By Janet Shin
We have recently experienced powerful earthquakes in the southeastern region of the Korean Penninsula, arousing profound anxiety among people nationwide.
The roots of divination trace back to primative times when people were threatened by natural catastrophes including social impending incidents.
It could have been famine, wars or anomalous natural phenomena such as earthquakes and floods. These unpredictable, panicky and calamitous situations led people to conduct divination. There lied desperation and people’s ardor in the cause of divination.
In the book of changes, I Ching, that recorded the collection of divinatory words, many statements were written to describe the various cases that involved astrometeorological, geographical, biological and chemical matters in those times.
Some portray a total eclipse of the sun, falling stars or asteroid collision while others elucidate numerous weather-related disasters. Some illustrate how ancient people reacted to sudden earthquakes.
For instance, people looked back again and again when the Earth tremors began. Then when it was severe, it recorded that people were afraid of it and tried to hold onto their spoons and liquor for ancestral rites. Some portray the collapse of massive columns by earthquake.
Divination was practiced to ask what to do in times of uncontrollable crisis. It was caused by irregular incidents and its answer was subject to the manner of ``randomness.’’ Randomness may seem unreasonable and chaotic but people tried to study and calculate the cosmic order behind it.
This is the major feature of ancient divination. It is apparently different from modern science whose results are achieved by experiment, observation and analysis. In order to do that people need to decompose things or situations into the smallest part.
The origin of ancient divination acknowledges that the cosmos are filled with inexplicable events and humans cannot discover their cause and principle. Humans would rather view them through a holistic perspective instead of disassembling them into parts. Nevertheless there is a certain cosmic order and people tried to develop ways to calculate the laws.
In Asian tradition, divination can be classified into three types.
The first one is related with shamanic practices. Shamans deliver divine prophecies on behalf of the gods. In ancient days, they played the role of religious priest who conducted important tribal rituals at a shrine.
The next one is the type associated with the manner of randomness. It can be likened to casting dice nowadays. There shouldn’t be any designated intention or action in this divination.
And the third one is called ``calculated fortunetelling.’’ It was developed relatively later compared to the other two.
Saju reading is one method of calculated fortunetelling. Owing to its method of analyzing and calculating the complicated letters symbolizing heavenly and earthly energies that is characterized with yin, yang and the five element, it is appraised now that saju can be an archetype of ancient science. Its scientific aspects need to be studied in connection to the traditions of I Ching.
Information: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teachings, the "Four Pillars of Destiny" and oriental ways of fortunetelling or fortunetellers? Janet teaches saju for the public at Seoul National University of Education. For further information, visit Janet's website at www.janetshin.modoo.at or her blog, https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin. You can also contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin.kor@gmail.com. The writer is the author of "Life's Secrets.''