(27) How to Set Saju (II): Kaleidoscope of Life Path

By Janet Shin

Is our fate permanently fixed once it is set? Suppose a baby was born today at 10 a.m. Does he or she have to live exactly according to his or her saju?

If a man was born from a rich family and he was well educated, does it mean he'll live a successful life without highs and lows? If a lady married a handsome guy she loved very much, will she necessarily live happily her entire life? We seldom see permanent happiness in one's life; it's subjective and changing. There is always ``the law of constancy of mass,'' which will be explained in detail.

We often hear of daughters of tycoons dying in car accidents or from suicide, the constant discord among the sons of a billionaire and the success of businesspeople from poor families.

Saju tells us the personality of a person first. Then we can spread out our imagination and rationalize how he or she will live, when and where trouble and success will come and what will make life more fortunate and unfortunate.

The four pillars appear as follows:

Each pillar is a root, seed, flower or fruit, as colored according to year, month, day and time.

The root is the day master's ancestor or the situation before the day master was born.

The seed is the day master's parents and their life, or the past of a day master.

The flower is the day master's married life or the current situation.

The fruit is the future of a day master. It can be the son and daughter of a day master.

We also use this method to infer the situation of a day master by age as described in the chart, although we may need to adjust the exact years of each stage according to the development of medical science and the average life span.

Here is a saju of a 48-year-old woman. Let's review how we can read her fate by her age range. She was born in the year of rat (1961) in the 12th month of lunar calendar (chuk) at 5:00 (in) in the morning. The day master that represents this woman is gap wood.

We learned about gap wood, so we can describe her as a pine tree, willow or chestnut tree. Gap woods people act as they desire. She wants to be on top rather than ruled by others.

She is positive and affirmative but when she experienced failure, she never struggled to overcome it but escaped to hide.

The month when she was born has the property of cold, swampy land. Along with ja water next to chuk, she (gap wood) is rooted on watery and swampy land. We can read that the tree has been in a chilly and unstable environment since she was born.

She was born with a bright personality but has experienced misfortune since childhood. Her mother and father divorced when she was young and she was very weak. Without her father's care, she couldn't have survived. She was unable to learn because of her weak health and family circumstances. In her saju, day master gap and gi (month stem _ father) are in good relations. Gap loved gi earth (father), where she can take root, instead of ja water (mother and knowledge star). Ja water is not helpful for gap in her saju. Her father was hospitalized with sickness in her thirties, the latter years of which she took care of him until he passed away in her early forties.

As per each pillar suppose, she continued to live in chilly and wet conditions until her mid forties. We see byeong fire (sun) in her time stem with its root in wood. This is also a good root for gap (day master). The sun will shine to dry and warm her throughout her life.

Based on the meaning of each pillar, despite having lived with a lack of support from her parents or anyone else, her future will be much brighter with the help of people around her. Byeong fire (expression star) is the way she expresses herself. She will cure people who are sick and disabled and maintain close relationships with friends. What she learned and how she cures others will make her future happier than the world's rich and intelligent.

The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea. She is the author of ``Learning Four Pillars." She offers saju courses to all who are interested. For more information, visit her Web site (https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin) or send email to janetshin@hotmail.com