Feng Shui garden layout with bamboo and grasses.

The Lo Shu:

The Lo Shu ismathematical chart and is one of the most ancient records of Chinesecosmological thought. According to the Chinese, Hsia Tou the Legendary andancient character first discovered the Loa Shu. ("The 'LoWriting')

Feng Shui Lo Shu Bamboo

'Hsia Tou', a great General andengineer had by imperial command of the Emperor been employed in designing andconstructing ways of reinforcing and the banks of the Yellow River tocontrol the seasonal flooding.

The story goes,

Hsia Tou' was taking a rest one day onthe banks of the river Lo when he saw an unusually large turtle at therivers edge. As he watched the turtle, he saw that there were someunusual markings on its shell this caught his curiosity. On closer inspection,he became aware of the significance of the numbers and copied them onto atablet.

feng shui Lo Shu

This was to become the veryfirst LoShu ever recorded.

The uneven white dots represent Yangand the even numbers black dots represents Yin. The diagram above shows how theoriginal markings appeared on the back of the turtle.

There are a few interestingthings to take note of. You will see that the sum of each line of numbers isalways equal to the sum of fifteen (vertical, horizontal or diagonal). If youignore the number 5 in the centre, you will notice that the number that sitsopposite each to each other equal the sum of 10.

With the exception of the 5 centre,the Lo Shu numbers are ordered so that after every Yang number, a Yin numberfollows, and, after every Yin number a Yang number follows..

Lo Shu is often drawn in the form ofa 9-square chart with each square representing a direction of the compass 1-N,9-S, 3-E, 7-W, 8-NE, 6-NW,4-SE 2-SW, 5-Centre (total 9locations).

The Lo Shu is without question theoldest tool used in Feng Shui dating back around 2000 BCE.

The numbers on the Lo Shu arerepresentative of many things; however, the most important of all as far as weare concerned is the fact that they indicate where different energies or Qicirculate and reside within our garden.

The Elements and the cycles:

Feng Shui the elements and bamboo

The five elements areknown as the Wu Xing, they act as the agents for Qi, namely water,wood, fire, earth and metal.

Where these elements are in balancein your space the overall feeling will be far better.

Where an element is missing therewill be an imbalance that may be causing a deficiency or a problem in your lifeor aspirations. Our objective is to reorganize our space so no one elementdominates the other; it is to get the perspective, proportion and balanceright.

Each Elemental phase is cyclic interacting with everyother Element in a productive, destructive or controlling way.

Each element is associated to a formshape, direction, colour, season, weather, mood, planet, archetype, taste,action, emotion and Yin and Yang connotation. It is not within the scope ofthese pages to cover these in depth.

See Qi Concepts

Fargesia Nitida

The Sweet Rush or Sweet Flag

Carex . Milk Chocolate ,

Ophiopogonplaniscapus 'Nigrescens'

Carex 'Silver Scepter'.

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[ Celestial Animals ][ The Form ][Garden Layout][ Alignment ][ The Cycles ][ Your Feng Shui ]

Laying out the garden with the LoShu

Now that we have determined the form using the CelestialAnimals and have made as many improvements that we can within our budget andthe bounds of practicality. And before we attempt to do a reading of theenergies in the garden , we need to make a plan of our site. Accuracy is ofcourse very important so you will need a good tape measure that is long enoughto use effectively, and a hand held compass to determine the direction ofmagnetic north. You will find it much easier if you have someone, your partneror a friend to assist you.

You will need to make arough but realistic sketch first and write down the perimeter measurements of the garden plot and the dimensions of the property. Graph paper isprobably the best for this job. Once we have a plan of our garden and we knowwhich way is compass north , then we can draw our Lo Shu onto the plan as illustratedin the diagram below.

The Lo Shu is the oldest tool used in Feng Shui. It isfar to complex and involved to attempt to explain in these brief pages. All youneed to know here is that each squares is responsible for a differentQi and aspiration in our lives.

