The Ten Gods (Sipsin): How Every Element in Your Chart Relates to You

Once you know your Day Master, the next question in any Saju reading is: what do all the other characters mean for me? The answer is the Ten Gods (십신, sipsin), ten named relationships that describe how each element in the chart treats your Day Master. Despite the dramatic name, they are not deities. Think of them as roles in the story of your life: the friend, the rival, the artist, the critic, the treasure, the boss, the teacher.

The Ten Gods are where Saju becomes personal. Two people with the same amount of Fire can have completely different charts, because Fire is Wealth for one of them and Authority for the other.

Five relationships, two polarities

The Ten Gods come from the five ways any element can relate to your Day Master, each split by polarity. Cosmic Saju's celebrity pages use the five group names, so you will see them there too:

• Companion: the same element as you. Self, peers, siblings, competition.
• Output: the element you produce. Talent, expression, children, creativity.
• Wealth: the element you control. Money, results, resources, and traditionally a man's spouse.
• Power: the element that controls you. Career, status, rules, and traditionally a woman's spouse.
• Resource: the element that produces you. Learning, support, mother figures, rest.

The ten, one by one

Within each group, the version with the same polarity as your Day Master is the stronger, more unpredictable side; the version with opposite polarity is the more balanced, conventional side.

• Bigyeon (비견, Friend): same element, same polarity. Independence, self-belief, partnership among equals. Strong Bigyeon can mean stubbornness.
• Geopjae (겁재, Rob Wealth): same element, opposite polarity. Competitive drive, boldness, a knack for teamwork that can turn into rivalry over shared resources.
• Siksin (식신, Eating God): output, same polarity. Easygoing talent, enjoyment of food and craft, steady creative work. Often called the most comfortable star in a chart.
• Sanggwan (상관, Hurting Officer): output, opposite polarity. Brilliant expression, wit and originality, and an impatience with rules that can unsettle authority.
• Pyeonjae (편재, Indirect Wealth): wealth, same polarity. Big opportunities, trading, generosity and a talent for spotting chances, with income that can come in waves.
• Jeongjae (정재, Direct Wealth): wealth, opposite polarity. Earned, stable income, careful budgeting, reliability and loyalty.
• Pyeongwan (편관, Seven Killings): power, same polarity. Pressure, courage and command. Hard but forging; many leaders and athletes have a strong Pyeongwan.
• Jeonggwan (정관, Direct Officer): power, opposite polarity. Order, reputation, responsibility and respect for fair rules.
• Pyeonin (편인, Indirect Resource): resource, same polarity. Unconventional learning, intuition, specialist knowledge and an interest in the hidden side of things.
• Jeongin (정인, Direct Resource): resource, opposite polarity. Formal education, care, patience and the support of mentors.

A worked example

Take a Gap (甲) Yang Wood Day Master. Another 甲 in the chart is Bigyeon; 乙 Yin Wood is Geopjae. Fire is Wood's output, so 丙 is Siksin and 丁 is Sanggwan. Wood controls Earth, so 戊 is Pyeonjae and 己 is Jeongjae. Metal controls Wood, so 庚 is Pyeongwan and 辛 is Jeonggwan. Water feeds Wood, so 壬 is Pyeonin and 癸 is Jeongin.

Now imagine this person's chart is full of Fire. In Ten Gods terms, that is a chart rich in Siksin and Sanggwan: someone whose life tends to revolve around expressing, making and performing. If the chart instead were full of Metal, the theme would shift to pressure, rules and the structures they must work within. Same Day Master, very different stories.

No good or bad gods

Old textbooks label some gods auspicious and others harmful, but modern readers mostly treat the labels as shorthand. Seven Killings sounds frightening, yet it is the star of discipline and courage. Hurting Officer sounds rude, yet it is the star of artists and innovators. Whether a god helps or strains you depends on balance: a weak Day Master welcomes Resource and Companion, while a strong one is put to good use by Output, Wealth and Power.

The same goes for timing. When a Great Luck Cycle or a year brings a particular god into your life, readers describe the decade or year in its terms: a Jeonggwan year might bring promotion and responsibility, a Siksin year more creative freedom. It is a vocabulary for change, not a list of rewards and punishments.

Using the Ten Gods with your own chart

Start with your Day Master, then label the other seven characters with their group names. Count which groups appear most often; that is the main theme of your chart. Then look for groups that are missing entirely, which often point to qualities you build through effort rather than instinct. Finally, compare your current Great Luck Cycle's stem and branch with your Day Master to see which roles this decade is bringing forward.