(331) What time were you born?

By Janet Shin

In order to build a saju chart with which we read one’s destiny, we need a birth year, month, day and hour. This way, the four pillars are composed to translate the cosmological consequences from one’s birth year to hour, from right to left. Yet, they are not just a calendrical record but rather like a Pandora’s Box that discloses one’s true self, both internal and external sides, disposition, aptitude, the pursuit of life and even the condition of social relations and biological family members.

Although they literally consist of eight letters (palja) from heavenly and earthly energies, encoded in Chinese letters, they are not represented only as a fossilized and flat table. They are more like 3D data that emulates spatiotemporal influences. They display a variety of information about one’s life with a holistic perspective. It even includes the time before and after life in some cases. In order not to sound superstitious, however, this approach should be applied with special deliberation.

Application of 12 animals and 5 elements to time

Meanwhile, some critical astronomical facts lie in correlations among the pillars. For example, the relation of the year and month pillars is generated by the rationale of the Earth’s revolution while that of the day and time pillars are that of the Earth’s rotation. So the connection among all pillars exhibits the passage of time. For instance, the year pillar represents one’s childhood, month pillar youth, day pillar adulthood and time pillar latter life. These are the constitutional principles and their conjugation of saju charts.

One of the most frequent questions, by the way, is how we reflect the birthplace. Let’s say, if one was born in New York on May 27, 2016, at 7a.m., do we have to change it to Korean time? The answer is no. You just apply your local birth hour as it is. Even though we still can verify the day master (the main character of the saju) only with the birth year, month and day, the time pillar plays a significant role as it explains one’s life after the 40s. As stated above, it represents one’s latter life.

Saju A

Actually, the problem arises when people do not remember their exact birth hour. It is especially the case for many elderly people. Some people say they were born when their sister returned from school, while others have no clue about the birth hour. In many cases, it is required for a saju reader to conjecture the birth hour based on various statements from personal recollections.

In the meantime, one must pay special attention when the birth hour is from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Since this (hour of ja) spans two days, it may change the day master to lead to completely different lives.

Saju B

There are various arguments yielding two prevailing claims about this. For instance, a man was born at 23:30, May 16, 1979. His saju comes out as either of the below two. As highlighted, the day master and its pillar come out differently due to his birth hour, ja.

The hour of ja has been considered mysterious and accordingly it should be translated with special prudence.

Are you interested in learning more about the

ancient Chinese teachings, the “Four Pillars of

Destiny” and oriental ways of fortune telling or

fortune tellers? She teaches at Seoul National University

of Education. For further information, visit

Janet’s website at www.sajufortuneteller.modoo.

at, contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email

janetshin@hotmail.com. The writer is the author

of “Life’s Secrets.”