The location (and facing) of the main door, the location of the bedroom (and orientation of the bed), together with the location of the kitchen (and facing of the stove) are the three important factors in interior Feng Shui.
Every system has specific rules on the placement of the kitchen. Some like the Eight Mansions system even have rules on the orientation (of facing) of the stove.
Before we go into the specifics of the kitchen and stove, you should be clear on the difference between sector and orientation. Click here for more information.
Some households have two kitchens, one wet and the other dry. If you can both should be placed in the ‘right’ sectors. However if you cannot, priority should be given to the one that you use the most. This is usually but not necessary the wet kitchen.
Locating the right sector for the kitchen is quite straightforward. For example in the Eight Mansions system, you place the kitchen (and the stove) in a ‘bad’ sector. The ration is the fire of the stove will burn away all the inauspiciousness of the sector turning bad to good. Please note that it is not necessary the case with other systems where the stove can be placed in a ‘good’ sector to activate the area.
The Eight Mansions system in particular requires the stove to be orientated facing a good direction. The question that many people ask is how to determine the facing of a stove. In the olden days, it was easy to determine the facing of the stove. It is based on the fire mouth which is the place where you put in charcoal or wood for burning. Please look at the illustration to get a clearer explanation.
Most modern cookers however do not have fire mouths. And induction or electric cookers do not even have fire! So how do we determine the facing direction?
An experience practitioner would be able to tell after taking a good look at the cooker. But in the absence of clear cut determining factors, we normally take the facing direction of a stove as opposite to the facing direction of the person doing the cooking.
For example, if the person doing the cooking is facing north, then the facing direction of the stove is taken to be facing south!
So there you have it, stove facing direction.
