Moon Ga-young's SajuA Dry Late-Summer Mountain, Honing Its Metal to Draw Spring Water Through Writing and Acting (Earth Monkey)K-Drama · July 10, 1996

용신: 水

A great mountain rises in the middle of a late-summer field. Its core is filled not with earth but with metal. You are an Earth Monkey Day Pillar, born into the dry heat of the Goat month.

Look only at the stems that show on the surface, and the Yang Fire of your year stem lights the ridge while the Yin Wood of your month stem neatly covers the slopes. So you are easily read as a warm and composed person. Yet within, it is different. Inside the Monkey Metal of your day branch hide the metal of the Creative and the Yang Water of Dynamic Wealth, and that metal forms a Half Combination with the Rat Water of your year branch, drawing water up.

What this mountain lacks is exactly that water. The Yin Water that could moisten late-summer earth only hides deep within your year branch, and not a single drop of water rises to the stems. Honing the metal within you to draw that water up by your own hand is, as I see it, the trunk of your life.

In Bianliang, in the days of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song, I saw a painter who had the same Earth Monkey Day Pillar as you and the eye of the Mystic. At the Imperial Painting Academy examination, where a single line of poetry was set as the theme, he caught the eye by painting not the landscape others painted but the empty space within that line. Yet outside the palace, there were few who would ask for a painting and few roads by which to make his skill known. For a while his scrolls lay rolled up and asleep in a corner of his studio.

Earth Monkey — A Dry Late-Summer Mountain, Honing Its Metal to Draw Spring Water Through Writing and Acting

Your chart as a whole has a strong Day Master. You were born in the Goat month, your own season, so you gained the command of the season, and you put down roots in the Yin Earth within the Goat Earth of your month branch and the Yang Earth within the Monkey Metal of your day branch. On top of that, the Yang Fire of your year stem warms your Day Master as the Mystic, so your center is not easily shaken. Your structure is a Noble Authority Structure. The Yin Wood of your month stem shows itself and its root reaches into the Goat Earth of your month branch, so principle and responsibility, and the work of guarding your name, are the backbone of this chart.

Yet what moves beneath that composed surface is the eye of the Mystic. The public story that you choose books without taking others’ recommendations, and follow a quotation in a film all the way back to the original work, is exactly that grain. Making the rounds of bookstores when you rest and keeping difficult books on psychoanalysis beside you is the same grain. The Scholar Star sits in the Monkey Metal of your day branch, so your mind turns less in memorizing than in organizing and expressing. The General Star in the Rat Water of your year branch is an energy that stands at the front of a crowd. The intuitive grain of the INTJ you have named as yours also leans the same way this chart leans.

The place to be careful of is the Needle Star set on your month branch and day branch. It is an energy whose power to dig into the finest detail takes aim at yourself before anyone else. You speak three languages yet joke that you speak “zero languages” because none of the three is fluent enough, and that is your habit of laying a sharp ruler against yourself first, slipping out as laughter. The Earth Monkey Day Pillar, called the mountain of the mine, is by nature quick with a practical sense that turns things into results. In this chart that sense is tied to the responsibility of Noble Authority, so it is used to put your own name on everything you make and guard it to the end.

The way you work has three layers. Noble Authority makes you keep a set script and your promises faithfully, and the Mystic makes you find within that script a grain others do not see. Then the Creative in your day branch shapes that interpretation with your fingertips and your body and sets it before the world. The reason you have drawn out an entirely different face even from the same love story lies in these three layers.

If you ask whether yours is the vessel of an employee or of a business owner, it is the seat between them. A Noble Authority Structure holds up the frame you belong to, while strong earth and the Creative in your day branch want to choose what they will make with their own hands. So an independent seat, standing within the fence of an agency while choosing your works with your own eyes, suits you best. Your move to a new agency this year can also be read as choosing that fence anew.

In this chart, acting and writing grow from one root. The Scholar Star in your day branch gives you an organizing mind, and water, your Vital Element, is the energy of writing, contemplation and study. It is no accident that your book of essays went past its tenth printing. If acting is lending your body to a story someone else wrote, writing is the work of moistening by yourself the earth that work has dried.

