7 Ways to Find Out What Time You Were Born

Timing plays a huge role in astrology. From celestial bodies moving to the smallest and most seemingly insignificant processes in the universe, everything is using the same scale of distance between meaningful events — time.

Here’s a question for you: do you know the exact time of your birth? And I mean exact, to within minutes and even seconds? Most likely, the answer is no. There are many reasons why it’s not easy to find out what time you were born. Birthing is a process stretched out in time. It begins with the first contractions and ends when a newborn baby takes its first breath of air. This can take a while and needless to say, lots of events might occur during this time. One of the ways to determine the exact time of your birth is the natal chart rectification. Honestly, quite often it’s the only way.

Of course, your exact circumstances of birth can be really specific, and you might not be able to obtain the exact timing for your birth; it’s okay, though for truly precise astrological results you would want to get as precise data as you can get your hands on.

“Okay, but why would I need to know my birth time so precisely?”, you might ask.

Well, the thing is it’s impossible to make an accurate horoscope and analyze it properly without this information. Unfortunately, you can’t always rely on doctors to accurately record your birth time. It’s possible that your mother might remember the time, but you can’t often count on that either. Women are not always conscious when giving birth.

So how do you do that? Where can you go to find information? What is the natal chart rectification and how they use it to determine the exact day and time of birth? I got to tell you, it’s not easy, but far from impossible. Let’s find out, shall we?

Why is an Accurate Birth Time Important?

There’s one question that both beginner and experienced astrologists hear a lot from their clients. One might think that asking yourself “What time was I born?” is not worth it. Is it really that important to know the exact time a person was born? You might hear an opinion that no, it’s not necessary at all. However, those who believe that leave an obvious fact out of the account: every person is unique.

Sure, you can forget about the time of birth and save yourself a lot of trouble. It’s still possible to only work with birthdays, right? But what you’ll get in the end will basically be a cosmogram rather than a natal chart. And cosmograms are no more accurate than newspaper horoscopes. We all know how generalized and vague those are. After all, there are probably millions of people who were born on the same day. And they all are quite different, even though there might be certain commonalities.

But in many cases, it’s quite possible to narrow down the time of birth to a certain part of the day. Would a couple of hours matter?

Actually, they would. Even minutes matter when it comes to natal charts. The Ascendant changes, on average, every 4 minutes. Subsequently, the house cusps change too. This means that no personal horoscope can be accurate unless you know the time of birth within 1-2 minutes.

What if You Don’t Know Your Birth Time?

The birth time specification is the first and most important step in astrologist’s work. Even if you have all the information you need in your birth card, it still requires doublechecking. There can be a lot of factors that might affect the accuracy of records. The birth might be long and complicated. Or it might be a caesarian, which makes matters even worse.

It might not look like a big deal to you, but the underestimation of the importance of birth time specification is a problem. The domination of surface-level newspaper ‘horoscopes’ has created an illusion that all you need to know is your Zodiac sign and date of birth. It seems like it’s completely unnecessary to bother yourself with extreme accuracy here.

It’s hardly surprising that people without skills in astrology don’t realize one simple truth. When it comes to building a natal chart, every minute matters. Astrological interpretations are based on the entire picture and dynamics of the celestial sphere. Our planet makes a full circle around its axis in a day. During this time planets successively ascend, culminate and descend. If there’s no information on what was the position of different planets at the moment of birth, there’s no natal chart. Birth time in astrology plays such a vital role, that a good and reliable natal chart is really hard to imagine without it.

But what if you have no idea what was the exact time of your birth? What if you can only name a part of the day at best? Does it mean that you should forget about building a personal natal chart?

Of course not. Even if the information is lacking, there are ways to make a personal horoscope without knowing the exact birth time within minutes:

1. Karmic horoscope.

Here the special importance is given to the positions of the Sun and the Moon. The Ascendant equals the degree of the North Node of the Moon (Rahu). Personal karmic horoscopes are based on the position of the moon at noon (12 p.m.) at the place of birth.

