A free course on Korea's Four Pillars birth chart — 38 short lessons in 7 chapters, no jargon left unexplained. Read in order, or jump to what you need.
- 1. Start here
- 2. How a chart is built
- 3. Reading your chart
- 4. Time
- 5. Love, work and money
- 6. Names and Korean culture
- 7. Getting a reading
Chapter 1. Start here — what saju is
Saju is the Korean reading of the Four Pillars: the year, month, day and hour you were born, each written as two characters. Begin with what it is and how it differs from systems you may already know.
What is Saju? Korea’s birth chart, explained for beginners
Saju (사주) — the Korean Four Pillars of Destiny. What the eight characters mean, where the system comes from, and why Koreans still consult it for careers, marriages and names.
6 min read ›Lesson 2Saju vs BaZi: the same chart, two names
Saju and BaZi are the same Four Pillars system — one Korean, one Chinese. What’s identical, what Korea changed, and which word to search for.
5 min read ›Lesson 3Saju vs Western astrology: what’s actually different?
Both start from your birth moment — but Korean saju and Western astrology read completely different things. Time cycles vs planets, elements vs signs, and why saju has no “Mercury retrograde.”
5 min read ›Lesson 4Your natal chart and your saju, read side by side
Western astrology and Korean saju describe the same person from two directions — planets and houses versus stems and branches. What each sees, and what reading both together adds.
7 min read ›Lesson 5Saju vs MBTI: Korea’s two favourite ways to explain a person
Why Koreans ask for your MBTI and your saju in the same conversation — what each one measures, where they overlap, and which questions each is actually built to answer.
6 min read ›Chapter 2. How a chart is built
Before any interpretation, eight characters have to be calculated correctly. These lessons cover the calendar math — solar terms, true solar time and the edge cases that trip up most calculators.
How a saju chart is actually calculated (the real math)
From your birth moment to eight characters: the sexagenary cycle, solar-term boundaries, the 11 pm hour problem, and true solar time — where calculators quietly go wrong.
6 min read ›Lesson 7Solar terms and your saju chart: when the year and month really begin
The twenty-four solar terms are astronomical instants, not dates. Which twelve of them set the month pillars, why the saju year turns at ipchun to the minute (4 Feb 2024 17:26, 3 Feb 2025 23:10, 4 Feb 2027 10:46 KST), and why calculators disagree on boundary days.
6 min read ›Lesson 8True solar time: why your birth hour may not be the hour you think
Clock time is a political convention; saju runs on the sun. How longitude and the equation of time shift your birth hour, and when the correction changes your hour pillar.
7 min read ›Lesson 9Born around midnight? The late-night hour rule that can change your saju chart
The Rat hour runs 11 pm to 1 am and straddles two dates. How the late-night rule (야자시) decides your day pillar and hour pillar, how true solar time moves the boundary, which convention ioreum follows, and what the chart shows when the birth time is unknown.
6 min read ›Lesson 10Don’t know your birth time? You can still read your saju
What you lose without a birth hour in saju or BaZi, what still holds up, how to find your birth time, and how to read a three-pillar chart honestly.
6 min read ›Chapter 3. Reading your chart
The day master is you; everything else is read in relation to it. Work through the five elements, chart strength, the useful element and the ten gods in this order and a chart starts to make sense.
How to read your Four Pillars chart (a 10-minute starter)
A beginner’s walkthrough of a saju chart: finding your Day Master, counting the five elements, and understanding what “strong” or “weak” actually means.
7 min read ›Lesson 12What is a Day Master? Your core element in saju (BaZi)
The Day Master is the “you” in your Four Pillars chart — one of ten elements. What each one means, and how the season you were born in makes yours strong or weak.
6 min read ›Lesson 13The five elements in saju: wood, fire, earth, metal, water
What each of the five elements means in a Korean saju chart — the temperament it describes, how it behaves when it is strong or scarce, and why your chart is a mix rather than a single type.
7 min read ›Lesson 14Strong or weak Day Master: what it actually means
Strong (신강) and weak (신약) Day Master in saju and BaZi — how strength is judged from season, root and support, and why “weak” is not a flaw.
7 min read ›Lesson 15Missing an element in your saju chart? What that really means
No fire in your chart, no water, no metal — what a missing element means in saju and BaZi, why it is not a defect, and how a missing element differs from an unfavourable one.
6 min read ›Lesson 16Yongsin (용신): the element your chart is asking for
The useful god — yongsin, yong shen — is the element that brings a saju chart closer to balance. How it is chosen, why schools disagree, and what it is actually used for.
7 min read ›Lesson 17The Ten Gods in saju (십성), explained without the jargon
Ten Gods, Ten Deities, sipseong — the relational labels at the heart of a saju or BaZi reading. What each of the ten means in plain language, and how they are derived from your Day Master.
8 min read ›Lesson 18The Ten Gods, one by one: Direct Wealth, Officer, Expression and the rest
A name-by-name glossary of the Ten Gods (십성) in a saju chart — Companion, Rival, Output, Expression, Indirect and Direct Wealth, Authority, Officer, Indirect Resource and Resource — with the classic English names you will meet elsewhere, and a worked example of one character becoming a different god for every Day Master.
