What Is Destiny-Based Fortune Telling? — reading fate from your birth data

Supervised by Usatoko WHITE
Professional fortune teller & spiritual advisor

✦Introduction

With so much happening in the world lately, many of us find ourselves longing for a little more peace of mind. At times like these, why not take a peek into the world of fortune telling? It can be a wonderful way to sort out your thoughts and feelings.

You might feel that there are so many kinds of fortune telling that it's hard to know where to start — but the world of divination can actually be broken down into three broad categories.

These are: destiny-based fortune telling (命術), physiognomy-based fortune telling (相術), and divination-based fortune telling (卜術).

Let's start by taking a careful look at what each of these three fields involves.

Once you understand them, you'll naturally be able to choose, guided by your own intuition, whichever style of fortune telling suits you best right now.

This time, we'll take a detailed look at destiny-based fortune telling.

Nyanta

What is destiny-based fortune telling? Is it a type of fortune telling?

Nekosuke

Fortune telling is broadly divided into "destiny-based," "divination-based," and "physiognomy-based" methods. Destiny-based fortune telling reads your fate from unchanging information like your date of birth.

☾What Is Destiny-Based Fortune Telling? The Basics

We're all born with certain personal information that never changes — our birthday, and the time and place we were born.

These details can never be altered later in life. They remain constant throughout our lives, data that we each carry carefully within us from the moment we're born.

Fortune telling that uses this fixed, fate-given information as its foundation is called destiny-based fortune telling.

Because of this, destiny-based fortune telling is highly effective for reading the personality and innate talents we're born with, as well as the kind of fate that awaits us over a long stretch of time.

It's especially recommended when you're curious about what type of person you are, or which careers might suit you.

But that's not all — it's also well suited to reading compatibility: between two people, between a person and an organization such as a company, and even between two organizations.

It can offer answers to questions like "what type of person am I compatible with?" or "am I compatible with that person I'm interested in?"

In every case, because the reading is based on solid, unshakeable personal information given to us at birth, one of destiny-based fortune telling's biggest strengths is that it allows for more accurate, finely detailed interpretations.

Because it's such a dependable method, destiny-based fortune telling can reliably show you how to seize opportunities without letting them slip by, or how to navigate your way through a difficult period when a crisis seems to be approaching.

In other words, for anyone who wants to firmly grasp the fate they've been given and make the most of it to find true happiness, destiny-based fortune telling is a reassuring ally.

✧Types of Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

Now let's take a closer look at exactly what kinds of fortune-telling systems fall under destiny-based fortune telling.

The types of fortune telling included in this category are as follows.

• Western astrology
• Vedic (Indian) astrology
• Sukuyō astrology
• Four Pillars of Destiny (Shichū Suimei)
• Nine Star Ki (Kyūsei Kigaku)
• Suan Ming (Sanmeigaku)
• Zi Wei Dou Shu (Shibi Tosū)
• Numerology

Seeing eight different systems listed all at once might feel a little overwhelming, but don't worry.

Let's group them into three broad types — astrology-based systems, Chinese-origin systems, and numerology — and take a relaxed look at what each one generally involves.

Astrology as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

First, let's talk about astrology.

Astrology has developed its own distinct traditions in both the West and the East, and each has found popularity in its own region.

In the West, the most familiar system is, of course, Western astrology.

Western astrology generally works by using a horoscope — a map of the positions of the stars in the sky — to read a person's personality, compatibility with someone they're interested in, and future fortune.

In the East, meanwhile, Vedic astrology and Sukuyō astrology are the best known.

Vedic astrology is an ancient tradition passed down in India. Like Western astrology, it uses a horoscope, but a key distinguishing feature is that it doesn't stop at simply telling fortunes — it also guides the growth of the soul.

Sukuyō astrology, meanwhile, originated from Vedic astrology and developed into a uniquely Japanese system. It's used to read personality and fortune, and is especially known for being excellent at compatibility readings.

Chinese-Origin Systems as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

Next, let's look at the fortune-telling systems within destiny-based fortune telling that originated in China.

These mainly include Four Pillars of Destiny, Nine Star Ki, Suan Ming, and Zi Wei Dou Shu.

Four Pillars of Destiny, as its name suggests, is a statistical method that derives a person's zodiac sign combinations from the four "pillars" of year, month, day, and hour, and uses them to read personality and fortune.

Nine Star Ki also uses a person's date of birth to determine their "ki" (energy) type, and reads not only lucky and unlucky directions but also personality and fortune.

Suan Ming may be unfamiliar to many, but it too uses a person's date of birth as its starting point, quantifying the energy a person holds and mapping it onto a unique chart called a "human star chart" to read that person's personality and fate.

Zi Wei Dou Shu is also likely unfamiliar to many people. It uses a fictional star said to orbit the North Star, called Zi Wei, along with a person's date, time, and place of birth, to read their personality, way of thinking, and fortune.

One notable feature of this system is that its readings are relatively easy to understand.

Numerology as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

Numerology has been gaining attention recently, so some readers may already be familiar with it.

Numerology is said to have originated in Greece. It works by deriving a number that a person is innately born with from their date of birth and name, and using it to read their personality and fate.

⧗The History and Origins of Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

For those who, having learned about the various types of destiny-based fortune telling, would like to dig a little deeper into its history and origins, here is a more detailed explanation.

The History and Origins of Astrology as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

Astrology began around 3000 to 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of ancient civilization, where large-scale astronomical observation was used to divine the fate of nations and royal families.

This astrology spread to Greece, becoming Western astrology, and from there spread further around the world.

Among the branches that reached the East, Vedic astrology emerged from the fusion of this tradition with ancient Indian star-reading practices.

Vedic astrology then spread to China, where it became known as Sukuyōkyō.

