Every Dragon Gate reading begins with the building's facing (向) — and the formula itself is read from the opposite end, the sitting palace behind the building. Get the facing wrong by a whole palace and every position moves; get it wrong by a few degrees near a boundary and the house can land in the neighbouring formation.
The classical rule: the yang side faces
A building faces its yang side — the side with more light, more activity, more openings, the frontage onto the street or open ground. The opposite side, more solid and enclosed, is the sitting. For a detached house with a front door on the road and a garden behind, the facing is the front-door direction. The formula then takes the sitting — the facing turned 180° — and reads its Later Heaven palace.
Apartments, corner units and shops
An apartment building has one facing: the direction of its main entrance. The formation belongs to the building and the water around its site, so it is read from the building’s sitting, not from the orientation of one unit’s windows. A corner building with two frontages faces the side with the main entrance; a shop faces the street its door opens onto.
Measuring, and the palace-line check
Take the bearing with a level compass away from metal, average a few readings and correct for magnetic declination. Then find the sitting palace: 坎 from 337.5° to 22.5°, 艮 to 67.5°, 震 to 112.5°, 巽 to 157.5°, 離 to 202.5°, 坤 to 247.5°, 兌 to 292.5° and 乾 to 337.5°. A sitting bearing within one line (0.94°) of one of those boundaries should be re-measured: across the line the house belongs to a different formation. KAXANTA flags it from the facing you save.
References
Canonical sources that inform this guide.
- 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
- Bagua (Eight Trigrams) · WIKIPEDIA
- Feng shui · WIKIPEDIA