The geomantic compass is called the "lo-p'an." ("Lo" means "everything," and "p'an" means "bowl." Thus, the lo-p'an is a bowl containing the key to the mysteries of the universe.)

The geomantic compass of traditional Chinese feng-shui consists of bands of concentric rings arranged around a magnetic needle.

Two most important rings in the compass shown here are the Pre-celestial ring and the Twenty-four Directions ring.

The Pre-celestial (or Earlier Heaven) ring is the one closest to the center. The trigrams imprinted around this ring describe the realm of underlying reality and the unchanging laws of existence.

Energy in this realm is present in all things, and can be tapped to influence the flow of energy in the land.

The Twenty-four Directions ring (the third ring from the center) is used to determine the facing direction of a site. The markings on this ring correspond to the eight standard compass directions subdivided into three segments each.

In traditional Chinese feng-shui, the direction in which a building faces is determined by a twenty-four-point compass like this one rather than an eight-point compass.

The Pa-k'ua

The pa-k'ua used in Chinese divination, called the post-celestial pa-k'ua, is a system of trigrams (stacks of three solid and/or broken lines) designed by King Wen almost three thousand years ago to describe the nature of changes in the universe.

Notice that this pa-k'ua doubles as an eight-point compass, with each direction associated with a particular trigram.

The solid lines in the trigrams symbolize yang and the broken lines symbolize yin. Thus, a trigram with two or more broken lines is primarily yin, whereas a trigram with two or more solid lines is primarily yang.

Yin-type trigrams are associated with receptive energy and stillness, while yang-type trigrams are associated with expansive energy and action.

A fundamental assumption of Chinese divination is that if we know how things change over time, we can predict future events. This is why the trigrams and their patterns of change form the foundation of the I-Ching, the book of divination.

The patterns of changes represented in the post-celestial pa-k'ua can tell a feng-shui practitioner about the type of energy, destructive or nourishing, that "enters" a particular position of a building (north, south, east, west, etc.) at a particular time. For example, look at the grid of the Flying Stars System.

You will notice that the number 9 appears in several squares. Number 9 is the numeric symbolizing fire.

In our example, number 9 appears in the sections representing the study, the bathroom, and the atrium.

This means that there will be a risk of fire in these rooms. The bathroom has the least threat because of the presence of water.

The atrium has the biggest threat because plants (and therefore wood) can strengthen the element of fire.