• Read pages 85-89 in​​ Feng Shui, the Easy Way.

• Download Handout #1​​ Fill in the Names of the Guas on this handout.

• Download handouts​​ #2,3,4. Draw​​ and overlay the Bagua Chart over these structures and label the Guas.​​ Hand these in.​​ Fax, Mail or scan.​​ 

• Download Handout,​​ #5.​​ Walk through each room/Gua and make notes of each of the Five Elements present or not.​​ Do NOT hand these in.​​ 

• Write a report (synopsis) of each room describing the remedies you need and​​ telling​​ why you need them.

• Take the test.

1. Read pages 49-84 in Feng Shui the Easy Way
2. Print out Handout # 3. Fill in the Nine Squares with the name of each square. Please work from memory.
3. Describe what the I Ching has to do with Feng Shui.
4. Finish this thought: Herb Stokely believes the I Ching to be:
5. Finish this sentence: The Bagua Chart makes a great deal of sense to me because:
6. Write 100-200 words how Qi, yin-yang, and the I Ching connect to Feng Shui.
7. Thus far, what is your favorite part of learning about Feng Shui?
8. Upload your assignment when complete.

The Feng Shui Specialists Online Feng Shui Practitioner Certification Course

Module 5

Play Mp3 Narration

The Bagua: Nine Magic Squares of Life

The Bagua an archetypal pattern for universal and personal change. It is a square divided into eight smaller squares and it originated from the I Ching, the Taoist Book of Changes. Hence, the Bagua fits our Dynamic Truth #4: Everything is always changing.

The above is one version of the representation of the I Ching symbols surrounding the center, yin-yang. The outlying symbols are “ken” characters representing the I Ching designation.

Let’s take a moment to understand a little bit about the Taoist philosophy. The Tao is called “the way” or “the path.” It is the never-ending, seamless, unbroken, connected process of change. This notion of change is generated by the yin-yang principle of perpetual movement, completely interconnected, overlapping energy, where nothing repeats itself except change itself. As we already know, yin-yang is central to Chinese cosmology and hence to Feng Shui.

Yin-yang can be symbolized by the sun and the moon. They are two opposing active forces in the universe. Polar opposites, yin exists in yang and yang exists in yin. This is the changing combination of negative and positive, light and dark, hot and cold, which keeps the world spinning and creates the Qi of life force or breath of the universe. At the atomic, or smallest visible point of life an atom cannot be an atom without positive and negative electrons whizzing about creating the electrical chemical interactions which manifest as energy. No atoms, no life. And the beauty of atoms is that they are always changing.

The I Ching is the Book of Change. There are 64 hexagrams, which consist of 6 lines each. These lines are straight, either unbroken or broken. The unbroken lines are yang energy and the broken lines are yin. There are 64 possible combinations of these broken and unbroken lines representing ALL of the possible stages of change in the universe, according to the Chinese belief. The I Ching takes these changes and translates them to human matters. Through the I Ching, one can manage one’s life and the changes each day brings.

Please watch the short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIcqZx_5oWA Herb Stokely on the I Ching

And: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrbXY3Bjn2k

The above is a second representation of the I Ching characters with the names and elements attached.

The I Ching also relates to the Bagua Chart and the Five Elements.

The Bagua Chart actually is the I Ching represented in eight symbols or trigrams, plus the center. The word “Ba” means “8”; “Gua” means “trigram.” Each square of the Bagua represents an element, a direction, a section of life, important passages, growth stages and momentous occasions. At the very center is the yin-yang balance. Life circles around this central symbol. Each Bagua square is represented by a character or a “ken.“

Handout #1 Bagua Chart

Sara Egert created this beautiful Bagua Chart for WhimsicalFengShui.com

She has allowed us to use it in this course.

By permission of Sara Egert

The Bagua Chart has also been called a “treasure map” for getting what you desire in life. Navigate it correctly and use it with your intentions and you can easily cultivate your treasures.