2. Sun sign chart.

The Sun is in the ascendant and the sun sign becomes the first house. When you don’t know when you were born, the Sun chart is an extremely handy tool. It allows evaluating general personality characteristics and determine psychological traits and aspects.

3. Cosmogram.

Сosmogram is what the sky of stars looks like at the time of your birth. It does take into account the approximate time you were born but ignores the place of birth and astrological houses. All in all, cosmogram is a combination of planets and Zodiac signs in their positions at the suggested time of your birth.

That being said, there’s something you have to keep in mind. All of these methods will show a general picture but are hardly capable of giving you the subtle details you could get from a natal chart.

How to Find Out What Time You Were Born

It’s all well and good but what if your knowledge about your own birth is limited to your birthday? What if you don’t know at which part of the day you were born, leave alone the exact moment of birth?

Don’t worry, there are still many ways to find it out. Not all of them have anything to do with astrology. In some cases, it takes some time and effort. But there’s nothing impossible for those who are willing to go the extra mile in search of the truth, right? We list some of the methods you might want to use while searching for how to find time of birth below.

Standard Methods

Look for birth records

The rules concerning birth records vary from country to county. For example, in the UK they normally don’t specify the time of birth in birth certificates. The only exception is multiple births. That is if your mother had twins, you might find your time of birth right there next to your birth date.

In the US they have two kinds of birth certificates. You want to look for a so-called full version: that’s where you can find the birth time recorded.

It’s quite likely you might find your birth time in a birth certificate issued by most European countries. However, you won’t find it in Canadian or Australian official birth records.

Of course, there is still a chance you won’t be able to find the official paper you need. Or maybe it just doesn’t contain the information you require. Here’s what else you can do:

Offline search

• Try to remember which church you were baptized at and contact them for permission to look into their records.
• Go to the hospital where you were born and check birth records there.
• Request your birth certificate from your government.

Online search

One of the greatest advantages of modern technology is that you can search for pretty much anything without leaving the comfort of your home. Birth records finders and ancestry resources are many and chances are you can find something you need there. For instance, you can go to Birth Records Finder (in case you are a US citizen). Or you can try Find My Past (if you live/were born in the UK).

Ask your family

Who can know your history better than your closest relatives? Naturally, asking your parents might be the first option that comes into your mind. They might just simply remember it, and all wondering about what time were you born will settle really fast. Birth of a child is always a memorable event and it’s likely that at least one of your family members remember what happened when you were born.

• Ask your parents. This might look like an obvious thing to do, but unfortunately, parents aren’t always the most reliable source. Your mother might have been just a little too preoccupied at the moment to remember the exact time. And it’s possible that your father wasn’t there at all.
• Search your family archives. Diaries, old newspaper clippings (with birth announcements), newborn scrapbooks – anything that can shed some light on the time of your birth.
• Ask around for some family lore. Some relatives might remember certain events that happened at the moment of your birth.

Estimating Your Birth Time With Astrology

Some of the above-mentioned methods might prove to be effective, and that’s great. But what if you can’t find any birth records? And let’s be realistic: even if you do find them, there’s no guarantee they are accurate enough. Fortunately, there is an astrological method of specification of date of birth within minutes (and sometimes even seconds). Let’s see what it is really and what exactly it does.

Rectification

To build a detailed personal horoscope, it’s absolutely necessary to know the exact moment a person was born. Here’s the thing: that time of birth you’ve seen in your birth records or heard from your parents isn’t particularly accurate. Every experienced astrologist knows that there’s a thing called “astrological time of birth”. And that’s exactly where they come from when building natal charts.

To estimate this more accurate time, astrologists turn to the method of rectification. Without it, the accuracy of your personal horoscope gets significantly lower.

What is it for?

Rectification is necessary for the correct performance of astrological research and interpretation of the information received. This is the only procedure that allows determining the true Ascendant degree and cusps coordinates as precisely as possible.

