The Primacy of the Birth Chart

January 2022

Copyright © by Judith, 2022

The astrological birth chart is central and requisite to most Western and Jyotish forms of astrology. However, the primacy of the natal chart must be considered in the light of the following, frequently asked questions: 

• “Should I re-calculate my natal chart from my current location, and use this as a new birth chart?”

•  “My Sun has progressed into Scorpio. Does this mean I am no longer a Libra?”

•  “I received a new name. Do I now have a new birth chart from that new date and time?”

•  “My birth chart describes who I was at twenty, but not now!”

•  “Why isn’t the moment of conception used as a natal chart instead of the birth time?”

•  “In obtaining answers from Horary charts, should the natal chart be likewise consulted?

The birth chart is alternatively known as the ‘natal chart’, ‘radix’, and ‘horoscope’. It is the experience of many astrologers that the birth chart remains useful for many inquiries throughout the life, no matter what changes to that life occur. Hence, its “primacy”. This empirical fact is comprehended better, once one understands what a birth chart actually represents.

Our bodies and lives are truly “jump started” at our first breath. The conflation of our individual body (begun at conception), and our individual life path commence at this time. There is no other moment in our lives that includes these two realities. Both realities are reflected in the birth chart. At conception, the life path, and its full trajectory of unfoldment, is an unknown. We also become fully individualized bodies at this time, breathing in the breath of life with our very own lungs. There is corroboration in this construct in words from Porphyry of Tyre’s ancient essay Ensoulment, 235-305 C.E.:

“In the casting down of seed, there is a thorough imprinting of the first moment. This can be likened to moving to a new place, with the road already paved beforehand. Similarly, the roadway of life begins at childbirth”. 

And another statement:

“As the soul joins together with its vessel, a unique sensory experience  emerges, compliant with the natural order of things. It is because of this sensory component, that many consider it a good idea to mark off the time of birth.” (cast the horoscope).

Both quotes are extracted from the new, quite accessible translation by Andrea Gehrz, Moira Press.

This last brings out the elephant in the room, being, the entrance of a soul, or spirit, into the physical infant body. Some believe in spirits, and some don’t. Both camps are fully respected. For believers, the joining of the soul to its vessel must occur at some point between conception and birth. The great twentieth century American “sleeping prophet” Edgar Cayce stated that in approximately 75% of babies, the spirit enters the body either at birth, or in some cases, up to two weeks later! He gave further percentages regarding the remaining 25% for bodily entries, with only a small percent of spirits synthesizing with their new bodies at conception! We have no way to know if his observations are true, and many will naturally disagree. Cayce’s vision is included here for interest only. Let’s return to the astrological imprinting that occurs at birth.

Tradition holds that the first breath imprints the layout of the solar system into the fabric of our being on all levels. Those who work with charts observe this fact constantly because clients, and their lives, reflect their charts so well! However, the mechanism of this cosmic imprinting remains a matter of both mystery and debate. Mystics, occultists, and renegade physicists have offered many fascinating theories as to why astrology “works”, but this is not the object of my article. It is enough to say that a form of cosmic imprinting, or embedment, occurs at life’s first breath. We begin our life as a fractal of the universal forces inherent in our birth time.  These universal forces are depicted in the horoscope in symbolic, two-dimensional form.

Let us proceed to respond to the above questions.

1) “Should I re-calculate my natal chart from my current location, and always use that as my new chart?”

While driving, have you ever experienced how a radio station will tune in stronger or weaker, dependent on where you are?  Similarly, when relocate, you will pick up specific planetary vibrations stronger and others weaker than you did in the previous location. These forces will now become more or less prominent in your affairs. This does not mean you automatically get a new horoscope! Your birth chart contains “antennas” for all planets within it.

2) “My Sun has progressed into Scorpio. Does this mean I am no longer a Libra?”

According to the astrological paradigm, the natal chart, or radix (“root”) contains the latent plan for your life’s unfoldment. At first breath, you are imprinted with what I’ve termed the “permanent planetary resonance imprint”. It is similar to turning on any motor - your car, or lawn mower vibrates until turned off. So is the life.

According to the great healer William Gray, we receive our life ray from the Sun at birth. This birth Sun, or any other planet, can “progress” forward or backward in the horoscope as the life unfolds through the years. But… you do not “become” a new sign, rather you experience some of its qualities or experiences.

This is as if you visited to a new country or learned a new language. You remain you, but are moving through a new experience. A progression is already contained in the original birth chart in the same way the plan for a huge oak tree is already latent inside the tiny acorn! Neither does a progression always mean something is going to happen because a lot depends on how well you are progressing!

3) “I received a new name. Do I now have a new birth chart, (and a new me), from that date and time?”

The reception of a new name certainly marks a significant new life epoch. A skilled astrologer might observe the tendency and timing in your horoscope for a spiritual rebirth coincident with reception of your new name. This is possible because your birth time inherently contains, as would any seed, the potential life pattern awaiting you, (inclusive of spiritual peaks, valleys, and rebirths).  However much the adoption of a new name changes you, it cannot fully dislodge the primacy of the birth chart, inasmuch as that reflects the original birth imprinting   embedded into your fabric by the large cosmic forces.

4) “My birth chart describes who I was at twenty, but not now!”

No life occurs all at once. No personality is “one thing”. We have so many sides!  As any ocean wave, all created forms move, and modulate continuously through time. The birth chart shows this in so many ways. Let’s examine this further.

First, the birth chart possesses four quarters. Each quarter describes a distinct period of life. It is as if you live in a house with four rooms. One room might be all library, and another room all toys! Additionally, every planet peaks in its own specific year of heightened influence, e.g., the North Node has its ‘big moment’ at age 42.