The Bagua Chart is also more than that. It mirrors the brain pattern of how we organize our thoughts and our lives. Remember, we only use 12 % of our brain with our conscious mind and the other 88% is subconscious.

And, just like an astrology wheel, the Bagua Chart follows a path or a pattern as it unfolds the personality and life path of the individual.

Please watch: 14:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te1kNgemG_E

Pause the Narration.

Watch the video.

Restart the Narration.

There are other schools of Feng Shui that use an eight-sided (hexagon) Bagua Chart.

https://3.imimg.com/data3/LP/DJ/MY-4722700/feng-shui-bagua-500×500.gif

We use the square version.

In Feng Shui shape matters. Have a look at some international shapes for a moment and their connotation. In Africa, for example, the shape is a cone or a beehive because it represents thatched huts or circles with domes. This shape represents the Fire element.

Photo by Surya Prakosa on Unsplash

In the Nordic lands, from the air, the countries look like asymmetrical water shapes with land masses interwoven. Hence that shape is “Water.” Because of that distinction, they might be more attuned to the “compass school” or the hexagonal Bagua. The same goes for Japan and the islands it represents.

Photo by Hayato Shin on Unsplash

In the Mediterranean, and in Western culture, there are squares. Inside the squares are more squares, courtyards and rectangular gardens. This is “Earth.” There are 45-degree angles, 90-degree angles. That’s why the square Bagua Chart makes sense for us in the West.

Photo by Jens Herrndorff on Unsplash

Form follows thought. Intention creates form. I enjoy the Form School because it works better in our culture. We hold the power. We create the direction; it doesn’t create us. We direct the Qi life force exactly as we choose to. We are not at the behest of the compass. It’s like guiding a team of horses pulling the carriage; we sit in the driver’s seat to control the direction, the road and the speed.

The original Form School was founded from the Zangshu or The Book of Burial. Ancestor worship was an intrinsic and important part of the Chinese belief system.

They believed that the spirits of the deceased directly affected the well-being of the living. Fortunes could be made or lost on the favorable location and orientation of their ancestor’s tombs.

Landform and waterways were intensely scrutinized to determine the location of the dragon’s lair (remember the ancient Shaman’s quest and the belly of the dragon) and the place where the Qi can be carried by the wind (Feng) and settled in water (Shui).

Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash

As you will see, Feng Shui is both an art and a science. Creative and expressive in application and thoroughly backed by facts.

The Bagua Chart Square by Square:

Make sure you have printed out Handout # 2 for this section.

The first Gua is Knowledge and Self-Cultivation:

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

This Gua has a both a beginning and a return built in to itself. It is the point from which we have been educated and have trained ourselves, and the place from which we have gained our inspiration and our individuality. It is also the Gua which keeps us nurturing our own intellectual and emotional growth and development. This is the Gua that makes us who we are, as unique and special beings.

Knowledge and Self-Cultivation. This is the center of what we know and how we continue to foster our development. Hence, it is a perfect place in the home to situate a meditation room, a library, a room or area filled with symbols of where we have come from, the specific body of knowledge we have amassed and the direction we are headed. It is also the Gua we return to when we want to change our course or learn something new. The I Ching symbol is Mountain.

You will want to enhance your Knowledge and Self-Cultivation Gua with icons and symbols when you are:

• Studying any subject at any time. (Like this course!)
• In any type of growth activity or learning quest: spiritual, psychological, and emotional.
• Wanting to cultivate a more peaceful and centered frame of mind.
• Wanting to work in harmony with nature and the world.
• Wanting to balance work and rest.
• Wanting to increase the connection between your actions and your fulfillment at a deeper level.
• Seeking a quiet heart.

How You can enhance this Gua:

• The colors of this Gua are black, blue or green.
• Place something in this space to help you “see” your way.
• Place books, tapes or materials that you are currently studying or want to study.
• Post quotes or affirmations of inspirational sayings that pertain to your own intellectual, spiritual and emotional growth.
• Personal things that relate to your own growth past, present, and future.
• A comfortable chair, with a good reading light.
• An area for meditation.
• A symbol of who or what you would like to be tomorrow, in a year, five years and at the end of your life.

