Daewoon and Sewoon in one minute
Daewoon (大運, "Big Luck") is the ten-year stretch of life that your saju, the Korean four-pillars chart, assigns to one stem-and-branch pair. Sewoon (歲運, "Annual Luck") is the pillar of the single year you are living in. If your birth chart is your climate, Daewoon is the season you are passing through and Sewoon is this year's weather.
Both are read against your own chart, never alone. The same pillar can suit one person and strain another, because what matters is how it meets your day master (日干, the heavenly stem of your birth day). New to the four pillars? Start with the saju basics guide.
How the ten-year pillars are built
Saju writes time as a cycle of 60 stem-branch pairs. Daewoon begins at your month pillar and takes one step through that cycle every ten years.
Direction
Look at the yin or yang of your birth-year stem. Yang-year men and yin-year women move forward through the cycle; yin-year men and yang-year women move backward. The yang stems are 甲 丙 戊 庚 壬 and the yin stems are 乙 丁 己 辛 癸. From 壬午, forward gives 癸未 then 甲申; backward gives 辛巳 then 庚辰. This is the classical convention, and our calculator uses it.
Starting age (起運, Gi-un)
Count the days from your birth to the next jeol (節, the solar term that opens a saju month) if you move forward, or back to the previous one if you move backward. Divide by three: three days equal one year, so one day is about four months. Teachers round differently and count Korean or international age, so treat the answer as "about".
One honest note: our free saju analysis lists eight ten-year pillars in the correct order, but the ages it prints are a round grid (10-19, 20-29 and so on), not your exact starting age. Use it for the order, not the ages.
A worked example
Here is an example person, not a real one: a man born on June 15, 1990 at 2 p.m. in Seoul. His pillars are 庚午 (year), 壬午 (month), 辛亥 (day) and 乙未 (hour), so his day master is 辛, yin metal.
- Direction: 庚 is a yang stem and he is male, so he moves forward from 壬午: 癸未, 甲申, 乙酉, 丙戌, 丁亥, 戊子, 己丑, 庚寅.
- Starting age: his next jeol is Soseo (小暑), on July 7, 1990 at about 6 p.m. That is 22 days and 4 hours after birth, and 22.2 divided by 3 is about 7.4, so his first Daewoon begins at roughly age 7 and 4 months, in late 1997.
- The result: 癸未 from about 7, 甲申 from 17, 乙酉 from 27, 丙戌 from 37. A round grid would put 癸未 at 10-19, about three years late.
That leaves 2027 as the final year of his 乙酉 decade, with 丙戌 due near the year's end. Years around a hand-over are called gyowoon-gi (交運期), read by many teachers as a time of adjustment.
Reading a ten-year pillar
Ask three questions of any pillar.
- What is this pillar to my day master? Each stem and branch becomes one of the ten gods (十神: peer, output, wealth, authority, resource) by its element and polarity relative to you. For our example man, the stem 乙 is wood, which metal controls, so it is a wealth star (偏財) for him. The branch 酉 is metal like himself, a peer star, read as self-reliance or rivalry.
- Does it feed my useful element? Your Yongsin (用神, "useful god") is the element your chart most needs for balance, explained in the Yongsin guide. A decade that brings it is generally read as supportive; one that adds more of what the chart already has too much of asks for deliberate effort.
- What does it do to my natal branches? Combinations and clashes with the branches in your chart show which part of life the decade presses on.
Some teachers read the stem for the first five years of a decade and the branch for the last five; treat that as a refinement.
Sewoon: the pillar of the year
Every year has its own stem-branch pair, and the pairs repeat every 60 years. That is why Koreans celebrate the 60th birthday as hwangap: the year pillar of your birth returns.
The saju year does not change on January 1. It changes at Ipchun (立春, "beginning of spring"). In 2027 that moment falls on February 4 at about 10:40 a.m. Korea time; until then it is still the 丙午 year, and afterwards it is 丁未, a Fire Goat year. See what 丁未 means for each animal sign in the 2027 forecast.
Sewoon is read the same way as Daewoon, but it works inside the decade. For the example man, the year stem 丁 is fire, which controls his metal, so 2027 puts responsibility and outside expectations in front of him (the authority star 七殺). The year branch 未 pairs with the two 午 in his year and month pillars, a six-harmony link (六合), read as a tie to the parts of the chart that speak of family background and working environment.
Where the layers meet
The telling moments come when a year's branch touches the Daewoon branch or a natal branch. Two standard sets:
- Six harmony (合): 子丑, 寅亥, 卯戌, 辰酉, 巳申 and 午未, read as bonds and commitments.
- Clash (沖): 子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌 and 巳亥, read as movement and disturbed routine: a move, a job change, a plan reworked.
If your chart holds 丑, the 未 of 2027 clashes with it: an area of life being stirred, not a verdict.
Using it without over-reading it
- Find your decade first, then the year, then set one or two practical intentions.
- Keep money, health and legal decisions on real numbers and professional advice, not on a chart.
FAQ
Q. At what age does my first Daewoon start?
A. Anywhere from under a year old to about age 10, depending on how close your birth is to the relevant jeol. Count the days and divide by three.
Q. Should I worry when a year clashes with my chart?
A. No. A clash marks where change is likely to be felt, and how it plays out depends on your choices. Luck is context, not command.
Q. Which counts for more, Daewoon or Sewoon?
A. Daewoon sets the longer backdrop and Sewoon is read inside it. Neither overrides your natal chart.
See your own pillars and ten-year order with the free saju analysis.