Nobody’s perfect

By Janet Shin

The major philosophy of saju, or the four pillars of destiny, comes from yin, yang and the five elements theory. Basically, it indicates that one’s destiny requires a harmony between yin and yang and all the five elements have to be filled in order to lead a happy life. Then, do you see something odd in this statement? Why is it four pillars, when we have to gratify the five elements? In other words, it has to be five pillars, not four pillars in order to make a perfect destiny. However, it only makes four pillars at maximum energy, because saju consists of the energy from one’s birth year, month, day and time. Therefore, everyone is searching for the missing elements.

Mostly, people work hard to live happily in their later days. Youths in their 20s say that they have time and a healthy body to enjoy their lives, but they do not have enough money. In their 30s and 40s, they say they do not have time to enjoy life because they have to work for a better life in the future. In their 50s and 60s, they often suffer from health problems and they cannot get the same delight in enjoying their lives.

In a recent study, when youths were asked whether they wanted to enjoy life now than to work hard for a better life in their later days or vice versa, they answered that they want to enjoy their lives first. So their attitude toward life has been changed.

People try to meet both the obligation and desire of life but they seldom meet both at the same time.

Do you know what makes it worse, in terms of saju perspectives? If the saju has various elements in its respective pillars evenly, it would have at least four elements. But in many ordinary lives, they do not even have four elements. Some have too much fire while others have too much water. Some saju is covered with earth so they have to strive to dig it out and show the beauty of their gem. Others have too much wood, so they are always looking for the support of metal to prune their bushes.

Here is the charm of saju.

In many ancient books, it is said that a woman with too many career stars would make complicated relationships with men. The career star for women indicates husbands or boyfriends. On the other hand, if a woman does not have any career stars, does it mean she won’t meet any men in her life? It is not always the case.

I received a call from a gentleman who sounded very cautious the other day. After asking a lot of questions about myself, the place and time, he finally paid a visit to my office. At a glance I could see he was a man of figure. He was in an exalted position in a company.

Being born with a metal day master, fire energy denotes the career star and wood money star. For men, the money star also represents wives and girlfriends.

The dominant energy in this saju is fire energy, the career star. So the power and authority in his company must be the first priority to determine the happiness of life. The fire energy is like a spotlight for the day master, jewelry in his life stage.

So we mostly discussed his career fortunes.

Then, when we had almost finished our conversation, he hesitatingly asked me a question about women. He was married, but he was not happy with his married life and asked me if he could meet a woman whom he could truly love.

The wood element denotes a woman for a metal day master. There was no wood element in his saju. A man with this type of saju feels lacking wood energy is instinctively looking for women.

This is how most of us feel something lacking in our lives. People usually think that the rich must be happy. But there are hidden stories in their lives, such as distorted personal lives, family discord, unwanted marriages or problems with children.

Are presidents happy, because they are in the highest position in a country? And how about the other upper echelons of the government? They all suffer from various hard lives, related with dishonor, maintaining their authority and so on.

The very private agony can be read by saju, especially by the lacking and distorted elements. Because all of us are incomplete, the deficiency sometimes explains more about our lives.

Information: Are you interested in learning more about saju, the ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny?” Saju and face reading workshops are held in Itaewon, Seoul.

For further information, contact Janet Shin at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin@hotmail.com.

The writer is president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea, and author of “Learning Four Pillars” For more information, visit her website at www.fourpillarskorea.com