What is Saju?

Saju sets the year, month, day and hour of your birth as four pillars and reads your nature and the flow of your life from the eight characters they hold. It is one of East Asia's oldest systems of thought.

Four pillars, eight characters

Saju (四柱) literally means “four pillars.” The year, month, day and hour you were born each become one pillar.

Every pillar has a character of heaven (a heavenly stem) on top and a character of earth (an earthly branch) below it, eight characters in all. That is why Saju is also called Palja, “the eight characters.”

What each pillar stands for

The year pillar is your root: family background and early childhood. The month pillar is the world you grew up in and your door into society. It also holds the season you were born in, which sets the temperature of the whole chart.

The day pillar is you and the person closest to you, your spouse. Its top character, the Day Master, is you. The hour pillar speaks of children, later life and what you finally harvest.

How it differs from Western astrology

A Western sun sign looks mainly at where the sun stood on your birthday. Saju reads four layers of time, year, month, day and hour, and the relationships of the five elements among them.

So two people born on the same day but at different hours have different charts. Saju also follows the luck that changes every ten years and every year, so it can speak about when, not only about who.

What Saju can tell you

Your temperament and strengths, the habits to watch, the work and relationships that suit you, and the seasons when to push forward or rest.

Saju is not a verdict on your fate. It works more like a map: once you know the ground you stand on, choosing a road becomes easier.