What if the birth time is unknown or incorrect?

Having the correct time of birth within 15 minutes is crucial to establishing the very foundation of an astrological birth chart.  The time of birth establishes the location of your Ascendant (Rising Sign) and more importantly the degree of your ascendant.  It's from this "starting point" of a birth chart, an astrologer is able to position the planets locations, in the correct Houses of your birth chart.  These 12 houses are the categories of all your life events. Every experience, every item, every person, every desire, every accident, every character trait, every concept that occurs throughout your life,  will fall into one of these houses.  This is how Astrologers are able to make such detailed predictions and describe such intimate facets of your life.  If a birth time is unknown or wildly off from when your birth did take place.  These 12 houses will not match up correctly to the stars and constellations. Making detailed predictions nearly impossible.

Not only will your Houses be incorrectly associated with the planets, but your Moon will also be incorrect.  The Moon's location and condition is paramount to understanding your very essence and your overall quality of life.  The Moon, for lack of a better explanation, is the gate keeper of all  celestial phenomenon and how those energies effect you.  Having an inaccurate Moon in your horoscope is like trying to find a book in the New York City Library, but there is no card catalog or Librarian to help guide you.  

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How to find your birth time?

Your birth time should be taken directly from the birth certificate or hospital record of birth.  These two official documents will vary depending on where you were born.  In the US, the easiest way to find the time of birth is to purchase a copy of your birth certificate from the Vital Records Department in the state you were born.  Click here to find your states Vital Records Department and website. 

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Do not rely on your memory, or your mother's memory of what the birth time was.  Guessing or using a birth time from memory should only be used if no birth time was recorded or if you suspect the nurse/doctor or midwife's time of birth is inaccurate.  On average most birth times are 1-2 minutes off anyway and this doesn't usually present any issues with an accurate reading. 

If you must make a wild guess as to the birth time, consider the following: 

 *A mother's recollection of the time of birth is often wrong because of the extreme amount of pain, natural endorphins, hormonal fluctuations, or labor and delivery pain medication received in the hospital.  Even when a mother is convinced she knows "exactly what time" their child was born.  More often than not, their memory is exactly 12 hours off.  This is due to the fact that many first time mother's go into labor and spend half the day in the hospital delivery room before the baby is born.  The mother will remember getting to the hospital during the daytime, but not realize she didn't give birth until later that evening in the pm.  This is the most common mistake I see with birth times taken from a mother's memory. 

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You can narrow down a time of birth by knowing if the baby was born spontaneously/naturally, by caesarian section, or was induced by the doctor.  

Most natural, spontaneous, unplanned births occur before 6:am or just after midnight. The mother's water typically breaks late at night between 10:pm and 2:am. Then she goes into labor for 6-12 hours before the baby is born.  Thus, most babies naturally are born 15 minutes before or after sunrise or within 2 hours of the mother's water breaking just before midnight.

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In this modern age, most births are caesarian sections or surgically induced births.  In this case, you can pretty much guarantee that the time of birth is somewhere between 8:am and 4:30pm on a weekday.  Doctors like to schedule these surgeries early, starting around 6:am so they can finish up their case loads and get off work early to go play golf.  

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Induced labor by medication or other alternative methods is less predictable but follows the same trend as surgical births. With most occurring on a weekday between 8:am and 4:30pm.  Or if on a weekend, between 8:am and 1:pm.  

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  Always be suspicious of a birth time that is right on the hour, or half hour.  Chances, are the nurse got busy or forgot to document the exact time and "rounded up." 

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If there were complications with the baby immediately following birth, such as a breached birth, umbilical cord issues, breathing issues etc.  Expect that the nurse and medical team's birth time is several minutes off as they were attending to more important matter's that what time the clock was reading. 

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Some birth certificates or hospital birth records do not have the time of birth listed, but it was documented on a different form.  When requesting a birth report or certificate from any agency or hospital.  Ask specifically for the "Long Form" with the birth time.  

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Home births pre 1970's, didn't file birth certificates or even fill out the paperwork for several days after the baby was born.  Their birth times are terribly inaccurate and often just guesses.  Ask other family member's for clues to when the birth time could have been.

