What it does
Recognising a land that consumes the energy of its occupants so it can be treated.
Explanation and notes
Put gold into mercury and the gold seems to vanish; touch a gold ring to mercury and it turns white. In the same way a hungry land keeps absorbing the energy of its occupant, and earlier occupants of such land usually left with nothing. Treatment methods, including the 16 sanskar method, are taught in later classes.
In Vedic vastu the five elements arose one from another in a fixed order: Space, then Air, Fire, Water and Earth, after which the cycle returns to Space. This order, described in the Shiv Puran, is the base for knowing which element creates or destroys another.
The five chakras from the throat downwards hold the five elements in the same order as creation: Vishuddhi holds space, Anahata air, Manipur fire, Swadhishthan water and Muladhara earth.
Both geopathic and cosmic energy exist in the form of the five elements. The universe, the body, the nine planets and every material, food, metal and artifact represent one element or another, so a building is balanced by balancing its elements.
Land (geopathic) energy, which is the earth element, carries 70 percent of the result of a building, while orientation and zoning carry 30 percent. A site with zero land energy fails however good its orientation and interiors are.
The earth element is golden yellow, square, located in the South-West and solid, heavy and dense by nature; in a house it is represented by the land energy, the plot shape and the slope. Balanced, it gives the greatest stability and success; disturbed, it brings business uncertainty and unhealthy relationships.
The South-West holds the earth element, whose nature is solid, heavy and dense, so this zone is kept solid, heavy and compact with the fewest openings. Infrared rays also arrive from the South-West at a particular time of day, another reason to keep it closed.
The taste of the earth element is sweet, so where the people of a house speak sweetly the earth element is balanced, and where people in a home, factory or business speak bitterly it is disturbed.
Ivory, a very light yellow, represents the earth element, which is why ivory floor tiles are the most preferred and generate the most energy in a house.