http://synthiotics.com/flyingstar/stepnine.html

	So - What's a Flying Star Map? A Flying Star map is basically a 3x3 grid.  Just to make it completely clear in your mind, following is a picture of just such a grid - and one that we will make great use of throughout the rest of this tutorial:
	(Actually, it does get a bit more exciting than this)
	The grid is just where we start. Think of the grid as an empty map.  What we are going to do is fill each square (referred to from here on in as a "palace") with three sets of numbers (referred to from here on in as "stars").  Once we have done that, we will superimpose this grid on a drawing of your house.  Or apartment.  Or business.  Or whatever. Actually, you'll be doing that.  I don't really know what your house looks like, so you won't find any floorplans on this site.  Just bear in mind that each palace in the above figure is going to tell you what part of your house the stars we are going to put in them are going to affect. Stars?  But you said this wasn't astrology! Well... right.  It isn't astrology, and "stars" is perhaps an unfortunate - not to say possibly confusing - choice of terms.  The stars in Flying Star Feng Shui have nothing to do with real stars, planets, or anything else astronomical.  But "stars" are what the numbers we use in Flying Star are traditionally called, and I am not about to break with tradition.  Sorry. Numbers?  But you said this wasn't numerology, either! Well... that's true, too.  We write numbers in the palaces, but they aren't really numbers.  Mostly we use numbers to represent the stars because they are convenient symbols that pretty much everyone is familiar with.  I suppose we could have used Chinese characters, but most westerners don't know how to read Chinese, will probably have trouble writing them correctly, and will also no doubt have difficulty remembering which is which.  It's just plain easier to use numbers, and so we will. The numbers/stars actually represent the trigrams of the I Ching (see!  I told you the I Ching was at the root of all this!).  If you don't know what trigrams are, don't worry about it.  It isn't necessary to know what they are to use them properly.  And we will represent them with numbers, which you probably do know, so it shouldn't be a problem. So... to recap:  the squares in the 3x3 Flying Star map are called "palaces", even though they aren't really nicely done-out castles, and the numbers we are going to write in them are called "stars", even though they aren't really stars or planets, and they aren't really numbers either. If you can keep all that straight, we're halfway there.  Well, OK, maybe not halfway, but we are certainly on the right path.

	Flying Star Feng Shui is all about directions.  Compass directions.  And here is where things can start to get confusing, but if you remember the one little fact that I am about to tell you, you'll be OK. Westerners always put North at the top of our maps.  Well, maybe not always, but generally.  However, the Chinese don't.  They put South at the tops of their maps. If you think about it, this makes just as much sense as the way we do it - actually it might make a little more sense.  In the Northern Hemisphere, where the bulk of the worlds continents are placed, the sun is mostly to the south of us (yes, I know, we've always been taught that the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west (which it does) - but during most of the day the sun isn't right overhead: it is actually more southerly than that).  Since the sun is frequently used as an object with which to orient ourselves, putting the general direction the sun hangs out in at the top of a map is quite logical. So, right now, break your habit of thinking of North as "top".  Since Flying Star Feng Shui is an Asian art, we are always going to put South at the top of our map.  Always. Always. When you look at a Flying Star grid, South will always be at the top center, with the rest of the compass directions laid out relative to it.  The following picture should make this very clear:
	The grid gets (a tiny bit) more interesting!
	At the risk of repeating myself, I will just have to repeat myself (because if you forget this fact, things won't make as much sense later on).  Flying Star maps always have the above orientation.  Always.  Always, always, always, always, always.  I have to stop here, because if you say a word over and over again, it starts to sound funny and begins to lose its meaning.  But don't forget!  When you see a Flying Star grid, South is at the top center. Always.

Now that we have the orientation of the Flying Star map out of the way, it's time to start talking about Time.

In both Western and Vedic astrology, knowing the exact minute when someone was born is extremely important.  Whole books have been written about techniques for astrologically rectifying times so that the astrologer won't know just the minute, but can even figure out the second that someone was born!  That's how important timing is to the astrologer.  Astrologers get pretty wound up about exact timing.  But, luckily, Feng Shui isn't astrology.

