Saju (사주) is the traditional Korean system of destiny reading. It maps your birth date onto four pillars of heavenly stems and earthly branches to reveal your character, life patterns, and fortune. Saju means Four Pillars in Korean; its full name, saju palja (사주팔자), means Eight Characters.
Saju is directly derived from the Chinese astrological system called bazi. I've written about the similarities and differences between the two — check it out if you're curious.
So how do I read my saju chart?
Go to Moon Pavilion and enter your birth information (it's free and you don't need to enter your email). You'll get a chart that looks something like this:
On the same page, below your chart, you'll see sections for your Day Master, Ten Gods, and Special Stars. Knowing these three things will give you a good starting point to interpret your chart.
Your Day Master
If you only remember one thing about your chart, make it your Day Master, because your Day Master is what defines your core nature. It's located in the top cell of your Day Pillar (which is determined by the exact day of your birth in the lunar sexagenary cycle).
Your Day Master will be one of the five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water) and either yin or yang. The meanings are pretty intuitive. Imagine a Fire type: passionate, warm, excitable, maybe a little hot-tempered. Now imagine the difference between Yang Fire and Yin Fire — same warmth, but Yin Fire is quieter and more focused. More like candlelight than the sun.
Each Day Master has a natural image:
- Yang Wood — a great tree
- Yin Wood — vines or flowers
- Yang Fire — the sun
- Yin Fire — candlelight or campfire
- Yang Earth — a mountain
- Yin Earth — fertile soil
- Yang Metal — a sword or heavy ore
- Yin Metal — a diamond or fine blade
- Yang Water — the ocean
- Yin Water — rain or morning dew
What do these things make you think of? What qualities do you associate with them? What problems do you think they might face?
As a starting point, look up your friends and family and see what their Day Master says about them! It's a fun rabbit hole to go down.
Your Ten Gods
If your Day Master is your core self, then your Ten Gods are the major forces that shape your life. They actually play a bigger role in your reading than your Day Master, but they're a little more difficult to interpret.
Each of the other seven characters in your chart has a relationship with your Day Master. For example, in the chart pictured above, all those other elements — Yang Fire, Yang Water, Yang Earth, and so on — will each have a special interaction with the Yin Fire Day Master. These relationships comprise this person's gods (of course, "gods" is just a term here, not signifying any deities). There are ten possible gods, and they describe how energy flows toward you, away from you, or alongside you.
The ten gods come in five pairs, and each pair shares the same elemental relationship but differs in yin/yang polarity. I'll give you a quick rundown of how to tell what you have in your chart, but most calculators should assess these automatically.
- Sibling / Rival: same element as your Day Master. They amplify your core energy. Companion reinforces independence; Rival introduces competition.
- Eating God & Hurting Officer: elements your Day Master produces. Your creative output. Eating God is steady and productive; Hurting Officer is brilliant and rebellious.
- Direct Wealth & Indirect Wealth: elements your Day Master controls. Direct Wealth is earned and stable; Indirect Wealth is unpredictable.
- Direct Power & Seven Killings: elements that control your Day Master. Direct Power works within structure; Seven Killings is intense and high-stakes.
- Direct Resource & Indirect Resource: elements that feed your Day Master. Direct Resource is mentorship and learning; Indirect Resource is intuition and unconventional wisdom.
One thing worth noting: don't read too much into the names. "Rival" sounds like a terrible thing to have in your chart, and "Direct Wealth" sounds amazing, but that's not really how it works. It's true that some gods are on average more beneficial than others, but we can't claim one is bad and another is good. For instance, Rival can cause competitiveness, but it can also strengthen your Day Master and provide independence. Direct Wealth is often associated with money and earning potential, but having too much of it in your chart may lead to a stingy nature.
What matters is balance — too much or too little of any god may not be ideal, and if your chart is weak in certain aspects, then having certain gods can help you. Some gods carry more risk, but also more potential. How they play out depends on your whole chart.
Your Special Stars
Compared to your Day Master and Ten Gods, Special Stars are more like an interesting footnote — little surprises that pop up to add color to your story. Unlike your Day Master and Ten Gods, Special Stars aren't guaranteed — it's entirely possible to have none in your chart, and it's unusual to have more than a few. But when they do show up, they point to something specific: a particular talent, a recurring theme, a pattern that tends to follow you.
Moon Pavilion currently calculates the following stars:
- 📖 Literary Star: brings academic talent, intelligence, and communication skills
- 🌸 Peach Blossom Star: enhances charisma, attractiveness, and social appeal
- ⭐ Noble Person Star: attracts helpful mentors and influential supporters
- ⚔️ Sheep Blade Star: brings intense energy and determination, requiring mindful channeling
- 🐎 Traveling Horse Star: indicates movement, travel, and career changes
- 🎖️ General Star: suggests leadership abilities and strategic thinking
This is another one of those things where, unless you're an actual practitioner, you can leave it for the calculator to figure out — it can be a little complicated to know exactly how these are determined. And there are actually more than what's shown here! I've got the major ones covered, but I'm working on adding some more "advanced" Stars in the future. Stay tuned!
So is this everything?
Absolutely not! You'll also want to look at things like how much of an element you have in your chart, the season your chart is in, whether your chart runs dry or wet or warm or cool. The Earthly Branches have certain nuances that are kind of difficult to get into, not to mention the Hidden Branches. Then we need to get into your luck cycles… as you can see, saju is a fascinating topic because you can go so in depth.
However, the three concepts we've covered — your Day Master, your Ten Gods, and your Special Stars — are your foundation. Knowing these will give you a pretty good basic reading. Start with your own chart, then look up the people closest to you. Saju has a way of making you see people a little differently — often in a way that makes a lot of sense.