(224) How we learn from our past

By Janet Shin

There are several ways to read our destiny. One easy yet smart way is to learn from the process of life. History teaches us a lot about civilization.

A great joy of learning saju is to comprehend our past and present and then predict our future. Many people enter the field with an aspiration to root out all secrets of fate and to take the initiative in their own life. However, studying saju is intricate and requires patience and concentration. It seems that only a precious few can approach the level of master, despite the attraction.

A common misconception about saju masters is that they have psychic powers. Otherwise, they are regarded as having acquired a special ability after being secluded from society and devoting themselves to supernatural studies. I don’t deny that some masters practice an extraordinary lifestyle and asceticism in the mountains or in other secluded places. Many great masters, however, still emerge from interlinked living with others. It is because they should experience reading as many people’s saju as possible, on top of a sincere and painstaking investigation of theories.

Since saju is segregated from other superstitious practices, we may find constructive and rational ways to forecast our destiny. For saju students who find pedantic theoretical structure too difficult and don’t know how to apply it, I often advise they read their own life by ruminating on the past.

There are several timeslots from which to comprehend our personal history. As there is a famous saying that “history repeats itself,” a competent saju practitioner recollects what happened 60 years ago to foretell yearly fortunes. Likewise we may find some repetitiveness and apply 12 year spans to our personal life. It is because the earthly branches repeat by 12 years and the combination of heavenly stems and earthly branches repeat by 60 years. Since the 60 year-span is too large to apply to a human life, we use the 12 year-span instead.

For instance, some veteran masters anticipated that the United Stated might face an attack from the air in 2001, year of “sin-sa” (snake). There supposition was generated by the history, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, 60 years earlier. We may also look back 120, 180 and 600 years. When it comes to a personal destiny, one can infer what will happen this year by the retroversion of 12 or 24 years back, and so on.

Expertise may reveal more specifics by analyzing what is more influenced at a particular time frame, but beginners and even ordinary people can also discover lots of clues by simply keeping an annual memorandum. If it is hard to recall every happening in your past, simply think about memorable occasions. It can be a car accident, financial difficulty, deaths of family members or just taking important tests. If it is still burdensome, you may ponder over 2-3 years back, which are not so ambiguous. And at the close of each year, you are able to make brief notes of the past year’s events, which would make an important reference for your future, 12 years later.

One of my clients retired from 30 years in business in 2001. It was when her career star clashed with the energy of 2001, the year of the snake, 12 years ago. She is expecting something similar that may hurt her this year and is trying to be prepared. Another client experienced vexatious happenings in 2012 including small car accidents, lawsuits and a loss of money from land transactions. Even her household appliances broke down so she had to replace most of them in a year. She knew that she had a clash between her expression stars, representing investments as well. Since she was mentally prepared, she rather appreciated what happened and made the best of the situation.

Everyone undergoes trials of change, conflict and clashes at certain points of life, owing to the interaction of saju branches. Although we cannot circumvent all hardship, if we know when, how long and what will happen, we will be able to be much wiser in confronting the barriers.

Information: Are you interested in learning more about the

ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny”?

For further information, visit Janet’s website at

www.fourpillarskorea.com, contact her at 010-5414-7461

or email janetshin@hotmail.com.