We have it a whole bunch easier.

As long as we can figure out the birthtime of our house to within a good twenty-year span, we're right on the money.  We've got what you call leeway.

That doesn't mean we can be sloppy about it, though.  It just means we don't have to get quite as uptight if we're off by even a couple of years (in most  - though not all - cases).

So, the first thing we need to do is figure out the year that our house was built.  Although there is some controversy sometimes about when that might be - since houses don't just pop up overnight (unless you live in California), but are built over a period of sometimes months - it is generally accepted that the year in which the roof was put on is the year of "birth" for a structure.

One thing to remember, though:  the years we are talking about don't start on January 1.  This is an Asian art, remember?  Feng Shui years start on the Chinese New Year, which is slightly different from western year to year.  However, it is usually on or about February 4.  Sometimes it's a day earlier, sometimes a day later, but it's usually pretty close to February 4.

So, if you figure that the roof of your house went on on January 16, 1984, well then, since that is before the Chinese New Years, you need to consider it as having been built in the previous year: 1983.

Generally it won't make a difference.  But every twenty-years or so it does.  In the above example, for example, it does makes a difference, because - as chance would have it - the period actually changed on Chinese New Years Day, 1984.  Like I said, we might have a lot of leeway, but that doesn't mean we can be sloppy about it.

Following is a chart that will enable you to figure out the period in which your house was built:

Year Range	Period Number
1904 to 1923	3
1924 to 1943	4
1944 to 1963	5
1964 to 1983	6
1984 to 2003	7

If your house was built well into the middle of one of those twenty-year ranges, you don't even have to worry about when the Chinese New Years was that year.  Only in those years when the period changes does it make any difference at all.

What if the year my house was built isn't on the above chart?

Not a problem.  Or, at least, it shouldn't be if you have even average intelligence.

You should be able to detect a pattern in the above chart.  Every range is exactly twenty years long, and the period numbers go in numerical order.  There are nine periods in all (labelled 1 - 9, surprisingly), and when the ninth one ends they start over again at one.  So 1901 was in period 2, and 2006 will be in period 8.  2050 will fall in period 1.  You should be able to extend the chart all on your own if your house is really old - or hasn't been built yet.

If you find you can't extend the chart all on your own - stop here.  Not to be insulting, but if you find the above too complicated, the rest of this tutorial is going to be a nightmare.  It doesn't get much harder than the above, but it isn't much easier, either.  Sorry.

	So I know the Period - now what? Well, you could run around and tell everyone you know. "Hey, Jim!  My house was built in Period 6!" Jim will probably smile at you, and say something like "That's nice."  He's just being polite.  He doesn't care.  Not really. For those of you who have figured out all by your lonesome that the period number is actually a star - give yourself a big hand of applause!  You've earned it, 'cause you're right! The period number you have come up with is the first number in the Time Series that you are going to write into your up-till-now empty Flying Star map. There are actually three star series we need to figure out in order to complete the creation of the Flying Star map:  The Time Series (which we will abbreviate with a "T"), The Mountain Series ("M"), and The Facing Series ("F", oddly enough).  Each series gets put in the grid like thus:
	We add a bunch of abbreviations.
	You don't need to copy all those abbreviations into your grid.  Instead, you'll be replacing them with numbers (no - stars).  But you see where all those "T's" are?  Those are the positions you are going to write your Time Series into. Let's imagine, for a moment, that your house was built in 1989 (much like mine was, as a matter of fact!).  That is a Period 7 year. So... take your empty grid, and write a 7 in the "T" spot in the center of the grid, like this:
	The Time Star goes in the center palace.
	We're almost there!  The only step left to filling in the rest of the series is learning the order in which they are placed (you didn't think we'd make it too easy, did you?)

