Soobin's SajuAn Oil Lamp on an Early Winter Night, Burning Evenly to Shine Long (Fire Rooster)K-POP · December 5, 2000

You say you are someone who finds it hard to step forward, but your fire is not a fire that dislikes stepping forward. It is a fire that catches the wind unusually easily. On a damp night in early winter, two oil lamps burn side by side next to a lump of iron. That is your chart. The flames are small, and not a single stick of firewood to keep them going shows on the surface. Yet the firewood is not missing altogether. It lies hidden in the earth beneath your feet and in the water, so this is not a fire that will go out but one that lasts long when it is fed with care.

In Hanyang under the reign of King Sukjong, on a riverside hill outside the city walls, there was a man in charge of a kiln that fired pottery. Born on the same Fire Rooster day as you, he was a man of few words, but when his father suddenly let go of the work, the livelihoods of several kiln hands came to rest on his shoulders. His touch with the fire was finer than anyone’s, but the price of firewood climbed every year and the good spots in the city market were held by long-established merchants, so he had no proper place to sell the pottery he fired. Night after night he sat alone before the kiln, guarding the color of the flame, and instead of standing before others he worked out another road.

Fire Rooster — An Oil Lamp on an Early Winter Night, Burning Evenly to Shine Long

Your Day Master is Yin Fire, a fire like an oil lamp or a candle that lights one corner of the dark, and it sits on the Rooster Metal of your day branch, making a Fire Rooster Day Pillar. The Fire Rooster is a fire that melts metal and gives it shape, so your fingers are deft, and once you set a standard you keep it to the end. Your habit of letting not a single spelling slip by, from the days you dreamed of becoming a Korean language teacher, comes from this seat. But you were born in the Pig month, a month of water, so the season is not on your side, and the Rooster Metal of your day branch holds no root of fire, which makes this a weak Day Master. Even so, the same Yin Fire stands beside you on your month stem, and wood hidden inside the Dragon Earth of your year branch and the Pig Water of your month branch holds you up. So this is not a weakness that collapses easily. It is a weakness whose strength comes out when it takes help and puts it to use.

Your structure is the Noble Authority Structure. The main energy of the Pig Water in your month branch, the month you were born in, is the Noble Authority for you, the star of fair rules and of the post you are given, so deep inside you stands a firm axis that gets done what must be done. A soft face with a resolute core, the grain people call gentle outside and strong within, comes from the pairing of this small fire with an upright Noble Authority. The Scholar Star and the Academy Noble sit together in your day branch, so your mind turns toward writing and learning, and writing lyrics and choosing words could hardly feel foreign to you. The inward-facing grain of the ISFP you have named points the same way as this chart.

There is one more seat worth noting. Between the Dragon Earth of your year branch and the Pig Water of your month branch hangs the Dragon–Pig Resentment, which is also a Ghost Gate, and between the Dragon Earth of your year branch and the Rooster Metal of your day branch hangs the Dragon–Rooster Ghost Gate as well, so your thoughts keep burrowing inward. Going back over the day in the shower, for more than an hour on hard days, and keeping your own feelings inside until they end there are both the work of this seat. At the same time, that same Dragon Earth and Rooster Metal are bound in the Dragon–Rooster Combination, so you are also someone in whom what you have chewed over inside is finally woven into a single finished piece. Rather than trying to break the habit of chewing things over, it suits you better to set an exit in advance for what you have chewed over.

With a weak fire in the Noble Authority Structure, you are not someone who seizes the board from the front but someone who guards the post entrusted to you to the very end. The trainees took turns as leader, and in the end the role came to you through evaluation, and that in itself is how the Noble Authority looks. It is not a star that snatches a post but a star a post comes looking for. That is why yours is a leadership that pushes from behind. The Heavenly Noble Star sitting in both your month and day branches is a seat where people arrive to help when things are urgent, so the more you decide in advance whom to ask for help, rather than carrying everything alone, the lighter that post becomes. Yours is a vessel that clearly leans toward widening a room of your own within a large frame rather than setting up a board alone.

I will answer what you asked. You can do more solo stages and hosting. Your Vital Element is fire, so work that shows you before people, like the stage and broadcasting, is itself the work of growing your fire, and hosting lights people with words inside a set flow, so it uses the Noble Authority and fire together and suits this chart especially well. Writing lyrics and composing draw on the Scholar Star and the Academy Noble in your day branch together with the Performer in the Dragon Earth of your year branch, the star that brings what is inside out into the world, so they are an axis to carry for a long time. In the Metal Tiger Decade Luck you stand in now, the Tiger Wood of its branch is wood, your Support Element, the firewood that keeps your fire going, so these are good ten years for what you have learned and built up to catch on as expression. The years 2026 and 2027 especially are years when fire comes in directly, and a better time to widen the stage you stand on alone will be rare.

