The Bagua

The bagua or pakua are a set of eight symbols that originated in China. Used inTaoist cosmology it represents the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts and it is an essential tool in the majority of Feng Shui schools. Bagua literally means eight symbols or eight areas. Ba meaning 8 and gua meaning ‘area’.

In the centre of the Bagua 8 groups of three lines, or trigrams surround the yin yang symbol. A broken line is yin, representing the receptive (female) force of nature, and a solid line is yang, representing the creative (male) force of nature.

A bagua map is a tool used in Western forms of feng shui to map a room or location and see how the different sections correspond to different aspects in one's life. These sections are believed to relate to every area or aspect of life and are divided into such categories as: fame, relationships/marriage, children/creativity, helpful people/travel, career, inner knowledge, family/ancestors/health, and wealth/blessings.

In this system, the map is intended to be used over the land, one's home, office or desk to find areas lacking good chi, and to show where there are negative or missing spaces that may need rectifying or enhancing in life or the environment.

For example, if the Bagua grid is placed over the entire house plan and it shows the toilet, bathroom, laundry, or kitchen in the wealth/blessings area it would be considered that the money coming into that particular environment would disappear very fast as if to be 'going down the drain.' From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua and for more information go to Nations Online

Early Heaven Sequence

The Early Heaven Sequence (the Primordial Bagua), is an arrangement of opposites. Early Heaven arrangement refers to the order of things before creation.

When practicing Tai Chi, we are aware of the ever-changing yin/yang energy within our movements.

Later Heaven Sequence

The Later Heaven Sequence is used in Feng Shui and it depicts what happens after creation so it is associated with the material world.

In the Later Heaven Bagua the trigrams are placed differently than in the Early Heaven Bagua. They are not arranged in opposites.

South is always shown at the top of the Bagua.