	OK, you've written the first Time Star into the center of the grid.  The next step is writing the rest of the series in. Each series (Time, Mountain, and Facing) are the numbers - no, stars -  one (1) through nine (9).  They start at whatever number they start at, and they get placed in the grid in numerical order. If we say they go in forward order, that means they go in regular counting order: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 If we say they go in reverse order, that means they go in rocket-ship countdown order: 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 If, while we are counting them in forward order, we reach number 9 and we aren't done yet, we "wrap around" and continue with 1.  So, for example, if we started with 7, we would write them in as follows: 7-8-9-1-2-3-4-5-6 If we are counting them in reverse order, and we reach number 1 without being done yet (I know you've figured this out already, but I still need to say it), we "wrap around" and continue with 9.  So, again, if we started with 7, the reverse count would be: 7-6-5-4-3-2-1-9-8 But enough about reverse counting for the moment!  The Time Series always goes in forward order.  The Mountain and Facing Series may not, but the Time Series is forever marching forward. Just like time, actually. And now for the first really complicated looking diagram!  All of the series, whether they are forward or reverse, go into the grid in the following order:
	Yikes!
	The diagram isn't nearly as complicated as it looks. Really. The first number in each of the series goes into the palace labelled "A" (in the center).  The next number, whether we are counting forward or reverse, goes into "B".  Then the next one goes into "C".  And so on through "I", where we wipe the sweat from our brow and congratulate ourselves on a job well done. Since the example chart we are working on started with 7, and since the Time Series always goes in forward order, we place the 8 in "B", the 9 in "C", the 1 in "D", the 2 in "E", etc., like this:
	Done with this series.  And about time, too.
	See?  That wasn't so hard.  If you compare the numbers in the above grid to that other complicated looking picture, you'll see that I followed the pattern exactly.

What is Facing?

Facing is one of those murky concepts that is actually a little hard to pin down, but I'll give it a shot anyway.  The Feng Shui newsgroups and mailing lists are always full of people asking about facing, and I doubt I'll be able to give the ultimate, argument-ending, definition here.  But you have to know what it is in order to proceed with the tutorial, so we'll just have to muddle through.

The facing direction of your house is whichever direction the most "yangness" comes into your house from.  Whichever direction is brighter, noisier, more active, hotter, etc., is the facing direction.  When people (or things) come to or into your house, from which direction do they come?  That's the facing direction.  More or less.

Generally, the facing direction is the direction you are looking when you are standing in your front door, looking out.  But... not necessarily.  If the back of your home has lots of windows that look to the south (which is typically brighter than the north) and there's a freeway there (with lots of whizzing cars), and on the other side of the freeway there's a big ol' ocean with lots of crashing waves and jetskiers, then that's the more active (more yang) direction, so that's the facing.

You can see why this can be a confusing concept.  There just aren't any hard and fast rules that will apply in every single situation where anyone can just look around and say "Ah HAH - that's the facing!"  Sometimes more than one direction is pretty active, and it just comes down to deciding which one is more active than the others.

Look, this is an art, OK?  Not a science.  Sometimes it just boils down to a judgement call.  No doubt the confusion and controversy will continue until the sun goes nova, and the whole thing will become moot.  Sometimes, especially after some long drawn out argument on a newsgroup or mailing list,  I think that might be a nice turn of affairs.

Anyhow, once you've figured out the facing direction, you need to measure it, and really nail it down pretty exactly, because it is a very important part of determining the next few steps.

How do I measure Facing?

In the olden days - and even today - traditional Feng Shui practitioners wandered about the countryside with a tool called a Luo Pan, that they used to figure out directions with.  Luo Pans, which can run about $500 nowadays, are pretty impressive to look at: large discs full of concentric circles and literally covered with Chinese characters, trigrams, pictures of some real-star constellations (except that the Big Dipper is mirror imaged), and assorted other things.  Very complicated looking items.

And completely unnecessary for what we want to do here.

What we need is a compass (which is all a Luo Pan really is, anyway).  Just a regular compass, like the kind that pretty much every sporting goods store carries.

But get a good one, with a rotating dial.  You want to be able to read the exact degree - or at least be able to figure out the exact degree - of the facing direction with it.

I'm not going to teach you how to read a compass.  The good ones usually come with instructions.  Just bear in mind that magnetic North is at 0 (or 360 - which is the same number on a compass) degrees, and magnetic South is 180.  So if the sun is in your eyes while you figure out your facing is 351 degrees, you are probably doing it wrong.

