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1. ORIGINS OF THE LUO PAN COMPASS

AN AUTHENTIC CHINESE FENG SHUI LUO PAN IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED INSTRUMENTS IN THE WORLD. IT IS AN EXTRAORDINARILY PRECISE COMPASS THAT CONTAINS A TREASURE TROVE OF FENG SHUI FORMULAS AND SECRETS. THESE ENABLE THE SERIOUS PRACTITIONER TO TAKE PRECISE READINGS OF THE ORIENTATION OF ANY BUILDING OR PROPERTY AND, IF THEY KNOW HOW TO READ AND INTERPRET THE MARKINGS, OFFER INSTANT DIAGNOSIS AND SOLUTIONS.

Feng shui afflictions take different forms under a whole melange of circumstances and orientations. These afflictions can be caused by physical structures within the vicinity of the landscape, the orientation of the building’s doors and entrances, or simply the energy changes of time. All these and more can be decoded from the information contained within the Luo Pan. The markings on the Luo Pan give immediate correlations of every degree of orientation thereby pinpointing to the user under which method or formula there might be a feng shui problem.

How did the Luo Pan originate?

A colorful Chinese legend tells of a beautiful Goddess, known as the Lady of the Nine Heavens, who gave the Luo Pan compass to the Yellow Emperor and revealed to him the secret knowledge of how to use this special tool. Using the Luo Pan, the Yellow Emperor succeeded in defeating his enemies. In the ensuing centuries the compass device was progressively enhanced by the Duke of Chou, his son King Wen, and his grandson. The knowledge of the compass was combined with that of the Book of Changes, the I Ching, and, in the process, concepts of worldly and divine clairvoyance were established. Thus was formulated what would eventually become the fundamental underpinnings of the science of feng shui, a combination of all the knowledge of heaven and earth. As a tool, the Luo Pan was used in unison with the I Ching, which had by then been condensed into the eight-sided symbol called the Pa Kua.

Each Kua of the eight-sided Pa Kua symbol represents one major direction of the compass. And on each side is arranged the eight primary trigrams. These trigrams are placed in different arrangements thereby creating the Pa Kua of the Early Heaven arrangement and the Pa Kua of the Later Heaven arrangement. Both these arrangements appear in all Luo Pans. At the same time, the Lo Shu and Ho Tu squares were discovered and the numbers of these two numerology sequences were also synthesized into the Pa Kua and into the Luo Pan.

As a feng shui tool, the Luo Pan has been in use since the time of the Yellow Emperor around 2700 BC. It was initially used as a compass for taking directions before being refined into a complicated instrument for analyzing the landscape. Basically the Luo Pan was used to decipher the directional forces of nature and their bearing on the luck of abodes and their residents. Through the centuries and under different dynasties of imperial rule, the practice of feng shui has waxed and waned, but the Luo Pan evolved to contain the different formulas developed by different prominent masters during succeeding dynastic rules. Feng shui masters through the ages condensed their valuable observations and discoveries into working formulas, and their precious knowledge was engraved into the Luo Pan, to be passed down to their disciples.

During the Sung dynasty the lineage of transmission of divinatory sciences from one recognized master to the next was carefully chronicled. These transmissions included feng shui. In those times recognized experts were highly esteemed and feng shui practice flourished. The next dynasty significant to the story of feng shui was that of the Ming dynasty. During this time, feng shui developed new styles and orientations – rules were simplified and mountains, rivers, and stones were reclassified. Time cycles of feng shui were said to have been “invented” at this time, with the introduction of the Sarn Yuan (three periods or three cycles) system. Each cycle lasted 60 years, made up of three cycles of 20 years. This was to eventually become the basis of the Flying Star system of feng shui, which is gaining increasing popularity today, perpetuated by masters of the Compass schools. Flying Star formulas found their way into the feng shui Luo Pan which, during the Ming period, also expanded from 17 to 36 rings. In the late Ming, however, feng shui took on a bad name as “fake” masters and books were said to have become rather widespread.

For this reason later feng shui scholars were extremely critical of Ming-period feng shui. During the Ching period, the practices expounded by the Ming scholars were censured and as a result there was movement towards embracing the more theoretical texts of the Sung practitioners.