Читать книгу Astrology For Dummies - Rae Orion - Страница 33

Before you can gaze in wonder at the wonders of your chart, you need the following information:

 The month, day, and year of your birth

 The place of your birth

 The precise time of your birth

Most people know the month, day, year, and place of their birth. If there’s a problem, it’s usually with time. Time matters because it determines your rising sign (see Chapter 11) as well as the house positions for your planets (see Chapter 12). Without a birth time, those components of your chart are unknowable. Having an accurate time is also important if one of your planets changed signs on the day you were born. Is your Moon in Leo or in Virgo? There’s a big difference. That’s why I recommend that you corroborate your birth time through the official record, your birth certificate.

If you don’t already have a copy of your birth certificate, the most reliable way to get one is to go to the National Center for Health Statistics at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/index.htm and click on “National Vital Statistics System” followed by “How to get a birth, death, marriage, or divorce certificate.” That will send you to a list of U.S. states and territories (plus “foreign or high-seas events,” for those whose birth stories are more dramatic than most). Click on the place of your birth, follow instructions, and be prepared to pay a fee, different in every location.

Once you have your birth certificate, you can be confident that the information on it is more or less correct, although I marvel at the vast number of people who, according to their birth certificates, were born exactly on the hour or half hour. Statistically speaking, there are way too many of us. Still, the time on your birth certificate, rounded off though it may be, has to be considered the gold standard.

If you don’t have a birth certificate, do some sleuthing. Start by asking your mother. But don’t be surprised if her memory of what must surely have been the highlight of her life turns out to be spotty. It’s shocking how many parents can’t remember when their children were born. They know the date — birthdays are easy — but the time is another story. They can’t recall if it was 2:05 or 5:02. They don’t know if it was a.m. or p.m. One mother confessed to me that she wasn’t sure who was born at 10:06 a.m.: her daughter or herself. As every courtroom attorney knows, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. This is just another instance of that truth.