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(176) Unbowed: distorted life of a man

By Janet Shin

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Saju, or the four pillars of destiny, decodes the signs from birth to read one's destiny.

We are imposed with eight symbolic letters from birth: four heavenly and four earthly signs. The heavenly letters, or stems, literally mean something ideal and intangible, while the earthly letters, or branches, reflect reality indicating a lapse of time. Consequently, the heavenly stems are substantiated by the existence of earthly branches and the earthly branches are idealized by the status of heavenly stems.

These two energies combine to construct a pillar, so that all of us have four pillars of birth year, month, day and time to determine our destiny. They are multi-dimensional, having both concepts of time and space.

I have read many lives that their ideal stems are struggling with earthly branches in reality. This may be true of our lives, and most people just manage to hang in there. But for some, the quirk of fate is too severe.

It is one of the critical competencies that a saju master must possess, to read the interaction of these eight letters in one's saju, whether they are well-coordinated or not. And the saju master should be able to deliver what is twisted in one's life.

In studying saju, the heavenly stems are taught during the beginners' course, while the earthly branches are explained afterwards. The stems are pure energies, which are simply related with the yin, yang and the five elements of the universe. However the branches are much more complicated, having various stem energies included and intricately interacting among themselves. Each branch encodes distinctive characteristics and there are various combinations, clashes and penalties, on top of basic reciprocal relations of mutual generations and restrictions.

Concerning this theory of saju, we are able to understand relevant phenomena in our society and individual's life.

There was a movie released this year, which stood at the very center of conflict. It was about a man, whose life fell into a bottomless pit after he pointed out an error in a university entrance exam. This caused him to be ruled out from selection as a full professor. As he continuously spoke out for an impartial judgment by the court, his life became a string of lawsuits, which worsened the situation. He finally visited the presiding judge's house to remonstrate the unreasonable verdict carrying a crossbow.

The movie focuses mostly on the lawsuits and court appearances. However a saju master is more concerned with his life. He actually drew my attention before the release of the movie, because of his dramatic life.

In his saju, there is a severe clash between the month and day branch. It could be a conflict with colleagues or with money. The money star may also be interpreted as the outcome of what one does. Or it can be a conflict with the university foundation. From the stem's view point, owing to this clash, his expression and career in the month and year stems faltered. The expression star implies teaching as a professor. The chain of events in his life caused him to lose his occupation. When we evaluate what is lost and what is not, it is the metal energy, himself, that is still active, while losing others. The time pillar is not exactly plotted as of now. Hopefully, there is some fire energy, which is the career star, in his time pillar, so he may regain his reputation and the position of professor.

I am seeing many saju with a clash between yang metal and wood. This is considered one of the fierce clashes. Having the active, yang letters involved in this clash, we usually infer a passionate life, most times accompanied by severe struggles. Those with this clash are often involved in lawsuits. If they are still young enough to develop their future life path, I encourage them to take up professions such as a lawyer, prosecutor or police officer, so as to avoid the trauma.

There actually was a man, who used to be a designer but suddenly applied to be a police officer. He realized it was meant to be after his saju was read.

Information: Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teaching about the "Four Pillars of Destiny?" 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 president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea, and the author of "Learning Four Pillars".

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