Where you get stuck is just as clear. When the responsibility of the Noble Authority is laid on a weak fire, an overload comes in which trying to finish everything you are given shrinks the flame itself. Water, your Avoid Element, is an energy that presses straight down on your Day Master where the blocking of earth does not reach, so in your life it tends to show up as schedules, expectations and evaluations that pour in without a break. Metal, the element that feeds the Avoid Element, is the Yang Metal on your year stem and the Rooster Metal of your day branch, the burden of results to be gathered and of money, but your chart has a path by which the Yin Fire on your month stem governs that Yang Metal, so depending on conditions that burden is bearable. No separate Climate Element was chosen. The Yang Wood firewood often cited as a reference for winter Yin Fire lies hidden only inside the Pig Water of your month branch, and the conditions pull different ways. That does not mean it was settled that the season needs no adjusting.

Your wealth comes in through two streams. The Yang Metal on your year stem is the Steady Wealth, the star of money built up steadily, and it is rooted in the Rooster Metal of your day branch, so the basic strength of this chart is the share that collects little by little from work you keep going for a long time. The Rooster Metal of your day branch is the Dynamic Wealth, larger money earned by putting talent to work, and it is bound with the Performer of the Dragon Earth in your year branch in the Dragon–Rooster Combination, so the lyrics, songs and voice that come from your hands lead straight to your share of money. Your capacity to carry wealth is moderate, so the roads in are generous, but you can hold on only to as much as the fire of your body can bear.

Where it leaks lies less in money itself than in the amount of work. In years when metal, which feeds the Avoid Element, adds to the burden of wealth, the more work you take on, the more your income grows but the sooner the flame shrinks, so in the end you pay it back as the cost of rest. In the Earth Monkey year of 2028, the Tiger Wood of your Decade Luck and the Monkey Metal of that year collide in the Tiger–Monkey Clash and the burden of metal is laid on top, and in the Water Ox year of 2033, that year’s Ox Earth forms the Rooster–Ox half combination with the Rooster Metal of your day branch and strengthens the energy of metal. In these two years it will serve you better to protect what you have than to add new contracts or enlarge your work. Where it grows, on the other hand, is in what remains with your name on it. Work like lyrics and songs, which keeps paying its share long after it is made once, is the money this chart’s Steady Wealth likes best.

Wealth stands up in 2026 and 2027, when fire comes in, and in the Wood Tiger year of 2034, when wood, your Support Element, arrives. If you add work that stays in your name during those years, that share becomes a prop while you pass through the years when metal grows heavy. The wish to give back the love you have received is not something I would look down on, and if you set that wish, too, at the size your flame can spare, it can last a long time. There is one thing to do starting this month. On a single page, write side by side this year’s work that carries your name and the schedules that ended only in wearing you out.

The star that means a partner for you is the energy of metal, the Wealth star. That star sits directly in your Spouse Palace as the Dynamic Wealth of the Rooster Metal in your day branch, so the bonds drawn to you tend to be lively people with clear talents of their own, people with a sparkling grain beside a quiet fire. The Peach Blossom Star sits in that same day branch and gathers people’s eyes, and that seat is at the Birth stage, so the partner’s seat itself is firmly held up. Still, a Fire Rooster Day Pillar takes time to match pace with the other person even when it meets someone talented, so in this chart a bond arrives quickly but takes effort to deepen.

The Rooster Metal of your Spouse Palace is bound with the Dragon Earth of your year branch in the Dragon–Rooster Combination, a seat that holds a bond deeply once it is formed, and the Dragon–Rooster Ghost Gate also hangs between those same two characters, so the closer the relationship, the more sensitively your heart sways. Your habit of keeping personal feelings inside until they end there is a virtue in a team, but in a partner’s seat it can become a wall that leaves the other person only guessing at what is inside you. For the time when the seat of connection moves, I will name the Earth Rooster year of 2029. Rooster Metal enters that year as the same character as your Spouse Palace and combines with the Dragon Earth of your year branch, so your heart easily leans toward someone close, but the Self-Punishment of the same character doubling up is there too, so the pressure to make everything perfect comes along with it.