There are five elements to be considered, Water,Earth, Metal, Fire and Wood. Each element with its associated shapes andcolours. Each element has productive destructive or controlling influence oneach of the other elements.

When planning our Feng Shui garden we need to study thetable below and ensure that each square is planted or landscaped in a way thatis sympathetic and complementary to the elements shapes and colours in order tomaintain balance.

For instance take the North square; its Trigramsname is 'Kan' its element is water, its colour blue/black and its shapewavy or flowing. This is obviously for Feng Shui is a very good spot for a garden pond or water feature. it is also in a shaded aspect.

Perfect complementary plants would be Sedges, damp loving, very shade tolerantand with the right colorings blue and silver grey. Ideal plants would bepossibly Carex nigra 'variegate , Carex 'Milk Chocolate , Carex 'Silver Sceptre. Bamboo the black andpurple Fargesia Nitida also ashade and moisture lover. and of course there are a few grasses " The Sweet Rush or Sweet Flag and "Ophiopogon planiscapus"'Nigrescens'

TheTable of Elements: Table 1

The table below shows the association of each square ofthe Loa Shu with its respective elements, colours, shapes and aspirations forlife.

N o	Trigrams	Direction	Element	Colour	Shape	Fortune
1	Kan	North	Water	Blue Black	Wavy Flowing	Career Prospects
2	Kun	Southwest	Earth	CreamBeige	Square	PartnershipsMarriage.
3	Chen	East	BigWood	PureGreen	TallErect	ProsperityGrowth
4	Sun	Southeast	Lesser Wood	Jade Green	Tall Erect	Wealth Rewards
5	None	Centre	Earth	Amber Yellow	Square	Prosperity Fame
6	Chian	Northwest	Metal	White Silver	Round Domed	Influence Networking
7	Tui	West	Metal	White Silver	Round Domed	Children Family
8	Ken	Northeast	Earth	Yellow Beige	Oblong Square	Education Development
9	Li	South	Fire	Purple/Red	Triangular	Fame Recognition

The Productive DestructiveControlling Influence: Table 2.

Now if we look at the table below we can see theinfluence each element has on its neighbour. These are called the cycles anddetermine the interaction between the different elements. By subtlemanipulation of these elements we can influence and fine tune the energieswithin our garden. Lets look at a simple example.

Element	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water	Wood
Produces	Earth	Metal	Water	Wood	Fire
Destroys	Metal	Water	Wood	Fire	Earth
Reduces*	Water	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal
Weakens**	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
*Reduces by exhausting the element that is trying to destroyit
**Weakens exhausting the element that is trying to create it

Take forinstance the East Square of the Lo Shu or the area in our garden that respondsto it. We see that its element is wood, pure green, tall and erect andrepresents our prosperity and growth. A complementary plant to place here tomaintain the balance and harmony of our garden may well be Semiarundinariafastuosa. 'The NobleBamboo ' Tallelegant upright topped with lush green leaves.

Now look at Table 2 on the top row column 5 we see Woodin the elements. If we look down the column we can see the affect wood has onthe other four elements when placed with them. It produces Fire, it destroysEarth, reduces Metal etc. However the East Sector host element is wood,our prosperity and growth area. What happens if we place another elementin that sector ? Well look at the Wood elements in table 2 and follow itdiagonally from the top of column 5 to the bottom of column 1, and you will seethe effect of each other element has on wood in the first column on the left, i.e column 4 Water produces Wood. Column 3 Metal destroys Wood,.Column2 Earth reduces Wood. Column 1 Fire weakens Wood. So it should be obviousthat if we want to maintain prosperity and growth we Dont put thatSemiarundinaria fastuosa in a metal container as metal destroys wood, ourgrowth and prosperity. On the other hand a blue painted square woodenplanter or an underplanting of blue geranium or periwinkle will stimulate ouraspirations in the fortunes (prosperity and growth ) of that area. Try it youwill be surprised you will find it is not only right it looks amazinglyright.