A working introduction

How a Saju chart becomes a reading.

Saju is the Korean practice of reading the Four Pillars of birth. Sojourn keeps the traditional structure visible while explaining it for people who do not already know the vocabulary.

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四柱Four Pillars

The basic structure

One chart, read in layers.

The chart begins with year, month, day, and hour. The Day Master provides an anchor; the season, hidden stems, Ten Gods, element balance, interactions, stars, and timing cycles provide the surrounding conditions.

Reading order

The sequence matters.

No single star, branch, or Ten God should carry the whole reading. The pattern comes from the layers together.

  1. 01
    Pillars

    Year, month, day, and hour

    Each pillar pairs a heavenly stem with an earthly branch. Together they describe a structured symbolic system, not four independent horoscopes.

  2. 02
    Anchor

    The Day Master

    The day stem anchors the interpretation. Element relationships and Ten Gods are calculated relative to it.

  3. 03
    Season

    The month branch

    The month branch places the chart in a season. It changes how the Day Master and the wider element balance are read.

  4. 04
    Depth

    Hidden stems and interactions

    Branches contain hidden stems. Combinations, clashes, harms, punishments, and stem relations add context without becoming single-event predictions.

  5. 05
    Time

    Luck cycles and annual flow

    Timing layers compare later pillars with the natal chart. Sojourn presents them as planning context, never guaranteed events.

Why place and time matter

Civil time is not solar time.

Civil birth time+Longitude correction+Equation of time=True solar time

Clock time follows a legal timezone. Apparent solar time follows the sun at the birth longitude. Near an hour boundary, that correction can change the hour pillar. Sojourn records both times in the calculation trace.

Two different jobs

Calculation is deterministic. Interpretation is not.

The engine calculates

Pillars, true solar time, hidden stems, Ten Gods, interactions, stars, growth stages, and supported timing layers.

The reader interprets

It explains the supplied chart and answers questions. It cannot invent placements or turn symbolism into a guarantee.

See these layers in your own chart