Hello,

I have recently come across a Luopan from the American Feng Shui Institute. I noticed that the trigrams are in different places, but the attributes the same (E=Wood, S=Fire, etc.)and the birth info is also different. According to Diamond Feng Shui I am an Earth Snake, and according to the American version, I am a Water sign. I tried to research some of this and found that most of what I found had the trigrams placed the same as Diamond Feng Shui but the attributes were different (E=Fire, S=Heaven).

Some things are the same and some are very different. I am basically trying to understand why different schools have different attributes and is there a way to reconcile them?

Thank you,
Michelle

Aloha Michelle,

You need to make sure you are talking apples to apples when referencing between systems. For example in the Diamond Feng Shui manual, a person born Feb 18, 1977-Feb 6, 1978 is a "snake for their ANIMAL SYMBOL, and earth for their FORTUNE ELEMENT. You can be out looking on the web and plug in your birth date into a Feng Shui generator where they may say your are a "Fire" Snake. What you have to be aware of is the context or calculation used. The "Fire Snake" example is the YEAR ELEMENT for that birth year, not the FORTUNE ELEMENT. We originally had a person's Year Element listed int he Personal Energy Chart in the Diamond Feng Shui manual, and pulled it because people were getting mixed up between the two, and Marie found that working with a person's Fortune Element is more dynamic and useful.

There will be other situations where Compass Feng Shui (used in the Diamond Feng Shui system) will sector out the areas in the house by standing in the middle of the home and taking the directions, and another system will have you stand at the front door looking into the house, and assign directions based on saying that front door is "North," no matter if it's in the East, West, or South of the house.

It comes down to choosing a school and sticking with it, rather than a buffet approach.

Much Love, Shawn

Hello Shawn,

Thank you for your response. I tend to agree with Diamond directions and elements because it matches up with other practices I have been using for years.

I do not vibe with the schools that place everything according to the front door regardless of which direction is faces. I think magnetic direction deserves more respect than that .

Thank you for clearing up the difference between Year and Fortune elements. I will look into that more on my own. Besides when I wear orange (Earth element color) I get strong positive feedback so I feel comfortable with Marie's interpretations.

Thanks again for clearing that up for me,
Michelle