(8) Ten Celestial Stems ― Gap and Eul

By Janet Shin

From now on, we will concentrate on the ten celestial stems from gap to gye individually. I will list them by wood (gap and eul), fire (byeong and jeong), earth (mu and gi), metal (gyeong and sin) and water (im and gye) in order. You will be given some pictures of nature to illustrate what represents each stem.

The stems are categorized into seasons, directions, planets, colors, characteristics and the five viscera (of heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys) and six entrails (of gall bladder, stomach, small and large intestines, belly, bladder and bowels).

This won't be a perfect classification, so don't let skepticism get the better of you. But this gives some insight into the ten celestial stems.

Instead of applying the individual categories automatically, you need to see the bigger picture and how it determines someone's destiny, after seeing the physical and chemical responses in each other. At least, visualize what natural beings represent you and what other natural environments surround yourself.

Wood likes the water and the earth. Wood on dry earth would require some rain while wood on the wet and cold earth would require sunshine. This is a very natural reason. We must understand that the saju is based on natural and logical concepts.

Wood is divided into two: gap wood and eul wood as celestial stems

(1) Gap wood

Gap woods act as they desire. They strive to succeed. Generally they are go-for-it people and competitive. However once they fail, they have less will power to recover. In nature, gap woods are pine tree, willow and chestnut trees, etc.

Gap woods are yang wood so it is extroverted to express their property.

(2) Eul wood

Eul woods are self-stressed. When they encounter a problem, they search for a solution. They act after careful consideration, so they have lots of worries and thoughts. Because they are thoughtful, they would seem rather calculating. Basically, they tend to be showy. In nature, eul woods are flowers like roses, chrysanthemum, etc. ivy or small and weak trees.

Eul woods are yin wood, so they don't show the wood properties outside rather inside. Wood generally means to seek to expand and grow but the eul woods can't grow big or tall while the gap wood can.

Here are four pillars of a man with eul wood characteristic. Please see the five elements, yinyang and the representative substantial beings added for each stem below.

As learned, day stem represent the owner of the saju. Looking at his saju, he has enough water to nourish him and the sun shines on him. Also the flower has wood and earth energy in terrestrial branches to root.

So you can know that this person is strong enough with the support of wood energy under the day stem although he was born as a small tree (or flower). He is a stable person with firm earth to root and enough moisture would have nourished him well, which means that he was well educated. Without high version of saju techniques, we can read that this person's saju is harmonized, as all necessary elements are well supplemented.

He is a professor at a university. Although he was not born in a rich family, he studied hard to be a good professor.

Like this, saju can visualize your destiny. Go and get your own saju. Find who you are and where you are heading for.

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.