This article first appeared before the Taurus New Moon of May 16, 2026, and it described the Dragon Gate water formula (龍門八局) as a Kua-number method with earth-sign New Moons as its "lock-in windows". Neither is true. The formula is keyed on one fact about a building — the palace it sits in — and the sources that print its tables say nothing about the Moon. Here is what the formula actually reads, how to find your house’s formation, and why a New Moon changes none of it.
What the Dragon Gate formula reads
The Water Formula — 龍門八局, the Dragon Gate Eight Formations — is about the water around a building: where it should arrive, and where it should leave. The sources that print its tables file it as a San Yuan (三元) water method. Its single input is the palace the building sits in: the Later Heaven palace behind it, the facing turned 180°.
From that palace, eight named positions follow:
| Position | Water arriving from it | Water leaving toward it |
|---|---|---|
| 先天 Early Heaven | supports the household’s people | read as their loss |
| 後天 Later Heaven | supports wealth | read as its loss |
| 賓 Guest, 客 Visitor | favours outsiders — in-laws, tenants — over the household’s line | harmless |
| 天劫 Heaven Robbery | the formula’s worst case | the preferred exit |
| 地刑 Earth Punishment | contested between the sources | harmful |
| 案劫 Front Robbery (the facing palace) | harmful when it strikes in | the other exit |
| 輔卦 Auxiliary | read as helpful | harmful |
The rule behind the positions is the Early and Later Heaven arrangements of the eight trigrams, and four printed tables agree on all 56 cells of the seven fixed positions. There is no Kua in any of it: two people living in the same house share one formation, whatever their birth years.
Where the Kua-number version came from
The directions this article originally gave — East Group water to the east, north, south and southeast; West Group to the west, northwest, southwest and northeast; "Sheng Chi" as the best water direction — are the Eight Mansions (Ba Zhai) directions for a person. They are a real method, and KAXANTA reads them in Feng Shui from your Kua number. But they rate directions for a person, and the Dragon Gate formula reads a building. The two can point to different directions for the same home, and the article presented one under the other’s name.
Why the Moon does not enter it
The first version claimed that "classical Water Formula texts" name earth-sign New Moons, cross-quarter days, the winter solstice and personal solar terms as lock-in windows. None of the sources that print the Dragon Gate tables says so; the claim mixed a Western astrological image — Taurus as the sign of accumulation — into a Chinese water method that has no lunar component. A house’s formation changes only when its sitting changes, and nothing about the sky on May 16, 2026, or any other date, moved it.
What to do instead
Three steps, none of them tied to a date:
- Measure the facing with a level compass away from metal, and correct it for magnetic declination. The formula reads the sitting palace — the facing turned 180° — and a sitting bearing within about a degree of the boundary between two palaces (22.5°, 67.5° and every 45° after) should be measured again: across that line the house belongs to a different formation.
- Find the formation. For a house sitting north (坎, facing south): water arriving from the west (先天) and southwest (後天) is what the formula looks for; water should leave toward the southeast (天劫) or the front, the south (案劫). All eight formations are in the Dragon Gate calculation guide, and KAXANTA shows yours from the house facing saved in Settings.
- Read the real flow on the site. Which way the ground falls, where gutters and drains discharge, where a stream or road runs toward the house or away from it. The configurations the formula warns against are water draining away through the 先天 or 後天 palaces (流破), water leaving through 地刑, and water arriving from the 天劫 palace.
The Taurus New Moon
The New Moon of May 16, 2026 fell in Taurus. It is a real astronomical event with a place in Western astrological practice, and KAXANTA’s cosmic weather reads lunations in that frame. It has no place in the Dragon Gate formula, and this article no longer suggests otherwise.
Correction, 28 September 2026: the earlier text described the Water Formula as a Kua-number method with New Moon timing. It has been rewritten to describe 龍門八局 as its sources do, keyed on the building’s sitting palace, and KAXANTA’s Water Formula reading was rebuilt on the same basis the same day.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Water Formula (龍門八局)?
The Dragon Gate Eight Formations: a San Yuan water method that reads where water should arrive at a building and where it should leave. Its one input is the palace the building sits in — the direction its back faces — and from that palace it names eight positions, each with a reading for water arriving from that direction and water leaving toward it.
Does my Kua number decide where water should go?
Not in this formula. Every source that prints the Dragon Gate tables keys them on the sitting palace alone, so two people in the same house share one formation. The Kua number belongs to the Eight Mansions method (Ba Zhai), which rates directions for a person — a different question with a different answer.
Does a New Moon matter for water placement?
The sources that print the Dragon Gate tables name no lunar timing at all. The claim in the first version of this article — that earth-sign New Moons "lock in" water placements — was not from them and has been withdrawn. The formation of a house changes only if the house’s sitting changes.
Where should water arrive and leave for a house that sits north?
A house with its back to the north (sitting 坎, facing south) wants water arriving from the west (先天) and the southwest (後天), with the northeast (輔卦) also read as helpful. Water should leave toward the southeast (天劫) or through the front, the south (案劫); the water mouth is the 巽, 丙 and 丁 mountains. Water leaving through the west or southwest breaks the 先天 or 後天.
Does the formula apply to an indoor fountain?
The formula reads water around the site — streams, drains, run-off, the fall of the ground — and the sources consulted give positions, not rules for decorative indoor water. An indoor fountain has no flow to or from the house for the formula to read.
References
- 论龙门八局系水法 (华夏大易学社)Website
- 三元水法龙门八大局 (简书)Website
- Feng shuiWikipedia
- BaguaWikipedia