Take a couple of readings from different places outside of your house.  It's weird, but lots of houses seem to have quite a substantial quantity of metal in them, and metal tends to do odd things to compass readings (since the needle in a compass is a magnet, after all).  Also, take off your jewelry and other compass-affecting sorts of things while you do your readings, etc.  It's amazing how many people forget little stuff like that.

Anyhow, like I said, take a couple of readings from different places outside your house, and compare them.  They might be slightly different.  Think of them more as voting for a particular direction rather than giving you the last word - settle on the one that seems most right, even if they all seem sort of off.  Who knows what affected them enough to cause slightly different results each time?  Lots of things could have that effect.

Now, check out the following chart, and figure out which direction that number you came up with points to - a sort of fuzzy "kind of east by northeast" won't do.  We need to pin it down a little firmer than that:

Compass Range	Direction
337.5 to 22.5	North (N)
22.5 to 67.5	Northeast (NE)
67.5 to 112.5	East (E)
112.5 to 157.5	Southeast (SE)
157.5 to 202.5	South (S)
202.5 to 247.5	Southwest (SW)
247.5 to 292.5	West (W)
292.5 to 337.5	Northwest (NW)

Now, here's where Step Two of our series of lessons pays off.  Remember when I was repeating over and over about which direction was always at the top of a Flying Star map?  I'll give you a hint - it's SOUTH.  And remember that you have a Flying Star map with the Time Stars filled in?  And remember how you just figured out what your Facing direction is?

Good.  This is where it all comes together.

Look in the palace that matches your facing direction, and note which Time Star is there.  That star is the Facing Star that you will write into the center palace, replacing the first "F" that you didn't actually copy there.

That palace also, by the way, will forevermore be called your Facing Palace.  Makes sense, right?

The palace directly on the opposite side of the map from the Facing Palace is your Mountain Palace (also called the Sitting Palace - but we'll continue to call it the Mountain Palace just to be consistent).  Look there, and see which Time Star is occupying it.  Congratulations!  You've just found the Mountain Star that you will put in the center palace, replacing the first "M" that you didn't actually copy there.

In the example chart we are filling in (which just so happens to match my own apartments chart) the procedure would be as follows:

My facing degree is 166.  That is South.

I look on the map that I have filled in with the Time Stars, and I see that in the South palace the Time Star is a 2.  I copy the 2 into the center palace in the "F" position.

I look at the exact opposite palace from the Facing Palace (which is the North palace, of course, since North is the opposite direction from South), and see that the Time Star there is a 3.  I copy the 3 into the center palace in the "M" position.

Thus:

Facing to "F", Mountain to "M"

Now, if my facing direction had been SE, rather than S, I would have looked in the SE palace, where I would have found a 6 instead of a 2, and the Mountain Star would be an 8.  If my facing direction had been W, my Facing Star would have been a 9 and my Mountain Star would have been a 5.  See how this works?  Once you get the hang of it, this is a piece of cake!

But, my facing direction is S, so I fill in the center palace with a Facing 2 and a Mountain 3 like this:

Believe it or not, there is only one more step!

So, if you are ever confronted with a Flying Star map, you can always tell which palaces are the Facing Palace and Mountain Palace just by looking at which stars are in the center palace.  It's pretty obvious, once you think about it, but I've never actually seen that written down in any of my Feng Shui books.

Another little bit of trivia that should be apparent if you think about it for a moment is that the Facing Star and Mountain Star in the center of the chart will never match the Period Time Star in the center palace.  That's because the Facing and Mountain Stars are chosen from the palaces around the outside of the chart, and the Period Time Star isn't in any of those - it's in the center.  I've never seen that bit of info written down anywhere, either.  So, for example, it is impossible for the Mountain or Facing Stars we just figured out in the above chart to be a 7 - no matter what the facing direction is.

Other periods, of course, change which stars are impossible.  In Period 3, for example, it would be impossible for the central Facing or Mountain Stars to be a 3 (because the 3 would be in the center of the chart instead of around the edges).  And so on.

