(47)Study of Life: Six Combinations of Terrestrial Branches
Through saju, we try to understand and read life in relationship with universe and human nature. The saju energy comes from heaven, earth and people. The stems are intangible while the branches are tangible. So we call stems heaven energy and branches earth energy. There are five pure elements energy from heaven to constitute the 10 stems and the five elements are mingled to constitute 12 branches to show diverse earth phenomenon. The mingled stem elements included in the branches show the fate path and cause and effect relationships in our life. These are, what so called, heaven, earth and human, as base philosophy melted into all oriental studies.
Here I ask a simple question that, among the lion, monkey and bananas, which two do you think have a closer connection? Money and lion? Monkey or bananas?
The connection between monkey and lion is that they are both animals, and the connection between monkey and bananas is the relationship.
What do you think saju questions? Is it the fact itself or the relationship? If we say, looking at saju, that people with lots of friend stars are strong, because they have the same energy support to win in the battle of life, that is a one-dimensional answer. If we say that they have many friend stars and owing to this fact, they lack the fortune of other stars and their fate might be to struggle with their siblings and peers, that could be a multi dimensional answer. Let's continue our study of saju in this respect.
Here is a saju of a woman born May 15, 1965 (year of snake, eul-sa).
You may refer to natural substantials to represent the stems, which usually mean social relations. You may refer to 12 animals to represent the branches, which usually talk about human networks especially family relations. The five elements can be displayed by five colors, namely, blue(or green) for wood, red for fire, yellow(or brown) for earth, white for metal and black for water. By portraying yourself with natural substantials and colors, you may evaluate yourself what element you are missing and whether you are too dry or too wet, etc. This is the simplest way to read saju.
She is an ordinary housewife, working as a dietitian for school students. She was born with the energy of earth where people grow plants. Her mission is to grow plant (wood) with the support of water (im water) and fire energy(sun shine-byeong fire). Water element means the money and fire element means what she learned. Then, there are two fire elements (o and sa) and no expression star (metal element) in her saju although the metal (expression star) is included in her year bramch. She is diligent and does her responsibility well to support her family and the children. But when she actually needs to act something to change her life, she hesitates. Her consideration mostly exceeds her action so she seldom makes dramatic changes to her life.
As certain two stems are compatible with each other in their relationship, two branches also tend to combine each other. In her saju, she has In-Hae combination. As we learned, the combination means ``safety and security'' but it also means ``tightness and dissatisfaction.'' In the combination of In and Hae, there included the career star (husband) and money star. Although there is no problem with her money and husband fortune, she has never been satisfied with them. In terms of her reputation (career star) and her money fortune, no one could doubt the inner conflict from the surface. But when we talk about her satisfaction in terms of saju perspectives, we can notice the unrevealed part.
Saju, is not only looking at the fortune itself but looking at the satisfaction level of individuals. Not knowing the satisfaction level, but just telling the fact itself is not enough to answer the person's thirst level.
While there are five combinations in celestial stems, there are six combinations in terrestrial branches. Six combinations are also the phenomenon of being tied up and being bound. But six combinations do not lose their own element and force. The original elements never change with the other elements. Same as stem combinations, branches are not combined each other when they placed apart in the saju.
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 email