What the Day Master is
Your Day Master is the top character of your day pillar. In a Saju chart it stands for you, so it is the first character a reader looks for among the eight. It is one of the ten Heavenly Stems, and each of the ten belongs to one of the Five Elements.
The ten natures
SajuPath describes each Day Master as an image from nature, so that it is easy to picture.
- The Great Tree (Wood) grows straight up in one direction.
- The Wildflower (Wood) lies down in the wind but does not break, and spreads sideways.
- The Sun (Fire) shines on everything without picking.
- The Candle (Fire) does not spread widely and lights one place for a long time.
- The Mountain (Earth) does not move easily and keeps its place.
- The Fertile Field (Earth) takes in anything and helps it grow.
- The Iron Ore (Metal) is hard and has an edge.
- The Jewel (Metal) shines more the more it is cut and polished.
- The Great River (Water) goes around what blocks it and flows wide.
- The Gentle Rain (Water) seeps in without a sound.
How to find yours
Put your birth date into the free calculator. The top character of the day pillar in the table is your Day Master, and the card beneath the table shows which of the ten natures it is. You can find it even if you do not know your birth time, because it comes from the day pillar alone. If you were born close to 11 p.m., the point at which a new day begins is handled differently by different schools. SajuPath adjusts Korean Standard Time to the 127.5° meridian and uses that to decide the day.
No one is a single line
The Day Master is only the first clue. Two people with the same Day Master still have seven other characters and their own ten-year cycles, so they read differently. The images are there to help you picture your own temperament, not to put a label on you.
Five elements, two flavours each
The ten Day Masters come in pairs, two for each element: the Great Tree and the Wildflower for Wood, the Sun and the Candle for Fire, the Mountain and the Fertile Field for Earth, the Iron Ore and the Jewel for Metal, and the Great River and the Gentle Rain for Water. Within a pair, the first is yang and the second is yin, so the Great Tree that grows straight up and the Wildflower that spreads sideways are both Wood but have a different feel.
Adding the branch beneath the Day Master gives your day pillar, one of 60 combinations. People born on the same day share the same day pillar, and the report reads it as the common foundation of that group.
What to keep in mind
It is wise not to judge a person from the Day Master alone. It is the starting point for reading yourself, and the picture only fills in once the month character, the other elements and the ten-year cycles are added. Two Great Trees can read quite differently if one chart has plenty of Water and the other has very little.