Do you know that your sleeping direction can affect your fortune? Most fans and practitioners of Feng Shui do and believe in it strongly. Of course sceptics differ but that is another story.
What do you mean by sleeping direction? It is the direction that the crown of your head points when you sleep. For example if the crown of your head points north (and your feet points south), then you are sleeping facing north. Or if the crown of your head points east (and your feet west), then you are sleeping facing east.
So, from where did this idea of sleeping direction come about?
I believe that the strongest proponent of sleeping directions is the Eight Mansions Feng Shui system. Here, people are classified into two groups namely the East Life and West life group – which are obtained from their year of birth.
The good directions for East Life Group people are north, south, east and southeast. The remaining directions such as northwest, southwest, west and northeast are bad for them – or do not benefit them.
For the West Life Group the sectors and direction are the opposite.
The people within each groups, are further classified by their Gua numbers. For example, East Life group would include those with Gua numbers 1, 3, 4 and 9 while West life group include those with Gua number 2, 6, 7 and 8.
Find out your Gua number (also sometimes spelt Kua) by visiting the link below.
http://www.henryfong.com/kua.htm
The biggest (modern day) problem with this system is accommodating husbands and wives from different groups. Their good sleeping directions are completely the opposite. For example if the husband is an East Group person with Gua number 3 and the wife is a West Group person with Gua number 6.
For the Gua 3 husband, his good directions – in order – are south (best), north, southeast and east. His bad directions – again in order – are southwest, northwest, northeast and west (worst).
Compare this to his wife of Gua 6. Her good directions are west (best), northeast, southwest and northwest. Her bad directions are southeast, east, north and south (worst).
His best direction is her worst and vice versa. All his good directions are her bad directions and vice versa. This makes sleeping on the same bed impossible – or is there a way out?
It is not uncommon to read Feng Shui books advising couples to sleep on separate beds each orientated to their individual’s best directions. In my opinion and those of most practitioners, it is not necessary.
Bed direction is not a problem in the old days where the husband is always the bread winner. The bed direction is always optimized for the husband and the ration is that if the husband does well, everyone in the family including the wife, benefits.
However these days, where the wife is frequently an equal earner, she often demands her equal share of Feng Shui!
There are a few methods to resolve this including one that makes use of the early and late heaven Bagua and another use that uses the Na Jia (or Received Jia). These methods are complicated and not easy to use. Instead I suggest that you try a simpler method.
You simply place the bed in one of the wife’s least harmful direction. In the above example, the wife’s least harmful direction is southeast (which happens to be her husband’s favourable direction by virtue of their opposing group). If it is not practical to place the bed to face south-east, then use her next less harmful direction i.e. east.
I know that optimizing the bed direction this way may not put the husband in his best direction. In practice this is acceptable as there are other things such as the main door, stove and study that can be orientated to face his best (or better) directions – to maximize his Feng Shui.
Do remember that the Feng Shui quality of a home is not solely dependent on the bed alone!
