Calibrate the phone, hold it flat and away from metal, and read the facing of the main door while standing inside and looking out. Then stand at the centre of the home, the Brahmasthan, and take the bearing of each room. Repeat every reading until two agree within a couple of degrees, and write down whether you used magnetic or true north.
What you need
A phone with a compass sensor, the Live compass open in its browser, a rough floor plan on paper and a pencil. A physical compass is useful as a second check when a reading falls close to a boundary. The tool reads only your phone's own sensor, and nothing is uploaded.
Step 1: calibrate the phone
A phone compass is a small magnetometer. It drifts, and it needs calibrating from time to time.
- On Android, Google Maps offers a calibration screen from the blue location dot; the usual motion is a slow figure of eight, repeated a few times.
- On an iPhone, compass calibration is a switch under Location Services, in the System Services list. The exact menu path changes between iOS versions, so look for it rather than following an old screenshot.
- Remove any magnetic case, ring holder or mount plate before you begin.
The Live compass page gives the same advice: sweep the phone in a figure of eight once if the device asks for it. Avoid calibrating beside the refrigerator or a steel cupboard. Instead, calibrate in an open part of the room, then walk to the spot you want to measure.
Step 2: keep metal and electronics away
The earth's magnetic field is weak, and any nearby steel or magnet can pull the sensor off true. The usual offenders in an Indian home are steel almirahs, refrigerators, speakers, inverters and their batteries, electrical panels, steel grilles and door frames, and parked cars or scooters near the entrance. Columns and slabs carry steel reinforcement as well.
A simple test tells you whether interference is present: take a reading, step one pace to the side keeping the same orientation, and read again. If the number jumps by more than a couple of degrees, something nearby is disturbing it. Avoid accepting the first number in that case. Instead, move a few steps, recalibrate, and keep the reading that repeats.
Step 3: read the main door
This is the reading every Vastu assessment starts from.
- Stand inside the house, at the main door, facing out.
- Hold the phone flat like a tray, with its top edge pointing straight out through the doorway, square to the door.
- Wait until the number settles, then note it.
- Take the reading twice more. If the three agree within a couple of degrees, that is your facing.
If the door has a steel frame or a grille, step back a pace or two into the house along the same line and read again. Enter the degree in the Live compass. It returns the direction among eight, the zone among sixteen and the gate among thirty-two, and those are the inputs every other VastuMaster tool uses.
Step 4: magnetic north or true north
A compass needle points to magnetic north. True north is the geographic pole. The angle between them at your location is the magnetic declination.
The classical texts did not use a magnetic compass. The Manasara and the Mayamata fix east and west with a gnomon (shanku) set in a levelled circle: the tips of the morning and afternoon shadows mark two points on the circle, and the line joining them gives east and west. The Manasara adds a small seasonal correction to that line. Directions found this way are astronomical, which means they are true directions.
In India the difference is small. The World Magnetic Model 2025, read through the British Geological Survey's calculator for October 2026, gives roughly 1.3 degrees east at Delhi, about zero at Mumbai, about 0.3 degrees west at Kolkata and Guwahati, and about 1.1 degrees west at Chennai and Bengaluru. Declination changes slowly over the years, so check the current figure for your own town.
The Live compass defaults to magnetic north: the compass reading as it stands, which is the convention of the Vastu Chakra method used on VastuMaster. If you prefer to work to true directions, select "true" and enter your declination, east as positive and west as negative.
Avoid switching references halfway through a house. Instead, choose one, write it at the top of your sheet, and use it for every reading. A degree or so matters only near a boundary: zones change every 22.5 degrees and gates every 11.25.
Step 5: find the centre, the Brahmasthan
The Manasara places Brahma in the central plots of every site plan, and the centre of the home is where the room readings are taken from.
For a rectangular plan, the centre is where the two diagonals cross. For an L-shaped or irregular plan, practitioners differ: some complete the plan into a rectangle, others find the balance point of the plan's area. Both are later practice, and I have not found either set out in the named texts. Avoid mixing the two methods across different rooms. Instead, pick one, mark the centre on your plan, and note which method you used, so that anyone checking your work can repeat it.
Step 6: read each room from the centre
There are two ways to do this, and the second is the more reliable.
Direct method. Stand at the centre, hold the phone flat, and turn until its top edge points to the middle of the room you want. Note the degree, then repeat for each room.
Plan method. Take one good north reading at a clean spot, such as an open balcony or the compound gate, and draw that north line onto your floor plan. Then draw the sixteen sectors from the centre with a protractor: the north zone runs from 348.75 to 11.25 degrees, and each following zone is 22.5 degrees wide. Read every room off the plan.
The centre of a flat often sits under a slab full of steel and close to wiring, so readings taken there can wander. If the direct method gives numbers that do not agree with the shape of the plan, prefer the plan method. A north-up satellite map of your building is a useful cross-check, because map grids are drawn to true north.
Step 7: keep a record
A small table saves a great deal of confusion later.
| Place | Reading 1 | Reading 2 | North used | Direction (8) | Zone (16) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main door | ||||||
| Kitchen | ||||||
| Bedroom |
Here is a hypothetical example, for illustration only. Suppose a door reads 101 degrees and then 102 degrees. The Live compass places 101 degrees in the E zone and 102 degrees in the ESE zone, because the boundary between them is at 101.25 degrees. That door sits on a boundary. Record both readings, take a third from a step further inside, and if it still sits on the line, have it checked with a physical compass.
Common mistakes, and what to do instead
- Avoid reading from outside while looking at the door. Instead, stand inside and face out, as the Live compass instructs.
- Avoid holding the phone upright like a camera. Instead, hold it flat like a tray.
- Avoid measuring beside a parked car, a steel gate or a refrigerator. Instead, step a few paces away and repeat.
- Avoid trusting a single number. Instead, take at least two readings and keep the one that repeats.
- Avoid mixing magnetic and true north in one house. Instead, choose one reference and note it.
When the readings are recorded, enter each one in the Live compass to see its zone and gate. Other tools are listed on the tools page, and the About page explains how the site computes the classical rules.