That your Vital Element and your Balance Element differ is not because they are at odds, but because they have different jobs. Metal draws the overflowing strength of earth off into results called works, and water moistens the places that work has left dry.

Earth, your Avoid Element, is not always bad. It is a conditional energy that calls for caution only when incoming earth has roots, reaches the water, and finds no fitting road to hold it back. Know as well that your chart already holds a road by which the Yin Wood of your month stem governs that earth.

Where you get stuck is also clear. The Rat–Goat Resentment and the Rat–Goat Harm lie between the Rat Water of your year branch and the Goat Earth of your month branch. It means a structure in which the earth of your month branch, the seat of your workplace, easily muddies the water of your year branch, the Steady Wealth you truly need. When work piles up, the time to rest and deepen is the first thing to dry up. So you must set in advance blank spaces between works where you put nothing at all.

The years to push forward are the Fire Goat year of 2027, the Metal Dog year of 2030 and the Water Rat year of 2032. In the Metal Tiger Decade Luck that begins at forty-one, the metal of the Creative stands in the stems, so though it comes with the heavy responsibility of Fierce Authority, work in which you set up the board with your own hands, such as planning or writing, will grow.

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This chart has the structure to handle wealth. That is because your Day Master is strong, water, your Wealth star, has roots, and that water is your Vital Element itself. The road by which money comes in is clear too. The ring of Expression Feeding Wealth already lies within your chart, in which the Creative in the Monkey Metal of your day branch, that is, your craft, joins the Steady Wealth of the Rat Water in your year branch in a Half Combination to make water. The trunk is the grain of Steady Wealth, in which craft piles up into a name and that name flows into steady income. The Yang Water of Dynamic Wealth hidden in your day branch is money that turns in large sums when the timing is right.

You must also look at where it leaks. The Earth Monkey year of 2028 and the Earth Rooster year of 2029 are years of the Companion and Rival stars, when earth piles up, so they call for caution over wealth and competition. Joint investments, dividing shares and lending your name to someone else’s work are most dangerous then. On the other hand, metal holds you up in 2030 and water in 2032, so those years are worth growing the share of work that carries your name. In the Water Rat year of 2032 in particular, the year’s Rat Water forms a Half Combination with the Monkey Metal of your day branch and the energy of water swells greatly, so the flow in which wealth pools is at its clearest.

There is one thing to do starting this month. Write the income from acting, advertising and publishing separately in one ledger, and set aside first of all the living costs for the rest between one work and the next.

For you as a woman, the star that stands for a partner is wood, the Authority star. That star shows clearly as the Noble Authority of the Yin Wood on your month stem, and Yin Wood also has its root inside the Goat Earth of your month branch. The grain of the person who suits you looks just the same. Your heart will likely lean toward someone who bends gently but does not break, someone whose principles stand straight.

In the Monkey Metal of your day branch, the seat of your partner, lie the Creative and Dynamic Wealth, and the Scholar Star and the Hidden Prosperity Star cling to it. It is a seat in which you deepen with someone you can talk and write with, someone with whom you can build something together. That day branch forms a Half Combination with the Rat Water of your year branch, so this bond is the kind that ripens as you flow along together.

Only, the Lonely Swan Star sits in the same day branch. It is an energy in which time spent alone grows long and a bond settles in late. This is not a flaw but a nature that opens its door only after first building its own world firmly. There is no reason to hurry.

As for when your bonds move, in the Metal Rabbit Decade Luck that runs from around July 2027, Rabbit Wood, the Noble Authority, comes into the branches. These are ten years in which the star of your partner finds its seat. Within them, the Wood Tiger year of 2034 is a year when the year’s Tiger Wood raises the Tiger–Monkey Clash with the Monkey Metal of your day branch. Close relationships and the frame of daily life can shake hard, so it will serve you better to hold big decisions back by one beat.

Here is what to do starting today. Choose one line from a book you have read, share it with someone close to you, and listen to the end to how that person reads it. The one who suits you shows first in that answer.

