By Janet Shin
In practicing or searching for appropriate advice from Oriental teachings such as saju, there are crucial factors everyone should be aware of, from novice to experienced practitioners. You must take the phases of the times and cosmopolitan outlooks into consideration. Without this, it is just fossilized letters and little can be applied to your reality. This misled interpretation is the reason if any of them are considered peripheral, obsolete or even superstitious.
Saju was formed as a study of humans and their environment, what is known as the relationship between Heaven, Earth and human beings. By symbolizing the principle with the concept of yin, yang and the five elements, ancient scholars tried to explain every phenomenon of the universe. Saju is intended to interpret human life and social structures to predict the future.
Within the context of its multidimensional perspective of space and time, we can see how it views the paths of life. It regards each pillar of birth year, month, day and hour as one’s lifespan. Although it does not exactly correspond, a 60-year cycle was once considered an estimated life expectancy. If you divide the 60 years into four pillars, each is assigned 15 years. In other words, the year pillar accounts for one’s life until 15 years old, the month pillar is until 30, the day pillar to 45 and the time pillar to 60 years old.
It was not an absurd measurement, allowing for the average lifespan then. Even though some might have lived longer (or less), their social activities after 60 were not vigorous enough to affect their fates.
Nowadays, however, those who are in their 60s or older still enjoy a high quality of life. Also the change of pace in general has been accelerated or decelerated with the development of various medical advances. So, more realistic references to foretell future life are needed.
Accordingly, some saju practitioners convert the lifespan of each pillar into 20 years so that the four pillars can account for an 80-year lifespan. However, this is not logical because 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches constitute the gap-ja cycle, or sexagenary cycle, which corresponds better with the concept of 60 years. This would remain a contradictory issue.
Another controversy is whether to view saju as a type of phenology. As you study more about it, you will learn how much it considers the effects of the environmental climate on quality of life. For example, it applies the five elements to four seasons plus one additional as a transition in between. It demonstrates how they interact with the five facets of human life. It is organized in this way based on the four seasons of the northern hemisphere, especially referring to farm work in agrarian societies.
If we are to interpret the lives of people in polar or equatorial regions and the Southern Hemisphere, however, it is not appropriate to apply this concept. Accordingly, most Western saju practitioners do not exploit weather factors nowadays.
Last but not least, there has been a major change in people’s perceptions of life and social values. For example, expression stars, a saju term, were considered to shed an unwholesome influence. They are divided into two (yin and yang) ― one is an eating god and the other a hurting god. The latter was believed to be unlucky, revealing a rebellious temper.
On the contrary, it is an indispensable factor these days. It is the element generated by the day master. It illustrates how you present your talents and socialize, including through your career and care for others.
There are many other aspects that were regarded as disrespectful in the past but are considered to entail competence now. The expression star has been developed to contribute to quality of life by promoting wealth and pleasure.
I personally do not agree with the idea of using saju as a tool just to become rich and successful. There are many other values, such as knowing your inner self and finding your career path. To make saju a true study of the future and our real lives beyond conventional wisdom, we would have to research sincerely the ways to contemporize so it can be actualized for the modern world.
For further information, visit Janet’s website at
www.fourpillarskorea.com, contact her at
010-5414-7461 or email janetshin@hotmail.com.
The writer is the author of “Life’s Secrets.”