, we have been to so many consultations and told beforehand that a property faces a certain direction and when we get there the direction of the front door is totally different to the facing direction.

To give the answer is actually very hard, as there are so many different views on how to find the front direction of your home or office, in fact even a qualified Feng Shui consultant can spend some time analysing a property before she/he makes a decision on where the front is.

Forget your front door direction

Most people assume the front is the direction your front door faces, try and imagine you are in my home (while you are there can you do some ironing and dusting please) as you stand in the centre of my home you will be in my dining room with the living room and hallway and kitchen either side, I have five large windows and one small facing north, there is a road outside and a public footpath also my front garden, but I do not have a front door there. On the east wall I have a main door with porch and one window, which looks onto the next-door neighbours house. 

Hopefully you will get the idea by now, because my front door faces east it does not mean this is the front of my home, my facing direction is north, this is where the most “Yang” (activity) energy is, the road, footpath, people and cars going by, the widest part of the building, if you were the architect designing my home from scratch you would definitely put my front door there. This part is very very important, as when you calculate any school of Feng Shui you need to know which way your property faces. If you take my house again (make sure you lift the ornaments and dust underneath) although I may have a driveway leading to the garage and front main door, for example assume at the back I now have a main road, pedestrian footpath, lots of people and activity and even a lovely stream, you guessed it, this would now be my front direction as this is where all my Yang energy is, this is not uncommon when you think about it, drive down any main road you will see many homes with back gardens facing the road and yet they will always think this is the rear in Feng Shui terms. This can be hard to judge even for the most seasoned Master especially if you are on the top floor of a block of flats or a large office building.

So what is facing and sitting directions?

The facing direction is the front that faces the “yang” (active) energy, the sitting direction is actually more important this is the area that has the most “yin” (quiet) energy. The sitting direction determines your properties Trigram. So if your property faces 350 degrees north, the sitting direction is 170 degrees south, so the Trigram for this property is “Li”.

Now we know that this is a “Li” property we would know that the best colour to paint this property on the outside would be fire colours, red, orange, purple etc.

How do I know which is Yin (sitting) and which is Yang (facing)?

Yang (facing): This is the most active energy, energy that is lively:

v     A busy road.

v     A public footpath.

v     A flowing river.

v     The side of a property that has the most windows.

v     Your street sign.

v     The south (bright) is Yang and the north (dark) is Yin.

v     A children’s playground or primary school.

v     The main entrance is usually (not always) the facing direction.

v     A nice view.

v     The architects intention, try and guess how he felt the sitting direction would be.

v     A living or family room is normally on the facing side.

Just because your home may face a children’s playground this does not automatically mean this is your facing direction, you need to consider all the factors given on this page.

Yin (sitting direction): This is where the least energy resides:

v     A back yard usually is your sitting direction or an alleyway.

v     Tall dark trees at the back of your grounds.

v     Smaller darker rooms.

v     The north (dark) is Yin energy.

v     The quiet side of the property.

v     The kitchen and bathroom (not always) is normally at the back.

v     Bedrooms are normally on the sitting side.

v     Utility or washrooms are normally in the sitting direction.

v     The sitting direction could look onto a large building or a row of houses.

v     The side of the property that is not that attractive to the eye, i.e. down-pipes from the bathroom, gutter pipes placed sideways across the main-wall.

You will need to take a view on all of the above; a good test to find your facing direction is, if you had to take a photo of your home or office which angle would you take it from? Would you take the picture of the front door that has nothing on that wall except the main entrance or would you take the picture of the side that has the most windows and is more pleasing to the eye.

*** Tip*** Do you remember the details you had from the estate agents when you bought your home, which angle did they take the photo from? I can remember when we bought our last home, the amount of homes we viewed from the pictures on the property details showing the rear of the home, because this was the most attractive or bright side, in fact I was amazed at how the estate agents actually managed to capture the facing direction even though most people would have thought this would have been the sitting direction.

Examples of sitting and facing directions.

Example 1: This property has a main door that faces east; this door looks onto their neighbour’s wall and has no other windows on this wall.

Facing direction is different to front door direction.

The front looking out the living room window:

v     A busy road.

v     Faces north

v     A playing field beyond the road.

v     A street sign outside lounge window.

v     The most windows on a wall

The rear looking out the kitchen/dining room:

v     A patio/backyard.

v     Trees at the end of the garden.

v     Looks towards the south.

v     A public footpath.

v     The quieter side.

This is a simple diagnosis of facing and sitting direction. Even though the main door faces east, this is not its facing direction, this property clearly faces North and sits in the south, even thought it does not have a door on the north wall. You probably noticed I threw in a few little teasers, the front faces north which is “Yin” (normally sitting) energy, however, if you look at all the other “Yang” energy this does not dictate its facing direction. The rear faces south which is a Yang energy and it also looks onto a public footpath, however, the other factors say that this its sitting direction.

Example 2:

This house is clear cut, the front door is on the front main wall along with lots of windows, there is a pathway leading to it. Trees are at the back and this clearly the way the arictecth had designed it.

Now imagine the main door in the middle was on a side wall, which way would it face then? It would still face the same direction, even if the door was at the back of the house. Having the main door on the front wall makes it easier to make a judgment on facing direction, however modern homes are built nowadays with the main door built in any location.

Example 3

Hopefully you have the idea by now. The above house main door faces west, however the front of the house is clearly the north wall where the four windows are. If you had to take one photo of this house and only show one wall you would take it on the north wall. So this house faces north and sits in the south.

Regardless of what books you have read telling you to use your main door as a starting point, this is not what a traditional practitioner would do, she or he will first determine the sitting and facing direction and then take accurate compass direction, then the door would be taken into account. For more details on taking compass readings follow this link.

Now I know my directions, what now?

So your property faces 319 degrees and sits 139 degrees, use the chart below to find out the Trigram for your home. A property that faces 319 degrees is a Sun (Xun) house. Having this information will tell you that this year 2002, you will need to activate the north-east for wealth and more importantly you need to weaken the deadly 2 - 5 stars in the east otherwise your health, wealth and luck will be affected. This is going into a more detailed version of traditional Feng Shui if you would like further details on our comprehensive on-line consultations click here. These reports are very in-depth and do not just take into account your home they also analyse you and your family as individuals to make sure you face your best direction when working, sleeping, relaxing etc. 

Example Flying star for a Sun Trigram house.

Compass graduations and their corresponding house Trigrams.

Our comprehensive on-line reports contain the following:

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Last modified: December 01, 2003