In this chart, the moment a partner fills you is a moment of fire, the moment you bring out what is inside and show it warmly. If you only let things settle like water, the grain of the Avoid Element seeps into the relationship as well, so at least in front of a bond, it serves you to bring out what you have chewed over a little earlier. Here is what to do starting today. Once a day, offer the person closest to you, in a single sentence, a feeling you would otherwise have kept inside.

On matters of the body, I will take only as much as you have told me. The time you stepped away and came back is what you lived through, and speaking to its cause and recovery belongs to the doctor who saw your body directly. What the chart can point to is when this fire fills and when it ebbs over a day and over the seasons. You are a small fire born in a month of water, so from late autumn to deep winter, as the cold thickens, your energy tends to sink, and your strength flows at midday when the sun is high and in the sunny seasons.

The Ghost Gate stretching across your year, month and day branches is a seat where thoughts burrow inward, so sleep and the mind tend to sway before the body does. Read a night when going back over the day runs long as a sign that your fire has already burned a great deal that night. On such days, set a time when the going back ends, and lie down early with your feet and body kept warm. That is how this chart takes care of itself.

The months left this year, November and December, are months when the water energy thickens, so rather than adding stages, it is better to write slots for rest into the calendar first. Looking ahead, the Water Rat year of 2032 is the year when water comes in most heavily, so plan that year’s schedule lightly in advance. If some discomfort keeps on, do not hesitate to see a doctor, and keeping steadily to that plan is the road this chart recommends.

The key word for the Fire Horse year of 2026 is kindling. The Yang Fire of that year’s stem and the Horse Fire of its branch are both fire, your Vital Element, so it is a year when one more big fire comes and sits down beside a small oil lamp. Where your present Metal Tiger Decade Luck meets this year is a tailwind too. The Tiger Wood of the Decade Luck and the Horse Fire of the year gather energy toward fire in the Tiger–Horse half combination, and the Decade Luck as wood, your Support Element, and the year as fire, your Vital Element, push you forward from behind. So this is a year in which support leads.

The things you told me of this year were Weverse Con, where you stood alone on stage on both days, your song on the soundtrack of the drama Shining, and the hosting you have kept up. That every one of them is the work of fire was surely no coincidence. That someone who finds standing alone a burden carried off those spots this year owes something to luck, which added a like fire to yours. The feel for the solo stage you learned this year is capital you can keep using through next year.

Let me mark the headwind as well. The Yang Metal on the stem of your Decade Luck is the energy of metal, on the side that feeds the Avoid Element, so these ten years are a stretch where support and caution mix about evenly, and this year’s tailwind rides on top of that. Among the months left this year, none holds you up. November is a month when the energy of water begins to thicken, so use it to finish what you have started, and December is a month when metal and water come in together, so it will serve you better to close out the year and protect what you have than to add new promises.

Let me start with the road behind you. The first ten years, the Earth Rat Decade Luck, were a neutral stretch, but with thick water energy it was a time when a small fire easily curled up, and the child who trembled before giving a presentation is tied to that grain. The Earth Ox Decade Luck from around the age of eleven held both support and caution, and in those ten years the earth star that brings what is inside out into the world came in, the time when your talent first showed itself to the world. The dance club stage, your trainee days and your debut all fell within this stretch, so that flow was interlocked with your choices.

Now you are in the Metal Tiger Decade Luck, which began around December 2021, when you were about twenty-one, and runs to around December 2031. It holds the Tiger Wood that becomes firewood and the Yang Metal that becomes a burden together, ten years in which support and caution are about even. Within it, 2026 and 2027 are the best, and the Fire Goat year of 2027 is the year that goes best of the coming ten. From 2028 to 2031 neutral years continue, with the Tiger–Monkey Clash and the burden of metal in 2028 and the Self-Punishment of the same character doubling up in 2029 and 2031, and of these, the Metal Pig year of 2031 is the lowest point of the stretch.

