Chart Rectification
When the Birth Time is Unknown
There are a variety of techniques to determine a client’s rising sign when a birth time cannot be provided. Professional astrologers who offer “chart rectification” generally refine their technique based on combining several natal and forecasting methods to determine the most likely zodiac sign.
At the core of the work is an interview with the client posing a series of questions including such things as character, relationship, home life, and career. Because these topics represent the angular and loudest houses in the chart, they provide a lot of clues. Questions may also include key events in the native’s life like marriage, children, moving, accidents and illnesses, career changes, etc.
Similar to how traditional astrologers delineate a natal chart is delineated, sect and planetary dignity play an important role in rectification. For example, if it’s a night chart, Saturn is most likely to be the planet that gives the native the biggest challenge, modified by its condition. So, tracking major Saturn ingresses can be very informative. I know astrologers who use Temperament, Secondary Progressions, Solar Arc Directions, and Zodiacal Releasing in the process of arriving at a birth time.
In the end, rectification is a technical delineation, but given the multivalent, divinatory nature of astrology, even an amazing technique will still be an “educated guess” combined with intuition and observation. Some won’t even tackle the process unless the client can narrow their birth time within a few hours.
Once determined, it’s up to the client to validate their rectified rising sign by following timing techniques unfolding in the present. Keeping a journal is probably the best way to do that, and it’s a great way to learn astrology.
Thank you for the great question!
Great article, and such an important point about the divinatory nature of astrology. William Lilly successfully used the chart of the moment if a client came in without a birth time!
Rectification is so important because many countries do not record birth time. And it is such a pity to not give someone the opportunity to be able to get an astrological reading.