Why use the Feng Shui Compass: the Luopan?

The electronic compass and Google Earth versus the Luopan (Feng Shui compass)

Recently, I sold my home and started visiting houses.  I had in mind a specific location and orientation. Of course I was dragging my Feng Shui compass which mortified my real estate agent. For every new visit, he pointed his phone and immediately gave me the direction as to avoid my taking out the Luopan (still did!). I noticed many times significant variances between his electronic compass and my Luopan: up to 30 °!

No doubt some of these electronic compasses are poorly calibrated and do not take into account the magnetic north.

Another reason for an incorrect reading: clients try to help by giving me the directional readings with their electronic compass before I get to their home. They sometimes don’t hold it straight, or it is too close to a source of electrical disturbance or to metal or the client simply does not know how to measure. Geo biological phenomenon can also disturb the data.

If using Google Earth, here again we can notice a discrepancy in degrees with the Luopan. Why? Google Earth is actually quite accurate but it points to True North and not Magnetic North like the Luopan. In Québec Canada for example, the difference may be of 14 ° or more compared to True North. We must be very precise in Feng Shui because a door direction in the last degrees of the North will deliver completely different results if one reads the first degrees of the Northeast! It is therefore mandatory, if working with Google Earth, to calculate the magnetic declination.

For the Feng Shui experts, it is always better to go on site to take readings of directions and not trust those taken by our client who does not have the right tools, nor the technique to take them.

The photos below, are taken from the same location, one with the Luopan which gives me a reading of 157 °( last degrees of the Southeast) and the other with an Ipad and it reads 168°, well into the first degrees of South (an 11 degrees difference). Feng Shui is a very precise Art, a few degrees can make quite a difference!

Feel free to inquire about the course schedule, content, dates and rates by contacting me by email at:  adeledionne@gmail.com