Your birthtime may be on your birth certificate, in your baby book, that newspaper clipping Aunt Elaine saved, Dad's diary, revealed in family stories of the event. I like it when what Mom remembers and your birth certificate agree, a good double-check. Try searching online. You may need to write for your birth records. Try anywhere from the doctor who delivered you, to the hospital, city records, the county seat, the state level, if need. Often the local library can give you the address you need to write to and the fee they may require or look online.

Ask for, insist on, the detailed original certificate with your birth time on it, rather than the notarized passport type that merely states your name and date. If you get the latter, don't let it slide, we need that birth time! Ask them to resend, saying you asked for the complete with-your-birth-time-on-it birth record. What we need is the time of the moment of your first breath. You can do without food and water, but not your breath. It is a vital factor. Doesn't matter if you were born cesarean, Spirit brings us in at the potent moment. The time of the moment of conception would be great, but few people know that moment.

Quick summary: With modern technology - a credit card, fax/email, you might be able to get what we need quickly with little effort! For US and international records, a starting place might be: Vital Records Information If you think you will go for it, just be sure to specify you want the certificate with your birth TIME on it, not a simple notarized passport copy. Not to worry if it is not available or you don't have time to pursue it. We have techniques to use in such cases, but for the most information, and more accuracy....

Speaking of which, sometimes birth certificates are wrong. It is not uncommon for am and pm to be switched. I've had cases where the wrong date, year, was recorded! I think intuited times are often right. When you keep wanting to say 5:06, but your certificate says 5:01, for example. The chart is run and things fit to a tee!

Sometimes a person will have a 'wrong' time for years and out of the blue the 'right' one is found. It seems to me that the 'wrong' chart may emphasize an important issue the years the 'wrong' time is used. When the person is ready for the next level, the person 'discovers' the 'right' birthtime. It is common a sign the person has hated comes up prominently in the new chart! God bless your therapist! How often they tell us that what we dislike in others is a part of ourselves we need to make peace with.... This 'first one time, then another' may happen when the creative processes are used to find your birthtime, emphasizing, unlayering different principles as we grow.

….but I can't get my BirthTIME. Can I still get a chart?

If you were adopted, check to see if you legally have a right to your birth records. If they are not accessible or you were born at home, in the taxi, where no records were kept, you can, if you trust, use a creative process to access your birthtime if you have had good results before. Some people use pendulums, kinesiology (muscle testing, accesses the limbic system), rebirthing, ask for visions in dreams, meditation, even a sign. I always ask first if it is right for us to know the data at this time. If that is affirmative, I ask which person is the right one to do the asking for the data. If it indicates this is not the time, I honor that and wait. There may be good reason.

Here's Another Solution:

We do what is called a 'Noon Solar Chart.' This was a chart 'invented' by the Arabs, who were adept and avid astrologers, for exactly this purpose! Way back then a lot of people didn't have their birthtimes. What for? And it wasn't recorded anywhere either. The way it works is your chart is calculated for noon, the Sun (hence Solar) is arbitrarily put on the Ascendant using the Sun's degree on all the house cusps.

It works for good reasons. Most of the planets are within a degree of their actual positions, so we have the degree positions. If a planet changed signs on that day, it isn't difficult to determine which sign it must be in, so we have the planets' sign positions. The moon goes from 11 to 15 degrees per day, so we have the Moon's sign (signs if it changes sign) and degrees fairly closely. Other than the Moon's aspects, we do have the planets' aspects! The houses are related to the Sun, the first house of the Sun, the second house of the Sun, etc. Some people prefer this chart to a standard birthchart!

How much makes a difference? How close do I have to get?

Every four minutes of time equals one degree of turn of the earth or your birthchart's Midheaven. The Ascendant varies irregularly depending on which house system you use. Now we're getting technical! If your birthtime is given to you as 'between six to six thirty' and you decide to use six fifteen, that possible ± fifteen minute difference would translate to approximately a four degree difference on your house cusps (the twelve divisions of the sections of your birth chart).

A half hour difference in your time could be approximately seven to eight degrees difference in your chart. If decisions are also being made about when to move or whether to do business at a certain location (see below), this difference of seven or eight degrees can be significant. The two outmost planets, Pluto and Neptune, only move about three degrees in a year! So a difference of six degrees could make a two year difference and that doesn't take into account the orb factor (the range of effect)! Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter move more quickly, but your timing could still be off by several months.

Someone Else's BirthTIME
When did you say you were born?

What if you don't have somebody else's birthtime? I say first check in, by whatever methods you use, ie muscle testing, pendulum, and see if it's ok for you to have their birthtime. Be clear, honest. Karma. What if it was them wanting your time? If it's ok, get it by asking the person directly if it is appropriate, ask their Mom, or say something like 'Do you think people wake up at the time when they were born? I was born at...., when were you born?' If it is for a gift and you are thinking well ahead, ask them for it straight out, months in advance. By the time the gift giving occurs, they have forgotten about it!

If it is intended for growth, to heal and not harm, I'm in favor of doing other people's charts whenever we are privileged to do so.

Essential for Your Astro*Locality Maps And Relocation Charts

Mapping requires a birthtime. Since Astro*Locality is a three dimensional version of your birthchart, the planets are mapped over the part of the earth they were above when you were born. That half hour difference in your birthtime is approximately seven to eight degrees difference in your chart. If you are doing an Astro*Locality map reading, it translates to about 553 miles on your map! If you find that all the definitions of the locations seem to fit a little west or east of the lines, it may be a way to rectify your chart (fine tune the accuracy of your birthtime).

If, at first, it doesn't seem like your birthtime is available, dig a little deeper. See some of the ideas above. Good luck!

Happy Trails and Happy Hunting!

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