Like I said in the label under the last grid, we're almost done.  All that's left to do is fill in the rest of the Mountain and Facing stars.  But don't get ahead of yourself!  It isn't quite a straightforward as the Time Series was.

But it isn't rocket-science, either.

We're almost done!

Now all that's left to do is fill in the rest of the grid with the rest of the Mountain and Facing Series.  However, like I said just moments ago, it isn't quite as straightforward as filling in the the Time Series.

Remember how, earlier, I introduced you to the concept of how star series can move forward or reverse?  This is where that becomes important, because one or both of the Mountain or Facing series may move in reverse - although we haven't figured out which does which yet.  That's what this step is all about.

This is also the point where it becomes really important that you know very precisely the Facing Direction, as told to you by your compass.  Earlier we divided the world into eight directional slices (N, NE, E, SE, etc.)  - which on the compass are 45 degrees apiece.  Now we have to refine that a little more, by dividing the world into twenty-four directions instead of eight.  Each of these twenty-four sections of the compass is only 15 degrees wide, so knowing the exact compass Facing Direction helps a great deal, as we don't have nearly the same room for error.

What we are going to do is divide each of the eight sections of the compass by three (3x8=24).  Therefore North now has has three sections - an Early 15 degree section, a Middle 15 degree section, and a Late 15 degree section.  All of the other compass directions will also be split that way, too.  The following chart will tell you where your Facing Degree fits in:

Facing Direction	Early	Middle	Late
South (S)	157.5 to 172.5	172.5 to 187.5	187.5 to 202.5
Southwest (SW)	202.5 to 217.5	217.5 to 232.5	232.5 to 247.5
West (W)	247.5 to 262.5	262.5 to 277.5	277.5 to 292.5
Northwest (NW)	292.5 to 307.5	307.5 to 322.5	322.5 to 337.5
North (N)	337.5 to 352.5	352.5 to 7.5	7.5 to 22.5
Northeast (NE)	22.5 to 37.5	37.5 to 52.5	52.5 to 67.5
East (E)	67.5 to 82.5	82.5 to 97.5	97.5 to 112.5
Southeast (SE)	112.5 to 127.5	127.5 to 142.5	142.5 to 157.5

Once you've figured out where your Facing Direction lies - whether it is Early, Middle, or Late - make a note of it.

In the example we are working through, I have stated that the Facing Direction of my own apartment is 166 degrees.  As you can see from the above chart, 166 falls into the Early part of South.

By the way - even though we will be working on both the Facing and Mountain Series separately, they both use the same Early / Middle / Late range that you just figured out.  You only need to figure out this part once.

Both the Mountain and Facing series follows the same set of rules for figuring out which direction each moves.  The first time I wrote this page I used the Mountain Series only as an example for applying the rules, but upon later reflection realized that might cause some confusion.  So, in the following set of steps I am going to refer to whichever series we are working with as simply "The Series" (understanding that it can refer to either the Mountain or Facing Series), and to the star in the center palace that starts the Series as "The Base Star".  When we are working with the Mountain Series, then the Base Star will refer to the Mountain Star in the central palace.  When we are working with the Facing Series, then the Base Star will refer to the Facing Star in the central palace.

It doesn't matter which series you pick to work with first.  However, you do have to figure them out separately - usually they move in opposite directions, but not always.  You will have to follow the next sets of instructions twice - once for each series.  So, pick a Series to work with, and let's get on with it!

The next step is a pretty simple one, but it has a kind of weird twist to it, so bear with me for a moment.  We are going to use the oddness or evenness of the Base Star in the central palace to figure out which direction the Series moves - unless the Base Star is a 5.  This is very important!  If your Base Star is 5, use the Period Time Star instead.

5's kind of screw things up a little.

In the example chart that we are slowly building, the Base Star for neither Series is a 5, so the rule doesn't apply in this case.  But if either were a 5, we would use a 7 for this step, because that is the Period Time Star (the Time Star in the central palace).  We wouldn't erase the 5 from the central palace - it would still be the Base Star (Facing or Mountain, whichever applies) - but we would use the Time Star for figuring out which direction the  Series moves.  Remember, though, that this only applies to a Facing or Mountain Star of 5.  For all the other stars, just use whatever number they happen to be.

