Forthcoming Astrology Course on Birth Time Rectification

This article is about announcing my forthcoming Astrology course on birth time rectification. I examine the current situation in the Western astrological world. I then compare it with the Indian one and explain why there is no a single course on 24 hour chart rectification in the West.

Birth time rectification: the Achilles Heel of Modern Western Astrology

Whenever the topic of a given natal chart with an inaccurate or an uncertain time of birth comes up, Western modern astrological practitioners become very concerned. Some even refuse to examine the chart because:

• “Everyone has their own system of rectification”
• “Because if you ask 3-5-7 astrologers to rectify a chart, each will give you a different result”
• Rectification has also been called “The Achilles Heel of Astrology”.

Why is it so? What makes finding out the correct moment of birth, especially when it is a few hours off, so difficult for most astrologers? Think on this please.

There are courses on birch chart rectification, but they teach Indian Astrology

I browsed through the Internet in some detail looking for courses on birth time rectification. Overwhelmingly, I found courses on Indian Astrology/Jyotish (wrongly called “Vedic”). I have studied some parts of Jyotish (the Parashara branch), but I did not get to the techniques for rectification. I am also familiar with the Tajika branch (which was actually taken from the Perso-Arabic tradition and it uses a sidereal Zodiac as well). These systems are indeed powerful, and it is no surprise that they offer so many courses on rectification.

Then there is the population factor. There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Indians practising Indian Astrology. Compare that to people living in Western countries + the English speaking ones. The far greater numbers of the Indians gives them the advantage in terms of dissemination of information. But there is something else, isn’t it?

While as I have said, I cannot praise nor criticize the rectification methods of Indian Astrology as far as their accuracy and reliability, the fact that there are Jyotish astrologers offering courses, even for rectifying charts with an unknown time of birth aka 24 hour chart rectification, ought to be acknowledged.

No complete course on birth chart rectification in the West

The point is, courses on rectification with Indian Astrology are being offered online. What about their Western counterparts?

After searching and searching I found only a handful of courses on rectification with Western astrological methods. Not one of these courses is a detailed one.

By detailed, I mean, comprehensive, I mean, complete. Disregarding for the moment the types of techniques being used, the course structure itself was very weak to put it mildly.

Birth time rectification requires so much knowledge. Not only does the astrologer have to exemplify this knowledge, they have to explain it to internalize its fundamentals. In other words, the rectification student needs to know why they are using a given technique and not another. They need to know when to use a given technique and when not to use it. And, of course, they need to know the limitations and strengths of any technique they make use of.

Not a single Western course on birth time rectification offers this knowledge. And I dare say I checked all of them in detail. Well, without the thorough understanding of the fundamentals, without a thorough systematic approach, how is this material a course and not a bunch of charts?

By a complete course on birth time rectification, I also mean teaching 24 hour rectification

By detailed, I also mean teaching how to rectify birth charts with an unknown time of birth, aka 24 hour chart rectification approaches and techniques. Not a single course, that I saw, offers this in the whole Internet!

Let me repeat that: with thousands of western astrological books, with thousands of websites of serious astrological practitioners/professionals, there is not a single one which offers a complete course on birth time rectification with Western astrological methods. This shameful situation has been happening for many years, even in the age of computers!

However, for anyone who is well trained and understands the fundamentals of the modern techniques used in the western branch, the answer is painfully obvious.

Transits, secondary progressions, and solar arcs are not designed for chart rectification when the birth time is off by hours or unknown

Th answer is that transits, secondary progressions, and solar arcs are not meant to be used for chart rectification when the birth time is off by more hours or unknown. I want to strongly emphasize that it is not that these techniques do not work. They do work! The problem lies in knowing how to use them for chart rectification; when not to use them and in what circumstances to rely on them, should one decide to do so.

So without these 3 techniques, what is left in modern Western astrology? Solar returns, tertiary progressions, and what else? These have merit, but they fall within the same category as the above one. By the way, like transits and secondary progressions, “solar returns” is also an ancient technique, but it too is used in a different way.

This leads one to wonder why this has been happening in the Western astrological world.

If you want to learn birth time rectification, you have to be ok with making predictions with Astrology

I have heard well-known Western astrologers, who do not offer predictions, but psychological descriptions, talk down on Indian Astrology and its amazing system, which allows accurate predictions. These Western people, who cannot make predictions themselves, are criticizing the very thing they cannot do. They doubt that accurate predictions are possible. Talk about a double standard! I will spare their names because if a serious predictive astrologer heard them, they will be laughing for a long time!

My point is that, no matter what you choose to use Astrology for, whatever techniques or methods you mix, Astrology was intended to predict. This is how it was designed, and rectification painfully forces one to acknowledge that. Prediction would be impossible if Astrology did not deal with objective reality and did not allow for it.