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Earth born in late summer is the kind whose moisture dries quickly in the heat. Between June and August, when midsummer shoots crowd together, your energy easily runs out faster than it looks. Add the tension of the Needle Star, and you can easily fall into the habit of holding on without noticing that your body is worn out. The energy of water is the energy of night, sleep and stillness. The longer the schedule, the more turning out the light early and guarding your sleep is the care of life that suits this chart best.

That you have learned so many ways of using your body, such as climbing, ballet and scuba diving under water, is a habit that suits this firm earth well. Time spent by the water or in it touches the Vital Element of this chart in particular. The busier the season, the more you should leave such time on purpose. If physical discomfort continues, then seeing a doctor must come first.

This year’s one word is “recognition.” The fire of the Fire Horse year comes to you as the Mystic and the Nurturer overlapping. It is a year thickly laid with the energy of name, documents and recognition, and the major award you received and the new contract you signed this year mesh with that flow. Yet this year is one in which help and caution stand against each other about evenly. It must not be read as a simply good year.

The headwinds are two. One is the Yang Fire–Yang Water Clash, in which the Yang Water of your current Decade Luck collides with this year’s Yang Fire. Your intentions are often bent, and decisions you have made are easily overturned. The other is the Rat–Horse Clash, in which the year’s Horse Fire collides with the Rat Water of your year branch. It is a picture in which fire strikes head-on at the very seat where your Steady Wealth, the water of your Vital Element, sits. On top of this, the Horse–Goat Combination between the year’s Horse Fire and the Goat Earth of your month branch adds an energy that leans toward fire, so it is a year in which water easily dries up. In effect, a warning to match the rhythm of work and rest has hung over the whole of this year.

Two months remain. Right around today the solar term changes and the Earth Pig month begins, so you stand at that very boundary. November is an ordinary month in which earth and water come in together, a fitting time to close what you were doing and catch your breath. December, when the metal of the Creative and the water of the Rat come in together, is the best month of this year. Set about preparing a new work or beginning to write in that month.

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Let us look first at the road behind you. The Wood Horse Decade Luck from one to ten was a mixed decade in which the wood of Fierce Authority and the fire of the Nurturer came in together. It was a time of shouldering responsibility and learning together at an early age, so your film debut at nine, in the Fire Dog year of 2006, also lies upon that flow. In the Water Snake Decade Luck from eleven to twenty, the Yin Water of Steady Wealth floated up into the stems, but these were teenage years in which the Snake Fire of the branches warmed that water. While you learned talents in many directions, you were likely always chased by something.

Let us look at the road ahead. From around July 2027, when you turn thirty-one, to around July 2037 runs the Metal Rabbit Decade Luck. The metal of the Performer comes in as your Support Element and the wood of Noble Authority fills the branches, a neutral decade. Within it, 2027, 2030 and 2032 are the years to push forward.

Yet this decade carries many cautions that must be set apart and named. The years 2028 and 2029 are years of competition and wealth, when earth piles up. The Metal Pig year of 2031 and the Water Ox year of 2033 are years in which your Vital Element comes under pressure, and in 2033 especially, the year’s Ox Earth raises the Ox–Goat Clash with the Goat Earth of your month branch, so the seat of your workplace shakes hard. The year 2034 is one to be careful of because of the clash on your day branch I mentioned earlier.

After that, the Metal Tiger Decade Luck from forty-one to around July 2047 is a mixed decade in which the making power of the Creative’s metal and the heavy responsibility of Fierce Authority come in together. The Earth Ox and Earth Rat Decade Lucks that follow from fifty-one are a flow in which earth thickens and then holds water again, so they are a stretch in which the joy of handing the name you built to those who come after and leaving it behind in writing comes together with the burden of piled-up earth.

