Chapter 20 - Secrets About The Direction Of The Bed

In my book Celestial Traces and Land Spirits, I wrote a chapter called "A case for the location of the bed" on page 79.

Master Qing Zhen's instructions are:

• The bed should never be under a roof beam.

• Lying in the bed one can see the door.

• The bed must not face the door directly.

• It's better to keep the bed away from the door.

I shall explain these instructions in the following paragraphs.

The bed should never be under the roof beam. Above the bed, it must not be a reinforced concrete beam either cross it or parallel to it; a wooden beam is not good either. Nor would it be all right to have a pipe of cold or hot water above the bed or a staircase over it. In short, it is best to have nothing over the bed. It is to ask for trouble for oneself to have decorations above the bed such as canopy. Once one is made to feel pressed or extremely suspicious, bad effect will be generated.

Lying in bed one should be able to see the door. Lying in bed we can naturally see the bedroom door; this means the direction of the bed is correction. On the other hand, if the head of the bed shares the same wall with the door, and lying in bed, one has one's back towards the door, then the direction is not correction. Sleeping with one's back toward the door has bad effect on one's health.

The bed must not face the door directly. Our bed should not face the door directly, because in that case the wind rushing in through the door goes right on to the bed. It is much better to put the bed in the corner opposite the door. It is still omen to have the door facing the bed, for the energy forces coming in through the door have not circulated around yet, and therefore they are too strong and may be harmful to people's health.

Here in this connection, I have some additional points to make. First, behind the bed there should be some solid wall. Secondly, there should be no skylight above the bed; on the wall on which the bed head leans, there should be no window either. All this means that the bed has something solid to rely on and is not "in the air". If there is a window in the wall which the bed stands against, this may affect the people's health and the family's fortune. In my study of geomancy, I visited a house in which not a single bed stood against the wall. The beds were all put in the center of the bedrooms, touching nothing on any side. Such beds are not properly set up, for they give the feeling that they are not "solid". The owner of such beds will find their career come to nothing, like floating in the space.

Should we also consider the Twelve Earthly Branches? This was discussed already in my book Celestial Traces and Land Spirits. In fact, it is only necessary to keep the main gate coincide with host's Twelve Earthly Branches. If the bed is also in keeping with one's Twelve Earthly Branches, so much the better. However, as the direction of the bed is often considered in connection with many other factors, it is often difficult to coincide with the Twelve Earthly Branches. So I would think that it is not necessary to consider the coincidence. There are many other reasons as well.

I once wrote the following: "Some masters of geomancy think that it is necessary to take into account one's Earthly Branches in setting up the bed, but the result is often that the bedroom and the bed are not in a harmonious relationship, but out of tune with each other, with neither style nor space for walking around. Sleeping in a bed like that makes one feel strange. Such a bed bodes ill rather than well, because it is the target of the forces of the four corners. The owner will be in for unexpected accidents which will result in serious injuries if not death. So it is really heresy to insist on considering Earthly Branches in setting up the bed. Never believe a word of it."

I have examined many strangely arranged beds:

1. There are mirrors on all sides; the bedroom is made like a palace of mirrors, or a fairy land, or a dreamland.

2. On the head of the bed a dragon is carved which is pouring out water. One can listen to its splashing sound of water every night.

3. On all sides of the bed are carved heads of animals such as tigers, lions, leopards, and elephants. The person in it is made like the king of beasts.

4. The bed is peach-shaped which means that love comes before anything else.

5. The bed is round, in the center of the bedroom.

6. There is some mechanism in the bed that can move the bed up and down and from side to side.

However, the rich people with such strange beds all declined one after another, because these beds are not in keeping with the geomanic teachings. Odd beds are signs of decline.

It was said that these beds were actually masterpieces by geomancers to satisfy the rich men's desire. However, with too many mirrors, the person loses spiritual power. With water in the bed head, the owner will be forever in a tangle. A bed with animals carved on all sides makes one tired both physically and mentally. A peach-shaped bed makes one pessimistic. A round bed is bad for traveling. Mechanisms in beds means endless disputes. All these designs have their meanings. It does not pay for those rich men to incur great losses for some error with their beds.

It is allowed to make the bed as comfortable and luxurious as possible, but not without considerations of geomancy. Pursuit of extra styles may result in some slack habit, perplexity by certain people or things, or one may lose one's quickness of mind or willpower or become idle, loose, decadent...

Such are the drawbacks of luxurious bedrooms. If they are not properly controlled, they may generate endless greed or desire.

The secret for bedrooms is to make them "warm" and "honest."

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