Feng Shui

De-fusing the North-South Issue

Jodi Brunner

Those new to Feng Shui scour the net for info, or buy a book or few, then begin to wonder whether Feng Shui should be changed for the Southern Hemisphere.

I find that Feng Shui topics often come in ‘waves,’ and lately I’ve had many enquiries on its use in the Southern Hemisphere. Here are the types of queries:

“We live in the Southern Hemisphere, is this represented differently than the Northern Hemisphere?”

“I am in South Africa and have been trying to lay the original Later Heaven Sequence over my house without much success. The problem is that it does not seem right that Li falls into South as our South is our cold side. it seems to me that the Pa Kua has to be reversed and thus flow anti-clockwise. As you are in Australia I was hoping that you may have encountered this problem and have a correct answer.”

“I'm confused; being in the Southern Hemisphere and all, I'm never sure of directions in Feng Shui. I'm hoping to be "deconfused" by contact with list members, particularly at my end of the world.”

THE ISSUE

Some believe in the Southern Hemisphere, we should swap around Feng Shui theories. Therefore we should change the positions of the Four Celestial Animals, the numbers in the Lo Shu Grid and maybe even change the Chinese calendar.

But what do we do at the equator? And what is the basis of Feng Shui anyway?

THE FOUR CELESTIAL ANIMALS

The Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix and Turtle are symbolic animals representing landforms, in their ideal formation, surrounding our property. The yang Phoenix sits at the front, the yin Turtle to the rear, the Yang Dragon to the left, the yin Tiger to the right.

They represent the South (Phoenix), North (Turtle), East (Dragon) and West (Tiger) in the heavenly skies.

In ancient China, the Emperor would sit on his throne in his palace, facing the most auspicious direction, South, towards the Red Phoenix, the most yang direction.

This is where the confusion begins. Exponents of the Southern Hemisphere change say that because of the animals’ locations, we should reverse their directions in the Southern Hemisphere, as the north is yang, not the south.

The theory doesn’t make sense. It may be so for the southernmost parts of Australia, that the cold winds blow from the south, but not in the north of Australia. At what geographical point would we then change the animals around?

Now if the Four Celestial Animals were called the ‘Four Terrestrial Animals,’ then maybe I would consider it, but as the name suggests, the Four Celestial Animals represent heavenly bodies; so they represent, ‘that which in heaven is reflected on earth.’

They don’t relate to compass directions on earth as all, rather symbolic placements of landforms.

Therefore, seek out these landforms surrounding your property – it doesn’t matter which compass direction you face - and see if the landforms are in proportion. That’s all.

CLIMATE & THE CHINESE CALENDAR

It would make sense, if we were purely looking at climatic factors, to change Feng Shui for the Southern Hemisphere, but only in the southernmost areas. For indeed in the Southern Hemisphere the cold winds come from the south (or south-west). However, Feng Shui is not based on climate, rather it’s based on the Earth’s magnetic field.

The Chinese have two calendars, the Solar and the Lunar calendars. The Solar calendar, which is used in Feng Shui, is based on the earth’s orbit around the sun. The sun travels a 360° path across the sky throughout the year, known as the ecliptic.

The Solar Calendar is not based on seasonal influences either, it commences when the sun is at 15° Aquarius. This does happen to coincide with the beginning of spring (Li Qun) in the Northern Hemisphere.

In Chinese Astrology we do have to take the seasonal aspect into consideration, so in this way it does change not only with the hemispheres, but also in the tropics as well. For instance, if someone is born in December in the Southern Hemisphere, it is summer and a time of strong fire; whereas if they were born in December in the Northern Hemisphere, in mid winter it’s a time of strong water. This will affect their astrological life reading.

THE LO SHU GRID

In Feng Shui an important diagram used in site analysis is the Hou Tian Ba Gua. The Hou Tian Ba Gua (Ba Gua of the Later Heaven Sequence) represents a host of meanings, including the Trigrams of the Yi Jing, the compass directions and the numerical equation which sees the numbers in the grid add up to 15 whichever way they’re added together (which is why it’s called a magic square). As the Trigrams represent the attributes of the Five Cycles (fire, earth, metal, water and wood), some believe the Lo Shu Grid should be changed for the Southern Hemisphere, changing fire to the north and water to the south.

The theories that comprise the Lo Shu developed over thousands of years of experimentation and application. It cannot arbitrarily be changed in a short time without an incredibly overwhelming amount of evidence.

There is one Feng Shui Master here in Australia who does this, so his calculations are flipped top to bottom. He is the only one I’ve ever seen to do this and combine his theory with his own unique style of Feng Shui. I wonder about the efficacy of his entire system. I’ve asked his students if he has case studies to back up his theory, and they say, “No, not that I‘ve seen.” Yet he continues to teach an unfounded method and charge a lot of money.

So my advice is always to ask for proof that a system is working before blindly adopting it. Furthermore, to change the Lo Shu Grid would also alter the way in which time is calculated in Feng Shui and how it influences a site on a twenty-year, annual, monthly or daily basis.

