Feng Shui Luo Pan compass

How to read Feng Shui Luo Pan compass

The Luo Pan compass （罗盘） is one of Feng Shui's most complex tools. The Luo Pan is circular (symbolsing heaven), made of wood and set into a square board (symbolising earth), which houses a compass and many rings, each containing a unique orientation system, that helps you decide where to place furniture for increased energy flows. Learn how to use a Luo Pan compass in this article.

In the same way that there are many different schools of Feng Shui, so there are many different varieties of Luo Pan Compasses.

What Luo Pan Compasses have in common is that each has a center which contains a magnetic compass, around which are a number of rings. Each ring contains a particular orientation system.
Ring 1: usually contains the pre-heaven Ba Gua
Ring 2: the post-heaven Ba Gua
Ring 3: typically contains the "24 Mountains" (aka the 24 Stars in the Sky or Directions or Shen) - which are a combination of trigrams, heavenly stems (from the Luo Shu system) and earthly branches
Ring 4: The outermost ring (Ring 20 in many systems) is likely to contain the I Ching portent readings of the 64 hexagrams.

The accuracy of reading made by Feng Shui mostly depends on the accuracy of the Feng Shui compass (Luo Pan)
Points to note when using a compass to find the north point of a site or house:
1. Obtain an layout plan of the home or building. Make a copy of this layout and bring this along with you to a site survey.
2. Keep at least one metre from columns, beams or walls.
3. Remove all jewelleries and metallic items as this may also affect the compass readings. Stay away from metallic substances, before holding the compass.
Preferably use a `larger' compass which has a higher `mass' and less prone to `magnetic interference' from it's surrounding.
4. Take a second reading outside the house, preferably on a empty piece of land to establish the north point. If there is a 15 to 20 degrees difference between readings inside and outsid the house, do double check your reading. If the reading deviates too much, the Feng Shui of the house if bad.
5. Hold the compass level with the floor and face the direction being accessed.
6. Turning the Luo pan wheel until the magnetic compass needle aligns with the red line beneath the needle.
7. Read the compass when the needle has settled and when there is no movement of the needle.

When buying a Luo Pan Compass:
Check the accuracy － Check the exact North and South position of the Lopan which is marked as(子) for 0° North and(午) for exact South 180°. Move the circle plate of the Lopan to check if all of the followings are on one straight line and neatly coincide:
－ The magnetic needle, with sharp head pointing South, round head pointing North.
－ The red line under the needle, with 2 small red dots under the round head of the needle.
－ The red nylon line on top of the circular plate.
－ The red nylon line covers exactly the downward stroke in the centre of the Chinese character(午) meaning South and the Chinese character(子) meaning North.
－ The straight line under the(子) and the(午) which exactly divides the Lopan into 2 halves.
If all items are in alignment, then the Lopan is reasonably accurate.

Checking for smooth operation － the circular metal plate on the Lopan must be freely movable. You should turn it a few times to see if it is too tight or too sticky which may hinder measurements.

As I mentioned earlier, there's different schools of Feng Shui so there's different types of reading method according to that particular school of Feng Shui.
I will only touch on the more general methods.
Reading the Luo Pan directions:
Cardinal Directions: North, East, South, West.
Inter-Cardinal Directions: North-east, South-east, South-west, north-west.
From reading the direction the house if facing and sitting at allows you to plot a table call A FLYING STAR CHART.

The red arrow on the Luo Pan always point to the magnetic North, so before you start, it is important to twist the dial so that the red arrow needle is over the north. Once this is aligned you will see a marker arrow this will tell you the direction you are facing.
Stand with your back square to the property, Hold your compass at waist level, Stand at least 10 meters away from property, Rotate the compass dial until the red compass needle aligns with north, Read the compass degree on the indicator line, write down the measurements and repeat it two more times so that you have three readings, average it out (e.g. Reading A + Reading B + Reading C then divide the sum by 3)
The sitting direction is the opposite reading, You will now have an accurate facing and sitting direction for your property.

Now match the facing degrees you have in the following table to get house trigram.

For the sitting direction, add 180 degrees to the facing degree. If the facing degree is more than 360, substract 180 from your facing bearing instead. This will give you the sitting direction.

Stay tuned for next few posts on "How to apply Flying Star Feng Shui-Xuan Kong" in simpler words, how to read all this Luo Pan Bearings.

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