Rectification

A technique for determining the exact time of birth for any individual is Rectification. Although it is listed as a branch of Astrology, it is actually a tool to help us build a strong basis for any interpretations and other branches used. Nowadays it is usual for each person to know their time of birth with more or less certainty. However, this wasn’t the case throughout history, and you will see that even today, many people don’t even know the exact date, let alone hour or minute of their birth.

When Do We Need It?

The use of Rectification is necessary when the exact time of birth is not certain, for any personal detailed reading. If we like to work with astrological techniques that rely on very precise moments of birth such as harmonics, it is desirable to do the rectification as precisely as possible on any chart, especially our own. The purpose of this modifications and adjustment to the specific time of birth is for us to have a clear picture on our possibilities and possible approaches to different astrological techniques.

Methods

There are several rectification methods, mostly connected to the time range in which a specific time needs to be established. There are people who are not even sure about the date of birth, and this type of rectification is a bit more complicated for it includes defining the time through planets as well, not only house cusps and the Moon. Every smaller time range, such as a matter of several hours, bases its analysis on fast movement of the Moon and the Ascendant.

To determine the correct time of birth though usual rectification techniques, at least seven important events in one’s life are needed to say that our findings are correct to an acceptable level. These events will be significant and desirably set apart enough so that directive and other slower methods can be used. Usually, the client will give a list of seven events such as birth of a child or a sibling, death of a parent, the first job, the first romantic experience, marriage, etc.

Additional Observations

One of the important things to take into consideration once we decide to rectify the horoscope, are planetary positions of family members, spouses and children. Close connection to other people is something that can define the specifics of some of our positions, and we will often find that one’s Moon or the fourth house cusp are set in an exact conjunction or other major aspect with a planet or a cusp in their mother’s or child’s horoscope. If natal charts of those close to us are well known, we can observe them with certainty that they are closely connected to our own.

The less known and rarely used technique for additional confirmation of the exact time of birth takes the moment of conception as a point in time that has to be in correlation with the exact moment of birth. This is a technique that presumes the position of the Moon in the moment of conception is the same as the position of the Ascendant in the horoscope of birth. However, this approach can be too complicated and uncertain, with many deviations and possible problems we may encounter while using it.