Upheaval
Sudden change arriving from outside.
Universe · Library
Traditional markers
Classical saju carries a family of markers — short labels laid over the branches of a chart. This app already showed three of them by name (the three-year cycle, movement and visibility). This page is the rest of the family, what each one means, and which of them we actually print on your chart.
The twelve, and why they are one thing
Movement and visibility are not two separate lookups. They are positions four and ten of one twelve-step cycle, and the cycle is fixed by your birth year’s three-harmony group. Once you know where the group opens, all twelve fall out in branch order — nothing is memorised.
Every branch in every chart carries exactly one of the twelve, so these are a way of reading a chart rather than a rare event. That is also why they are not printed on your Chart screen: a label that is present for everybody, four times over, is not telling you anything about you.
Obstacle
Something blocking the direct route.
Weather
Conditions you did not set and cannot argue with.
Ground
Where you stand and start from.
Allure
Visibility and attraction — traditionally Dohwa.
Waning
Energy thinning out; a quieter stretch.
Exposure
Being seen more plainly than you chose.
Command
The position of most force in the group.
Saddle
Settled into a role, ready to move.
Travel
Movement and change — traditionally Yeokma.
Entanglement
Ties that hold longer than expected.
Canopy
Withdrawal, study, and things kept private.
Helping positions (Cheoneul Gwiin)
The one marker in this family we do put on your chart — because it is not present for everybody.
Two branches are read from your day element as helping positions: traditionally where support arrives from outside rather than from your own effort. About 46 in 100 charts have a pillar sitting on one; the rest have none, and we say nothing at all rather than print an absence.
This one is a verse, not a rule — there is no arithmetic behind it, only a table handed down. So your chart shows the working: which day element was read, and which two branches it names.
Yang wood, yang earth, yang metal
Helping positions: Ox and Goat
Yin wood, yin earth
Helping positions: Rat and Monkey
Yang fire, yin fire
Helping positions: Pig and Rooster
Yang water, yin water
Helping positions: Snake and Rabbit
Yin metal
Helping positions: Tiger and Horse
Dragon and Dog never appear. In the tradition those two branches are the Gwaegang pair and carry no helping position at all — which is one of the checks we hold the table to, since a mistyped table has no other way of being caught.
What we do and do not claim
- These are folk overlays, separate from the element balance, the ten gods and the strength reading. They do not move any score.
- The twelve are read from your year branch. Some schools read them from the day branch instead; both are live, and we name ours the same way we name the midnight convention on four pillars.
- Helping positions are read from your day element, which is not one of the forked conventions.
- Nothing here is a prediction. A marker is a leaning to notice, not an instruction.