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One of the most accurate birth times can be found on the time stamps of photos that were taken right after a baby is born.  All cellphones and digital camers encode each photo with a digital signature that includes the date, time, and location by latitude and longitude.  You can find this information in the "properties" of the image file.  Older, pre-internet digital cameras and even 35mm cameras often had time and date digital stamps automatically applied to the original photo's negative when the photo was taken.  Check old photos taken at birth for these stamps on the bottom of the developed picture.  Also check the negatives that accompanied the printed photos.  Many photo developers like Wal-Mart and other chains, would omit the digital time stamp from the actual printed photos unless the customer specifically requested them.  

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Last and final Options. If no birth time can be found.  

In the rare case that the time of birth cannot be narrowed down to within an hour of the birth.  there are two final options to consider. My first suggestion as a professional astrologer is simply: "astrology cannot help you in this life, sorry!"  Don't waste your money, instead Use that money for a good psychic or tarot reading. 

Why do I say this? 

because Astrology is a high science that requires correct and precise data, which is simply not in the cards for you and not a part of your destiny.  in fact, written in  your life's blueprint will be a signature pattern which states "you do not have access to this information."  astrology is not, let me repeat, not divination. It is not guessing, it is not guided by intuition or hunches, nor is it channeled information from spirits of any such non-sense.   it is not supernatural or meta-physical.  it is a highly detailed, accurate and precise geometric, mathematic and numeric language which has encoded within it, the original map and blueprint of your incarnation into a body. and gives the exact timing of where you life falls into this big giant repeating predictable wheel we call samsara. astrology is not 100% accurate because free will, chance and your own choices, change the programming along the way.   When astrology is performed correctly, with emphasis on using the exact birth time and using true, human, logical, critical thinking skills to analyze the chart. you would be amazed at how accurate and life changing astrology truly is.  in fact, astrology is so accurate, that it has been hidden, banned, ridiculed, censored, or purposefully hidden from the average person for the last 2000+ years. it is the most reliable esoteric system available with the most detailed and inexhaustible resource for planning one's life. 

 

outside, of astrology there are fields of pseudo-spiritual techniques which have helped some people uncover hidden information about themselves and their future.  but, because these other methods are based entirely on an individual person's honesty and is therefore a system which has no rules, no codes, no language, and no body of historic evidence.  these systems are "art forms" which are preyed upon by charlatans, narcissists, actors and self deluded mystics who are great at taking your money while speaking in cryptic circles so you leave feeling so confused that you must have gotten your money's worth.

So if no birth time is available, seek out a reputable psychic who has many reviews regarding their accuracy.  stay away from high profile psychics you see on TV or talks shows.  they are usually only guessing hypnotist with sociopathic skills of emotional mimicry. and never waste your money on mediums who channel spirits, aliens, ascended masters, angels, demons, ghosts or the dead.  Almost all "disembodied" information comes from counterfeit spirits with the deceptive ability of a "mocking-Jay".  When you were a kid, your parents surely taught you not to talk to strangers?  Well, how is channeling any different.  You never know who's on the other end of that phone call.  corrupt spirits and the mediums that harness their message are bewitched and under their own illusions. 

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The Most accurate birth time money can buy.

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my final option is to consider having a Birth chart rectification performed.  This is a rather expensive type of reading, often times more expensive than the astrology reading itself.  Where an astrologer uses significant events in your life to recreate and calculate the most probable time that you were born.  This is a painful, long and tedious process which requires calculating your birth chart hundreds of times. trying every possible minute of the day as your birth time.  Then progressing each of those birth charts through various techniques to see if one of those birth times would produce the significant events that have already occurred in your life, such as deaths, births, accidents, etc.  at the precise moments that the birth time predicted they would.  Not only does chart rectification require the person to have already lived well into their adult years, in order to have significant events to use as markers. but no astrology software exists that can do such a pinpointing feat.  the closest analogy to chart rectification would be a safe cracker, using a digital stethoscope on a bank combination vault.  the focus, dedication and time required for chart rectification is vital.  the result:  when done correctly, a Birth chart rectification is nothing short of knat-eyelash accuracy and Worth every penny.  

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