And the Water Dragon Decade Luck you stand in now runs from around July 2017 to around July 2027. It is a mixed decade in which the Yang Water of Dynamic Wealth, that is, the water of your Vital Element, comes and goes in the stems in great measure, while the Dragon Earth of the branches builds an earthen dike. The Earth Dog year of 2018 was a year when the Dragon Earth of the Decade Luck and the year’s Dog Earth raised the Dragon–Dog Clash. It was a year in which the flow of the present decade bent once and you came to choose your direction anew. That you took your first lead role on network television in such a year and even won an award for it means you turned a bending flow into the strength to change course. The saying that you are someone who rises again and again, like the archaeopteryx in your mother’s conception dream, is no empty saying in this chart. The nine months that remain until this Decade Luck ends are a time not to widen, but to put in order what you have built so far as the ground for the next decade.

Let me set the INTJ you have named as yours beside your saju. On the axis of Intuition and Sensing, both calculations point toward Intuition. The Mystic and the Nurturer, that is, uncommon inspiration and a long view, stand in the front rank of this chart, so this is a strength you can trust and use. On the axis of Thinking and Feeling, the two calculations diverge, so it is read only as a weak tilt toward Thinking. It means that the system of Noble Authority supports the side of reason, while the fine senses of the Creative in your day branch are alive as well.

On the axis of Judging and Perceiving, only the Ten God calculation points toward Judging. This is where it meets the order of a Noble Authority Structure. The only axis that stands on the other side is Extraversion and Introversion. Your saju leans weakly toward Extraversion, while you have said in public that you were once ENTJ and became INTJ. The General Star of your year branch makes you stand at the front of a crowd, and the Mystic on your year stem draws you alone into books at night, so the two lenses are looking at different faces of one person. Neither of them is wrong.

The way to use water, your Vital Element, true to an INTJ, is the night of designing. Fix first in your schedule the time to dissect the character of your next work alone and write it down. That stillness is itself the water of this chart. When the Performer’s metal of the Metal Rabbit Decade Luck comes in, the work of bringing what you designed this way out into the world in speech and writing will grow.

The painter of Bianliang I spoke of at the beginning did not, in the end, wait for patrons outside the palace. He opened that narrow door by attaching his paintings to the poems of a man of letters who recognized his work and circulating them together. The uncommon eye of the Mystic met the bridge called poetry and at last reached people. In that age, the channels for making one’s skill known were bound in the hands of a few patrons, but for you today, are not works, books and stages each laid down as bridges? Begin within 2027 the work of binding your interpretations into writing and setting them out side by side with your next work.

First, work and money. The Fire Goat year of 2027 is a year whose flow holds you up, and around July of that year your Decade Luck passes into Metal Rabbit. Meet the new works already scheduled on top of this flow, but write down in advance the standard by which you choose works. If you have room to choose the day of the blessing ceremony or the first day of filming, December 7, a Wood Rabbit day, or February 1, 2027, a Metal Pig day, is a good day. In 2028 and 2029, joint investments and promises of shares must be firmed up in writing without gaps.

Second, people and relationships. Those who fill you up are people who think deeply and adapt quickly, that is, those who write, those who research and those generous with advice. Bookstores, reading groups and gatherings of writers are where you meet them. Widen your exchanges with such people around 2030, when metal comes in. Before the clash on your day branch in 2034, the closer the relationship, the better it is to settle in words beforehand what you expect of each other.

Third, body and mind, and the place where you stay. From this December, put a desk for your night hours in a quiet spot with a window facing north, and before you sleep, write even a single page. One signal is enough. Keep a notebook with a deep navy cover open on that desk, and each time it catches your eye before you turn off the light, recall whether you have filled today’s water.

Fourth, preparing for the Decade Luck to come. The years 2031 and 2033 are years in which your Vital Element comes under pressure, so within 2030, make a plan to guard what you already have instead of forcing expansion. In the Water Rat year of 2032 between them, water swells greatly, so prepare your most cherished work or a long piece of writing to meet that year. The ground for setting up the board with your own hands in the Metal Tiger Decade Luck at forty-one must also be laid from around then.

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In the Fire Goat year of 2027, around July when your Decade Luck turns to Metal Rabbit, your name and your new work will cross the threshold of the next decade together. Watch just one thing then: whether the new work you take on fills your water or dries it. If a day comes when you tell me what you went through and which road you chose around then, I will gladly listen. May a spring that never runs dry stay upon this parched late-summer mountain.