7 min read ›Lesson 19Clashes and combinations in saju (합충): what the pairs mean, and what they don’t
Stem combinations, the six harmonies, triple harmonies, clashes, breaks and harms — the complete pair tables a saju (BaZi) reading uses, how they are read in your natal chart and against a year pillar, and why a clash is momentum rather than disaster.
7 min read ›Chapter 4. Time — luck cycles and the year ahead
A chart is not static. Ten-year luck pillars (daeun) and each new year interact with the eight characters you were born with.
Decade luck (daeun): the 10-year seasons of your saju
Daeun (대운) is saju’s ten-year luck cycle — the slow-moving weather that reshapes your chart’s balance each decade. How it’s calculated and what it really tells you.
6 min read ›Lesson 21Your saju year ahead: how the annual cycle (세운) works
Each year adds its own pillar to your chart — 2026 is the Year of the Red Horse. How saju reads your year against your birth chart, and why it’s a check-in, not a fixed fate.
5 min read ›Lesson 22Fire Goat 2027 — the Red Goat year (丁未) and what it means in saju
2027 is 丁未: the Fire Goat in English, the Red Goat in the Korean colour convention. When the saju year really begins (4 February 2027, 10:46 KST), what a fire stem on a goat branch means, and how a year pillar meets your own chart.
6 min read ›Lesson 23Korean new-year fortune (신년운세): what Koreans check every January
The Korean annual reading — sinnyeon unse, tojeong bigyeol, and the saju year that starts at ipchun. What an annual reading looks at and how seriously to take it.
6 min read ›Chapter 5. Love, work and money
How saju is used in practice: compatibility between two charts, what the zodiac animal does and does not tell you, and reading career and wealth timing.
Saju compatibility (gunghap): how two charts are matched
Korean gunghap reads two Four Pillars charts together — element balance, clashes and support. How saju compatibility is scored, and what a good match really means.
5 min read ›Lesson 25Gunghap (궁합): why Korean couples check their charts before marrying
The Korean tradition of comparing two saju charts before marriage — what gunghap looks at, how families still use it, and how to read the result without letting it decide for you.
7 min read ›Lesson 26The Korean zodiac (띠): your animal year — and why saju barely uses it
The twelve Korean zodiac animals, how to find yours, why the year boundary is not New Year’s Day, and why your birth year is the least specific part of a saju chart.
6 min read ›Lesson 27Korean zodiac compatibility: what the animals get right, and what they miss
How zodiac animal compatibility actually works in saju — the combinations and clashes behind the charts — and why Korean couples compare full charts rather than two animals.
7 min read ›Lesson 28Saju career reading: how well does the work you already do fit your chart?
A saju career reading does not hand you a job title. It scores the fit between your Four Pillars and the work you already do — three axes, a grade, the reasons — and names three grains of work your chart loves.
6 min read ›Lesson 29Saju wealth reading: the seasons of money across a lifetime
A saju money reading is not a promise of riches. It maps your wealth as eight ten-year seasons — sowing, weeding, harvest, storing — over your decade luck, with thin seasons stated thin. What it contains, and why it is not investment advice.
6 min read ›Lesson 30Pet saju reading: your dog or cat’s birth chart, read from the day pillar
What a saju reading says about a pet — temperament from the day pillar, daily care from the five elements, species nature against the chart, and your chemistry together. What it can tell you, and where it stops.
6 min read ›Chapter 6. Names and Korean culture
In Korea, saju is everyday culture — from choosing a child’s hanja name to saju cafés in Seoul.
How a Korean name is chosen from your saju (not random)
Real Korean naming matches a name’s sounds and elements to your Four Pillars chart. How saju-based naming works — and why it isn’t a random name generator.
5 min read ›Lesson 32What Korean names mean: hanja, sound, and how a name is chosen
How Korean names are built — the hanja behind the syllables, generational characters, sound elements, and why families consult a saju chart before naming a child.
7 min read ›Lesson 33Saju cafés in Seoul: what happens inside, and how to get read in English
A practical guide to Korea’s saju cafés — what a session costs, what to bring, what the reader will ask, and what to do if you don’t speak Korean.
6 min read ›Lesson 34AI fortune telling in Korea: what chatbots guess, what engines compute
Korea’s AI saju boom made global wires in 2026. What AI genuinely does well with a birth chart, the three calculations chatbots get wrong, and the split architecture that fixes it.
7 min read ›Chapter 7. Getting a reading
Online, AI or a human master — what each can and cannot do, and what to check before you pay for a reading.
How to get a saju reading in English (without going to Korea)
You don’t need a Seoul café to read your saju. What an English saju reading covers, what to expect, and how an accurate one is computed from your own birthplace.
5 min read ›Lesson 36Best AI saju & BaZi readings in English (2026) — an honest comparison
ioreum, Seoul Saju, K-MUDANG, Cantian AI and the free calculators, compared on calculation transparency, free tiers, pricing and refunds — by people who build one of them.
7 min read ›Lesson 37BaZi reading online vs a master consultation: what $2 gets you vs $95+
When an AI BaZi reading is enough, when a human master is worth the fee — an honest breakdown of costs, strengths and limits of each.
5 min read ›Lesson 38Free BaZi calculator online — your Four Pillars in a minute, no sign-up
Get your BaZi (Four Pillars) chart free: stems and branches, Day Master, element balance — with solar-term boundaries and true solar time done properly.
4 min read ›Faster than reading about it
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