Is a child everything to a mother?

By Janet Shin

There are several incidents that tell us the coming of November in Korea. Many television cooking shows present how to cook foods to make children smarter. A famous chef hosting a TV program uses a kind of walnut seasoning for beef steak explaining that walnuts are shaped like the brain. So adding them to nourishing food such as steak helps test-takers study better, she says.

An interior designer explains to the audience, who are mostly mothers, how to decorate their children’s rooms to be a better place to study. There are many feng shui tips, traditional Korean or Western ways to cultivate a healthier environment in interior design. Kids will be more ambitious if their rooms are located in an easterly direction. Rooms facing north are good for concentration and developing children’s ability to think. Rooms facing south are usually not recommended because they may cause children to lose composure. But they are good for artists and those in show business. There also are other tips on color and decoration.

Meanwhile, gift shops will soon be filled with various items such as taffy or small rice cakes that imply the passing of an entrance exam.

The Korean real estate market is also influenced by the CSAT, the yearly university entrance exam, or education in general. The heated real estate market suddenly levels off from October, because parents should prepare for their children’s important examination. The parents eventually wish to move to an area that boasts a high pass rate. The house prices rise and fall depending on the zeal for children’s education.

Is it just a social phenomenon? Psychologically, the parents, especially mothers, are looking for famous fortune tellers. They see fortune tellers to ask about the luck of their children’s entrance exam.

I met a group of mothers last week. Not acknowledging the seasonal phenomenon of Korean enthusiasm for education, I limited them not to exceed four saju readings. A saju reading requires a close connection of energy between the reader and listeners. As a fortune teller, I experienced that the saju reading actually drains lots of energy. So I try to limit the number of saju readings a day in order to keep an abundant energy level for each client.

However, I realized when I started the second reading, that all of them were the mothers of high school students, gathering to read their children’s saju and get advice about what their offspring should major in and the result of their entrance exams.

I usually don’t let people start by reading their children’s saju. The saju reading is more appropriate for those after their twenties at least. Saju tells about one’s career, human relationships, families, wealth, success, love, marriage, divorce, moves. What can be told about children’s life at school? Of course we may tell something about their future career path and what to major at school. But I personally do not want to prescribe one’s life, especially when it comes to the future of young people. I do see, sometimes, the potential hardships embedded in children’s saju. But it’s hard to reveal them all when it is time for the children to dream about a bright future. So I made a rule not to tell more than about the personality and aptitude of a child. And passing the examination is one of the important readings. I must deliver the year fortune of the child’s saju to pass the examination.

By the way, there is one aspect I mostly notice from reading mothers’ and children’s saju. In the saju of many mothers’ who visit me, theirs is overly filled with the energy of their children. In other words, the mothers are obsessed by the desire to make their children successful. On the other hand, when their children’s saju is read, children do not always listen to their mothers.

It is ironic, but true. So on top of advising on the personality and aptitude of a child, I often advise the mothers not to nag too much. Children have their own destiny and they have to reach their own goal, which can be different from what mothers want. They admit but also confess it’s not easy to follow.

Here is the saju of a mother.

She was born with the energy of yang metal, having her self-pride in the year branch. Then the water energy, representing her children is overpowering in her saju. She has adjusted all her time and effort to her son’s study. She is a member of the school committee and she has visited her son’s school to support in whatever way needed. However, in her son’s saju, I didn’t see a meaningful existence of the mother’s energy. He doesn’t appreciate his mother’s support.

In 2011, she suffered from depression because of her son’s disappointing school record and more importantly, he continuously neglected her advice. There was a clash between the year branch and her time branch.

We may easily blame the mother that she shouldn’t have done what she did. But in the mother’s position, especially considering her saju, it wasn’t feasible.

I advised her to have her own profession. She was a nurse before marriage. Taking my advice, she started volunteering at a local community center to take care of the elderly need of medical attention. Having her own job could mean water energy for the metal day master and it lessened her physical and mental burden from the water and her children. One’s saju maybe something that is fixed for destiny, but are things we still can do to improve ourselves.

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