By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Fortunetelling is booming throughout Seoul. Walk around the downtown area and you'll find many fortune tellers who claim to read your future using tarot cards or analyzing your palm.
Korea has its own fortunetelling tradition called saju, or four pillars. Saju is a study of life by looking at one's four pillars: month, day, year and time of birth. It is based on Chinese astrology. Unlike Chinese fortune telling which is famous around the world, saju is hardly known outside Korea.
Janet Shin, a saju expert, says that while Korean and Chinese saju are similar, she wants to make Korean saju more widely known and appreciated around the world.
``Chinese and Korean fortune telling are both based on Chinese astrology, so there's not much difference. The Chinese four pillars are a little more orthodox than Korean saju. Korean saju may be more real and practical. But the Chinese four pillars are well known because there are many scholars who have published books in English, unlike in Korea,'' she told The Korea Times.
Shin lamented the fact that there are no books about Korean saju available in English. She is working on translating her book ``Learning Four Pillars" into English. Excerpts are published in Shin's weekly column in The Korea Times.
As a student, Shin was always interested in saju but only as a hobby. After university, she got married, had children and worked as an executive for a multinational apparel company, which allowed her to travel to different countries. Everyone envied her successful and happy life.
``I was a good daughter to my parents, a good mother to my children and wife to my husband, but I kept thinking I need to do something different. So I went to a fortuneteller. Even though I was interested in saju, I was distrustful of fortunetellers. This fortuneteller was a monk, and he told me a nasty story about my life, which was not true. He also told me about my future. But I realized I couldn't let other people `read' my life. I have to find out about my life first,'' she said.
Shin decided to study saju as much as she could. In 2005, she decided to quit her job and seriously study saju. She wanted to understand it and apply it in a rational and logical way to everyday life.
``The purpose of saju is to know yourself and read your own life. I got my energy from saju. … I needed to do something that I can enjoy for the rest of my life and I found it in saju,'' she said.
Shin established her own saju research center, Heavenly Garden, where she and other experts teach students about the basis and logic of saju. Here, she also gives saju readings for anyone interested in finding out more about their lives and what the future holds. She also gives saju readings in English for foreigners.
``In the darkness, people can't see where is right and wrong. But saju is like the light in the street. It can tell you where you're going. Saju can make life simpler. ... I'm the same person whose life was in darkness before, so I want to help many people find the light,'' she said.