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By Janet Shin
In past articles, we have studied saju as a way to read one's fate by the birth year, month, day and time. Then, we moved on to the basis of saju philosophy, as we reviewed yin and yang, and five elements, which constitute the 10 celestial stems and 12 terrestrial branches. The stems and branches make 60 combinations (60-year-cycle) that represent each pillar of the year, month, day and time.
Ultimately, saju is a study of heaven and earth energies. By understanding the energy flow and the condition of earth and nature when a person is born, we are able to foresee how the person's life will turn out, which life path the person is going to take or even how noble the person's life is. So, heaven, earth and human are the three key concepts in saju.
It is not just one of the ancient Oriental studies but a serious consideration of time history and the inference about the incidents when the time comes across the space where the person is.
When we plot the saju as four pillars (year-month-day-time), it is not just a flat diagram but very three-dimensional and not just written letters but the letters with living substances such as natural beings representing the five elements.
The term ``three-dimension" means that four pillars are not freeze frames. They are active when certain letters are motivated. During the person's childhood, the year pillar is more active, during the person's adolescence, it is the month pillar that influences the person's daily life, during the manhood, the day pillar is more active and lastly the time pillar is influential for the senescent.
The saju analyst makes each pillar flat to be able to see the whole picture, then spreads it as multi-dimensional to see specifics of fate in accordance with time and space flows.
The turning points in life path and the impacts of destiny arise when specifics of every coming year and saju palja come across each other.
Aside from saju, what are other Oriental studies?
People call five Oriental studies in relationship with yin-yang and five elements.
1. Saju (four pillars), the study of fate.
2. Face and palm reading, the study of shape of faces and palms lines to read fate
3. Divination (I ching), Classic of Changes
4. Oriental medicine, the study of human body
5. Zen, meditation
Besides these five Oriental studies, Feng shui or ``poongsu'' in Korean, is more popular and known worldwide.
In order to understand saju better, we should compare it with other Oriental studies,
Feng shui, literally meaning wind and water, is to take advantage of vital qi by appropriate placement of graves and structures. By assessing the quality of local environment including the effects of space weather, it is to balance yin-yang and five elements around us. It is called yin placement for graves while yang placement for city, building and houses.
Nowadays, feng shui is practiced not only by Asians but by Westerners. Through time and its popularity in the West, genuine knowledge about feng shui has been lost in translation.
The traditional Korean feng shui is still being dealt with by the very old and experienced specialists to review the geographical features including mountains, rivers and wind direction. The language barrier and comparatively less influence has helped keep Korean feng shui stay faithful to its original concepts.
However in the West, feng shui has become an aspect of interior design. It deals with which way the doors open, where to put the windows, which direction the desks or beds are placed etc., ostensibly to improve people's health, maximize the business success and harmonize people's relationships.
This even encourages people to plant ``lucky bamboo'' or put crystal balls at the head of the bed or hang special mirrors.
While the modern feng shui is seen with skepticism for its application in our daily lives, the higher forms of feng shui are too difficult to practice without an expert, whose fees are affordable only by the likes of Donald Trump or Samsung.
The practice of feng shui is diverse and multi-faceted. Nevertheless many people believe it is important and very helpful to lead a prosperous and healthy life, either by avoiding or blocking negative energies that might otherwise have bad effects.
Without getting into the deeper aspects of feng shui, let's apply it simply in connection with yin and yang and five element of saju theory. Once we plot one's saju, we get to know the day stem and month branch. And if you studied just a little bit more, you will be able to know the composition of five element energies in the saju.
After understanding the saju, you can judge what element (and the relative substance) is required to help this person's fate in terms of friend, expression, money, career and knowledge stars respectively. If the person's day master is fire, born in fire month, we definitely need to add water energy to cool down. If the person's day master is sin, which is jewel, born in the month of earth, we need to add water to clean off the dirt and light (byeong fire) to maximize its beauty and help its career achievements.
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 (http://blog.naver.com/janet_shin) or email janetshin@hotmail.com.
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