As we move around the Bagua Chart we progress (clockwise) from internal,

self-developing entities into social, interactive and interdependent

creatures. We begin with ourselves and then branch out to create partnerships.

This is precisely how The Bagua Chart resembles the Astrological Wheel in

the development of the person and the revelation of the person

in all facets of his/her life around the scope of the wheel. The Bagua Chart does

the same thing, only clockwise.

It begins in the first corner with our individual intellectual and emotional development and moves into our first relationship with blood relatives in the Health & family Gua.

The Health & Family Gua is next in line.

Photo by ismael malasquez on Unsplash

This area is concerned with developing a level of strength and stability to get through the passages of your life. We have family bonds to help us and love us. We move into this square from the previous square of self-development, only in this Gua we have help. This is our closest next of kin, our flesh and blood. From this union we move out into society. But right here, in this Gua, we have the opportunity to heal, mend, and bond with those close and relational ties. We can be ourselves in this Gua. This is the Gua of ancestor energy. It is also the Gua of chosen family and close friends who are like family. It means this is the place for the people who have your best interests at heart and you, theirs. The I Ching symbol is thunder.

You can enhance your Health and Family Gua area when you are:

• Wanting to improve your relationship with family.
• Facing a health challenge, surgery, or recovering from it.
• Competing in sports.
• Revitalizing your health and life.
• Strengthening your ties to biological family or family of choice.
• Showing respect for your roots and your family’s heritage.
• Grateful to your ancestors.

How to Enhance this Gua:

• The colors are blues and greens.
• Add healthy, thriving plants,
• Let in plenty of sunlight.
• Add posters, paintings, photos, icons of health, blooming flowers, colorful gardens and lush landscapes.
• Things made from wood.
• Floral prints in linens, upholstery, wallpaper, accessories.
• Quotes or affirmations pertaining to health and family.
• Family heirlooms, mementos, awards, coats of arms, or items that have to do with health and family.

Next, we progress along the Bagua Chart as to how we appear to the world through the consciousness we hold of what we deserve, i.e. Wealth & Prosperity and then in the following Gua, we see how society reacts to us; our first experience of social feedback.

Wealth and Prosperity is the next Gua:

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

This Gua is all about our resources and how we manifest abundance in our lives. For some wealth and prosperity means money; for others it may be a flock of goats, a plentitude of friends, freedom of speech, facility of movement, a successful commune, or ease of communication and exchange. For many, this is the Gua of blessings and being grateful for all that we do have in the material and spiritual realms. This Gua promotes the slow, steady, balanced and honest accumulation of the riches both for the inside and the outside of us. In this Gua we achieve the outward security the previous Gua gave us on the inside. The I Ching symbol is wind. We use water to balance this wind.

You will want to enhance your Wealth and Prosperity area when you are:

• Needing to generate more abundance in your life: cash, friends, blessings, all concerns.
• Raising money for a special purpose, personal or community.
• Wanting to increase the inflow and the outflow of abundance in any one or many areas of your life.
• Wanting to increase “fortunate blessings” that lead you to right action and being in “the right place at the right time.”
• Wanting to expand your consciousness and the container for holding blessings.
• Open your heart to inflow and increase.

How to Enhance this Gua:

• The colors are red and purple.
• Add chimes, crystals, windsocks, mobiles, fish (live or icons) to increase the Qi in this area.
• Add photos, artwork, icons, figures that represent abundance and prosperity flowing into you.
• Create your own images of wealth and abundance and depict them in this area. (Pictures, symbols, icons, coins.)
• Place a fountain of flowing water to activate the Qi in the area.
• Be sure to have a “container” to “catch” your abundance in this area.
• Place depictions of flowing and abundant water, streams, rivers, and waterfalls in this area. Make sure the water flows “into” this area and not “out of” it.
• Add quotes or affirmations of wealth and prosperity to this Gua.
• Place plants with coin-shaped leaves and plants with red and purple blossoms in this Gua.
• Have your family or living partners contribute their own images to this area, so everyone can prosper.

