Fortuneteller peels away secrets of saju

Saju expert Janet Shin, right, gives a lecture on saju, a traditional Chinese fortunetelling discipline based on the four pillars of destiny, during the Korea CQ Forum hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) at the residence of Jordanian ambassador in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, Tuesday.

“I see that you will have a lot of chance to travel next year,” said Janet Shin, as she read the fortune of one foreign executive at the official residence of the Jordanian ambassador in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, Tuesday.

The executive readily agreed as his itinerary for next year does involve a great deal of traveling.

Janet Shin is a saju expert who gave a lecture in English on the “discipline” as part of the Korea CQ Forum. The forum is hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI).

Traditionally, Koreans at the start of the year, read their yearly fortune in a book called “Tojeong’s Secret Book.”

To some 35 expatriate participants, Shin explained saju, or the four pillars of destiny, which is an ancient Chinese fortune-telling technique, and how it is related to the destiny of a certain time or person.

Jordanian Ambassador to Korea Omar Nahar, Slovak Ambassador Dusan Bella, vice chairman of Doosan Group Jim Bemowski and his wife Susanne, Christian Dior general manager Vincent Bernard and The Korea Times President Park Moo-jong attended the event as well as CICI President Choi Jung-wha.

Shin began the lecture with a basic introduction of saju — the study of life interpreting the four pillars of a person — year, month, day and time. She said saju reads the correlation between time and space.

The lecture continued to the fortunes of the year 2012, or the Year of “Im-Jin” in the 60-year-cycle of life. The system is a combination of 10 heavenly stems and 12 branch zodiac signs based on the five elements.

“Im stands for water among the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Jin is for the earth element,” she said.

Then the lecture also touched on how the element of the year interacts with each person’s four pillars. “Each person’s elements can be interpreted through knowledge, career and money stars and their relationship with the elements of the year determine their yearly fortune,” she said.

Shin also read the saju of several participants by asking their time and date of birth. She interpreted their destiny through saju in general and how it is associated with elements of the year in detail. People were excited to have their fortune revealed by the date and time of their birth and how close it was to their actual personalities.

Questions poured in for Shin, some with curiosity and some with skepticism, as participants asked for Shin to read the physiognomy, palm or their saju. Bemowski of Doosan said he would love to let her read his saju, but not letting her know whose saju it was.

Shin, who has been giving these lectures for the past four years to foreign expatriates here said Westerners usually start out skeptical but are caught by surprise by the exactness of a saju reading.

CICI President Choi later introduced an episode from a previous lecture where the saju master read a European man’s palm and found that he had “two” women in his fortunes. The man later admitted that he was surprised because he indeed had two wives, both in different countries.

Shin in cooperation with CICI is expected to give another lecture in fall. <Korea Times/Kwon Mee-yoo>

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