DW Sutton

Astrological research starts with a birth chart, and an accurate chart requires an accurate birth time. But the birth time has always been the fly in the ointment.

The history of astrology – while documenting a colorful array of personal and mundane predictions that apparently came true – forgets to mention that the birth times and the birth charts were never accurate enough to get it right.

Psychic skills – not astrological skills – made the amazing predictions.

But in the past 100 years there’s been a dynamic shift and now the scientific astrologer has easy access to accurately timed births, accurately constructed charts and accurately documented life stories.

The Rodden rating system

In 1979 Lois Rodden introduced the Rodden rating system which rated the accuracy of the birth time.

The most accurate – AA – rating was given to a birth time that was documented on a birth certificate, other personal effect, birth registration form or civic record. And any documented time is automatically given AA status.

Unlike memory the ink on the page is not inclined to fade or forget.

But the presumption that all AA data must be absolutely accurate is a little misguided. At best it is almost accurate.

You see, a lot of birth times that automatically get an AA rating have been rounded off and they’re not accurate enough for research and other purposes.

This particularly applies to most 19th-century data, but a quick browse of 20th-century data – especially the data coming from France and Italy via Michel Gauquelin and Grazia Bordoni and the data from Scotland – reveals that too many people are being born right on the hour and half hour. And the same observation applies to birth times in the US prior to 1950.

A research study

An investigation involving 600 randomly selected AA birth times was conducted to learn how many births actually occurred on each minute of the hour.

The birth minute – not hour – was the time factor under consideration.

Most of the births occurred in the US between 1930 and 1970 and the birth time was documented on a birth certificate.

Here’s what the investigation revealed:

Births that occurred on the hour                        79

Births that occurred on the half hour                55

Births that occurred on the 15 minute mark     42

Births that occurred on the 45 minute mark    33

Births that occurred on the 10 minute mark    30

Births that occurred on the 20 minute mark   20

Births that occurred on the 40 minute mark    28

Births that occurred on the 50 minute mark    19

Births that occurred on the 5 minute mark       17

Births that occurred on the 25 minute mark    16

Births that occurred on the 35 minute mark    16

Births that occurred on the 55 minute mark    26

Total number of births occurring on the

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 minute mark                    219    

Total number of birth times                               600

Conclusion

It’s unknown if nature plays favorites with certain minutes of the hour, or certain hours of the day, but theoretically, in this investigation, 10 births (600 divided by 60) should have occurred on each minute of the hour.

10 is the statistical expectation and the number of actual births is the actual value.

This investigation reveals that 79 births actually occurred on the hour and 10 was the expectation so probability aside we can safely say that the birth time was haphazardly noted and recorded.

The indicated figures speak for themselves and in every instance the number of births occurring on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 minute marks was below the expectation of 10.

The investigation also revealed that the number of births that occurred in the 19 minute period from 9 minutes to the hour to 9 minutes past the hour was 191 – 190 was the expectation.

And the number of births that occurred in the 13 minute period from 24 minutes past the hour to 26 minutes to the hour was 129 – and 130 was the expectation.

The numbers reveal that a large proportion of the births that occurred on the hour and half hour were rounded off and that any birth that occurred on the hour could be a given a + or - 9 minute margin of error and any birth that occurred on the half hour could be a given a + or - 6 minute margin of error.

More research

An investigation into the AA birth data presented by Frank Clifford in his data collection – British Entertainers – clarifies the situation in Britain.

Of the 374 AA rated birth times 58 occurred on the hour, 66 on the half hour, 32 at 15 minutes past the hour and 31 at 15 minutes to the hour.

The statistical expectation in each case was 6.

Only 29 births occurred on a minute ending in a 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9.

The statistical expectation was 288 so the evidence reveals that the birth time was being rounded off.

And an investigation into 600 birth times (not AA data) used in the original Brotherhood of Light research revealed that 240 occurred on the hour – the statistical expectation was 10; 106 occurred on the half hour – the expectation was 10; and 254 were timed to another minute of the hour.

So 24 people in 60 – or 40% of the participants – were born on the same minute of the hour, when theoretically there should have been 1.

If you take a sample of 60 people the probability of 10 being born on the same minute (of any hour) is 1 in 6046617600 billion.

Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge