Like water is shaped by its container, we also form our destiny to some degree. The face is a living form and keeps changing through our lifestyle and mindset.
Everyone’s face is unique. Gwansang, or the ancient Korean practice of face reading, contends that people’s capabilities, qualifications, and even destinies can be ascertained by interpreting faces. It was believed that people were born with a certain destiny, but at the same time, there were things they could do to improve it through effort. Gwansang practitioners believe both destiny and effort would, in turn, show on the face.
“Eolgul,” the Korean word for face, means that the face contains our spirit, as “eol” means spirit or soul. As this indicates, our face reveals our relationships, popularity, career, money fortunes, interpersonal skills, and more.
Faces alter with time. The changes reflect not only age but the way people have lived. There is a Korean saying that people must take responsibility for their faces after their 40s, because the face reveals everything about how they have lived their lives.
The Face is a Living Form
So, like water is shaped by its container, we also form our destiny to some degree. The face is a living form and keeps changing by our lifestyle and mindset.
Face reading foretells people’s destiny by studying not only their faces but also considering overall body shapes formed by osteological features, which include their posture, body language, and even voice tones.
The Three Eras of Our Face
Gwansang is based on the belief that one’s mind and spirit are reflected in his or her appearance. Specifically, the face is divided into three parts: the upper, the middle and the lower:
- The upper part, from the forehead to the eyebrows is about one’s early years, from birth to age 34 and is called “Heaven’s part.” It reveals inherent fortune and reputation.
- The middle part, from the protuberant parts of the eyelids to the tip of a nose is about one’s middle life, from age 35 to 50 and is called the “Human part.” It reveals one’s career, money, marriage and ambitions.
- The lower part, from the end of a nose tip to the chin is about one’s latter years and is called the “Earth part.” It reveals the upkeep of properties including financial and human relationships and real estate.
The Major Readings of the Face:
- Forehead: the first prosperity mountain and reflects inherent fortune and also reputation, career, and parents
A forehead that is smooth, prominent and wide indicates good fortune and high social status. - Eyebrows: interpersonal skills, human relations, and siblings. Eyebrows that are balanced, long enough to cover the length of eyes and gently curved indicate a well-integrated personality.
- Eyes or eye area: show love, marriage and children
Eyes indicate 80-90% of human fate. Eyes with brightness and strength in energy indicate ambition and a will to challenge the world. Regardless of the shape, size or colouring, the eyes are reveal the inner vitality that shines through. Soft bags under eyes indicate a warm-hearted person and may lead to a good love fortune - Cheekbones: sociality, ambition and power
Prominent cheekbones indicate an extroverted character. An outgoing person with aspiration has fleshy cheekbones. - Nose: a river that leads to wealth, financial flow, and liquid assets
Prominent nosewings with proper fleshy nostrils indicate good wealth and fortune - Mouth: aspiration, capacity
A mouth usually indicates an ample capacity to embrace people. Drooping corners of the mouth represent a wrecked ship so try to smile more with the corners going up. - Chin: the base mountain which holds realty assets, employees and popularity
A chin indicates latter years. It needs to have enough space to contain abundant assets of a person including friends and subordinates
Nature and Face Reading
Gwansang is related to saju, or Korean fortune telling, and originated from ancient Eastern philosophy. The fundamental archetype under this belief is the analogy between nature and humans.
To put it more concretely, the human body, especially the face is emulated after nature, such as mountains, trees, rocks, rivers and animals. It was believed that because a human being is the most important creature in the universe, if we contemplate nature, we may also figure out what a human face can reveal.
The head symbolizes heaven and the two feet stand on earth. Humans have two legs and arms (four limbs in total), as there are four seasons. The yin, yang and five elements represent human organs. The five viscera and the six entrails are like the five great oceans and six continents. The 365 days manifest as 365 key meridian points of energy (qi) flow in a human body. There are 12 major meridians as there are 12 months a year.
Two eyes represent the sun and the moon, blood is river, bones are rocks and stones, a nose and forehead (those protruding parts) are mountains and hairs are plants and trees. These features in humans are itself a small universe and one must attempt to find the order of nature through the protruding and hollow parts, gradual and rich shapes in human body. In a human body, the face is most important or specific to the individual, so they believed that the rise and fall of destiny can be seen through the face.
Changing your Gwansang
Everyone has their own minds and thoughts, and their faces, voices, body odor and habits are different, too. Environmental factors are added to one’s face which is also shaped by one’s mind and genetic factors. And then the thoughts and behavior are supplemented to determine one’s destiny.
Although it’s not easy to reshape an innate bone structure, it is definitely feasible to change one’s gwansang by one’s attitude and effort. Whether or not gwansang can be changed with plastic surgery is a controversial topic. But as water is shaped by its container, we also form our destiny to some degree. The face is a living form and keeps changing by our lifestyle and mindset. Whether you believe in gwansang or not, it never hurts to stay positive and live a healthy lifestyle.