The adjacent Gua is Fame and Reputation.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

This is the Gua in which you are recognized by society for your accomplishments. I like to think of it as the positive feedback Gua. This Gua is the external reciprocal return of what society thinks of you and your presentation in society. What do you want that to be? The I Ching says: “The dedicated person clings to what is right and thereby shapes the world.”

When our reputation is good in the community we succeed. This Gua helps us strive for integrity in our social dealings. We can always change the perception and the feedback we receive with our actions and intentions. Characteristic of this Gua are acts of kindness and graciousness. The I Ching symbol is Fire.

You will want to enhance your Fame and Reputation area when you:

• Desire more recognition personally or professionally.
• Want to establish or enhance a good reputation in your community.
• Aspire to be well known and respected for something that you do or are.
• Would like to win awards, prizes and public recognition for achievements.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• The colors are red and gold.
• Place diplomas, achievements, awards, certificates, commendations in this area.
• Use triangular, conical or pyramid shaped things.
• Light the room well with pictures, candles, sunshine, lamps.
• Place quotes or affirmations that pertain to the kind of fame and reputation you want.
• Place things made from animals, photos, leather, feathers, artwork in this area.
• If you want to win awards and haven’t yet, buy an icon, an award of what you want to receive and place it here.

The next Gua is Love and Marriage.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The I Ching symbol is Earth. It represents the yin energy of the

planet which is both receptive and yielding. The receptive energy is as powerful

as the giving energy of yang. This Gua is guided by the feminine energy

principles. It is about creating intimacy, sensuality, and mutual reciprocation

stemming from the solid core of self-love. It is about partnership and both entities

receiving their highest good from the interaction. It encourages being open and

receptive to the creative impulses of life. When you speak of a business or

community building, this Gua represents the partnership of the entity to the

outside world.

As we progress into Love & Marriage, or Partnership, we pick our new

family and partner with them to create our own team of choice with which we

desire to move forward.

It is important to notice that we are whole and complete and socially received

before we move into partnership. This means, we bring our individualized self into this partnership and we combine with another entity of equal stature to form a mutual bond and move forward now as a pair.

You will want to enhance your Love & Marriage area when you:

• Desire a life partner or a business partner.
• Want to improve the relationship you have now.
• Are looking to develop a better and more loving relationship with yourself.
• Desirous to attract or improve relationships you have with friends, clients, customers, business relations.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• The colors are: pinks, whites, apricots, peach.
• Add pictures, quotes, and affirmations regarding your significant other or the one you wish to attract.
• Make sure you have TWO of everything in this Gua. Having single items reinforces your desire to be alone.
• Create pairs of things to signify a partnership. This can be anything from dolphins to hearts to apples. There must be “two” to make it balanced, even and reciprocal. This applies to night stands, lamps, pillows and towels as well.
• Use shapes of squares, rectangles.
• Create a “wish” book with pictures that represent the kind of relationship you desire. Or, place pictures of your current relationship which captures the moments you wish to create more of.
• The more specific you are, the easier it will be for the universe to bring you that relationship.

The next Gua is Children and Creativity.

Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash

This Gua naturally follows partnership because it represents the “offspring” of a powerful, balanced and working partnership. This can represent your physical children, your creative children or the child inside of you whom you encourage to be playful and creative. The I Ching symbol is Lake.

This is the Gua for your inner creative genius to live, come alive and thrive. This is the Gua for joy, for humor, for happiness, for inspiration, all without judgment. This is the AWE Gua. Let the joy and happiness of this Gua become infectious and playful.

