Like most practices that have been around for thousands of years, there are several different schools of feng shui, all with different approaches and perspectives. Some schools of feng shui, including the Compass and Classical schools, take into account the magnetic compass directions as one aspect of how energy flows through a home. One thing that a practitioner from one of these schools may look at is a home’s facing direction.
How to Find Your House Facing Direction
In general, the simplest way to find your house facing direction is to stand in your front doorway facing out, and work with a compass to determine which way you are facing while standing in this position. Feng shui practitioners use a special compass called a luo pan, but you can also use a standard compass or the compass app on your phone. If you are really interested in learning about this, it’s always a good idea to work with a feng shui practitioner. There are other factors that can influence your home’s facing direction, and a trained practitioner will be able to find yours with more accuracy.
What a North-Facing House Means in Feng Shui
One of the tools that we work with in feng shui is called the bagua. The bagua is a mandala made up of eight areas radiating out from a center. If you have already done some research on feng shui, you may be familiar with each of the areas as it corresponds to a particular aspect of life, such as wealth, partnerships, or career. Each area has many additional layers of meaning beyond that, and each one is also connected to a magnetic compass direction. The North sector of the bagua is called Kan in Chinese. Kan has to do with your career and your path in life. It’s also related to wisdom, the water element, and the color black.
How to Activate the Energy of a North-Facing Home
To activate the energy of your North-facing home, you can enhance the water or metal elements in your home’s North sector. The North direction is connected to the water element, so adding water here can be supportive. In the five elements cycle, each element also directly feeds and supports another, and the element that feeds water is metal. This means that adding metal to the North sector of your home can also be beneficial.
Water and Metal Element Colors
One powerful way to start to bring in the water and metal elements is through color. Each of the five elements is connected to particular colors, and bringing those colors into your home can help to activate the qualities of the element that it’s connected to. Water is related to the color black, as well as very dark charcoal gray. Metal element colors are white, gray, and metallic colors like copper and bronze. If you want to make a really powerful statement, you can paint your door in one of these colors. The front door of your home is one of the most important parts of your home in feng shui, so this is always a great place to start. Black, white, and gray can all be beautiful colors for a front door. You can also bring in these colors in smaller ways, like a welcome mat, a planter, or a piece of art that you love.
Enhance the North With Water
Another way to bring more water energy into the North sector of your home is by adding actual water features. If it makes sense in your home, you can also add a water feature here, like a water fountain. Just be sure that it is well-maintained and cleaned regularly. Water is also connected to wavy, undulating shapes. If you’d like to bring more water energy into your home in this way, try looking for artwork, textiles, or even wallpaper that includes these.
Enhance the North With Metal
You can also add the metal element, which supports the water element, to the North sector of your home. One way to do this is by adding decor items made of metal, like statues, picture frames, or vases. You can also add circular shapes, since circles are connected to the metal element. This could be a round throw pillow or table, a blanket with a circular pattern, a round light fixture, or another item that resonates with you.
