What it does
Prevents wrong zoning and wrong conclusions caused by using the wrong outline.
Where
Whole plot, house or flat
Cautions
Explanation and notes
Small houses of about 1200 to 2100 sq ft with a small parking and front garden are taken whole. When much land lies unused around the building, the constructed part is zoned separately. A first floor built on half the roof with the rest as terrace is still taken whole, and balconies or terraces of 200 to 300 sq ft count, covered or open. If only the built part is zoned, a heavy store room may appear to sit in the North, while the North of the whole plot is in fact open, which is good. In a kothi with about 10 feet left open on all sides, the 32 outer devtas fall in that open margin; that is the very logic of keeping the Pishach bhoomi open, so do not redo the devtas on the built part alone.
Ati marma are the nine most sensitive points of the Vastu grid, formed where six devta-to-devta lines cross. In a regular, proportionate plot almost all of them fall in the Brahmasthan, and any piercing, load or dirt on them blocks the energy of the whole plot and brings severe, lasting trouble, above all to the owner (griha swami).
When a house built to good Vastu suddenly sees quarrels, business loss, restless children, bad dreams or a family member who stays ill, check what sits on its ati marma points. Shoes, a dustbin, a used plate or heavy goods placed there can trigger such trouble, and moving them brings quick relief.
Blocked marma and ati marma points are opened with injection-like remedies: special herbs are placed under marma points, while metal kurma (tortoise) figures, metals and precious minerals are installed on the ati marma. They reopen the blocked energy channels of the land.
In the 81 pad (9 x 9) Vastu mandala the ati marma are found by drawing six lines between pairs of outer devtas: the two corner diagonals and two lines parallel to each of them. Their nine crossing points are the ati marma.
On a real plot of any shape, the ati marma are marked by finding where the twelve devtas of the six ati marma lines meet the plot boundary and joining those points. With the zoning chakra this takes one to two minutes and needs no computer.
The tilt of a house is read on Google Earth with the ruler tool and then transferred to the paper map as a north line drawn from the centre. On an irregular plot that line is drawn parallel to the wall whose degree was taken.
Once north is marked, a map of any shape is divided into 16 zones of 22.5 degrees by starting 11.25 degrees on either side of the north line. It takes about two minutes on regular and irregular maps alike.
For 32 zoning each pad is 11.25 degrees, with N5 centred on the exact north (0 degrees). Start 5.62 degrees on either side of north and mark every 11.25 degrees, or mark the black lines of the zoning chakra.