Rectifying an uncertain birth time

What if I don't know exactly when I was born?

Rectification means working backwards from a life to the minute it began. Astrologers try nearby birth times and keep the one whose chart best matches what has actually happened.

How sensitive each part is

The method

1. Collect dated events: education milestones, first job, marriage, children, moves, accidents or surgery, the passing of a parent, a sibling's marriage.
2. Narrow the rising sign from appearance and temperament, if the time is uncertain by hours.
3. Test each candidate time: do the dashas and sub-periods running at each event match the houses they should (the 7th for marriage, the 10th for a first job, the 4th for a move)?
4. Check transits on those dates (Jupiter and Saturn over the relevant houses).
5. Verify with divisional charts: the D9 for marriage, the D10 for career, the D7 for children, the D12 for parents, and finally the D60.

Schools have their own techniques: KP uses ruling planets at the moment of rectification, Jaimini uses sign dashas, Nadi traditions use the Nadi amsha, and Western astrology uses progressions and the prenatal epoch.

a detective matching a timeline to the evidence. Each event is a clue; the right time is the one that explains every clue at once.

if you are unsure of your time, trust the D1 and Moon-based readings most; the fine charts depend on the minute.