How Halmeoni Reads a Chart

The order of reading

• Day Master (일간): what kind of energy am I?
• Season and strength: does the season of birth back me, and am I strong or weak?
• Spread of the elements: which energies are plentiful and which are missing?
• Ten Gods (십신) and structure (격국): what plays a big role in my life, and in what frame do I live?
• Luck Cycles (대운) and Yearly Luck (세운): what kind of time is it now, and what kind is coming?

This is the order in which a person reads a chart, and the calculation goes on in stages as below. The result of an earlier stage becomes the material of the later stage, so the order is also the dependency.

1. The moment of birth as eight characters

It takes the date and time of birth and the city of birth. If the birthday is a lunar one, it is converted to the solar calendar first. From the city it gets the time zone and longitude, and corrects the clock time to a time based on the sun at that place (longitude correction). If daylight saving time was used at that time, this is also corrected. The year changes at the Start of Spring (입춘), the month at the twelve solar terms, and the day at midnight. This sets the year, month, day and hour pillars. If the birth hour is unknown, it goes on with six characters, without the hour pillar.

2. Counting the facts of the birth chart

Next, taking the Day Master as the standard, it attaches a Ten God to each of the other characters. For a branch, it sets the Ten God by the central energy inside, and writes down the hidden stems (지장간) separately. The elements are counted only for the characters that show on the surface. For the Day Master's strength, the greatest weight is put on the lower character of the birth month, and the rest of the weight is shared among the lower characters of the day and hour, the lower character of the year, and the stems that show, summed up and set in five levels from Very weak (극신약) to Very strong (극신강). Gaining the season (득령), gaining the ground (득지) and gaining support (득세) are also written down.

On the basis of this strength it sets the structure (격국) and chooses the favourable element. The favourable element is set only by balancing by strength (억부), the seasonal temperature adjustment (조후) is not calculated, and if the result is balanced (중화) none is set. Next it looks for the named patterns. These are fourteen: stem and branch of one element (간여지동), Eating God restrains the Seven Killings (식신제살), Hurting Officer restrains the Seven Killings (상관제살), Hurting Officer binds the Seven Killings (상관합살), the Seven Killings bound by combination (합살), pressure turned into support through Resource (살인상생), mixed Officer and Seven Killings (관살혼잡), contested combination (쟁합), no companions (무비겁), no output stars (무식상), no wealth star (무재), no officer star (무관), no resource star (무인성) and too many companions (비겁과다), and for each it leaves the grounds, which character in which position it came from. If the grounds are only in the hidden stems, it marks that.

Last, it looks for combinations, clashes, punishments, harms and resentment among the four pillars, the Twelve Life Stages (12운성) and Twelve Spirits (12신살) of each pillar, and stars such as the Nobleman (천을귀인), the Blade (양인) and the Void (공망), and Peach Blossom (도화), Travelling Horse (역마) and Canopy (화개) taken from the day branch. If you chose a gender, it counts separately how many of the Ten Gods that stand for a spouse (Wealth for men, Officer for women) are in the surface characters and how many in the hidden stems. This spouse Ten God is one reading of traditional interpretation and does not tell the outcome of a marriage or a relationship.

3. Calculating the flow of time

If you chose a gender, it sets the direction of the Luck Cycles (대운) and calculates eight Luck Cycles from the first one, with their starting ages and dates. For each Luck Cycle, it writes down what Ten God that character is to the Day Master, what its Twelve Life Stage and Twelve Spirit are, which pillar of the birth chart it combines with or collides with, whether it brings the favourable element, and whether it fills in a Ten God that does not show in the birth chart. For the current Luck Cycle and the ones just before and after, it writes all of this in detail, and for distant Luck Cycles only briefly what each brings. For the luck of each year (Yearly Luck, 세운), it calculates this year and next year in the same way.

4. Facts into sentences, sentences into topics

Each calculated result becomes a finished sentence. Like "Seven Killings: 3 — year branch 巳 (sa), month stem 丙 (byeong), hour stem 丙 (byeong)," the count and position are written in advance, so the writer does not recount the numbers. Each sentence is given the topic it will be used for (temperament, money, romance and so on) and how important it is. The five sentences on the Day Master, strength, structure, favourable element and element counts are bundled as the core, so that every part of the reading starts from the same base.

The reading is divided into ten parts: "Your chart in one image," "Temperament," "Life and luck periods," "Love and partnership," "Money," "Work and calling," "Study and growth," "Family," "Body and balance" and "Halmeoni's last word." For each part, only a few of the more important sentences used for that topic are picked and sent. Which sentence goes to which part is set by calculation, and the AI that writes the text does not choose.

5. Calculation by code, writing by AI

Halmeoni's calculation of a chart (the manseryeok, longitude correction, Ten Gods, structure, Luck Cycles, combinations and clashes) is done by code according to fixed rules. The AI only receives the list of calculated facts and writes them out in easy words. The finished text is then read again by a checker, which confirms that the counts, positions and relations match the calculation, and has any wrong sentence rewritten or removes it.

What the checker looks at is as follows. It checks whether a pattern, star or structure name that this chart does not have has been used. It also checks whether the positions and counts of the Ten Gods match the calculation, and whether an element with three or more has been called lacking, or one with one or fewer called plentiful. It also checks whether it says that the characters of a Luck Cycle or a year clash or combine with a position they do not actually meet. If there is a problem, it tells what is wrong and has the text rewritten once, and sentences that still remain are removed before it is shown. The AI is made to state, paragraph by paragraph, which fact sentences it based the paragraph on, by number, so the grounds can be traced back later.

For the same chart, the same gender and the same year, the reading written once is shown again as it is. When the year changes, the stories of this year and next year change, so it is written anew. A reading in which some parts could not be written in the end is shown but not saved, so that it is written completely the next time.

If the reading differs from other places for the same chart

• If the Ja hour (자시, 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.) is handled differently, the day pillar differs.
• Depending on whether the longitude correction is made, the hour pillar may differ.
• The way of setting the structure and the favourable element differs from school to school.
• Even the same facts get a different emphasis depending on who reads them.

Where schools differ, Halmeoni has chosen as follows. For the Ja hour, the day changes at midnight; for the Twelve Life Stages, the yin order in which yin stems run in reverse (음포태); for the Twelve Spirits, the animal (year branch, 연지) as the standard; for Peach Blossom, Travelling Horse and Canopy, which are looked up separately as stars, the day branch as the standard; and for the favourable element, balancing by strength. When a combination and a clash are both present, it does not decide which one comes first and writes down both.

How to take a reading

A saju reading is material for understanding yourself and gauging the times. Rather than believing only the pleasant words or being frightened by the bad ones, hold the parts that resonate up against your own life. When Halmeoni speaks bluntly, it is not to frighten you but to go on to say what you could do about it. A reading is only material, and for important decisions such as health, legal matters or investment, consult an expert.