(361) Human lives resemble nature
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By Janet Shin
The peculiarity of Chinese philosophy lies in how it cognizes the cosmos and relate it with human life. The cosmos is often called nature. Nature can representatively be conceptualized as Heaven and Earth.
One of the major differences between the West and East may be the way they perceive nature. The former tried to separate nature from human beings in order to experience, observe and analyze while the latter tried to identify it with human beings so the two sympathize with each other. It is called correlative thought.
Saju, the way of reading a human’s life, has its principle based on this background. In the saju below, with its day master circled, do you see any distinct features? First of all, the day master, which can be described as a tree, is surrounded by four metal elements. The wood element is green while the metal white. The metal elements for the wood day master represent her husband. Does it mean this woman may marry twice? Yes, she is likely to marry twice. This woman at age 45 was divorced. Would her question be about a relationship with a man? The answer is both yes and no. She may ask about her future married life, but her compelling curiosity is more related with her job, which is an expression star in red _ fire elements. In her saju, she doesn’t have any fire element, which would have ultimately restrained the power of the metal. The fire elements also represent her children. Without any fire elements, she doesn’t have any children yet, and she may not have any in the future.
The fundamentals of saju originated from I Ching, the book of changes. First of all ancient people described the forms and activities of Heaven and Earth as a way of major subjects within the cosmic principle. The cycle of time, especially seasons, 12 months and 24 divisions of the year, 30 days of the month, 12 and 24 hours of the day were characterized by the system of yin, yang and the five elements. Eight or 64 gua are allocated to each month, season and direction. Primarily eight gua are formed after eight representative things in the universe: Heaven, Earth, water, fire, mountain, wind, thunder and lake. They are also associated with various family relations and properties. Then it explains all the patterns in human relationships.
While I Ching is considered the oldest book and a record of divination, the history of saju dates back about 2,300 years, considering the fact that the concepts of yin, yang and the five elements were formed by Zou Yan (estimated B.C. 305 to B.C. 240), who lived in the Warring States period (B.C. 403 to B.C. 221).
Setting its history aside, as we draw one’s saju, we may visualize the main character of the saju, which is called ``day master’’ as it is located in the heavenly stem of one’s day pillar. Then we should capture the person’s own cosmos specifying his or her biological and social relations and diverse phenomena of life path. They are categorized as expression, money, career and knowledge stars.
Saju masters should be able to diagnose the illness and malfunctions in the questioned saju based on the interactions among the yin, yang and the five elements in one’s saju.
Information: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teachings, the “Four Pillars of Destiny” and oriental ways of fortune telling or fortune tellers? Janet teaches Saju for the public at Seoul National University of Education. For further information, visit Janet’s website at www.janetshin.modoo.at or her blog, https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin You can also contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin.kor@gmail.com. The writer is the author of “Life’s Secrets”.