This Sukuyōkyō was brought to Japan during the Heian period by Kūkai, who traveled to China as a member of a Japanese envoy to the Tang dynasty, and it came to be known as Sukuyō astrology.

In this way, astrology, which was born in the West, gradually came to be embraced by many people in the East as well, becoming known under many different names in different countries.

The History and Origins of Chinese-Origin Systems as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

Next, let's take a closer look at the fortune-telling systems that originated in China.

The Chinese-origin systems introduced here all essentially trace their roots back to the theory of yin-yang and the five elements, a system of thought formed in ancient China more than 4,000 years ago.

In addition, roughly 3,500 years ago in ancient China, people would divine the fate of the nation by scorching turtle shells and ox shoulder blades, recording the results in oracle bone script.

Records show that the Chinese zodiac was already being written down at this time, and it was during the Shang dynasty that Four Pillars of Destiny, which uses the zodiac, was developed.

Around the same period, a system of directional divination called Kyūsei-jutsu, which also incorporated the zodiac, was born.

This Kyūsei-jutsu, along with the directional studies derived from the theory of yin-yang and the five elements, and zodiac studies, were eventually unified in the 13th year of the Taishō era (1924) by Shinjirō Sonoda, who named the combined system Nine Star Ki — the form it remains in today.

Also, during the Spring and Autumn period roughly 2,500 years ago, Gui Guzi devised Suan Ming by building on the foundation of oracle bone script and incorporating the philosophy of Laozi.

Some time later, during the transition from the Tang to the Song dynasty, Chen Xiyi, a teacher of Taoist philosophy, created Zi Wei Dou Shu.

The History and Origins of Numerology as Destiny-Based Fortune Telling

As for numerology, it's said to have originated from the philosophy of Pythagoras, the mathematician and philosopher active in ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE.

Eventually, Pythagorean thought spread to the ancient Jewish world, giving rise to a unique Jewish mystical tradition. Out of this emerged Kabbalistic numerology, which became a major trend in Europe during the Renaissance.

Many years later, in the early 20th century, a system now known as modern numerology was established based on the writings of a figure named Balliett, published in the United States, and it spread around the world from there.

Looking at all this, destiny-based fortune telling isn't a recent invention at all — it's a crystallization of wisdom passed down among people all over the world throughout humanity's long history.

☀How Each Method of Destiny-Based Fortune Telling Is Read

Now that we have a deeper understanding of the history and origins of destiny-based fortune telling, let's finish by explaining, for each system, exactly how the reading is done.

How Astrology-Based Systems Are Read

Western astrology and Vedic astrology both essentially use a horoscope depicting the positions of the stars at the time of a person's birth, examining the positional relationships between the 12 zodiac signs and 10 planets to read that person's personality and fortune.

However, there is a key difference: Western astrology classifies people into 12 types based on the sun's movement, whereas Vedic astrology divides people into 27 types based on the moon's movement.

Sukuyō astrology also classifies people into 27 types based on the moon's movement, but because it uses the old Japanese lunar calendar for its readings, the results often differ from those of Vedic astrology.

Additionally, Western and Vedic astrology both use not just the date of birth but also the time of birth as a basis for their readings, which is another point where they differ from Sukuyō astrology.

How Chinese-Origin Systems Are Read

Four Pillars of Destiny combines the 10 "stems" and 12 "branches" based on a person's year, month, day, and hour of birth to construct pillars for "year," "month," "day," and "hour." From these, a chart called a life chart (命式) is created to read the person's personality and fortune.

Nine Star Ki divides "ki" energy types into nine categories, from Ichihaku-Suisei (One White Water Star) to Kyūshi-Kasei (Nine Purple Fire Star), collectively called the "nine stars." By calculating the star for a person's birth year and birth month, a directional chart is created to examine lucky and unlucky directions, as well as to read that person's personality and fate.

Suan Ming uses a person's date of birth to place stars uniquely defined within the system — the "Ten Major Stars" and "Twelve Minor Stars" — onto a chart called the "human star chart," which depicts the human body, in order to read personality and fate.

Zi Wei Dou Shu uses a person's date, time, and place of birth to create a chart called the "life chart" (命盤) — essentially an Eastern version of a horoscope — and places 14 "major stars" onto it to read that person's personality and fortune.

How Numerology Is Read

Finally, numerology mainly works by taking all the numbers that make up a person's date of birth and reducing them down to a single-digit natural number between 1 and 9, which is then used to read that person's personality and future fate.

There are also methods that convert a person's birth day, or their name translated into the alphabet, into numbers, and then perform further calculations from there to derive a "destiny number."

Nyanta

So fortune telling has genres too! That's fascinating!

Nekosuke

Knowing the characteristics of each system is really useful for finding the one that suits you best.

♡Summary

Here, we've taken a detailed look at what kind of fortune telling destiny-based fortune telling is, the history it has followed, and how each of its methods is actually read.

A great many different systems came up along the way, making for quite a packed introduction — how did you find it?

Fundamentally, destiny-based fortune telling, by its very nature, is well suited to those who want their fortune telling backed by logical grounds.

Specifically, it's well suited to situations where you want to know your fortune for a particular day or period, when you want to understand your own inner nature, or when you want to know your compatibility with someone you're interested in.

Cultivated over humanity's long history, destiny-based fortune telling is a reliable advisor, backed by solid tradition.

We hope you'll borrow the strength of this dependable ally and use it to make your everyday life more positive and enjoyable.

Reviewed by

Usatoko WHITE

Professional fortune teller specialising in tarot, oracle and Lenormand reading. Usatoko supervises every divination guide at Luna Factory to keep them accurate and beginner-friendly.

Written by the Luna Factory Editorial Team