Introducing SoulCollage® to the Bagua Map

Feng Shui can be practiced in different ways and has a variety of tools to offer. Many look to it as a way to affect change in their life. It is like acupuncture for the home. By moving furniture around, by addressing awkward doors, windows and walls, actual and metaphorical blockages are cleared and our life will flow better. We may have read about certain enhancements and cures, so we buy a few things, place them in the appropriate location and state our intention. Unfortunately, as many physical changes as we may make, we still get in our OWN way. And as clear as we think our intentions are, as tuned in to our intuition as we may be, our mind still tends to interfere.

When we add SoulCollage® to our process, a real shift can happen. In SoulCollage® we craft personal cards that represent our inner life, our ancestry, our guides, special inspirations, mythology and connection to something bigger—our own story. This engages the right side of the brain, the heart, and the intuition. It allows us to bypass that nattering head. (The nattering head might try to convince us that our intentions should align with the apparent goals of our neighbors—a pretty hollow intention.) When we merge our own story with a deeper use of Feng Shui, we can infuse magic and alchemy into our home and our life.

In Feng Shui, while the Bagua map is something that literally can provide a diagram for your house, it can also provide the internal guidance system for maintaining a full and balanced life. Once the internal system is understood, the external support that you set up in your living spaces gives you real connection to the world and gives you a centering point from which to venture out. The more you build on both the internal and the external, the surer is your compass.

The Bagua is divided into 9 “guas,” each gua representing a different aspect of your life.
The Bagua map is traditionally an octagonal shape (I show it as a rectangle in my example), with a cross forming the “load bearing” part of the structure—3 guas horizontally, 3 guas vertically. Virtually every culture uses the symbol of the cross to represent the outer material world (the horizontal line), and the inner spiritual world (the vertical line).

The horizontal line of the Bagua represents our connection to a past that preceded us and a future that follows us. It is born in the east in the spring and represents inspiration and truth. It begins in the home of the gua “Thunder.” It is the gua that represents the honor we pay to our ancestors and mentors. It dies in the west in the autumn and represents release. It ends in the home of the gua “Lake.” It is the gua that represents the honor we pay to the children and creative efforts we leave behind.

The vertical line represents our path through life—the journey. It begins where we are in the present moment; it begins with each germinating idea we nurture. It begins in the home of the gua “Water.” It begins in the north in the winter and is the gua that represents introspection and imagination. It leads to illumination, wisdom, expansion as it ends in the gua “Fire” in the south in the summer.

In the center where the inner and outer meet, we are in the gua of yin and yang—the place of perfect balance.

The 4 guas in the corners of our structure represent the various ways we fill out our lives—for balance, we satisfy all of them.

The “Earth” gua is in the southwest and represents harmony. Our lives are empty without relationship with others, so this is the place in our hearts, the space in our homes where we honor this. In the opposite corner, the northeast, we find the “Mountain” gua that represents personal growth. Attending to our personal development is not only vital to creating a well-adjusted life, but it is essential to having fulfilling relationships. Conversely, our personal growth is heavily dependent on strengthening our relationships, so these 2 guas are important to each other.

The “Wind” gua in the southeast represents prosperity and abundance. We have so much we can share with others. The corresponding gua in the northwest is the “Heaven” gua. This is our place/space for helpful friends. We are grateful for all the support we receive, so again, we offer a hand to others. These 2 guas work together to remind us that giving and receiving keep the life cycle moving and thriving.

We can honor all of these aspects of our life by using personal symbols to activate our intentions. These symbols can be put together in an altar or may be kept as discrete inspirations, but by having them in our view, we clarify those intentions and keep our purpose fresh. Periodic rituals reactivate the connection. Working with the SoulCollage® cards—making them and reading them—is a profound ritual.

The “Committee” cards that we create for our SoulCollage® deck represent our inner personalities and the roles we play in our life. This is a map that describes where our various cards might “fit” in the Bagua, but some examples are: our inner “lover” would feel at home in the relationship gua, our inner “yogi” would be comfortable in the self-cultivation gua, and our inner “gossip” might like to take its place in the journey gua as something we are working on in our lifetime.