So the bottom line is it comes down to who can predict and is comfortable with that. Whoever can predict, they should, in principle, be able to rectify. However, that is only when knowing which techniques are reliable, which are not and when to use a given one and not another one.

The Indians and those practising Jyotish are doing both. How well they are doing it is not my concern. The point is they are offering to do it, including rectifying natal charts without any time of birth.

There exists no systematical way in the Western astrological world that teaches birth time rectification

So, to answer the question that I asked at beginning: what makes finding out the correct moment of birth, when it is under question, so difficult for most astrologers. Also, why rectified charts are always treated with such great suspicion.

Well, the answer is because there exists no systematical way in the Western world that teaches how to rectify. I am all for diversity and, as long as the final result is the same, I don’t mind. But when you have 5 Western astrologers working on rectifying and chart and each ends up with a different result, something is very wrong.

For the record, I am not saying this does not happen at all with Indian methods. I am saying they have systematization and a long and complex tradition of different branches. They are all based on prediction and accuracy. This is in stark contrast to the modern Western methods and philosophies – a tiny few of which focus on prediction.

Again, modern Western astrological rectification methods give some results. There are modern Western astrologers who really predict. That is not the problem. The problem lies is not understanding the natures of the techniques and hence not realizing the awfully crippled state in which the modern Western astrology has been, particularly over the last 350 years. The modern Western methods were simply not meant to rectify charts (especially when the time of birth is off by 2 or more hours) or to predict for that matter.

This brings me to my announcement. It is high time someone using Western astrological methods did something about the situation with no course on birth time rectification. I am pleased to say that I will be offering:

Zagata’s Ancient Astrology 24 Hour Rectification Course

Note the words “Ancient” and “24 hour”. That is right: my astrological Course will teach people how to do chart rectification from an unknown time of birth aka 24 hour rectification.

The methods I will teach are entirely ancient and Western based, which includes Babylonian, Hellenistic, Perso-Arabic and Medieval techniques.

This, I dare say, will be perhaps the first complete course on rectification in the history of the Western astrological world.

What my rectification Course will contain

By “complete” I mean the thing I wrote above.

• Not just the techniques, most of which will be unfamiliar to modern astrologers (but they are explicated), but the principles behind them,
• Their strengths, their weaknesses;
• In which specific dispositios/chart configurations they work best
• In which ones they are not as telling
• When to use a given technique
• When not to use a given technique, etc

It is a complete system consisting of specific steps and methods, not disjointed parts.

Equally importantly, my Course will teach you how to think astrologically, something which no book has ever done. This is something which just a handful of Astrology courses (not on rectification though) actually offer. It will also teach you how to prioritize. Also, how not to get sidetracked by factors which seem very important but turn out, at best, to be diversions and, at worst, to lead you back to the labyrinth of confusion (see picture below).

Also, I will give some philosophy and  examine the nature of Astrology. I mean,  its strengths and weaknesses, what it can predict and what it is not that good at. I will also touch on the question of the fates versus choice, etc.

While the students will be, of course, free to ignore these issues as they will in no way influence the final practical results, provided they practise with an open mind the birth time rectification system I teach, there will be a growing desire to know why the system work. Also, what it is that makes this chart rectification system work, as well as to avoid the many traps and why it stands out among all others. Such questions, while somewhat philosophical, are also practically oriented and as such are given the proper attention.

Course format

The Course will be in a written and electronic format. Too many lectures and courses are audio, which encourages laziness and the notorious dependence on technology, which has had pernicious results on people.

Students will be able to print the Course if they so wish.

There will be 2 tests before students get to witness how 24 hour rectification is performed. There will be a test after each rectified nativity. I am also planning a final exam where students get to rectify a natal chart without a time of birth.

I want to emphasize how completely different this birth chart rectification Course will be to any other modern Course or book. You will have to revise a significant part of your astrological knowledge and beliefs. This is particularly so if the type of Astrology you practise is just about 100 years old.

My rectification courses teaches a system, not a bunch of techniques

However, and this is why Astrology has historically been the highest science, I will  teach you a system which orders all the factors and techniques in a coherent and indivisible whole. You will come to know, not believe or guess, the correct hierarchical way in which all the methods are ordered and thus the sequence in which to use them. You will be taught how to make use of all the tools (techniques) in your box (arsenal) and in what circumstances to emphasize a given tool and when to use one of its substitutes.

I can guarantee that, provided you take the time and study diligently, your overall astrological understanding, not just the one related to rectification, will increase tremendously. No matter how many years, or lifetimes, you have been practising Astrology.

The question of which Zodiac is to be used and why will also be properly addressed.

This information ought to do for now. I will give you more once I complete writing the Course, which should happen within a few months at most.

I will announce the release of the Course with a blog post.

While the idea to have a representation of what my Course stands for was mine, the stunning computer design was made by Iliana Magerova imagerova@abv.bg

As always, if you have any questions, write a comment or send me an email through the Contact section.