Written by Daniel Hanna

Along with taking an accurate compass direction, defining your facing direction is very important to performing a Feng Shui consultation.

This area causes much misunderstanding, we have been to so many consultations and told beforehand that a property faces a certain direction and when we get there the bearing of the front door is different to the facing direction.

To give you a conclusive answer is actually quite hard as there are so many different opinions on how to find the front facing direction of your home or office, in fact even a qualified Feng Shui Practitioner can spend hours analysing a property before they make a decision on where the front facing direction is.

Overlook your front door bearing?

Most people think the front is the facing direction that your front door faces, try and imagine you are in my home as you stand in the centre of my home you will be in my dining room with the living room and hallway and kitchen either side, I have five large windows and one small facing north, there is a road outside and a footpath and also my front garden, but I do not have a front door there. On the east wall I have a main door with porch and one window, which looks onto the next-door neighbour’s home.

So does my home face north or east?

Hopefully you will get the idea by now, because my main door faces east it does not mean this is the facing direction of my home, my facing direction is north, this is where the most “Yang” (activity) energy is, the road, footpath, people and cars going by, the widest part of the building, if you were the architect planning my house you would certainly place my front door there.

This part is crucial, as when you analyse any school of Feng Shui you need to know which way your property faces.

If you take my house again although I may have a driveway leading to the garage and main door, for example assume at the back I now have a main road, pedestrian footpath, lots of people and activity and even a lovely stream, you guessed it, this would now be my facing direction as this is where all my Yang energy is, this is not uncommon when you think about it, drive down any main road you will see many homes with back gardens facing the road and yet they will always think this is the rear in Feng Shui terms.

So what is facing and sitting directions?

The facing direction is the side of the home that faces the “yang” (active) energy, the sitting direction is actually more important as this is the area that has the most “yin” (quiet) energy. The sitting direction determines your properties Trigram. So if your property faces 349 degrees north, the sitting direction is 169 degrees south, so the trigram for this property is “Li” south.

How do I know which is Yin (sitting) and which is Yang (facing)?

Yang (facing): This is the most active energy, energy that is lively:

v     A busy active road.

v     A public footpath.

v     A flowing river.

v     The side of a building that has the most windows.

v     Your street sign.

v     The south (bright) is Yang and the north (dark) is Yin.

v     A children’s playground or primary school.

v     The main entrance is sometimes (not always) the facing direction.

v     A nice clear open view.

Yin (sitting direction): This is where the least energy resides:

v     A back garden is usually is your sitting direction.

v     Tall dark trees at the back of your grounds.

v     Smaller darker rooms.

v     The north (dark) is Yin energy.

v     The quieter side of the building.

v     The kitchen and bathroom (not always) is usually at the back.

v     Utility or washrooms are typically in the sitting direction.

v     The sitting direction could look onto a large building or a row of houses.

v     The side of the property that is not that as pleasing to the eye, i.e. down-pipes from the toilet, gutter pipes placed side and downwards to the main-wall.

You will need to take a general view on all of the above; a good test to find your facing direction is, if you had to take a photo of your home or office which angle would you take it from? Would you take the picture of the front door that has nothing on that wall except the main entrance or would you take the picture of the side that has the most windows and is more attractive to the eye.

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© Daniel Hanna 2009