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We are ready to learn another important rule in astrology: The time at which a project begins is imprinted with the astrological influences at that moment. Like many astrological rules, we do not know why this rule is true. It is handed down from ancient times, astrologers use it, and it works. Why it works remains a mystery.

Astrologers draw a diagram or picture of the planets at the time an activity begins and this diagram is called the natal chart or birth chart.

The exact moment that a project begins is sometimes unclear or unknown. However, sometimes it is very clear. For example, suppose that you are interested in knowing what will happen at a major athletic event. The game begins at a very definite moment so a birth chart for the game can be made. The moment that a person signs a contract and the moment that one signs the documents to purchase a car or home, for example, can be used to make birth charts to determine how the home or car will work out for a person. Until you moment you sign the papers of ownership, you do not legally own the house or car. Once you sign, you are the owner so the time of signing is clearly the point at which the purchase is made. A marriage is generally regarded as starting when both people have said "I do" because theoretically at any moment up to that statement the marriage has not begun and once stated, the commitment by both people has been made.

When does a person's life begin? Perhaps you can consider it to be at the time of conception, but astrologers generally recognize the first breath as the moment when the person's life as an independent, self-functioning entity begins. There is some debate among astrologers as to whether birth is when the baby's body appears or when the first breath is made. The majority opinion seems to be first breath. Usually a baby begins to breath almost immediately after being born into the world, so the time of birth is fairly unambiguous. It appears not to matter how the baby was born, whether by a Caesar Ian operation, or whether labor was induced, or influenced in any other way.

Analyzing birth charts is not the only analytical method available to astrologers! Some astrologers, for example, study historical cycles by analyzing the influence of planets moving through zodiac signs or forming different aspects over time, without referring to birth charts. However, the interpretation of birth charts does make up the bulk of work for many astrologers, and we will focus on the interpretation of birth charts of people throughout the rest of this semester.

To calculate a birth chart, the birth date, birth time, and place of birth must be known. Before the advent of the home computer most astrologers calculated the birth chart by referring to tables in books and making various manual calculations. The two main books used by astrologers before the use of computers were an ephemeris and a table of houses. An ephemeris is a book that contains daily listings of where each of the planets is located. A table of houses is used to find where each of the houses begins. The astrologer also has to perform some computations to get the positions; it is not quite as simple as just looking them up and reading the positions directly out of the books.

Some astrologers still feel that the student of astrology should know how to calculate a birth chart the old-fashioned way, but frankly I think that the tedious process of calculating charts manually has been made obsolete by computer programs. An astrologer should know how to look in an ephemeris to read the positions of the planets, and we will learn this in future classes, but the much more tedious process of calculating a chart manually is (in my opinion) no longer important.

Two things are needed from a person (or event) to calculate the birth chart: the time and place of the birth. Generally people know their date of birth, but the time may have to be obtained from hospital records, a baby book, or government records. Without the birth time, a partial astrological analysis can be done, but a precise birth time is needed for a complete astrological analysis. For the great majority of astrological work, the town or city is required. The country or county is not sufficiently accurate for a complete analysis. On the other hand, the precise hospital or street the person was born on is generally not required; the town or city of birth is sufficient.

From the time and place of birth the natal chart can be calculated. The very first step in calculating the birth chart is to determine the latitude and longitude of the place, and also the time zone and whether daylight savings time was observed. The latitude and longitude of birth can usually be easily obtained from an atlas. However, the time zone and daylight savings time present a formidable problem! Observance of daylight savings time is extremely complicated during some time periods in some countries. For example, in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's in the United States, observance of daylight savings time was extremely complicated in some states: neighboring counties in the same state very frequently did not observe daylight savings time during the same years! Observance of daylight savings time was not even always consistent throughout the county!. The complexity of daylight savings time is not restricted to some states in the United States during these years; many countries are equally complex, and obtaining records of precisely when and where daylight savings time was observed can be a laborious and complex project. Generally speaking, governments do not maintain nice, neat compilations of daylight savings time regulations. Countries also change their laws regarding daylight savings time, so the tables must be constantly upgraded. To calculate a chart manually, then, a person needs an ephemeris, a table of houses, an atlas or other reference book that gives the latitude and longitude of cities, and a book that has daylight savings time and time zone information. There are books written especially for astrologers that include the latitude and longitude, time zone, and daylight savings time information together in one book. Calculating a chart by hand is also sometimes done with the aid of a calculator or other aids like logarithm tables but these are not absolutely necessary. The Kepler program has very current, thoroughly researched daylight savings time data for the entire world, so the chore of determining daylight savings time, time zones, and looking up the latitude and longitude of a town has been eliminated. Many of our customers throughout the world keep us notified of changes in observance of daylight savings time when it changes, and we are update our tables accordingly. We are very grateful to the many people who have assisted in assembling this data, and we especially want to recognize AstroCommunications Services for generously and graciously working jointly with us to make it possible for us to provide the most accurate data possible. With the aid of the time zone and daylight savings time tables built into the Kepler program or available from AstroCommunications Services, the time zone and daylight savings time information is accurate over 99% of the time, but there are time periods in some regions where absolute certainty regarding time zones has simply not been firmly established yet.

Astrology is the study of a correlation of celestial phenomena with behavior on earth. Obviously the celestial phenomena must be measured accurately in order to make the correlation. Probably the single most important cause of inaccuracies in determining the position of the celestial phenomena is incorrect birth data; the birth time is not correct. Many astrologers have found that written records (hospital records, government records, baby book) are accurate more often than the memory of people present at the birth, including the mother. Probably the second most important cause of inaccuracies in chart calculations is incorrect daylight savings time information, and sometimes also incorrect time zone information. Thus, the importance of having accurate time zone and daylight savings time can hardly be exaggerated.