Don’t Know Your Birth Time? Here’s How to Find It (and Why It Matters in Astrocartography)
You’re ready to dive into your first astrology or astrocartography reading, but then the intake form asks you for your birth time. Next thing you know you’re rummaging through old boxes or calling your parents asking if they remember.
This article explains the importance of your birth time accuracy to get an astrocartography reading and what you can do to track it down.
If you’re new to locational astrology, start with Astrocartography 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Locational Astrology.
Why an Accurate Birth Time Matters in Astrology and Astrocartography
In astrocartography, even a few minutes’ difference in your birth time can shift your map lines significantly, changing how your planetary energies express themselves across locations.
Your date of birth is a good starting point when it comes to diving into your astrology. First of all, it tells us our sun sign, the placement almost all of us are familiar with. However, we are so much more than our sun sign. Next to your sun placement, your date of birth will also show in which zodiac signs the planets were located that day. This already gives us lots of context about your personality and life path.
Yet, to really understand your motivation and focus in this lifetime, we need to know your birth time. The exact time you were born determines your rising sign, also called ascendant.
What is The Rising Sign (Ascendant)?
Astronomically, your rising sign is the point of the zodiac that intersects the eastern horizon at the time and place of birth. In simpler terms, it’s the zodiac sign that was rising over the eastern horizon at the exact moment you were born. Just like the sun rises in the east.
Astrologically, the ascendant or rising sign represents how you appear in the world. This includes how you come across to others, your physical appearance and your motivation in your lifetime.
In the birth chart, it is always the zodiac sign on the 1st house , and you’ll see the letters AS or ASC in that house.
Through knowing your rising sign, it determines all the other zodiac signs and therefore planet placements in your chart. For example, if you are a Taurus sun, there is a big difference between your sun (your identity) (link to birth chart planet placements?) being in the 7th house of partnerships, or the 10th house of career.
How Often Does the Rising Sign Change?
Even a two-hour difference can change your entire chart.
Just as the sun moves through the sky during the day and night, so does the rising sign shift constantly. This means that the rising sign changes about every two hours.
It is very common that parents will remember your birth time as “between 2 and 3” or “around 2 o-clock”.
Unfortunately this leaves a lot of room for error. The rising sign could shift between different zodiac signs, which would therefore affect all the placements in your birth chart.
Why The Degree of the Ascendant Matters
Even when you know your rising sign, the exact minute of your birth also affects your chart accuracy.
Each of the twelve houses in the astrological birth chart consist of thirty degrees (when using the whole sign house system). Depending on the time you were born, the ascendant angle is on one of these degrees within the first house.
Why is this important? If you have seen your birth chart before, you may have noticed the blue and red lines in the centre, connecting the planets and angles to each other. These are called the aspects and tell us a lot about how exactly the planets are supportive, challenging or neutral.
The degree of the ascendant changes almost every minute, and therefore the aspects it makes to the other planets also changes.
How to Find or Recover Your Birth Time
Below you’ll find a few ways in which you can recover your birth time in order to receive an accurate astrology or astrocartography reading.
Ask Your Parents
Check Your Birth Certificate or Birth Announcement
Contact the Hospital
Reach Out to Local Authorities
Try Astrology Rectification
Ask Your Parents or Family Members for Clues
Ok this might seem like the obvious choice, but it’s a good place to start. Most parents will have saved your birth certificate somewhere in a file or box.
It’s also pretty common for your birth time to be listed on your birth announcement card or in photo books.
Even if your parents remember your birth time, it is still highly recommended to find your birth certificate or birth announcement. No offense to the amazing parents out there, but something as precise as your birth time may have slipped their minds.
Contact The Hospital Where You Were Born
Hospitals often keep records of all the births for quite a while. It is worth a shot to give the hospital you were born in (if such is the case) a call to verify.
Reach Out to Local Authorities
The local authorities of the city you were born in often keep birth records too. Even if you are no longer registered there, it might be worth giving them a call.
Book an Astrology Rectification Reading
There are astrologers that specialise in birth chart rectification. This process includes them asking you questions about major occurrences in your life. The astrologer uses this information to work backwards and narrow down your birth time as closely as possible.
They are not always able to narrow it down to the exact minute, but should at least be able to determine your rising sign.
Note that some rectification astrologers will need at least a time frame of maximum 2 hours. This depends on the rectification astrologer and therefore it is worth doing your research.
Ready to Explore Your Astrocartography Map?
Are you all set with your birth time and ready to start exploring your unique Astrocartography map?
FAQs About Your Birth Time
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You can find your birth time by asking your parents for your birth certificate or birth announcement, contact the hospital where you were born, contact the local authorities in the city you were born, or book a chart rectification reading with a specialised astrologer.
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A professional rectification astrologer can calculate your average birth time for you.
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Your birth time is essential for an accurate astrology or astrocartography reading. It provides lots of in depth information about your personality and life.
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This depends on the Astrocartographer. At Bida I do accept clients for astrocartography readings who are not exactly sure of their birth time.
I don’t want to exclude anyone from the opportunity due to lost records.However, it is important to know that the accuracy of the reading might be affected.
