(13) 12 Terrestrial Branches: Forces of Heaven to Mix

By Janet Shin

In the last few months, we have studied yin yang, five elements and ten celestial stems. From now on, we will learn the 12 terrestrial branches that constitute four pillars along with the 10 celestial stems.

When people start learning saju, they worry a lot because they think they must know many Chinese characters and difficult terminology to memorize. However, you will realize that the most often used Chinese characters are 10 stems and 12 branches only. We need to understand the logic in the four pillars to be able to read one's destiny.

The intangible energy of the 10 celestial stems comes down after a certain period of time. The outcome of its energy has an impact on the 12 terrestrial branches, so the forces of heaven are mixed. Celestial stems are pure energy. It is easy to describe, but the terrestrial branches are mixed energy so we cannot describe them in one or two definitions. They combine and conflict with each other, and we must understand this to be able to read a person's saju.

Before studying the 12 terrestrial branches and how to understand them in saju, let's review the 12 animals or the 12 zodiac signs first that characterize the 12 terrestrial branches. Actually the 12 zodiac signs are actually mentioned more often than 10 celestial stems when people talk about four pillars.

In Oriental astrology, each individual personality is associated with an animal sign that represents it. Although it is not exactly identical with what is written as saju in my articles, it will be good to know the basic concept of zodiac signs and how Western people know it.

There are animal signs assigned by year, month and hours of the day. The animal signs assigned by year represent how others perceive you or how you present yourself. The full 60-year cycle is a combination of the 12 animals with each of five possible elements, which distinctively vary the base animal's personality (12x5=60). They call the inner animal that is assigned by the month of birth. The inner animal shows what is a person's motivation. This dictates your love life. It is critical to a proper understanding of your compatibility with other signs.

The secret animal is assigned by the hour of birth. It is important to know the exact time of birth to determine it correctly. It is your own true sign, which your personality is based on. It is important to compensate for daylight saving time or any clock adjustment performed by your country in determining this sign, as it is mapped according to the sun's location and not the local time.

To sum it up, while a person might appear to be a dragon they might actually be a snake internally and an ox secretively. Combined with the five elements, this makes for 8,640 possible combinations (five elements, 12 animals, 12 months, 12 hours of a day) that a person might be.

12 zodiac animals

The following are the 12 zodiac signs in order:

1) The 12 year cycle

The system of the yearly cycle was built from the observation of Jupiter's orbit. Oriental astronomers divided the celestial circle into 12 sections to follow the orbit of Jupiter, the year star.

2) The months ― the inner animals

The 12 animals also apply to the lunar months. The birth month affects a person's inner animal. Remember it is based on lunar calendar.

3) The hours ― the secret animals

The 12 zodiacs are also used to label the different times of day, with each sign corresponding to two-hour period (24 divided by 12 animals). The large-hour in which a person is born is their secret animals, as stated above.

Now, why don't you open your own Saju to get to know who you are? You may get your own saju from my Web site.

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 offers saju learning courses to open for people who are interested. For more information, visit her Web site (https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin) or email to janetshin@hotmail.com