(59) How to Read Marital Harmony (Gunghap 2)

By Janet Shin

``Gunghap,'' which deals with the harmonious relationship of a couple, can be one of the most important topics for those who fall in love. We see many couples get married amid opposition from people around them. Some get married, despite concerns from others that their marriage won't last long.

Love, and marriage itself, is a personal affair, but in Korea, the marriage is linked to family affairs. A couple must seek a harmonious arrangement from the day one of the members is introduced their girlfriend or boyfriend's to their parents. Once they start considering marriage, their parents visit a fortune teller for a consultation regarding the gunghap of a couple. However, It is not a ``must'' nowadays.

Even the couples themselves consult a fortune teller to talk about their relationship in terms of the Oriental concept of yin and yang, and the five elements. When they decide to get married, their parents try to fix the best date for the wedding, which is called ``Taek il,'' meaning ``fix the date.'' Then the ``Saju danja,'' in which the four pillars of the bridegroom are written in a form of a letter, is sent to the house of the fianc?e before the wedding ceremony.

Setting aside the controversy of whether the consideration of gunghap is necessary and whether the practice is reliable, it is a social and traditional custom that is still commonly followed by most Koreans.

Then if we think about love and marriage in universal terms, it is still a matter of great concern.

There were many news articles about the death of 35-year-old Korean actress Jang Jin-young recently, which were followed by the more touching story of her wedding a month ago. Her husband, Kim, stayed by Jang's side and the couple held hands until the very end.

How can we translate good gunghap or the bad gunghap? True love is something that even death cannot break apart.

Now, let's move our eyes to Western couples, where the love, marriage and divorce seem to be considered as ``easy come, easy go.''

Here are the saju of an American celebrity couple.

Demi Moore Kutcher

, professionally known as Demi Moore, an American actress was born November 11, 1962 (year of tiger).

Christopher Ashton Kutcher

, an American actor and former fashion model was born February 7, 1978 (year of horse). He was also the creator, executive producer and host of the MTV celebrity prank show Punk'd.

Kutcher is currently the most followed user on social networking site Twitter. Last April, Kutcher became the first user of twitter to have more than 1 million followers beating out CNN in the ``Million followers contest.''

^When we read the gunghap, first we need to see the condition of the marriage palace: the day pillar and career star (husband) for women and money star (wife) for men. If it is not crowded with lots of same elements, we can say the marriage fortune is okay. Although Moore has lots of earth elements (husbands) in the branch inclusions, we can say the fortune of marriage is not bad for both.

Secondly, we need to see the clashes, combinations and penalties between two day masters' stems and branches, which we have reviewed last week.

Then what also plays important role in gunghap is whether yin and yang, and five elements are complementary between two saju.

Looking at Moore's saju, her saju letters are very cold in overall. She was born in hae month (cold water) and her day master is also gye (cold water). Chuk earth to control the water energy is just wet and cold so it is about to change to water energy with the power of ``hae-ja-chuk'' water trine. She may have some problem with her uterus or kidney owing to this imbalance. In wood (talents) in her year branch only gives her some warmth.

On the contrary, we can see enough warmth in Kutcher's four pillars. Gap-in (month pillar) itself is a good energy for Moore also In wood is easy to change to fire energy with the power of o fire (year branch) next to it: ``In-o-sul'' fire trine.

Gyeong-Gap-Mu of Kutcher's stem combination can be seem at the saju of a person with certain leadership and resolution, which would let them overcome the age difference between two.

Apply gunghap to your spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend. You can even apply it to your friends, siblings, boss or employees. You may find some interesting truth underneath.

The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea. She is the author of Learning Four Pillars. She offers saju courses to all who are interested. For more information, visit her Web site (https://blog.naver.com/janet―shin) or email janetshin@hotmail.com