You will want to enhance your Children & Creativity area when:

• You yearn to become more creative in all aspects of your life.
• You are involved in a creative project or want to be involved in one.
• You feel creatively blocked.
• You want to explore and develop your inner child and enhance those qualities.
• You want to improve your relationship with children.
• You want to have your own children.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• The colors are whites and pastels.
• The shapes are ovals, circles and arches.
• Place whimsical items in this Gua: toys, stuffed animals, childlike art.
• Add quotes or affirmations that encourage your creativity and childlike wonder.
• Place things of metal in this Gua: pewter, brass, steel, silver, gold.
• Place things that relate to children or have been made by children in this area, or any handmade items.
• Place positive memorabilia from your own childhood in this area.
• Place creative materials such as colored paper, paints, crayons, etc in this area.

The next Gua is Helpful People & Travel.

Photo by Adrià Crehuet Cano on Unsplash

This is the Gua that brings in support from all the people who assist you in aligning your purpose in life. It represents everyone and everything from firemen to dentists, to teachers, to doctors, to mentors, counselors, and all the earthly helpers that assist you in living your life day to day. This is also the Gua of angels and your support staff: i.e. people you pay for their services.

The travel portion of this Gua has to do with taking trips but also with the more metaphysical concept of time and motion, synchronicity, or how things happen for you at the right time. Or, as they say in sketch comedy, “timing is everything.”

The I Ching symbol for this Gua is Heaven.

You will want to enhance the Helpful People and Travel Gua when you:

• Desire to align your purpose with your life.
• Want to attract the right mentor, teacher or colleague into your life.
• Need to attract more clients, customers, and employees into your life.
• Want to feel more connected to your spiritual or religious belief system.
• Want to serve the community more.
• Are planning on moving to a new home, office or location.
• Want to travel and experience the world.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• The colors are whites, grays, and blacks.
• Place reminders of the helpful people in your life.
• Posters, quotes, affirmations of guides, gods, goddesses, angels.
• Posters, pictures, brochures of where you would like to travel or places where you have traveled that have brought you support and inspiration.
• Items that have a spiritual meaning or connection for you.
• Items or reminders connected to teachers, instructors, benefactors, clients, customers, or employees that you either want to attract into your life or pay tribute to.
• Reminders of places in the world that are sacred to you.
• A small altar or place of thanksgiving for all the help and inspiration you receive from the contributors to your life.
• An angel box for requests and wishes for additional blessings from helping people.

The next Gua is Career.

Photo by David Hofmann on Unsplash

This Gua is the home of the water element. Therefore, Career is fluid, it is shapeable, and it is determined by the container which holds it. The I Ching symbol is water.

In this Gua people who have unstable career issues feel lost at sea. It’s water after all. In water you can float, or you can drown. It all depends on how you handle it.

Water flows and does not shrink from any plunge. It remains true to itself under any circumstance. When we are true to ourselves we do the work we are meant to do. This is the truth about the element of water. Water is gentle and soothing, and it can also rage and destroy. The power lies within and in its relationship to nature: gravity, moon pull, rotation, slopes, mountains, rocks, craters. All these contribute to water’s movement and impact it. Nothing can change water’s essential nature. It always seeks its lowest point. Water and gravity are soulmates.

You can put water in a square, in a round bowl, in a cylinder, in any shape you choose, and it will become that shape. Nothing can make water lose its essential nature. It is always water, no matter whether it is frozen, liquid or gas. It never changes its essence. Water is always H2O.

This Gua centers around your soul’s purpose. It can be the beginning or the ending Gua, depending on how you choose to look at your life. In this Gua we can follow Caroline Myss’ theory that we all come into this world with a Sacred Contract. We have already decided the lessons we want to learn, and we have picked the people and situations in which to learn those lessons for the single purpose of soul advancement. Or, if you believe the culmination of your life is the outcome of the soul’s journey, you may want to put it at the end of your path as the final exclamation point of your incarnation. Or you may want to put it at the beginning. Either way works. It’s up to you.