Then, we have ‘progressions’ - those forward movements spun out from the original natal chart, and therefore both inherent and predictable in the natal chart. 

Then too, we have the popular “transits”: those current daily and yearly motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. These constantly stimulate our various life compartments, as well as our own imprinted planetary birth patterns. It is natural to be quite different at sixty than you were at twenty. And as we all know… sigh… we won’t even look the same!

5) “Why isn’t the moment of conception used as a natal chart?”

This is explained more fully in the opening paragraphs. I also suggest reading the book “Know Your Magnetic Field” by William Gray. That being said, the conception chart would certainly hold a significant influence over the physical body (but not necessarily the entire life trajectory).

Astrologically, all beginnings are relevant. However, some beginnings are far stronger than others. For instance, the house hunting astrology buff soon discovers that the moment they first cross their prospective new property’s threshold is astrologically more potent than the moment they first hear about the home from their realtor.  For reasons explained at top of article, the birth time is more potent, and inclusive, than conception.

“Electional” astrologers, those that specialize in timing important life events, would agree that some moments vibrate far more strongly than others (this is the whole basis of their craft). We find best moments for marriage, business starts, or the first entry of a new home! By this same principle, the moment of conception would strongly imprint the zygote. Our problem here is the great difficulty in obtaining the precise moment of conception. There have been hypothetical methods devised to calculate that moment, one such being “Pre-Natal Epoch” system. There is a book available on this idea by E.H. Bailey. 

The exciting, nascent field of epigenetics, or gene alteration, may one day explain how natal planets influence the new baby. It is now accepted with scientific certainty that various influences, some of them “unknown”, can and do influence the genetic expression as originally established at the moment of conception. Some genes turn on, and others can turn off, etc. Could the astrological influences of birth be one of these epigenetic controllers? Personally, I believe this is plausible. This could explain some curiosities we astrologers encounter.  For instance, why did that “tall” chart create a tall man in a family of short men? Or that “skinny chart” belong to the sole underweight kid in a fat family?

6) “In obtaining answers from Horary charts, should the natal chart be likewise consulted?”

Horary charts are drawn for precise moments of questions. This method is useful for answering all manner of questions. Horary astrology was heavily relied on in earlier times when natal charts were difficult or impossible to obtain.  A horary chart is similar to taking a test tube of swamp water from a large pond. However, in our simile, we are instead taking a test tube of time! The question chart is focused down on the one question, or all things useful regarding the client and their current affairs.

In answering this important question, I can only address my own experience. My viewpoint has been formed from decades of reading client natal charts (with transits and progressions) alongside supplemental horary charts. It is my personal preferred method to always include the natal chart as my primary source of testimony. It’s rarely wrong! Conversely, the horary chart shows less information overall, and has no access to the “permanent planetary imprint” of the natal chart, and the current planetary influences playing upon that. The Horary chart answers the one precise question, and so often that question is masking the “real” question.

I remember one property purchase query where everything in the Horary said “go”. However, transit Saturn was parked on my client’s natal South Lunar Node, so deadly to the property purchases. Neglecting as it does, the natal portrait, the horary chart was impotent to catch this fact. In the long run, the natal chart turned out to be correct. It usually is. However, I utilize Horary charts all the time because they provide useful “close up” testimony. My opinion here is only to encourage horary charts as supplemental to the natal and transit charts, when possible. Horary methods reign supreme where natal charts are not obtainable.

The Natal Chart in Medical Astrology

The primacy of the natal chart is useful for most branches of astrology excepting “mundane” and agricultural astrology whose focus is not upon individual people.

The radix is essential to both the medical and psychological branches of the art. Not everyone agrees with me. Many practitioners utilize only “decumbiture”, and/or “consulting” charts for medical purposes. These are special charts drawn for the moment of “taking to the bed”. If that moment cannot be had, (and typically it can’t), then we move to plan B.

Plan B is the “consultation chart” constructed for the time of the patient’s appointment, (instead of the arrival of the urine, as was the case in earlier times!)  Decumbiture charts were developed for convenience, at a time in history when it was nigh impossible to obtain an accurate birth time, much less birth day or year, from the poorer classes of clients. These are ancient techniques,  taken together with a lunar prognostic device known as the “crucial circle” constitute the most popular technique of the Renaissance.

There is no doubt that the well-read decumbiture, and/or consulting chart and crucial circle, all three provide helpful directions to the needful healer. However, it remains my staunchest opinion that no decumbiture can provide more accurate insight into the underlying energetics and current influences of dis-ease than does our “permanent planetary resonance chart: the horoscope. My thoughts are formed from considerable experience and testing of both methods. That being said, I do plan to offer a class covering these three Renaissance methods in the fast upcoming year.  These methods are wondrously useful.

The underlying energetic pattern of the individual, as depicted so well by the birth chart is central to our academy curriculum. (Get started with our FREE Beginner Tutorial here.) We learn this first, and then branch out from there. Now that we have a ready access to natal charts, let’s learn to utilize them with mastery and skill!

Let’s hear from Doctor William Davidson on the primacy of our first breath:

“The reason the planets indicate health condition is because flowing into the body are invisible radio-like frequencies, which control and build and maintain the tissues, and those frequencies are conditioned by the planetary forces in operation at the first moment of breath, in other words, the cosmos is impressed upon you, the moment you take your first breath. Because you breathe a cosmic ether as well as air, the scientist doesn’t believe that there is any such thing as cosmic ether. I prefer to believe the people who can see and who have studied it. And so the ether has the sum total of your vibration, and when you take the cap off a camera lens, the surroundings are impressed on the plate; so the reason the planets indicate health is because they indicate the frequencies radiating at that moment.”

- Davidson