The Metal Rabbit Decade Luck that begins at thirty-one runs from around December 2031 to around December 2041, ten years in which the Rabbit Wood of your Support Element and the Yin Metal of metal come in together, a mix of support and caution. But its opening is rough. In the Water Rat year of 2032, water, your Avoid Element, comes in heavily, binds the Yin Fire of your month and day stems in a stem combination and presses straight down on your fire, and the Water Ox year of 2033 is a year when water and metal grow together, so two years that carry a warning come back to back. After that, firewood arrives in the Wood Tiger year of 2034 and you come alive again, and in the Wood Rabbit year of 2035 the Decade Luck and the year together strike the Rooster Metal of your day branch in the Rabbit–Rooster Clash, so the seat closest to you moves greatly. The Water Dragon Decade Luck that begins at forty-one, from around December 2041 to around December 2051, is an unfavorable stretch. Its Yang Water, water being your Avoid Element, comes in as the Noble Authority, so it is the time when the weight of responsibility is heaviest, and rather than adding posts you take on, you need to prepare in advance to set some down. The Water Snake Decade Luck after that mixes support and caution, and when you reach the Wood Horse Decade Luck at sixty-one, firewood and fire come in together and teaching and passing things on become easy. So what you have to do now in the Metal Tiger Decade Luck is to build up work in your name until 2027, when the fire catches, and from 2028 on to set up a frame that protects that fire.

Let me set the ISFP you have named side by side with your saju. You say it has not changed once since your trainee days, so those four letters are a picture of yourself you have watched for a long time. On the axis of Introversion and Extraversion, your saju points clearly toward Introversion by both calculations, so your grain of refilling your strength in time alone is a strength you can trust and use. The axis of Sensing and Intuition also lands on the same Sensing side, but here the two calculations disagree and it leans only weakly toward Sensing, so it is more accurate to see you as someone in whom the feel of the fingertips and the pictures in the head are mixed about half and half.

On the axis of Thinking and Feeling, both calculations point clearly toward Feeling, so your grain of weighing people’s hearts first meets the saju exactly. Only one axis splits, Judging and Perceiving. The saju points toward Judging by one calculation, from the Ten Gods, because the Noble Authority Structure and the Steady Wealth like rules and neatness, while you said you are on the Perceiving side, keeping things open and riding the flow. The two lenses see different sides. Letting daily life flow easily while keeping spelling razor-sharp is the scene in which these two grains move together in one person.

For you, an ISFP, the way to use fire, your Vital Element, is not a stage where you shout loudly but a stage where you step forward holding what you shaped with your own hands. On a stage where you sing lyrics and songs you wrote in your own voice, the wish to show what you made tends to come before the burden of being watched. In the Metal Rabbit Decade Luck that arrives at thirty-one, the wood grain of digging in alone grows deeper, so start building up now the practice of bringing out what you made alone.

That kiln master by the river in Hanyang never did win a place to set out his pottery in the city market. Instead, he kept the kiln fire even rather than stoking it high, took orders only from the few households who knew his craft, and never let go of his kiln hands’ livelihoods all his life. In that age, the same seat of carrying a heavy load with a small fire was used only for holding on. In today’s world, the places to set out one’s work have become the stage, broadcasting and song, open even to quiet people, and are you not already standing there? You can show, with your name staked on it, the even fire that man kept, so put that strength to use by releasing one piece of work under your name into the world within 2027.

First, widen work and money in the Fire Goat year of 2027. It is the year that goes best of the coming ten, so take one more step that year in work that uses your fire directly, like solo stages and hosting, but decide in advance as well that from the Earth Monkey year of 2028 you will switch to a frame that protects rather than adds.

Second, in people and relationships, share the leader’s load. The Heavenly Noble Star beside you is a seat where helpers arrive, so if within this year you divide with your colleagues what you will do up front and what you will look after from behind, the load of the Noble Authority grows much lighter. Stay long beside people overflowing with expression and passion and people who keep learning. The colleagues who write songs and plan stages with you are the ones who add firewood to your fire.

Third, keep body and mind warm starting this winter. From November through next January, use a sunny south-facing spot in the room where you stay, and walk outside, even briefly, at midday when the sun is high. Turn on one orange light before you sleep and let the time for going back over the day last only until you turn that light off, and that glow will become the signal that the going back is over.

Fourth, prepare for the coming Decade Luck within 2031. The two years 2032 and 2033 are heavy back to back, so before the Metal Pig year of 2031 is out, plan the schedules and contracts of those two years lightly, and write down in advance what you will widen again in the Wood Tiger year of 2034.

The Fire Goat year of 2027 is coming, the year your fire meets a like fire and shines brightest. That year, on the night you come down from a stage you stood on alone, check just one thing, how much of your energy is left, and come back to tell me what you chose and which stages you passed through. Wherever you stand, you who find it hard to step forward, may an even warmth stay with you instead of a fierce wind.