Feng Shui with a Compass

Professional feng shui consultants and masters use a Chinese compass called a Luo Pan or sometimes, Lo Pan. A Luo Pan gives a compass bearing accurate to within one degree, enabling the practitioner to be highly accurate, as well as providing detailed information about the direction in question.

The Luo Pan has been developed over the last 2,000 years and, as every traditional Feng Shui master of note has added to it during this time, the Luo pan contains the sum total of Feng Shui knowledge to date.

If you do not own a Luo Pan Feng Shui Compass, you can still use a normal magnetic compass commonly used for orienteering to discover the direction in which your home or office faces. Compasses can be purchased relatively cheaply from outdoor shops or on the internet.

Modern smartphones also contain a compass, or have the ability to use a compass app, and can be very useful. Please be aware however, that compasses on older models of mobile phone are not as accurate as those on later versions, so if you are using your phone to gain a compass bearing, always allow for possible inaccuracies.

For Feng Shui purposes, the best type of compass is one with a square or rectangular base as shown here. This type of compass most closely resembles a traditional Luo Pan and allows you to place your compass squarely against a wall or other flat feature of the building.

The first thing you will notice about the compass is that it has a free turning needle, sometimes coloured red. Whichever direction you turn the compass towards, this needle always points towards the north.

The compass housing is the ring marked either with numbers that give the exact compass bearing or North, East, South and West. Sometimes, depending on the type of compass you have, the intercardinal points of Southeast, Southwest, Northeast and Northwest will also be shown. It will also have an orienting arrow.

To find all the directions within a building, you must first find North. Simply turn the ring or housing so that the arrow is aligned perfectly with the pointer. This shows north, and now you know where it is, you can quite easily read off the other directions from your compass. South will be in the direct opposite direction, east wil be to the right of north and west to the left of north.

One word of warning: all compasses are subject to magnetic fields, and metal objects can cause them to give false readings which will mean that Feng Shui cures or enhancements may be placed incorrectly. For this reason, when using any compass, you should always ensure there are no metal objects close by.

Luo Pan Professional Compass

Buy professional quality Feng Shui tools of the trade, including the Luo Pan Chinese compass, Luo Pan accessories, and professional quality dowsing rods. Luo Pans Feng Shui compasses range from 58mm to 364mm and include San Yuan, San He and Zhong He compasses, as well as our Luo Pan with viewer enhancer.