Read: https://www.myss.com/free-resources/sacred-contracts-and-your-archetypes/the-basis-of-sacred-contracts/

AND: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/183830-sacred-contracts-awakening-your-divine-potential

In this Gua you will want to clearly state your intentions for your career. Your career is that which provides you with the fulfillment of your purpose in life, your lifework. Let us not confuse “job” with career, here. If they are one in the same, terrific. If not, they can be two different things. Congruency is always preferred.

You will want to enhance your Career area when you:

• Are making a change in your career or wanting to make a change in your life’s work.
• Are seeking a new life direction or path.
• Want to volunteer and become more involved in community service work.
• Are changing jobs/career.
• Want to further the career you are already in.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• Colors are: black and dark navy blue, brown, maroon, charcoal and gray.
• Add quotations, affirmations from sayings that relate to the career you want or want to improve.
• Add posters, paintings, photos, images or icons depicting flowing water, oceans, lakes, ponds, and waterfalls.
• Asymmetrical or freeform objects and shapes.
• Mirrors, glass, crystal representing the water element.
• Items that personalize your journey and any positive associations you have with your career.

The final Gua is the Center.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/9b/f6/1e9bf6709757b1c00eae4beb40b5cb85.jpg

This is the Tai Qi, the yin-yang, the ultimate focal point of balance and active interaction between seemingly opposing forces. There is great debate as to where and how the symbol originated. Some attribute it to Lao Tsu, others to Confucius. Scholars claim it dates back to the Tang Dynasty and there is conjecture that the first yin-yang was actually two fish, representing limitlessness and abundance, which were interconnected one upside down to the other.

No matter where it came from the symbols speaks plenty in Feng Shui. Yin-yang are colors from the two ends of the spectrum; one color containing all the vibrations of the full spectrum of color (white) and one containing none, (black). We have the full and the void. And yet, their energies must interconnect for balance. Because of this principle of the balance of opposites, we follow that practice in every Gua, but most carefully in the Center Gua.

This is our center, it is the center for our life, our soul, everything we are and wish to be in this incarnation. Important Gua! If you balance nothing else in your home, balance this Gua. The I Ching Symbol is Earth.

You will want to enhance your Center area when you:

• Want to harmonize and balance all aspects of your life.
• Desire to feel centered.
• Want to connect to “the One, the All, the Source.”
• Want to strengthen your core.
• Want to enhance your spirituality.

How to Enhance This Gua:

• The colors are: yellows, gold, earth tones.
• Place in this Gua items that represent your sacred space.
• A yin-yang symbol.
• Objects which remind you to stay centered.
• Select this as your quiet room or meditation area.
• Decorate with photos, pictures, artwork that depict balance and harmony.
• A circular fountain that flows in a circle and upward motion bridging heaven and earth.
• Diagram the areas of your life where you are seeking balance and leave them in this area.

The Bagua Chart is our Feng Shui key to creating balance and harmony. As we

move through our home or our client’s, we will seek to balance each room by

placing a presence of the Five Elements.

In the next module we will concentrate on how to overlay and superimpose

The Bagua Map onto the blueprints or a sketch of the home, office or space. This

begins your work as a practitioner putting the principles to work in a space.

Be sure you fully understand the Bagua Chart before moving onto the next

Module 6.

Homework Module #5:

1. Read pages 49-84 in Feng Shui the Easy Way
2. Print out Handout # 3. Fill in the Nine Squares with the name of each square. Please work from memory.
3. Describe what the I Ching has to do with Feng Shui.
4. Finish this thought: Herb Stokely believes the I Ching to be:
5. Finish this sentence: The Bagua Chart makes a great deal of sense to me because:
6. Write 100-200 words how Qi, yin-yang, and the I Ching connect to Feng Shui.
7. Thus far, what is your favorite part of learning about Feng Shui?

Our next module teaches us how to overlay and superimpose the Bagua Chart onto our home, office or location. Please make sure you have a thorough understanding of the Bagua Chart and all the Guas before moving forward. I’ll look forward to seeing you in Module 6.