Periodically, clients ask me questions about the difference between magnetic North and True North, which is also sometimes called Geographic North. I now routinely direct people to the National Geophysical Data Center Website and other sources of information on-line, for a more thorough and scientific explanation of this phenomenon.

When I first started studying Feng Shui, it was before the Internet. There was no Google Earth. And so, in order to know what direction a house faced, one needed to bring a compass with them and stand in front of the property with compass in hand to determine it right on site. Maps and plot plans do not even necessarily reveal the true orientation of any structure on the land. They are sometimes just a rough estimate.

There was very little discussion, in my first exposure to Feng Shui, about this whole concept of earth magnetism. As students, our teacher simply told us there was a difference between magnetic north and true north in virtually every part of the world and that is why we needed to compare and verify the real orientation of a structure with our Chinese Feng Shui compass, called a Luo pan. At that time, I did not understand that magnetic declination changes slowly over time and can move easterly or westerly. That became extremely relevant when assessing very old properties with what I call “borderline” compass readings.

What this alludes to is that a structure could have had a distinctly different orientation when first built compared to present time, if the magnetic declination has moved. One example might be a house that initially faced Northeast, close to East, but after a century the house declination would make the house face East now, but not when first built. The obvious follow up question for classical Feng Shui practitioners is: “Which reading do we go with, the past compass reading or the current one?” The answer has to be based on the initial compass reading, as this is the foundation for the creation of and the enduring magnetic field inside a structure (and its predictable influence on occupants over long periods of time).

In those early years, I was only doing local readings in Southern California. It wasn’t until I started getting requests for long distance analysis of properties that I became inquisitive enough to find out more about magnetic declination (which is the variance between true north and magnetic north).

It was actually essential for me to understand this and factor it into remote readings done with aerial views which only show True North as a reference point. And right in sync with my understanding about changing magnetic declination from a Feng Shui context, the Internet began to provide calculators to go back in time to see how much the declination had changed in any given area.

Around this time I also learned that North Arrow signs on architectural drawings are often just general points of reference and could be way off True North or Magnetic North. And I also discovered that there is no set standard for land surveyors, in whether their plot plans are denoting True North or Magnetic North.

Working with builders has also been an eye-opener when trying to make sure they orient a new house according to what the client and I have discussed as the best possible orientation, with sometimes a mere 5 degrees variance between building a good or bad Feng Shui house. On more than one occasion, the builder either ignored the request to lay the foundation as recommended, or they simply did not understand the difference between magnetic North and True North. I’ve since gone to properties before the foundation was laid, to make sure the markers were set accurately.

The subject of magnetic fields and declination might seem extraneous to the topic of Feng Shui, but it is actually right at the heart of understanding what the ancients were even doing and why the compass was invented. That is the real kicker: that the local magnetic field in any given area can create an energy field inside a structure, based partly on its precise magnetic orientation. That unseen magnetic field can be calculated in conjunction with the timing of the construction, when the energy of the Sun penetrates the ground on which a building is being constructed. What is captured inside once the ceiling and roof are completed is a type of energy field which has enormous influence on the occupants.

The ancient Feng Shui masters who understood this phenomenon could have received a Noble prize for such a discovery. Even after working with these energies myself for nearly three decades, I still find it amazing that someone or some group of geniuses figured this out so long ago. As a final note, now that we have technology to assist us in doing compass readings: Should we abandon using an old-fashioned compass in hand? The answer is no, for several reasons. If there is a disturbance in a local magnetic field, the compass in hand will pick up on that disturbance, whereas the photo on the computer screen cannot. The actual compass can tell, according to the ancients, if there is something buried underground, if there is a void, underground metals, bones, water, underground streams or even the presence of a ghost.

The compass dial will spin, tilt or shake when there is a strong interference, which in and of itself is noteworthy since the cause of this compass disturbance can indicate that the environment is off-kilter in some way.

Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ® since 1992
From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series