Saju and Religion: actor Richard Gere
By Janet Shim
A woman asked me to read saju of her daughter on Sunday morning, which is not the usual time for a consultation and she wanted to confirm something urgently. She heard from a shaman that her daughter was going to be a Buddhist nun. Her family was devout Catholic and she regretted having met the shaman.
Regardless of one’s religious sincerity, fortune telling is a part of our daily life as if everybody wants to know their future, or even present and past.
Someone may take it for reference or just for fun, but for someone else, it may influence their whole life seriously. Becoming a Buddhist nun could have been a least possible calling for a lady from a Catholic family. She was a firefighter and quite happy with her occupation.
I read her saju to find that all four branches have earth elements.
Saju consists of 10 heavenly stems and 12 terrestrial branches. The stems are considered to be pure and intangible, while the branches are the mixture of these stems. So the branches are the outcome of heavenly energies through the principle of the universe. From stems, we read idealistic fundamentals of the universe and from the branches we read our realistic lives on earth. It is the true essence of saju study to read and comprehend how the branches are categorized and the mechanism of their activities-combination, clash and penalty, based on cosmological principle of stems.
In many saju text books, the 12 branches are categorized into three as below;
● Live places: tiger(in), monkey(sin), snake(sa), pig(hae)
● Flourishing places: rat(ja), horse(o), rabbit(myo), chicken(yu)
● Repository places: dragon(jin), dog(sul), cow(chuk), sheep(mi)
The four branches from live places are the letters to start each season. Tiger is to start the wood element or spring season, snake is to start the fire element or summer season, monkey is to start the metal element or fall and pig is to start the water element or winter. So those who have these four letters in their saju are very active. They are more activist than idealist.
The four branches from flourishing places are the letters in the middle of each season. They are solid and straightforward. Owing to their purity, those with these flourishing letters in their saju are beautiful and popular among others.
Now, it is the repository letters that matter and they are not easy to comprehend. These four letters are at the end of each season, so we may also call them transitional branches. They are the most complicated and hiding their own life stories inside. Those with these repository letters are inspirational, intellectual and taciturn. They are all earth element as the earth contains and covers a lot. It is not easy to disclose the secrets hidden by the repository letters.
Based on this classification, a novice theory of saju tells us that people with many repository letters in their saju tend to consecrate their lives to religion. However, according to my practice, this is not true.
The branch letters indeed show one’s inclination. But we can’t distinctly one’s calling exactly by the branch classifications. The above mentioned lady with four repository letters (the earth element) in her saju will never be a Buddhist nun.
Let’s see another example.
Richard Gere, an American actor, is visiting Korea now to promote his photo exhibition and tour Buddhist temples. He is a practicing Buddhist and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.
For your better understanding, the saju of the Dalai Lama is attached next.
They are both born with the energy of yin water. The yin water is like rain or a stream that may quench one’s thirst. We found that both Gere and the Dalai Lama have yin water as their day masters. It may suggest certain compatibility between two but it shouldn’t imply over the coincidence. None of them shows earth letters more than two in their branches. Gere’s saju is rather, read as an activist than a religionist having two live letters in month and day branches.
We may find other clues in the saju of the Dalai Lama. His saju is like welcome rain in desert. People with water day master born in the fire month branch, are welcomed for others and they usually play very important roles in their position. Having water element in year branch implies he has his inner strength to overcome barren environment.
Info: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny”? Saju (Ancient Chinese Teaching ― Four Pillars of Destiny) or face reading Workshop is held at Itaewon, Seoul Korea.
For further information, contact Janet at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin@hotmail.com.
The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea, and the author of “Learning Four Pillars” For more information, visit her website at www.fourpillarskorea.com