Your home
Facing: stand in the main doorway with your back to the house and look out. That direction is the facing, not the way you look when facing the door. Measure it on the Compass tab.
Why the move-in date? The chart depends on the 20-year period the home started in: moving in from 4 Feb 2024 makes it Period 9, 2004–2024 Period 8, 1984–2004 Period 7. The period's star goes in the centre and decides where all the others land, so the same door gives a different chart in Period 8 and Period 9. Only the period matters, so the year is usually enough. After a major renovation (new roof, main door or a full refit) use the date it finished.
More settings
Enter the facing and move-in date to draw the flying star chart.
Floor plan
Add your floor plan (a photo, screenshot or PDF) to lay the nine squares over your flat and see the stars on each room. The plan stays on your phone.
Where do I get my HDB floor plan?
- Resale flat: HDB's Purchase of Residential Floor Plan e-Service, about $5 for a PDF by email.
- BTO flat: free to download from the HDB portal before you collect your keys, or in the sales brochure.
- Otherwise: your agent, the listing, or the standard plan for your flat type on property sites. A screenshot works.
Mark the main door and the app works out the door side for you, then draws a compass on the plan from the facing you measured. If your plan has a north arrow, compare it with the compass's N: if they agree, you're set; if not, re-measure the facing or check the door mark.
No north arrow? Check with a window
Or pick it yourself: which side of the plan is the main door on?
The grid follows the walls, so there's no need to turn the plan to north: the middle square on the door side is the facing, and the rest follow clockwise.
How to use this
- Measure the facing: stand in the main doorway with your back to the house, look out, and read the degrees on the Compass tab.
- Enter when you moved in: this sets the period (see above).
- Lay the grid over your floor plan: draw a 3×3 grid on the plan with the centre square in the middle of the home, lined up with the compass. Use S up or N up to match your plan. Each square is that part of your home.
- Read the numbers: top left is the mountain star (health, people, relationships), top right is the facing star (money, career), the bottom number is the base star, and the circle is this year's star. Green is timely and good; red is harmful.
- Where the facing star is good, keep it active: it suits the main door, the living room and busy areas. Keep it bright and uncluttered; a moving water feature is the classic booster.
- Where the mountain star is good, keep it calm: it suits bedrooms and studies, or tall solid furniture.
- Where 5 or 2 sits, keep it quiet and cure it: no renovation or drilling there, avoid red and fire, and use metal (a brass gourd, a six-coin hanger). Avoid it for the bedroom of someone ill or elderly.
- Refresh every 立春 (about 4 Feb): the annual stars move each year. Check the Year tab for the sectors to leave alone and move your cures to match.
- Tap a square for what that area is good for and what to watch.
How to use this
- Each person's Kua number comes from their birth year (counted from 立春) and gender. It gives four good directions (green) and four bad ones (red).
- Desk: sit so you face your Sheng Qi direction (success) or another good one.
- Bed: point the headboard (where your head is) towards Tian Yi (health) or Yan Nian (relationships).
- Rooms: a bedroom in one of your good sectors is best; bad sectors suit storage, laundry or toilets.
- Different group from the house? No need to move: just use your own good directions for the bed and desk.
- When family members' directions clash, the usual priority is the main bedroom and the main earner.
Add a person
Each trigram stands for a family member (乾 NW father, 坤 SW mother, 震 E eldest son, 巽 SE eldest daughter, 坎 N middle son, 离 S middle daughter, 艮 NE youngest son, 兑 W youngest daughter). With a role set, sector readings say who they affect.
The Kua year starts at 立春 (about 4 Feb), the same as the BaZi year pillar.
From the BaZi app
Import a saved chart to also see the directions of its favourable elements.
Monthly stars
How to use this
- The feng shui year starts at 立春 (about 4 Feb), not 1 January or Chinese New Year.
- Renovation: avoid starting work in the Tai Sui, Year Breaker, Three Killings or 5 Yellow sectors. If you must, start in a good sector and work towards it.
- Seating: sit with your back to Tai Sui and the Three Killings, never facing them.
- Cures: keep the 5 Yellow and 2 Black sectors quiet with metal; use and light up the 9, 1 and 8 sectors.
- Monthly stars change at each solar term. Take extra care in a sector in months when the month's 5 or 2 lands on the year's 5 or 2.
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Different from your phone's compass app?
First check both are held the same way (flat, top pointing the same direction) and both are calibrated with a figure 8. If there's still a steady gap, hold the phone still, type in what your compass app says, and this compass will match it from then on.
How to measure
- Stand just inside the main door with your back to the house, facing out, with the phone flat and its top pointing out the door.
- Keep away from metal doors, appliances and cars: they pull the needle. Take a second reading a few steps outside and use the one that agrees.
- For a flat, schools differ: many use the building's main entrance, others the balcony or largest window.
- Feng shui uses magnetic north, the way a luopan points, so no declination correction is needed.
Feng shui is a traditional practice and schools differ in both method and reading. Use this for reference.