While there is a overwhelming consensus among feng shui practitioners that agree that each house has it’s own facing, the same cannot be said when it comes to apartment units.
The underlying reason for this is that since modern feng shui is very much based on classical writings on the art of geomancy, the lack of commentary on 100-storey buildings in the ancient books has very much left feng shui masters to themselves on determining what makes sense in applying feng shui to houses that are located in a space in the sky.
And this is a fiercely contested issue in the world of feng shui. So much so that even infamous masters have criticized and belittled others about their methods of application… without mentioning their names.
The key area of debate is almost always about flying stars feng shui natal charts and what chart an apartment belongs to.
This is because erecting natal charts depends on what facing an apartment has. And since apartments in a building can have different facings, the main debate over this issue is whether each apartment unit has it’s own unique chart based on it’s individual facing, or all units share the same chart as the high rise building itself.
Let’s look into the different methodologies.
1) Each apartment has it’s own facing and chart
While each building can rightly point out that it has it’s own natal chart, each home or household holds different energy base and are obviously influenced by the part of the building it resides in.
If a condominium building is an elongated rectangle with all units facing the same direction, it would be easy to deduce that all units have the same facing.
However, it is common knowledge that properties these days take on fancy shapes and form. This has led to different units facing different directions.
This alone should be self-explanatory that each unit is affected by it’s own unique natal chart.
For example, if you are riding on a train carriage with a friend, seated facing each other. One facing the direction of the train’s forward direction and the other in the opposite direction, are both of you affected by the same force when the train is moving?
The answer can only be no.
And when a beautiful mountain landscape comes into view on the left of the train, does the picturesque scenery come into view on the left of both commuters?
The answer is still no.
While the direction east (for example) is the same for both people, their perception of it can be totally different. When the sun comes up in the morning, one might have the sunrays shining in her eyes while the other might not be affected by it at all.
This simple analogy can be easily be applied on different apartments in a building, and is a strong and intuitive argument for the belief that each unit in a building has it’s own facing and natal chart.
2) All apartment units share the same natal chart as the building itself
There is a significant number of feng shui practitioners that subscribe to the notion that all homes in a building have the same natal chart as the building based on the facing of the building itself.
The basis of this idea comes from the big taichi and small taichi concept.
In this case, the whole building is like a house. And the different dwellings inside are like the rooms within the house. Therefore, the natal chart of the building can be superimposed into the different “rooms” just like how whole birth charts are superimposed onto rooms when doing feng shui for a house.
But what is glaringly contentious in this approach is that it does not account for the fact that rooms are not homes.
For example, every household has it’s own patriarch and matriarch. So if the building has a missing sector or rubbish dump at the northwest sector, does it mean that all patriarchs in every household would suffer from bad luck?
It’s somewhat bemusing to use a blanket approach to the feng shui of apartments.
It is like saying that when a train is making a turn, every carriage is still in the same orientation with each other even though we know that’s not the case. And that all carriages would experience the same magnitude of centrifugal force at the same moment. This is obviously not the case too.
If the natal chart of a building is applied to all apartments within, then if the south sector of the building is afflicted by an electric pylon it would indicate that all households would suffer from heart problems as well. If you use this same natal chart approach, then this scenario is something that you have to agree with.
So even though the science of feng shui can support this idea, practicality should instinctively urge one to ask questions about it’s application.
When exploring the different approaches to apartment natal charts, one must decide whether each approach makes sense.
3) All units share the same chart as building up to a certain level
The idea behind this method is that apartment units on lower floors would have the same natal chart as the building as it is still close to the ground where it draws on earth chi.
Up to a certain level, the earth chi is no longer strong enough to influence an apartment. Thus, apartments of higher floors take on their own facing and own natal charts.
This actually makes more sense than the second approach. It applies common sense to feng shui science… instead of just science.
The level that is commonly used as the threshold is the 9th floor.
This means that the levels 1 to 9 share the same natal charts as the building. And apartments from level 10 and above would have it’s own natal charts based on their own facing directions.
4) All units have the same facing but different chart
This concept is actually derived from another branch of Xuan Kong feng shui.
I say this because flying stars is also a branch out of Xuan Kong. And this is a level that grew out of the Xuan Kong trunk like flying stars. specifically originating from the classic 玄空紫白訣 or more commonly known as the purple white scroll to English speakers.
The idea behind this is that stars don’t just shift from directional sector to directional sector like the northwest to west. They also jump from level to level in an ascending or descending order.
So even though each home in a building has the same flying stars chart, they would be further superimposed by a Xuan Kong purple white chart as well. Effectively giving them their own charts.
While this also means that each home is somewhat unique, it still subscribes to the blanket approach to flying stars. And it goes against the idea that feng shui should be simple.
If for instance, you want a glass of water. There should be no need to capture hydrogen and oxygen to compress their atoms together in a tank even though the science says that it’s what water molecules are made of. You can definitely attempt that… or reach for the drinking flask or turn on the tap instead.
If you are a practitioner of the second method and find yourself questioning it’s legitimacy, adding this layer of the Xuan Kong purple white methodology on top of the blanket approach might just give you some closure of the dilemma in your mind.
It must be said however, that seasoned feng shui practitioners tend to see purple white as a micro theory in the bigger scheme of things.
5) Entry point of the level is the facing
While we often find practitioners being ridiculed online for using the main entrance into an apartment as the facing, people should be aware that these concepts of determining the facing as described in method #2 and #3 are the most widespread because the people who teaches them have a wide reach in audience.
So it goes without saying that more people who are new to feng shui would be influenced by them.
However, there is still a significant group of accomplished practitioners who stick to their guns and determine the main entry point of energy being the facing.
This comes from the different ways different masters interpreted the original text from the classics.
The legitimacy of this door-as-facing idea is mostly based on the facing must be the space where life force enters the premises. Since windows and other types of openings are not used by residents, only entrances and doors can be the facing of a property.
In some cases, the elevator orientation on upper levels of a building is the focal point for determining facing as it is where yang energy is brought by people. Once the facing direction is identified, then the appropriate natal chart is used.
Deciding your approach
It is not wrong to say that any of the approaches to apartments listed above are correct. All of them has a basis that can be backed up by classical feng shui.
But in choosing which one to agree with and put into practice really depends on which you feel an affinity to and makes the most sense to you.
New learners of feng shui should also avoid taking the words of their teachers literally. You must be aware that what a teacher teaches is his or her own interpretation and approach to how feng shui is done.
To disagree is a forward step towards mastery.
This is why we almost never see an accomplished feng shui master totally agree with another… unless it’s a student-teacher relationship of course.
