Things I Have Learned Today

This Is Your Destiny

Whether or not you believe in the validity of horoscopes, there are a lot of people that do and plan their whole lives around them. Most Westerners know their Constellation Sign. They will either peruse it in the daily newspaper or go on a deep dive to talk about things like the Age of Aquarius or Venus Ascending. Furthermore, if they have ever gone to an Oriental restaurant and seen the Chinese Zodiac on the placemat, they would assume that is the same while also being broader. It is probably of no surprise that the opposite is true and VERY mathematical.

I have mentioned the term saju a couple times in the story and it is the Korean term derived from the Chinese concept of the Four Pillars of Destiny: the year, month, day, and hour of your birth. If you know the Chinese Zodiac, the year and month already make sense since they use the same animals. They didn't tell time back then with twenty-four 1-hr units but twelve 2-hr units which again ties back to the same Zodiac animals, i.e. the Hour of the Rooster is 5pm-7pm. I'll get back to Days in a little bit because we need to stop and talk about Yin/Yang as well as the Elements.

Yin is feminine; Yang is masculine. Yin is the receptive and Yang the active principle. Yin is cold, wet, and the moon while Yang is hot, dry, and the sun. Every Zodiac animal is either yin or yang, typically alternating: the Snake is yin and the Horse is Yang, etc. Also, Asians didn't have the four Classical Greek Elements of Earth/Water/Air/Fire but five instead, Earth/Water/Fire/Wood/Metal. An element is assigned to each of the Zodiac animals as well with Earth getting four animals and the rest getting two each.

Now, back to the Days. If you look at the calendar, you might wonder how the days factor because they aren't as orderly as the 12-unit cycle so far. Some have 30, 31, or 28 (I'm looking at you, February). That's because they disassociated the days from the calendar and used twenty-four solar terms to figure that out.

However, it wasn't merely counting the solar terms in the month. Oh no! That would be simple. We need to determine the DIRECTION to count them. If you were born in a year whose energy corresponded with your gender, i.e. men in yang years/women in yin years, then you counted FORWARD to the first day of the next solar calendar. If you were born in a year whose energy was the opposite of your gender, i.e. women in yang years/men in yin years, then you counted BACKWARDS to the last day of the previous solar calendar. Don't ask me how it works with transgender or intersexual individuals because that wasn't a concept they understood back then.

So, someone could be born in the Year of the Snake (Yin/Fire) during the Month of the Monkey (Yang/Metal) on the 10th day of their solar cycle at the Hour of Sheep (Yin/Earth). Simple, right? Well, there is something about the 10 Heavenly Stems (Stars) that are used to create a sexagenary cycle as well as the 'fact' that there are milestone years that influence everything I mentioned, like a Reverse Uno card. At this point, my brain shut down.

Sufficient to say, cosmology/horoscopes are big in Asia. Many people, even those living Westernized lives, get their annual horoscopes to find out what the coming year brings. I probably won't go into too much detail in the stories because, well, there is TOO MUCH DETAIL and I am not an expert. All that is needed to know is that it exists and the people of the time let it dictate their lives/decisions.