This degree of accuracy makes each natal chart as unique as a person it was made for. Professionally made rectification excludes any ambiguity.

How does it work?

The procedure itself is quite complex and requires substantial expertise and experience. As a result of professionally made rectification, you successfully receive a detailed personal natal chart. In most cases, errors do not exceed a minute or two.

Before getting to horoscope rectification, an astrologist will ask you to provide some information about yourself. It usually includes your date of birth, the place where you were born, your approximate time of birth.

After that’s done, they would want to talk to you and ask you some questions about your past life and experiences. Private life, marriage, relationships, health issues are a few of the topics that might come up during this conversation.

Rectification methods

There are quite a few different methods of birth time specification. Each of them has a certain degree of accuracy. Professional astrologists combine various techniques for maximum efficiency and to minimize errors. This also helps to exclude unforeseen mistakes.

Rectification methods can be classified differently. For example, based on the degree of accuracy they can be divided into two large groups:

• Preliminary methods
• Conclusive methods

The first group includes all techniques based on physiological, physiognomical characteristics of individuals. For example, natal chart rectification based on appearance fits into this group. The second group includes classic prediction methods: transits, progressions, and directions.

The first group methods allow determining the approximate time of birth. The reason for this is they analyze personality based on generalized characteristics that can be true for larger groups of people. These methods still make sense because they also allow excluding 95% of misleading options.

The second group methods use the reverse analysis technique. That is, they don’t so much predict future as search the past for the confirmation of events that already took place.

If your natal chart rectification was performed correctly, all events in your life come together to point out the correct time of your birth. In other words, if the moment you were born was estimated correctly, all these events will have their place in your natal chart.

Non-astrological Methods

In some cases, astrologists combine astrological methods and techniques with practices that have less to do with science and more with magic and spirituality. This way of the birth time specification can be called somewhat controversial. After all, they rely more on intuition and psychic powers than on mathematical calculations. Accordingly, many astrologists deem the accuracy of these methods debatable.

That being said, if you feel like this is the way you want to go, here are some methods you could use.

Tarot cards

There has always been a strong connection between tarot and astrology. The understanding of planets and their positions, houses, and Zodiac signs bring a deeper knowledge of both Major and Minor Arcanas.

Unlike Tarot, astrology is an exact science. Tarot readings rely too much on the reader’s intuition, associations, and archetypes. And still, used in combination, Tarot and astrology offer a higher level of outcome accuracy. This powerful connection often allows:

• Better understand the symbolism of Arcanas.
• Understand the structure of the stack and connection between cards.
• Determine an individual’s birth time and their Zodiac sign, which leads to determining psychological traits and characteristics.
• Determine a timeframe for a certain event.

Biolocation (pendulum dowsing)

When it comes to the accuracy of prediction, pendulum dowsing is far more debatable than Tarot card readings. While there is a place for some estimation with Tarot, pendulum dowsing relies entirely on the spiritual energy of the reader.

It is believed that by asking the right question, the reader uses the pendulum and directs his or her energy in such a way that makes the pendulum point at the correct answer. Ther technique requires experience and some careful preparation.

Regression therapy

This method allows opening the locked doors deep in your subconscious where your genetic memory is stored. By addressing the past and deep-seated memories, regressionists make you re-live certain events in your life once more.

Various psychic readings, fortune-telling

The list of practices that deal with magic and psychic abilities is virtually endless. If that’ something you would like to try, I suggest that you try several methods and compare the results. However, it’s worth noting that as a rule, these techniques offer a large share of errors and low accuracy.

Conclusion

Even if you don’t know what time you were born, don’t let it put you down. We hope that now you have enough knowledge to answer the question “how to find my birth chart”. As you can see, there is no lack of ways and methods of finding out the information you need. Do all of them offer 100% accurate information? Unfortunately, no. However, most of them will let you narrow it down enough for building a rather accurate natal chart.