The 24 Mountains

One of the most important rings on every Luo Pan is the “24 Mountain Ring”. The simplified version of the 24 Mountains Ring looks like this:

The 24 Mountains are basically the 8 Main Directions on the Luo Pan: North, East, South, West, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Each of these main directions is further trisected into 3 sub-divisions – giving us a total of 24 Mountains, or directions. And because each of the 24 Mountains has a Yin or Yang quality, this is also marked on the Luo Pan.

In a Feng Shui audit we always use these 24 Mountains (directions) as our reference and starting point. The full circle of the compass spans 360°. Each main direction spans 45°. Each sub-division spans 15°.

For example: The North direction includes North 1, North 2 and North 3. Each of these three sub-divisions spans 15°, adding up to a total of 45°.

Each one of the 24 sub-divisions has a Chinese “name”. North 1 is called “Ren” 壬, North 2 is called “Zi” 子， and North 3 is called “Gui” 癸. It is important for any practitioner to be familiar with these names. They represent the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in Chinese Metaphysics – a subject we will dive into in a later chapter. For now, just know that you will have to memorize the Chinese terms of the sub-divisions.

On the Luo Pan itself, the 24 Mountains Ring also includes the corresponding Ba Gua. And last but not least, each of the 24 Mountains has its own elemental polarity.

24 Mountains Reference Table