Saju guide to Year of the Red Monkey

Monkeys groom each other at a zoo at Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Monday.
(Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul)

Janet Lee is a Saju expert. (Korea Times file)

By Janet Shin

The Lunar New Year here. Considering the fact that the true fortune year of saju begins as of Ipchun, the onset of spring which falls on Feb. 4 this year, the year of Byeong-shin actually began last week.

Those who are born on Feb. 4 and onward will have the monkey as their birth zodiac symbol, even before Lunar New Year, Feb. 8. For that reason, some people born around Ipchun and the Lunar New Year may have misunderstandings about their zodiac animals.

Every year has its symbolic color and animal sign. For instance, 2012 was the year of the black dragon, 2013 the black snake, 2014 the blue horse and 2015 the blue sheep.

You may have noticed that the color symbols last for two years and they progress by the order of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The 10 heavenly stems, cheon-gan, are allocated in each year and they have their intrinsic color energy, while the 12 earthly branches, jihi, represent the 12 animal signs.

As the Cheon-gan and Ji-ji are combined to make the 60-year cycle in due order, 2015 was the year of Eul-mi, 2016 is Byeong-shin and 2017 will be Jeong-yu, and so forth. If we concatenate this cycle with the five element colors and 12 zodiac signs, Eul-mi was the year of the green (or blue) sheep, Byeong-shin is that of the red monkey and Jeong-yu will be that of the red rooster and so on.

This is the common-sense information by which you can figure out the symbolic signs of the year by yourself from now on.

Meanwhile, the more professional prospects about the New Year’s fortune can be acquired by the dynamic relationship between the heavenly stems and earthly branches and their elemental interactions. By having more in-depth understanding about how 2016 will emit its energy and where it will lead us, we will be able to make a meaningful strategy for the New Year.

Here is the secret of Saju theory, historical contemplation and insight toward the law of cosmic motion.

2016 has byeong (fire) as its heavenly stem and shin (metal) as its earthly branch. According to the interaction of the five elements, fire restricts the activity of metal as the former melts the latter. While we regard the mutual generation and nourishment cycles as more reciprocal to engender harmonious phenomena, the restriction cycle may hinder the other’s movements.

According to the interaction of the five elements, fire restricts the activity of metal as the former melts the latter.

When it comes to the disposition of shin/metal (monkey) itself, it is the letter of wanderlust. It is associated with trade, tourism, leisure, finance, transportation, distribution, academia, communication, culture and art.

Byeong as a heavenly stem represents the energy of the Sun and shin as an earthly branch of the energy of metal, or the month of ripening and the hour of sunset. It is like the moment ripened for a revolution as if the Sun lies on the horizon for the preparation of the coming era.

The Sun is still there while the consequential advancement is already happening in the Earth. People have to acknowledge that the Sun has lost its climactic power and they should endure the night until dawn. It is just about time to end one and commence another epoch.

In general, the year of shin denotes the momentum of a significant beginning. Looking back on global history, the most prominent year was 1776, when the United States became independent. In our history, Goryeo (918-1392) had achieved unification of the later three kingdoms (Shilla, Later Baekje and Later Goguryeo) in 936 and initiated an era of one nation and one race, for the first time in our history.

In regards to samjae, the three years of misfortune, it will start in 2016 for those with their zodiac signs tiger, horse and dog, and last until 2018.

__________

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 author of “Life’s Secrets.”

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