One of the common question asked is, “Which floor is suitable when I am buying an apartment?”
I think the people who ask this question probably have read some fengshui or have heard that the floor that we stay or work in has a fengshui effect. It is very likely that they have heard that a certain floor belongs to a certain element (of the 5 elements) and that being so and in accordance with the law of 5 elements, the floor they stay in will have a bearing on their fortunes. Is this true?
In many ways, how far up or near we are to the roads and traffic as well as our proximity to adjoining buildings and carriageways do have a bearing on our comfort and well-being but let’s take a look at this from the perspective of feng shui 5 element theory.
How the good luck or not so good luck of the floor we stay on supposedly is derived from the interpretation of the River map diagram. The river map diagram is a chart that shows the 5 directions of north-south-east-west and center. Each of these corresponds to the 5 elements of water-fire-wood-metal and earth respectively.
On top of this, each direction has a number which goes like this :
1,6 – water
2,7 – fire
3,8 – wood
4,9 – metal
5,10 – earth
There – we have it. Now we can see how the floor levels have a corresponding elemental energy.
For example the first and the sixth floor would be a water floor. The second and seventh floor would be a fire floor and so on. Some feng shui masters have a different take when it comes to the 11th floor. Some say it is a fire floor since 1 plus 1 = 2 and others saying that it is a water floor and on and on…
The 1+1 =2 method seems to me to be borrowed from Indian numerology but whtever. Depending on the method used, some will be told that they are born a water person or wood person or any of the other three elements.
In accordance with this logic, if you are a wood person then it is good that you choose a 6th floor for that would be a water floor and thus support you as a wood person.
You may like to know that the basis of this was sourced from a very important book, the “Purple White Formula ” (Zhi Bai Jue). The essence of the relevant passage says that similar homes within a cluster will each be different in that water number will favor metal and a wood number will favor water.
This has been intepreted to refer to the floor level that the home unit is on. There are also intepretations that uses the position of the unit along a row of houses for example (however how they determine from which end of any particular row that they start the counting is not clear). Some even use the unit address or even street numberings.
These are rather innovative intepretations of the white purple formula. May I say that in any case this book has to be read carefully with a very open and skeptical mind. Sound understanding of feng shui Xuan Hong is very critical if we are to apply the formula contianed in the book.
It is again a test of our mettle and one of the many arguments for us to fully comprehend the place of fengshui in our lives and how to be its master rather than be its slave.
The rationale for using applying the river map numerals-element connection to floor levels or other feature that has a numerical connection is faulty. There are reasons for this.
The first and foremost reason is that the river map is a code that defines the universe. Numerals used within that code are symbolic of the interchangeability of opposites in nature. The five elements are the codes that tell of the five forces that are the base components and govern all that is perceivable in our world which is also to be taken to mean the seen and the unseen.
With the knowledge that we have now, the river map definitely relates to a clear picture of the cyclical nature of our universe. On this point about the cyclical nature of things, the more important key is the law of change which says that all things are subject to change. The good news from this is that this law can be used to our benefit since all things being changing simply means that it is up to our will to change them. This is feng shui!
The level of the floor is not to be looked in the way we looked at earlier. The correct approach is to look at those floors and their relevance in terms of the two qualities of yin and yang, the forces in play from the outer surroundings to the entrance, the frontage and other impacts. These remain the true relevance when it comes to determining the relevance of any feng shui attributes of any single floor.
For example a unit on the 3rd floor may front another block but that on the 10th floor may have a clear view as it towers over the block in front. There is no good or bad that can be said from this simple fact alone because how the forces come into play can only be clear after a close scrutiny.
Lastly, fengshui practice is not just simply some rote guide from the books however canonical they may be. Fengshui has to be living code and its context relevant to our world. The only true eternals are the basic understanding of life and all that exists, the interplay of opposites and most importantly the law of change.
This book is a translation of a text by FengShui Master Jiang Da Hong (ca1640) with my explanations and comments. The root text is a section on yang dwellings from his book “5 Songs of the Heavenly Principles”.