(210) Your zodiac sign
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By Janet Shin
There are various ways to describe one’s personality or lifestyle and zodiac signs are used in many countries while horoscopes are another known way of fortune telling. Some are even fascinated by blood types or four physical constitutions built by Oriental medicine to explicate one’s health and temperament. Both are divided into four major types.
When it comes to the zodiac or astrology, there are 12 different places to characterize each sign. The Chinese zodiac signs are determined by one’s birth year and repeat every 12 years whereas Western astrology is by one’s birth month. Regardless of their roots and methodology, many people believe in them and trust that they govern what people try to do and other propensity in their life paths.
What made saju to become a way of fortune telling? Many people regard it as similar to reading zodiac signs. So when they want me to read their saju, they emphasize which year they were born. The first thing they say is “I was born in the Year of the Tiger,” or “My year is that of the monkey.” However, contrary to other rather simplified ways of readings either with 4 types or 12 places, saju is much more complicated.
It does not correspond to tarot cards or other types of divination signs. They are sometimes practiced using coins or by grains of rice. Rarely is there consecutiveness in the readings because of low equiprobability in their drawings. On the other hand, saju always comes out with eight consistent letters, or four pillars of destiny according to one’s birth year, month, day and time. And the number of cases is based a lot more on its statistics. The day master, representing one’s character, comes from the birth day, which is one of 10 celestial stems. It is either yin or yang and has five elements. It is generated by the whole combination of year, month, day and hour according to the cosmic order of time and season. The 12 zodiac signs are located at the four earthly branches.
If we calculate it numerically, it will come to around 260,000 cases as saju years have 60 different combinations as they repeat every 60 years; there are 12 saju months, the same as lunar or solar calendars; a month has 30 days and 12 saju hours in a day. Consequently there are, 60 (years) multiplied by 12 (months) by 30 (days) by 12 (hours) that make 259,200 cases.
This is a tremendous number compared to other stereotypical readings. Of course, it is still insufficient to portray everybody in the world. So an excellent saju master should take other elements into consideration, such as living environment, nationality, one’s efforts, parental support and educational background. It shouldn’t be considered as an occult theory but it still looks philosophical and intricate.
Once saju is plotted, we read how the day master unveils the destiny of the past, present and future, revealing its relationship with ancestors, parents, siblings, spouses, children and other social networks. That’s the reason why saju is said to be both two and three dimensional, and sometimes four dimensional. It influences or is influenced by other heavenly and earthly energies. In saju, there is not one zodiac but four, out of 12 letters to form a destiny. It is not absolute to read which year one was born anymore.
The 12 zodiac signs have distinctive individuality. Saju classifies them into three groups.
Group 1: tiger, snake, monkey, pig
Group 2: rat, rabbit, horse, rooster
Group 3: dragon, goat, dog, ox
It requires a lot of time and effort to comprehend and explain all of them respectively. However we may get some quick hints by studying the tendency of each group. Group 1, is called a place of active and fierce letters. It is compared to wanderlust so people with these letters in their saju live a dynamic life. Interestingly, most former Korean presidents had saju with these letters.
The second group is called a place of popularity and flourish. People with saju with these letters are mostly in entertainment, art or sales business.
The third group is called a place of repository. They are seen in many religious figures and spiritual people.
The first step is just to plot your saju. It would be inspiring and beneficial to know which zodiac signs there are in your saju. You may find interesting facets of yourself.
Information: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny?” For further information, visit Janet’s website at
, contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email
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The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea, and the author of “Life’s Secrets”.