Now, recall whether your Facing Degree was Early, Middle, or Late, and check the oddness or evenness of the Base Star (or Time Star if the Base Star is a 5) against the following chart.

Odd or Even	Early	Middle	Late
Odd	Forward	Reverse	Reverse
Even	Reverse	Forward	Forward

Now you know which direction the Series goes!

Using the example chart we are working on, we will start with the Mountain Series.  You can see that the Mountain  Star in the central palace is a 3, and my Facing Degree of 166 is Early.  3 is odd, so I check the Odd row against the Early column and see that this series moves Forward.

Then, using the "Yikes" grid that I showed you in Step Five, we fill in the rest of the series.  Just so you don't have to flip back to Step Five, I will reproduce that grid here:

Not as frightening this time, I hope!

The 3 is already in position "A" in our map, so I continue the pattern, counting forward: 4 goes in "B", 5 goes in "C", 6 in "D", etc.  It finally looks like this:

Adding the Mountain Series - forward order.

Now lets do the Facing Series - following the same set of rules as for the Mountain Series.  With that, we'll be completely done!

The Facing Star is 2, and we've already determined that my Facing Degree is Early.  2 is even, so we check the Even row of the table with the Early column, and find that this series moves in Reverse!

So, using our "Not So Yikes Anymore" grid as a guide, we fill in the rest of the Facing Series, counting in reverse.  The 2 is already in the "A" position, so we put 1 into "B", 9 into "C" (wrapping around), 8 into "D", etc.  Eventually we finish, and the chart should look like this:

Adding the Facing Series - reverse order.

There you have it.  A completed Flying Star chart!  And it only took eight webpages to describe!  Could anything be simpler?

Actually, the process only sounds complicated the first time through.  It took far longer to describe than it does to actually calculate a complete chart.  So, I'll condense it down into just the essentials in the next step (which isn't really a step, as far as that goes, because we're actually done).

But first a slight aside...

The careful reader may have noticed that we said earlier that the stars weren't actually numbers - but then we turn right around here and use oddness or evenness to determine the directions the series go.  Numbers might be odd or even, but certainly stars aren't!  What gives?

This is what you might call a "hack".  It is quite true that the stars, in their forms as trigrams of the I Ching, don't behave like numbers, and shouldn't be thought of as such.  There is actually a somewhat more complicated system of determining series direction which many traditional practitioners use.  However, as I was researching algorithms while I was programming the Basic Feng Shui Flying Star Calculator, I realized that the stars just happened to neatly arrange themselves in odd or even groups.  Accidental or not, I was able to use this feature in the program, and I relate this much simplified method here, to you.

Oh, and one other thing.  Why do 5's mess everything up the way they do?  Simple.  There are nine stars, and whether they are even or odd determines the direction of the series.  However, if you keep the 5 in the mix, that means there are four even numbers, but five odd ones.  That throws the symmetry of the pattern off.  So 5 (the "middle" number) is removed and the Period Time Star gets used instead (which may be odd or even - different charts have different Period Time Stars).  The symmetry of the pattern is therefore restored by this procedure.

Boiled down to its essentials, here's how you calculate a Flying Star chart: 1)  Get the year the house was built. 2)  Get the facing degree. 3)  From the year the house was built, determine the Period. 4)  Write the Period into the "Time Star" section of the central palace, and fill in the rest of the series, counting forward in numerical order, following the pattern I showed you. 5)  Determine which palace is the Facing Palace - and by logical extension which is the Mountain Palace (it being directly opposite to the Facing Palace).  The Time Star in the Facing Palace is the Facing Star in the central palace.  The Time Star in the Mountain Palace is the Mountain Star in the central palace. 6)  Write each of those into the proper section of the central palace. 7)  Figure out which direction each of those series moves, and write them into the map according to our pattern. That's it!  E-Z as pie.