Robbery Star in Saju: Find It in Your Chart With One Lookup

The Robbery Star is one of the twelve sinsal, the secondary "spirit stars" that Korean saju readers lay over a birth chart. Its Korean name is geopsal (겁살, 劫煞), and the first character means to seize something by force. That name makes people nervous, and it is often the first thing someone asks about when they see it on an app printout.

You do not need a reader to find it. The Robbery Star sits on one specific Earthly Branch, and which branch it is depends on a single branch in your own chart. Below is a lookup table, a four-step check you can do in two minutes, and an honest account of what this star can and cannot tell you. If you do not have your four pillars yet, get them from the free saju reading first and keep the page open next to this one.

One caution first. In my own readings the twelve sinsal are seasoning, not the main dish. The Ten Gods, the Five Element balance and your useful element carry far more weight, and the Robbery Star never overrules them.

What the Robbery Star Actually Is

The twelve sinsal are a cycle of twelve positions. They are counted from the three-harmony frame (samhap, 삼합) that your base branch belongs to. Each frame has a starting point, a peak and a storage point, and the twelve stars mark where every other branch falls relative to that frame.

The Robbery Star is the position that comes straight after the storage point, the moment a frame's element has been packed away and is at its weakest. Classical texts describe it as the point where something built up is exposed to an outside force. That is where the "robbery" image comes from: not bad luck from nowhere, but a gap where pressure from outside can get in.

There are only four possible Robbery Star branches: Tiger 寅, Snake 巳, Monkey 申 and Pig 亥. These are the same four branches that start each season, which is why the star is associated with sudden, forceful beginnings as well as losses.

The sinsal overview lists the Robbery Star among the challenging stars. This post is the practical companion: how to find it and how to weigh it.

The Robbery Star Lookup Table

Find the frame that your base branch belongs to, then read across.

Your base branch	Three-harmony frame	Robbery Star branch
Monkey 申, Rat 子, Dragon 辰	Water frame	Snake 巳
Tiger 寅, Horse 午, Dog 戌	Fire frame	Pig 亥
Snake 巳, Rooster 酉, Ox 丑	Metal frame	Tiger 寅
Pig 亥, Rabbit 卯, Goat 未	Wood frame	Monkey 申

A pattern worth noticing: the Robbery Star branch always clashes with the "Loss of Face" star (mangsin, 망신) of the same frame. In the Water frame the Robbery Star is Snake 巳 and its clash partner Pig 亥 is the mangsin position.

A Four-Step Self-Check

Step 1: Pick your base branch

Traditional practice counts the twelve sinsal from the year branch. Many modern Korean readers also count from the day branch, which describes your own daily life more closely. I check both.

Your year branch is your zodiac animal, but only if you use the correct year boundary. Saju years begin at Ipchun, around 4 February, not on 1 January or Lunar New Year. Someone born on 20 January 1990 is still a Snake year person in saju. If that point is new to you, read why your saju year changes at Ipchun.

Step 2: Find your Robbery Star branch

Use the table once for the year branch and once for the day branch. The two results can be the same branch or different ones.

Step 3: Look for that branch in your chart

Check all four branches of your chart: year, month, day and hour. If the Robbery Star branch appears in any of them, you "have" the star in your natal chart. If it appears in none of them, you do not, and the star only matters when it arrives through timing (Step 4).

Note where it sits. The traditional reading by position goes roughly like this:

• Year branch: themes around family background, early environment, or outside groups you belong to
• Month branch: work, colleagues and the social setting you spend most of your days in
• Day branch: your close partnership and your own reactions under pressure
• Hour branch: later life, projects you start, and the people who follow you

Step 4: Check the timing

A Robbery Star that is not in your natal chart can still be switched on when a year, a month or a ten-year luck cycle brings that branch in. Here are the coming years that carry each Robbery Star branch.

Year	Pillar	Robbery Star year for
2025	乙巳 Wood Snake	Water frame (Monkey, Rat, Dragon)
2028	戊申 Earth Monkey	Wood frame (Pig, Rabbit, Goat)
2031	辛亥 Metal Pig	Fire frame (Tiger, Horse, Dog)
2034	甲寅 Wood Tiger	Metal frame (Snake, Rooster, Ox)
2037	丁巳 Fire Snake	Water frame (Monkey, Rat, Dragon)

The current year, 2026 丙午 Fire Horse, is not a Robbery Star year for anyone, because Horse 午 is never a Robbery Star branch. 2027 丁未 is not one either. The next one is 2028 for the Wood frame.

Months follow the same rule. Each saju month is set by solar terms, so the Snake month runs from around 5 May to around 5 June, the Monkey month from around 7 August to around 7 September, the Pig month from around 7 November to around 7 December, and the Tiger month from around 4 February to around 5 March. Exact days shift slightly by year; see how solar terms decide the month pillar.

A Worked Example (Hypothetical Chart)

Say a chart belongs to someone born on 12 March 1992 at 10:00 in Seoul. This is a made-up birth date used to show the method, not a real person.

