(5) Five Elements of Nature (1)

By Janet Shin

This is an example of a saju reading. Please see how this person's life can be read based on the yin yang that we learned from last week's essay.

These are the four pillars of a woman born on March 2, 1966 at 4:50 a.m.

As you can see, all four pillars, from her birth year, month, day and time, are yang.

Remember what we learned last week about the properties of yin and yang.

This woman is in the trading business, so she travels a lot. She has strong self-assertion, makes quick decisions and tries to achieve whatever she plans. She pursues a splendid life. However, her marriage life is not harmoneous as she confronts her husband. She is also impatient.

Yin and yang is broken down into five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). It is a classification of our nature. They exist, act or react, and circulate within the yin yang boundary. Although it is usually translated as ``element," the Chinese character xing literally means something like ``changing states of being," ``permutations" or ``metamorphoses of being." In fact Sinologists cannot agree on one single translation. The Oriental conception of ``element" is therefore quite different from the Western one. The Western elements were seen as the basic building blocks of matter. The Oriental ``elements' by contrast were seen as ever-changing and moving forces or energies ― one translation is simply ``the five changes."

As said, ancient people classified the elements in the universe as wood, fire, earth, metal and water. These five elements are the tools and medium to interpret our destiny by being converted to something substantial in relation with our life path. People's birth year, month, day and time have their own yin and yang and five elements in them to make into a sixty year cycle. From this sixty year cycle, we extract the inherent four pillars to read our destiny.

Wood metaphor: growing wood or flowers. It means honesty and benevolence. It indicates an east direction, spring as a season and 3,8 as numbers.

Fire metaphor: flaming fire or light. It means courtesy and politeness. It indicates a south direction, summer as a season and 2,7 as numbers.

Earth metaphor: calm and balanced ground or soil. It means confidence and faith. It indicates the center, transitional season and 5,10 as numbers.

Metal metaphor: stretched and solid metal or rock. It means justice and righteousness. It indicates the west, autumn as a season and 4,9 as numbers.

Water metaphor: cohesive and cold water. It means intelligence and sagacity. It indicates the north, winter as a season and 1,6 as numbers.

These five elements act and react to each other. Sometimes they nourish other elements, while sometimes they restrict them. When one element has too much power, we need the other element to restrict it. When one is too weak to survive, we need the others' to help nourish it. If two elements are in conflict with each other, we need to read the person's life based on this clue. This is the way people's destiny goes and how we read and find answers in their life path.

The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea. She is the author of the book titled ``Learning Four Pillars." She is an acupuncture and moxibustion therapist. For more information, visit her Web site (https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin) or email to janetshin@hotmail.com.