A northwest facing house is one where the Chien trigram finds it’s way to the facade of the property. So a lot of people naturally that such a home would be perfect for a household where the patriarch is the main breadwinner to maintain the family.
However, this is not a default feng shui assessment as there are various components to the energy dynamics of a property to determine whether it indeed has good feng shui.
In addition to that, there is a common saying regarding this direction which labels it as an area where one would be drinking the northwest wind (喝西北风) when facing it. This is a reference to one who has nothing to do and going nowhere in life.
This is why during onsite feng shui consultations, practitioners like to use this phrase as a joke when a house is deemed as inauspicious.
So do you feng shui a north west facing house?
Feng shui bagua map
The bagua map consist of 8 trigrams which are the very fundamentals of feng shui concepts.
It states that the 8 trigrams each take up a position in the 8 main directions of a compass.
This can be listed as:
- Chien at northwest
- Kun at southwest
- Sun at southeast
- Li at south
- Kan at north
- Ken at northeast
- Chen at east
- Tui at west
This means that the south section of a house for example, is where the Li trigram can be found. It is then implied that the attributes represented by the trigram would be influenced by how this particular area of the house is designed.
The key attributes of each trigram can be observed below.
- Chien for mentors and patriarch
- Kun for relationships and matriarch
- Sun for wealth and eldest daughter
- Li for recognition and middle daughter
- Kan for career and middle son
- Ken for academics and youngest son
- Chen for health and eldest son
- Tui for family and youngest daughter
So if the south area of the house is a missing corner, then it can be deduced that household members would constantly find obstacles blocking their progression to get more recognition at work. And the middle daughter would be struck the heaviest blow.
On top of this, because the Li trigram is missing, the middle daughter would suffer from bad luck in general in almost every endeavor.
If you have a family without a middle daughter, then this does not pose a huge issue to you.
You might suffer from a lack of recognition at the office and with your friends, but other feng shui concepts can help you enhance you luck in this life aspect as well. We will talk more about that later.
This simple example of how a feng shui affliction of a particular directional area can adversely affect residents in a household can be applied to every sector and trigram.
Just follow the trigram references that has been mentioned above.
Something you’d want to avoid is to have the kitchen at the front area of the house as this might put it in the northwest sector. Such a floor plan would incur the wrath of bad luck as it triggers the infamous feng shui affliction of fire at heaven’s gate.
8 mansions feng shui
This is a feng shui school of thought that is widely practiced due to it simple application and potency.
8 mansions basically divides the house into 8 segments that fall nicely into the 8 main directions.
There is not one default 8 mansions natal chart that applied to all homes. How the energy configuration is determined is by identifying the sitting direction of the property.
For example, if a house is facing northwest, it would be sitting on southeast. This means that it would be a Sun house and would have the below natal energy map.
The good sectors of the house is indicated as SC, FW, TY and YN in the above illustration. The remaining 4 would be the bad sectors.
It can be quickly observed that at the front of the house where the sectors of north, northwest and west are located, only the north is a favorable area with auspicious chi.
Seeing this information, it should be instinctive to realize that the front door into the house should be located in the north sector of the house.
The door direction can either open towards the northeast, north or northwest.
It can also be observed that the back of the house consist of 3 favorable sectors. This makes that whole are suitable for bedrooms and dining rooms.
The kitchen however has to be located at one of the negative sectors as kitchens have a special status in 8 mansions.
If we apply the trigram concept which was discussed earlier to 8 mansions, then it can be seen that the east can be an ideal location for the eldest son in the family to use as a bedroom.
Does this mean it’s good or bad?
We can then test if this analysis holds any water by bring flying stars feng shui into the equation.
Flying stars feng shui
Flying stars feng shui is another school of thought that is widely practiced today due to it mapping out a time dimension which practitioners can use as a guide to luck and unlucky periods.
It generates it’s own energy map for a residence that is different to 8 mansions.
Feng shui masters like to apply both concepts to a house to find feng shui applications that satisfies both of them.
For example, if a house is built during the period of 8 facing directly northwest, then it would have the below flying star natal chart.
From the above birth chart, it can be observed that the main door can indeed be located at the north area of the house because there is the presence of a favorable water star in the form of the 4 green star.
However, the best direction would be northwest as this is the direction where the wealth star 8 arrives from. This can be observed at the northwest grid with the number 8 at the top right.
It would also be desirable to have the living room at the north and/or northwest area of the house.
It can also be assessed that the back row of east and southeast are suitable for bedrooms as they have favorable mountain stars of 9 and 8 respectively.
If a occupant sleeps in a bedroom situated at the south, he or she could frequently run into trouble with the authorities due to the presence of the 3 jade. It’s also where the 5 yellow star of misfortune resides.
So if the decision is up to you, a toilet or storeroom in this sector would be fine.
Whatever you do, don’t sleep at the west as disaster is bound to befall those who reside at this area unless powerful remedies are put in place to counter to the unlucky star combination of 5 and 7.
So there you have it. A general guide for how to feng shui a northwest facing house that anyone can practice with limited feng shui knowledge.
However, do note that this guide does not take into account sha chi of interiors, bazi, external land form, etc.
But for the regular homeowner who want to apply basic feng shui for peace of mind, this guide is sufficient to prevent you from suffering serious bad luck caused by feng shui afflictions.