Annual Cycles(歲運)
- #Annual Cycles
- #What annual cycles mean
- #Annual fortune
- #How to read annual cycles
- #This year's saju fortune
An annual cycle (seun, 歲運) is a year's fortune read by comparing that year's stem-branch pair with your Day Master and assigning its Ten Gods. Seowoon uses the simpler term “annual fortune”.
If the ten-year period is the backdrop, the annual cycle is the weather for a particular year. In saju, the year's themes are read through the Ten God categories of its stem and branch.
How it is set
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Stem-branch pair | The year's stem-branch pair. The year begins at the Start of Spring solar term |
| Heavenly stems | Determine the Ten God by comparing it with the Day Master |
| Earthly branches | Determine the Ten God by comparing the main hidden stem with the Day Master |
| Month | Solar terms mark the boundaries. Overlap is limited to 0·1·2 |
In the same year, different Day Masters have different Ten Gods. No year is inherently bad.
Traits
The calendar determines the sequence. Each year's stem-branch pair follows the sixty-pair cycle and is the same for everyone: 2026 is Byeong-o (丙午). However, the year changes at the Start of Spring solar term, not January 1. Seowoon compares the year's stem with your Day Master to assign its Ten God, then uses the branch's primary hidden stem to assign the branch's Ten God. What differs from person to person is your Day Master, not the year's pair.
The usual interpretation treats the stem as outward events and the branch as underlying developments. A Wealth stem points to a year when money and practical gains are visible; an Officer branch suggests roles and responsibilities developing beneath the surface. If the stem and branch share a category, the year's themes converge. If they differ, the year is read as having different outer and inner patterns.
Seowoon divides each year into twelve months. Monthly boundaries also follow seasonal boundaries (jeol, 節), rather than calendar months, so February 2028 actually runs from February 4 through March 4. If the month's stem and the branch's primary hidden stem share a category, the overlap count is one. If the annual fortune shares that category too, it is two. More overlap produces a darker mark. These are the only three weights (0 · 1 · 2); no additional scores are created.
When the annual branch forms a combination or clash with a branch in your birth chart, it is read as a year when a normally quiet part of the chart becomes active. This is why changes are often attributed to annual cycles in charts with no such pairs of their own. Some approaches also give special attention to years whose branch falls in the chart's Void.
Seowoon's free “This Year's Fortune” reading shows the Ten Gods of this year's stem and branch, along with each month's overlaps, in a table. The calculation identifies which energies arrive that year; how you engage with them is up to you.
A common misconception
Declaring that “this is a bad year for you” based on the annual cycle alone goes too far. Everyone encounters the same stem-branch pair each year; only its Ten Gods relationships change with your Day Master, so no year is inherently bad. The same Byeong-o year represents Wealth for one person and Resource for another.This also differs from Three-Year Adversity or zodiac forecasts that judge a year solely by your birth year — the annual cycle uses your Day Master as its reference.
Check it in your chart
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Related entries
- Ten-Year PeriodsTen-year periods (daeun, 大運) assign ten years each to successive stem-branch pairs, moving forward or backward from your birth month's pair, or month pillar. They describe the broader backdrop that shifts once every ten years.
- Combinations and ClashesCombinations and clashes (hapchung, 合沖) describe characters that attract and bind together (combinations) or face each other from opposite positions and collide (clashes).
- VoidVoid (Gongmang, 空亡) refers to the two earthly branches left without a partner in each ten-pair group (Sun, 旬) when the ten heavenly stems are paired with the twelve earthly branches.
- Ten GodsThe Ten Gods (sipsin, 十神) name the relationship between your Day Master, which represents you, and each other character in your chart: Companion·Rob Wealth·Eating God·Hurting Officer·Indirect Wealth·Direct Wealth·Seven Killings·Direct Officer·Indirect Resource·Direct Resource.
- All of Saju Dictionary
Frequently asked questions
Do seun and yeonun mean the same thing?
They refer to the same thing. Annual cycle (seun, 歲運) is the formal saju term, while Seowoon uses yeonun on screen. It is commonly paired with the ten-year cycle as “ten-year cycle·annual cycle.”
When does an annual cycle begin and end?
It runs from the Beginning of Spring solar term to the day before the next Beginning of Spring. If you were born in January, your birth year uses the previous year's stem-branch pair until that solar term, even though the calendar year has changed. Seowoon's monthly periods also use solar terms as their boundaries.
How do I read my annual cycle?
Compare the year's heavenly stem with your Day Master to assign its Ten God, then assign the earthly branch's Ten God using its main hidden stem. Next, see which positions in your birth chart those Ten Gods interact with and whether any branches form combinations or clashes. The free reading calculates these in that order.
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