I Ching trigram – K’un – Receptive Earth

Element – Earth

Most Yin – Yielding

Teaching – Adaptability, openness, trust, unconditional love.

This part of the Bagua is so rich and deep in meaning. It relates to our intimate relationships, significant other, our life partner and how we thrive when both partners openly receive, support and celebrates each other’s individual expression.

The foundation for experiencing a healthy, happy and fulfilling relationship begins with loving yourself and fulfilling your own inner needs and dreams which can then open the door to creating a healthy intimate relationship. Receive the love from yourself the way you’d like to receive from another.

This area also relates to ALL of your relationships;  friends, coworkers, neighbors, bosses, employees, service people, vendors, relatives, health care practitioners, teachers, mentors – anyone you connect with and have a personal or professional relationship with.

When this area of the Bagua is in balance, you will experience all of your relationships as a flowing dance of give and take, fulfillment, upliftment, and inspiration; including kindness, generosity, and compassion.

Enhance this area when you would like to be in an intimate relationship with your soul partner; improve the relationship you are already in; have happy, fulfilling relationships with all of the people you connect with in your life; have a healthier relationship with yourself.

Ways to enhance this area of the Bagua: add artwork that represents love and romance; objects in pairs (not PEARS! One women upon hearing about pairs of objects, installed ceramic Pears in her home!) – candles, pictures, flowers, statues; colors of red, white and pink; mementos from romantic getaways;  display a favorite photograph of you and your partner, this will support the happiness and longevity of your relationship. Because this area of the Bagua is also an Earth element, you can enhance and accessorize with objects or artwork in earth tones, especially skin color tones – which are warm, inviting and sensual.

Bagua story from one of my clients: My client was feeling very lonely. Her husband had a job that took him overseas for long periods of time. In her bedroom which was also the Love, Marriage and Relationship part of her home, were two paintings of a woman dining alone at a café in Paris looking out into the distance with a forlorn look on her face. WOW! I told her to replace those with nicely framed photographs of her and her husband during a happy time in their life. And voila! Within a few months her husband’s job title changed and he no longer had to travel and was happily home every night for dinner!

One more story about me! I had just completed my Feng Shui training at the Western School of Feng Shui. One of my deepest intentions and desires at that time was to meet my soul partner and be in a committed intimate relationship AND get married! I had one of my Feng Shui colleagues come over to Feng Shui my home. It is always a good idea to have someone else Feng Shui your home as it is so hard to “see the forest from the trees” in your own home. She knew my intention beforehand. One of the first things she noticed and commented on were multiple photographs of my Indian Spiritual teacher hung throughout my home. She felt that could be a HUGE turn off to any prospective new partner and she recommended that I take all of them down except one of my favorite ones. I promptly did as she suggested and guess what? Within 2 months I met my life partner where I worked and we are married and have been together for 20 years now! Yes, Feng Shui works!!!

One of the most exciting tools used in Feng Shui is the Bagua. It connects the quality of life; health, happiness, prosperity with physical structures; homes and offices.

The Bagua map is based on the I Ching – The Book of Changes, which is an ancient Chinese guide to right action.

The word Bagua literally means 8 Trigrams, which are the 8 main building blocks of the I Ching. Each trigram is associated with an important aspect of life that has a rich assortment of meanings and associations.

The Bagua map will show you where and how the chi or energy of your Health, Prosperity, Fame and Reputation, Love, Creativity, Mentors, Helpful People and Travel, Career and your Journey through Life,  Knowledge and Wisdom flows or gets stuck throughout your home.

Working with the Bagua map gives every part of your environment special importance and meaning.

There’s Nowhere to Hide in Feng Shui!

Mapping Your Home

You can apply the Bagua Map to any building, parcel of land, room, or piece of furniture. Right now we will focus on mapping your home.

Imagine a bird’s eye view of your home with a view you’d have looking down from up above.  Determine the overall shape of your structure, including attached garages, porches, room additions, and decks.

1. Draw the structure of the main floor of your home w/ front door facing the bottom of page.
2. Draw in the rooms and label them.
3. With a different color, draw a box around the whole structure, it should be a square or rectangle.
   • If you have an L, T, or U shape home, part of the box or Bagua map, will be OUTSIDE of your drawing of the structure.
4. Divide the Bagua map into 9 squares, like tic tac toe board.
   • Do not be concerned with where the rooms are as compared to the Bagua squares.
   • One room may include more than one Bagua section.
   • 2 or 3 small rooms end up in 1 Bagua section.
5. Label each Bagua section you can abbreviate each section, for example: Health and Family would be H&F.

Notice which rooms and areas of your house fall into which sections of the Bagua Map.

What room or area is located in each Bagua area?

Is it organized?

Are there possessions that you especially love or dislike?

Do you see a correlation between what’s located in each area and YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE?

Do you have any areas missing from the Bagua?

This can be a VERY REVEALING process.

You may find that a Bagua area matches up with a place of harmony in your life or challenging area.