The House That Can’t Be Saved by Kartar Diamond

My company name is Feng Shui Solutions by no accident.  I am always trying to find solutions to the feng shui problems I encounter and what inspires me most of the time is how easy and relatively inexpensive it is to help someone fix a problem area.

I also assure clients on a regular basis that it is hardly ever one flaw or characteristic which would deem a house as uninhabitable.  Usually there have to be several big problems that are too expensive or too difficult to fix before I say, “Consider moving” or “Keep looking.”

And yet, there is a certain house type which is highly problematic and I have referred to it as the “Twilight zone”.  It is a house with an indefinite compass reading.  It has no certain direction.  As an example, a house which faces 22.5 degrees is right on the border between north and northeast, so it is neither. It is called “Out of Trigram,” like out of sync with the rest of the world.

The Out of Trigram house is not extremely common, but I do see this house or building type a few times per year and the occupants are never happy in this house type.  What is known about this house is that the occupants can be nervous all the time.  They may eventually develop mental problems.  If you can imagine living in a house that was positioned half over the northern hemisphere and half over the southern hemisphere, this might describe the Out of Trigram House. It might also be like having one arm pulled in one direction and the other arm simultaneously pulled in the opposite direction.

Below you will find a chart which shows the major cut off points in compass degrees between the eight major directions. These compass directions constitute an Out of Trigram direction.

***There is also another set of eight compass directions which are clearly inside of one of the major eight directions, but still considered on the border between the first and second sector of each major direction.

As an example, a house which faces east at 80 degrees is within the first sector of east. Just a few degrees away, a house which faces 85 degrees is in the second sector of east.  Both orientations would be just a couple degrees apart from the 82.5 degree cut off point between two really different house types.

When a house is actually very close to these border line directions, I always do a comparative reading.  Sometimes feedback from the client will reveal which direction the house is facing, based on the two comparative charts and their distinctive qualities.  This might be equal to an astrologer comparing two close birth places for a person and seeing which chart rings true.  When a house is truly Out of Trigram, neither chart type will ring true.

Then, it becomes impossible to figure out the correct elemental remedies for each room. It is almost as if the energy never settled into place and is perpetually wandering around the house. Other aspects of the house can still be assessed, but knowing the correct orientation of a house is so important that without it, it limits many important parts of the consultation.

There is yet another division in terms of directions which some practitioners take into account, but I don’t.  This is the cut-off point between the second and third sector of any given direction.  Why do I not worry about this set of directions?  Because the calculations are the same for any direction facing the second or third sector. Even if the house faces right on the line between sector 2 and 3, the same chart is used.  This is completely the opposite of what happens with the comparative charts between sector 1 and sector 2 of any given direction.

Just for your benefit, below is a Table Chart for those cut-off points:

Some feng shui masters teach a whole set of alternative calculations when they encounter an Out of Trigram House.  They are called Substitution Stars or Replacement Stars.  I haven’t had much conclusive success with the Replacement Star formulas.  Feedback from clients has indicated that the Replacement Stars Charts don’t always make sense either, so I welcome feedback to further narrow the possibilities.

The good news is that most structures have a definitive orientation and fit comfortably in one of the 24 basic directions (15 degree range increments.)  Even houses that appear almost out of trigram often reveal themselves to be within a certain direction once the client gives feedback of their experiences in the house.  Of course, when advising on a new location that my client hasn’t committed to yet, I am more likely to suggest they look for another location and not have them risk the possibility that it is truly Out of Trigram.

It should now be even more obvious why a feng shui master’s services are so valuable in the pre-construction phase and to have them check out the land orientation possibilities BEFORE a structure is built. In the winter of 2002, I visited a client in Santa Fe, New Mexico to advise on a house that he was about to pour foundation for. Standing in the snow with compass in hand, I told my client that he needed to shift the whole orientation of the house a few degrees over (because it was all staked out to be built right on the borderline between east and southeast.)  Fortunately, he had a large pad of land with room to work with.  He smiled and said, “This is why I brought you out here!”

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series