• Year: 壬申 Water Monkey (1992 began at Ipchun in early February)
• Month: 癸卯 Water Rabbit (12 March is after Gyeongchip, the start of the Rabbit month)
• Day: 丁亥 Fire Pig
• Hour: 乙巳 Wood Snake (10:00 falls in the Snake hour)

From the year branch: Monkey 申 belongs to the Water frame, so the Robbery Star is Snake 巳. Snake 巳 sits in the hour branch. This chart has the Robbery Star in the hour pillar.

From the day branch: Pig 亥 belongs to the Wood frame, so the Robbery Star is Monkey 申. Monkey 申 sits in the year branch. The chart has a second Robbery Star, this time in the year pillar.

Now the part that matters more than the star itself. For a 丁 Fire Day Master, the Snake 巳 in the hour holds 丙 Fire as its main element, which is the Rob Wealth star among the Ten Gods. The Monkey 申 in the year holds 庚 Metal, which is Direct Wealth. So one Robbery Star sits on a competitor star and the other sits on a money star. On top of that, the day branch Pig 亥 clashes with the hour branch Snake 巳.

A careful reading would not say "this person will be robbed." It would say money and competition are linked in this chart, the hour pillar is unstable because of the clash, and shared money deserves written terms. Whether that becomes loss or competitive drive depends on whether Fire is the useful element here, which takes a full balance check. The useful god guide walks through that check.

How to Read It Without Panic

The classical reading

Older texts link the Robbery Star with sudden loss, theft, disputes and being pushed out of a position. These readings come from an agricultural society where a sudden outside force usually meant damage.

The modern reading

Most Korean readers today also read the other side: speed, decisiveness and the nerve to act under pressure. That is why the star is often linked with work where quick, firm decisions are part of the job, such as emergency response, surgery, trading, sports and competitive sales.

The deciding factor is not the star. It is whether the element of that branch helps or hurts the chart as a whole. If the Robbery Star branch carries your useful element, the star tends to show up as initiative and timing. If it carries the element your chart already has too much of, it tends to show up as friction and leakage.

The Robbery Star is not Rob Wealth

This mix-up is very common in English material. Rob Wealth (geopjae, 겁재) is one of the Ten Gods, defined by the relationship between your Day Master and another stem. The Robbery Star (geopsal, 겁살) is one of the twelve sinsal, defined by branch position in a frame. They share the character 劫 and nothing else. Plenty of charts have one without the other. In the example above, one Robbery Star happens to land on a Rob Wealth branch, but that is a coincidence of this chart, not a rule. For the Ten God, see Peer and Rob Wealth.

It is not samjae

Samjae, the "three disaster years", is counted from the same three-harmony frames, which is why the two get confused. They are different positions. For the Water frame, samjae covers the Tiger, Rabbit and Dragon years (2022 to 2024 most recently), and the Robbery Star year is the Snake year that comes straight after it (2025). The same pattern holds for every frame: the Robbery Star year follows the last samjae year. Samjae is a three-year folk timing window, while the Robbery Star is one position on the twelve-star cycle that can also sit in your natal chart. The samjae guide covers that window.

What to Do If You Have It

If the Robbery Star sits in your chart, or a Robbery Star year is coming, these are the steps I suggest. None involve charms.

1. Put shared money in writing. Loans to friends, joint purchases and business splits are where the "robbery" theme most often lands today.
2. Slow down one decision a month. The star speeds things up. Give one decision each month an extra 48 hours.
3. Use the drive on purpose. If the branch carries your useful element, a Robbery Star year suits starting something competitive.
4. Check the luck cycle, not just the year. The same year reads very differently inside a supportive or a difficult ten-year cycle.

If you want the rest of the twelve stars explained with the same care, the Saju Book covers the sinsal system alongside the Ten Gods, so you can see where each piece fits.

Related Stars Worth Checking

The Travel Star, the Flower Canopy Star and the Peach Blossom Star sit on the same twelve-position cycle. For several stars at once, use the special stars self-check.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if I have the Robbery Star?

Find the three-harmony frame of your year branch and your day branch, look up the matching Robbery Star branch in the table above, and check whether that branch appears anywhere among your four branches. If it does, you have it in your natal chart. If not, it only matters in years, months or luck cycles that bring that branch in.

Is the Robbery Star always bad?

No. It marks a point where outside force enters, which can show up as loss or as quick, decisive action. Whether the branch carries your useful element decides which side shows up more. On its own, the star is not enough to predict anything.

When is the next Robbery Star year?

There is none in 2026 or 2027. The next ones are 2028 (Earth Monkey) for people whose base branch is Pig, Rabbit or Goat, 2031 (Metal Pig) for Tiger, Horse or Dog, 2034 (Wood Tiger) for Snake, Rooster or Ox, and 2037 (Fire Snake) for Monkey, Rat or Dragon.

Should I use my year branch or my day branch?

Use both. The year branch is the classical method and shows the outer, social side. The day branch is common in modern Korean practice and shows how the theme reaches your daily life and close relationships.

Get the Full Picture of Your Chart

A single star is a footnote. What decides whether the Robbery Star means loss or drive is the balance of your whole chart, your useful element and the luck cycle you are in now. If you want that read properly, with your year, month, day and hour pillars all checked, order a full saju reading and I will go through your chart with you.