Dear Karen,

Which door should I use for bagua purposes? My husband/kids/and I ALWAYS used the side door in the garage to enter the house. Company occasionally uses the front door. I have both your books and think it should be the side door, but want to make absolutely sure! Many thanks.

- D.V., USA

Karen's reply:

The general rule is that if the main front door is still used sometimes then that is the door to align the bagua to. However doing Feng Shui according to general rules can be problematic because there are other factors that may need to be taken into account such as the position of the road in relation to the building, the lie of the land, the location of external structures such as other buildings or trees, the social practices of the country or region, and especially the actual chi of the front door area. This is why I am always reluctant to do Feng Shui from plans.

In some homes there is also what I call a double whammy front door situation - this is where the balance of energy is such that both the front door and the side door are equally matched. Again, this is something that cannot be physically deduced but can be discerned through advanced techniques of etheric sensing. Feng Shui, in this respect, can be likened to the study of medicine - everything is connected so an in-depth knowledge of the workings of the whole body is required in order to be able to accurately diagnose even the simplest thing.

The best advice I can offer you is what I call reverse Feng Shui. Try each alignment and see which one most fits with what you are experiencing. For example, supposing you have a missing area of the bagua that would be a missing wealth area if you take the actual front door as a front door or a missing relationships area if you take the side entrance as your front door. Look to see what has been happening with your finances and relationships in the time you have lived there. The most problematic area will correspond the the missing area of the bagua.