There are many case studies building up now in the Southern Hemisphere to suggest that in hindsight, if the theory was changed for the Southern Hemisphere, it would not yield the correct results.

CHINESE GRAVESITES

In Australia we have a rich heritage of Chinese settlement, in Victoria dating back 150 years. The early settlers, mostly gold miners, established themselves in the goldfields, and naturally enough, in the cemeteries.

Feng Shui is used for Yin Houses (gravesites) as well as Yang houses (homes and buildings).

In Australia, the Chinese mostly buried their dead temporarily in a gravesite, then after seven years they exhume the body, clean the bones and send them back to China. This practice continued until the 1930’s.

Of the permanent graves that do exist in Australia I’ve never seen one facing North. They are mostly facing South in accordance with Feng Shui, unless otherwise advised by a Feng Shui Master.

MAGNETISM

In their book, Magnetism and Its effects on the living system, Dr Albert Davis and Walter Rawls came upon a chance discovery:

When Dr. Davis was going fishing one weekend, he left two boxes of worm bait next to a horseshoe magnet; one box exposed to each pole of the magnet. Having got side-tracked, he returned to the boxes at the end of the weekend to reveal a startling discovery.

The worms situated next to the South pole of the magnet (that is, the South pole faces magnetic North when the magnet is suspended from a thread) had grown larger, bred babies and were so active and ravenous that they had eaten their way through the waxed box; while the worms facing the North pole of the magnet (that is, the pole facing magnetic South if suspended from a string) were listless and 50% dead.

This chance (re)discovery of the separate pole effects prompted Davis and Rawls to conduct exhaustive experiments.

They published four books on the subject of magnetic polarity and its effects on humans, animals, chemical reactions and more.

Inside the Earth is an electrically conducting liquid outer core that revolves in a fluid motion and produces an electromagnetic dynamo effect: the Earth’s magnetic field, with north and south polarities. So the Earth is like a gigantic magnet, with the strongest magnetic field in our solar system so far known.

The ancient Chinese very cleverly realised this and understood the different polarities of the earth’s magnetic field.

So when the Chinese invented the compass (known as the Luo Pan), they incorporated it into Feng Shui theories and declared that South is Yang and North is Yin.

WHAT TO DO AT THE EQUATOR?

If we were to change Feng Shui for the Southern Hemisphere, what would we do at the equator? What about places like Quito, Ecuador, 0° 19’ South, or a town on 0° Telaga, in Sumatra? Which ‘model’ of Feng Shui would we use?

Last year I visited Singapore, latitude just over 1° North of the equator. I discussed the issue of the Southern Hemisphere with Feng Shui Masters there. One Master said he regularly travels to Indonesia, South of the equator, for consultations. I asked if he changes Feng Shui accordingly, he looked at me puzzled, and said, “Why would I do that?”

CORIOLIS FORCE

The rotation of the Earth causes air and water currents to swirl in opposite directions in either hemispheres; .in the Northern Hemisphere, air moving up from the south is deflected eastward, while air moving down from the north is deflected westward. Because of this, some say that Feng Shui should change in the Southern Hemisphere… Feng Shui has nothing to do with clouds, air patterns, or which way water flows down the drain. None of these things affect the magnetic field of the earth.

COMMON SENSE APPROACH

If we were to face our front doors to the north in the Southern Hemisphere, then our backyards would be in the south. Ask any Real Estate agent in Melbourne, Australia which direction is the best for the backyard, and immediately they’ll say, “In the North, of course.”

This is so because in Australia we do a lot of entertaining, in the privacy of our own backyards. If our ideal front doors were to face north, then our backyards would be in perpetual shade! We’d have to do our entertaining in the front yard, in view of the street and neighbours.

CONCLUSION

So in conclusion, there is no difference in Compass Feng Shui between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, you see it's based on the earth's magnetic field, which does not change. North is still North and South is still South. If you have learnt otherwise, I'm sorry to hear that you're confused. Please remember that the compass is based on the earth's magnetic field, not the weather patterns, calendar or the Coriolis Force.

"Yes. There is no need to modify the conventional technique we employ in China. Feng Shui Principles and auditing method remain the same in all parts of the world. Perhaps there are two places on earth that we cannot practice this art and these two places are the North Pole and the South Pole. These are points of singularity (Wow, a sophisticated mathematical term!). At the North Pole all directions are South and at the South Pole all directions are the North...

Feng Shui masters who pass on the art of Feng Shui in the form of writings had no experience with places other than China (Central Nation). Our hypothesis that Feng Shui can be practiced with the same methods in all parts of the world with only slight changes in the strengths of the energies from various directions is only logical deduction. It needs to be verified by experiments.”

Master Joseph Yu

Jodi Brunner holds a Higher Diploma in Traditional Feng Shui with Master Joseph Yu, Feng Shui Research Center, Canada. She is primarily a Feng Shui practitioner and trainer, also an accredited speaking member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the founder of the FENG SHUI network. Contact Jodi on +613 9662 1011 or visit her website www.fengshuimaster.com.au for more info.