Eight Mansions Feng Shui: A Complete Guide
Map each of a home's eight directions onto how you actually use the space.
1. The life trigram: East or West group
A life trigram is derived from birth year and gender, combining the Earlier and Later Heaven arrangements with the Lo Shu numbers, and lands on one of eight trigrams. Eight Mansions sorts them into two groups: Kan, Li, Zhen and Xun form the East group; Qian, Kun, Gen and Dui form the West group. Neither group is better — they simply indicate different directional preferences.
2. What each of the eight palaces means
Every dwelling is labelled with the same eight names; what differs is which direction carries which name for a given life trigram. Sheng Qi governs vitality — good for entrances and workspaces. Tian Yi governs health — good for bedrooms and dining. Yan Nian governs stability and relationships. Fu Wei governs quiet and consolidation. The four adverse palaces — Jue Ming, Wu Gui, Liu Sha, Huo Hai — suit storage, bathrooms and corridors: places where you spend little time.
3. Door, bed, stove: the three that matter first
If you can only adjust three things, look at these. The door is where energy enters and sets the overall tone; the bed is where you spend the most hours; the stove relates to daily nourishment and family routine. Traditionally all three should sit in auspicious positions and not directly oppose one another. Most layouts cannot satisfy everything, so prioritise bed, then stove, then door — the longer the dwell time, the greater the weight.
4. What to do when space runs short
The number of favourable directions is fixed while functional needs are not. The practical rule is to allocate by dwell time: put sleep and long working hours — anything over six hours a day — in favourable positions, and put storage, circulation and short stays in the rest. Never sacrifice daylight, ventilation or circulation for a fully auspicious layout.
Frequently asked
Does the life trigram change from year to year?
No — it is fixed by birth year and stays the same for life. Annual Flying Stars do change direction each year. The life trigram describes long-term fit; the flying star describes that year's shift. Read them separately.
I rent and cannot renovate. Is there anything I can do?
No structural work is needed. Rearranging furniture, changing what a room is used for, adjusting the direction the bed faces, or placing objects in specific directions all count. Eight Mansions is about matching function to direction, not about construction.
Is Eight Mansions more accurate than Flying Stars?
They answer different questions. Eight Mansions says what a direction means for you over the long run; Flying Stars says what is happening in that direction this year. In practice they are read together — Eight Mansions sets the baseline, the annual star fine-tunes.
Want your life trigram and palace-by-palace reading? Enter a birth date for a full personal feng shui analysis.