Purple Lotus Publisher > Journal > Volumn NO. 12

The Positioning of the Front Door

By Living Buddha Lian-sheng Sheng-yen Lu

Translated by Janny Chow from pp.50-54 of A Detailed Explanation of Household Geomancy, published in 1987

In general, feng shui practitioners regard the northeast and southwest positions as "ghost door" positions. Doors are therefore not installed at those two positions.

The front door should be installed in an orientation that is compatible with the birth magnetic orientation of the head of the household.

Doors are "chi entrances," and main doors are "major chi entrances." For people living in modern apartment buildings, the main entrance at the ground floor of the building is the "major chi entrance" while the door going into their apartment is a "minor chi entrance."

The front door of a house plays an important role, just as a person's mouth can have a great impact on one's life. There is a common Chinese saying: Illnesses find their way in via the mouth (through unhealthy eating habits) while disasters find their way out (through unwise words). In feng shui, the front door plays such a critical role that it actually dictates the lifeline of a house.

Some geomancers hold the following opinions:

A front door facing east is most appropriate for businesses or commercial properties because east is associated with the rising sun and vitality.

A front door facing south benefits people in careers such as politicians, religious heads, and industrialists. Historically the Chinese emperors also had built their palaces overlooking their subjects to the south.

Nevertheless, my opinion is that one should still avoid positioning the front door facing east or south if one's magnetic birth orientation happens to be incompatible with facing east or facing south.

One student has asked me, "How should a front door be positioned? Should it be in the middle, on the dragon, or on the tiger side?" (Dragon is the left side while tiger is the right side.)

"You have asked a question that hits right upon my secret to the positioning of front doors!" I replied.

When Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen taught me The Secrets of Earth Magic, he has explained to me that the positioning of the front door should he determined by the flow of the "water spirit" [water course]. This is a great feng shui secret!

Middle door--- A house should have a middle front door if the chi of "water spirit" accumulates in the front. For example, right in front of the house is a lake or ocean. Also, when the topography of the site is flat, without any gradient or hill in the surrounding, a house can have a middle front door.

Dragon door---When "water spirit" flows from the tiger side to the dragon side, the house has to open a dragon door. In other words, when one stands in one's house looking outside, the land to the right is more elevated than that to the left and the flow of water course is from right to left, the house should have a dragon door.

Tiger door--- When "water spirit" flows from the dragon to the tiger side, i.e., when the left side of the land is more elevated than the right side and water flows from left to right, the house should have a tiger door.

This secret of the positioning of front doors is simple but priceless. A door positioned according to this principle will have a supply of "water spirit" and will allow water chi to flow naturally through the "chi entrance" into the house and filling it with wealth. The chi of "water spirit" is chi of money.

I once helped a businessman re-position the front door of his company building. The premise should have a dragon door, but it had a tiger door instead. He had reached a nadir of his fighting will. Despite great effort, he was unable to solicit any new orders, employees were working inefficiently and business had virtually come to a halt. After the changeover of the door and the reception of the chi of "water spirit" into the building, the company completely turned around. The first business transaction afterwards was a success, and everyone's spirit was uplifted. Business started flourishing and everyone's confidence improved a hundred percent.

Thus, the primal factor determining a middle, dragon, or tiger door is dependent entirely on the orientation of the "water spirit" and the best position to receive it.

"What can be done when the orientation of the front door is incompatible with one's magnetic birth orientation?" asked one student.

"One can re-orientate the door frame," I replied.

By re-orienting the front door frame, which can be done up to a change of ninety degrees, one will achieve a new orientation. Specialists in house designs all know how to design and re-orientate door frames.

One only needs to change the front door's orientation to one that is auspicious according to one's magnetic birth orientation. In this case, the orientation of the whole house is not changed, only the direction faced by the front door is changed.

Another student asked me this question, "A house is supposed to have a dragon door, but it has instead a tiger door. Since a bedroom is located at the dragon side, it makes any opening of a dragon door there practically impossible. What can be done?"

Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen has taught me the following remedying method:

A feng shui practitioner can place a stone tablet (or rock) on a selected spot so that the chi of "water spirit," when flowing from the tiger side to the dragon side, will come into contact with the stone tablet and be stopped and bounced into the tiger door.

Master Ch'ing Chen used the game of "billiard" to illustrate how this secret method worked. In order to send a billiard ball into a hole, one must borrow the rebound force from another ball. In this remedying method, the chi of the "water spirit" has to first strike against the stone tablet, the rebound force created will drive the chi of the "water spirit" into the house.

The site for the stone tablet, however, takes a true geomancer to locate. For the stone tablet to be efficacious as an enhancer of benevolent energy, it should be installed using appropriate Taoist rituals and prayers.

My methodology for deriving an auspicious orientation for a front door is based on the theory that "each of the twelve Earthly Branches is associated with a birth magnetic orientation which in turn has its own compatible orientations." In deciding whether a door should be installed in the middle, left, or right, I adopt the method of "relying on the direction of the water spirit." These two methods are the principal tools in door positioning. It is also a knowledge that people who are studying to be geomancers must possess.