Vastu Compass Guide: How to Check Directions for Your Home

A Vastu compass measures the directions used to map your home. Vastu Shastra is a traditional Indian system of architecture and placement: room locations, entrances and sleeping positions are commonly described by compass direction.

Start with our free Vastu compass online. It shows eight direction sectors with Indian names and gives specific instructions for checking an entrance, kitchen, pooja room, bedroom or bed. You can use it on a compatible phone in India without downloading an app.

The eight Vastu directions

Vastu commonly uses four cardinal and four diagonal directions. The angles below are sector centres, measured clockwise from north. Each sector covers 45°; northeast, for example, runs from 22.5° to just below 67.5°.

Direction	Indian name	Centre angle	Common traditional association
North (N)	Uttara (उत्तर)	0° / 360°	Wealth, career
Northeast (NE)	Ishanya (ईशान)	45°	Pooja room, meditation
East (E)	Purva (पूर्व)	90°	Sunrise, entrances
Southeast (SE)	Agneya (आग्नेय)	135°	Fire, kitchen
South (S)	Dakshina (दक्षिण)	180°	Rest, head direction while sleeping
Southwest (SW)	Nairitya (नैऋत्य)	225°	Main bedroom, heavier storage
West (W)	Paschima (पश्चिम)	270°	Gains, storage
Northwest (NW)	Vayavya (वायव्य)	315°	Air, guest room

These associations describe traditional practice. They are not guarantees of health, wealth or other outcomes.

How to find your Vastu directions

1. Open the Vastu compass on your phone. Tap Start Vastu compass and allow motion or orientation access when prompted.
2. Hold the phone flat, with its top edge pointing in the direction you want to measure. Keep away from steel furniture, appliances and magnetic cases.
3. Choose what you are checking. For a room’s location, stand near the centre of the home and point toward the room. For a door’s facing, stand inside the doorway and point outside.
4. Note the heading, direction sector and north reference shown. Match that reference to your practitioner or plan; tap True north if you need a location-based correction.
5. Repeat the reading at nearby spots. Once it settles, tap Freeze and mark the direction on your floor plan.

Because the reading is live on a supported phone, you can slowly turn to trace all eight directions. If the tool says manual exploration, it has no usable sensor reading: dragging the dial or entering a known angle helps explore the chart but does not detect north.

How to check the main door facing direction

Stand just inside the main entrance, face outside, and point the top of your flat phone through the door. That is the entrance facing direction. For example, a reading near 90° means east-facing.

The entrance’s location is a separate measurement: stand at the centre of the home and point toward the doorway. A door on the east side of an apartment might face another direction along a corridor. Record both rather than treating them as interchangeable.

For an Indian flat, use the centre and plan of your flat, rather than the whole apartment block. For irregular plans, a practitioner can help establish the reference centre. A compass heading alone does not resolve detailed entrance-pada analysis.

Common Vastu direction questions

• Kitchen: the southeast (SE) is the classic Vastu direction for a kitchen, the zone of the fire element.
• Pooja room or mandir: northeast (NE), Ishanya, is commonly suggested. Measure from the centre of the home toward the room; the direction a worshipper or idol faces is a separate question.
• Main bedroom: southwest (SW), Nairitya, is commonly suggested. This is the bedroom’s location, not the head direction of the bed.
• Sleeping: a head-south position is widely recommended, with head-east as an alternative; head-north is traditionally avoided.
• Checking your bed: point the phone from the foot of the bed toward the pillow. The reading tells you where your head points while lying down. Keep away from metal bed frames.
• Main entrance: north and east are often preferred, but traditions also consider the doorway’s exact position on the plan. A broad direction sector is not a complete assessment.
• Money plant, mirrors and clocks: these are usually tied to specific directions too, and a compass is how you confirm them.

Magnetic north or true north for Vastu?

A magnetic compass follows magnetic north; a map normally uses true, geographic north. The difference is magnetic declination and varies by location. Vastu practitioners use different conventions, so use the reference your practitioner or floor plan specifies and keep it consistent.

Our compass labels the active reference. On supported iPhones, the sensor supplies a true-north heading. Android generally supplies magnetic headings; True north can use your location to calculate a correction on your device. Avoid switching references midway through mapping your home.

The same chart works in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and across India. There is no city-wide house-facing angle: your home’s heading must be measured at the property.

If your phone compass readings keep changing

Move away from metal cupboards, refrigerators, speakers and reinforced walls. Remove a magnetic phone case and calibrate the sensor with a gentle figure-eight motion. Compare repeated readings from nearby spots, or check with a physical compass. A display showing a whole degree does not mean the sensor is accurate to one degree.

Use Safari on iPhone and allow motion access when prompted, or try Chrome on Android. Some phones lack a compass sensor; in that case, manual mode cannot provide a home measurement.

Whatever the tradition, a compass simply tells you which way is which. To read the headings, see our guide to compass directions and degrees.