Lucky-direction trips in Nine Star Ki (hōi-tori)

1.Finding your lucky direction

Your lucky directions come from your main star and the Nine Star Ki charts for the year and the month. Enter your date of birth in the Nine Star Ki reading to see the lucky directions for this year, this month and next month. Nine Star Ki divides the compass into 30° each for north, east, south and west, and 60° each for northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest (unlike the 45° slices of feng shui). The starting point is where you sleep now, measured from true north on a map (some schools use magnetic north). The year’s direction is said to work over the long term and the month’s over the short term, so a direction that is lucky in both is ideal.

2.How far and how long

• The distance varies by school, from a few dozen kilometres to more than 100 km.
• A trip with an overnight stay is said to work better than a day trip.
• For a big move such as moving house or changing jobs, choose a time and direction that are lucky in both the year chart and the month chart.

3.What to do when you get there

The point is to take the energy of the place into your body: bathe in the local hot spring, drink the local spring water, eat local food and visit a shrine. Receiving spring water, called omizutori (not to be confused with the famous ceremony of the same name at Tōdaiji temple), is one of the classic ways.

4.Directions to avoid

The directions of Goō-satsu, Ankensatsu, Saiha, Honmei-satsu and Honmei-tekisatsu are unlucky. If you have no choice but to head that way, for a move for example, the usual answer is to change the timing. In Heian-period onmyōdō there was also katatagae, spending the night before at a house in another direction and then setting off for your goal from there; that, however, belongs to a different system from Nine Star Ki.