In my conversation with my clients, I realize that many are confused or uncertain about facing direction.
The usual question is whether they should look out of the facing of the house or the other way around. The correct answer is looking out. You always measure looking out of the facing of the house. The same apply to measuring the facing direction of the door. Again you measure from inside of the house looking out of the door. Please refer to the drawings above and below.
What about the facing direction of your study or work table. This is the direction that you are looking at when seated on the table. What about the facing direction when sleeping. There are two correct answers to this question and it depends on the system of Feng Shui that you practice. In the Eight Mansions or Eight House system, it is beneficial if we sleep on a bed that facing a direction that is beneficial to you. For example if you are an East Group person, you should sleep with your head facing north, south, east or south-east. But what you the books really mean when they say you should sleep facing north for example? In this system, the direction is measure from on the crown of your head. It is actually the direction that the crown of your head faces when your sleep. Please refer to the examples below.
Why did I say two correct answers? In other systems of Feng Shui such as those practised by Zi Wei masters, the facing direction is measure based on the soles of the feet. The ration is that facing direction is the direction that you intake air into your body. So when you are sleeping with the crown of your head towards the north, your facing direction is south as your nose is breathing air coming from the south! It is a matter of perspective and they are right too. So when we talk about facing direction, we should also specify the system.
Finally what is the facing direction of a stove? This is a popular topic amongst Eight Mansion’s practitioners as they believe that you can derive much benefit if your stove facings the right direction.
In the old days determining the facing is quite simply. It is based on the fire-mouth and it is always opposite to the direction of the person doing the cooking. With the advent of modern stoves power by gas, heating element, induction etc it gets harder. However as a general rule it is opposite to the direction that the person doing the cooking is facing.
We use to reference it using the knobs on gas stoves. But nowadays some gas stoves have knobs only on the stop which prompted one of my clients to ask if his stove is facing the ceiling!
