Phone Feng Shui Compass

How to take a good reading

1. Calibrate first. Move the phone in a slow figure-of-eight a few times. Phone compasses drift, and this resets them.
2. Hold it flat, screen up, at waist height, with the top of the phone pointing straight out from the house — at a right angle to the front wall, not along a path or driveway.
3. Step away from metal. Steel door frames, cars, railings, appliances and even a magnetic phone case can pull the reading by many degrees. Take readings a metre or two out from the door as well, and at a few points along the front wall.
4. Average. If the readings differ, use the average and look at the 24-mountain sector, not just the degree. Use "Hold reading" to freeze the dial while you note it down.

Facing and sitting

When you stand in the doorway looking out, the direction you face is the house's facing; the direction behind you is its sitting. Eight Mansions names the house after the sitting direction, and Flying Star charts start from the facing mountain. The readout gives both.

How accurate is a phone?

A well-calibrated phone away from metal is usually within a few degrees — good enough to identify the eight directions reliably and the 24 mountains most of the time. Near a boundary between mountains, double-check with the satellite map method, which isn't affected by local interference. Most phones report magnetic north, which is what feng shui uses; a few Android phones may correct to true north.

Questions