speaking from inexperience....

Yes, Mimers, I believe it does give you a story about you, your lessons to learn, your outlook, your opportunities. If at all possible, it is worthwhile to track down the time of birth, because you will be able to get those most accurate charge possible. Even a few minutes difference could affect which sign each planet falls into, which house the planets are in, and what aspects all of the planets make to each other.

Your natal chart is a 'snapshot' of the sky at the time of your birth. For example The first house, and your ascendant is what was rising on the horizon, you tenth is what was overhead.

I have found astrology to be amazingly accurate and a source of great insight.

Well, a few minutes difference could strongly affect the Ascendant and Houses but on a planetary side it will have little affect at all on aspects or sign position, except for possibly the Moon, which travels through about 14 degrees per day - about half a sign or so. However on your birth date no planet changed sign and the aspects for all planets accept the Moon would not be affected by the time of birth. Even for the Moon, unless your estimate is way off, its aspects are likely to be unchanged from your estimate.

Looking at my approximate chart, the Ascendant is Scorpio at 4:00 pm but will change to Sagittarius around 4:30. So if you were born between around 2:00pm and 4:30 pm you have Scorpio rising, after that time you will have a Sagittarius Ascendant.

I certainly agree that if you can find the true birth time this will be most beneficial. Indeed to answer your question - the transits of the planets over your natal positions will have an effect on you - sometimes the effect remains in the background, but often you are clearly aware of the effects, either through changes in the way you feel or through events that happen to you. An accurate knowledge of your natal chart will therefore enable you to predict accurately what circumstances and influences will be like on particular dates and timesin the future, as well as enabling you to have a better understanding of what happened in the past.

It would also allow the use of progressions in forecasting - for these accurate natal timing is essential. And it will also be important if you were to use Return charts for Sun and Moon, which give you an indication of what the coming year and month, respectively, are likely to be like.

Thanks for all that information. I think I will definitely go ahead and get this information. I will start by calling the hospital and seeing about getting copies of my birth records.

Thanks again, I will let you know what I find out!

Mimi

Mimers, I agree with Minderwiz, you can still work with your approximate birth time, so if you are unable to locate your birth time from the hospital, you can still use a chart based on your 'guess-timate'.

For what it is worth, from a total non-expert:

Linda Goodman says in her book, Star Signs:

My World of Astrology by Sidney Omarr New York: Fleet Publishing Company, 1965.
"No published astrological textbook so clearly and defintively demonstrates the CORRECT WAY to to cast a chart. ..... <snip> ... It's also an enormous help in the rectification of the true birth time. ...."

Sydney Omarr sadly passed away in January of this year. However although a prominant columnist in the US, he did not achieve much prominance in the UK.

I must admit I haven't read this particular book, though the review on Amazon US is not brilliant. Certainly Goodman's quote is the first I've seen refering to him as an authority on rectification but that may well be due to lack of publications over here.

I've fumbled a bit with rectification, some predictions work better after rectification but others are worse - I put it down to my inexperience. Alsoit is heavily dependent on the subject's recall of what happened and when and a constant time link between, say, transit and event. I think I would now go along with Astraea's comments.