What Is the Day Master in Saju?

The Day Master (日干) is the Heavenly Stem of the day you were born — the upper character of your Day Pillar. Of the eight characters in a Saju chart, this one stands for "you," which makes it the reference point for the whole reading. Not a fixed fate — a coordinate for understanding yourself.

Why does one character become the reference point?

Because the remaining seven characters are all read through their relationship to this one. The Ten Gods are also set by weighing each other character's relationship to the Day Master. If your Day Master is Gap Wood, for instance, the whole chart gets unpacked starting from "the temperament of a tall tree growing straight and upward."

Where do I find my Day Master?

Look at the upper character of the third pillar (the Day Pillar) on a chart drawn from the Ten-Thousand-Year calendar. Today's fortune is also calculated from the relationship between today's Iljin stem and your Day Master. Once you know your Day Master, you can check the math behind any fortune reading yourself. That said, the Day Master only mirrors your innate temperament and tendencies — it isn't a verdict of a good character or a bad one.