(374) Saju: Dream interpretation for the New Year

By Janet shin

It’s time for people to make expectations for the New Year and various portents take place to indicate forthcoming events.

In order to pick up on prophetic signs, people read their fortune for the New Year by Tojeong Bigyeol, an old form of new year’s fortune-telling, for purchasing lottery tickets, card divination or playing yut, a game with four wooden sticks. Among them dreams are one very significant manifestation to give vivid insight into the future. Although dream interpretation has its signification subject to the specific culture and ethnic history, there are things we can discover by reading a dream in general. It may be related to psychological aspects and generate interesting and meaningful suggestions. People are interested in what are seen in their dreams during the transition of old and new years.

In the Orient, the onset of spring sheds an important atmosphere as it truly means the beginning of the New Year. An ipchun talisman is prevalent for most ordinary families. People usually put the talisman at their front gate to welcome good fortune and dispell bad luck.

A mother of two sons had an awkward and awful dream at dawn in early February, around the day of ipchun. In her dream, she saw a paling dead body of a lady at the balcony, through the window of the living room. It was so dreadful she couldn’t forget it. Being aware of its seriousness,she decided to dispel the horrible feeling with the help of a talisman.

A talisman is often used in exorcism to deter bad dreams. What was seen in the dream is drawn or described on the talisman paper then it is burnt after a ritualistic chanting of an incantation three times to expel the ominous influence. It must be completely burnt and the ash is blown away in the wind.

In reality, what happened to her and her family after this dream was a great loss of money in her son’s investment. He made various investments in cryptocurrency and one of the coins was named after the goddess of dawn from Greek mythology. The dead body seen at dawn alludes to the goddess of dawn and the window represents websites so it is associated with cryptocurrency. In the meantime the death meant the failure of the investment.

Then, what and how did the talisman work to ameliorate the situation? After this ritual, the son recovered his loss by another investment.

The mother was actually not so disappointed by the failure of the former investment because the bad dream neither harmed the health of her sons nor caused any ill luck to his girlfriend or other surrounding people. The dream may also suggest a certain anxiety the mother had about her personal situation and family.

Information : 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? 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”.