How I Guessed Elon Musk's Birth Time Within 15 Minutes
How I Guessed Elon Musk's Birth Time Within 15 Minutes
And Other Thoughts on Astrological Rectification
With the release of Walter Isaacson's biography about Elon Musk as Mercury passes over his natal Moon placement, we now have Elon Musk's closest reported birth time yet: "At 7:30 on the morning of June 28, 1971, Maye Musk gave birth to an eight-pound, eight-ounce boy with a very large head", giving him a Cancer rising. (See astrodatabank for source notes.)
Using a mixture of divinatory and astrological methods, I had actually rectified Musk's chart four months ago to find a birth time of 7:45 AM. While I posted some of my raw notes on Twitter, I want to give a more detailed explanation for how I arrived at Cancer rising and 7:45AM specifically.
Like most of my writing, this essay is quite long, and is more for practicing astrologers and students. The astro-curious would also probably enjoy it for a deep view into how astrology works when tackling what is considered one of its greatest challenges. In any case, I encourage you to skim and jump around as needed, as there are interesting astrological tidbits all throughout.
How does rectification work?
Briefly, for those who aren't familiar with the subject: rectification is the practice of using astrological techniques to reverse-engineer someone's time of birth. This is important because rigorous and accurate astrological analysis requires as precise a time of birth as possible, and some techniques and charts require it to be accurate within seconds. When done for clients, an astrologer will ask the client for key details of their personal life including significant events such as marriages, job changes, and injuries, perform character analyses of the client and their relatives, and examine the general way things tend to transpire in the client's life.
When it comes to a public figure, the job is simultaneously harder and easier. It's harder because a billionaire (or their family members) likely won't respond to a random person asking for their birth certificate-verified information or offer up personal life details, but easier because there is often a vast amount of biographical data available about them that an astrologer can piece together.
I ordinarily wouldn't bother rectifying a living public figure's chart (and subsequently write about it), since I believe they also have the right to live out their lives without the prying eyes of astrologers like myself. However, when Elon Musk bought Twitter, I decided it was important for me to understand the relationship between his chart and Twitter's, since his actions would directly impact the place I've considered to be my digital home for the last few years. I'll also preface this by saying that I do not do rectification that often, and it's always speculation until you have first-hand sources available to verify it. That being said, the proof is in the astrological pudding and I think I have some valuable observations on the topic to share.
Rectifying Musk
Now, let's talk about Musk.
On November 7th 2022, two weeks after Twitter sued Musk for attempting to back out of his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, I was pondering what the future might hold. I had been looking at the chart of Twitter's first tweet and myself tweeted that it seemed entirely possible that Twitter could die within the next year. In April 2023, the legal entity Twitter Inc. ceased to exist, and in August, Twitter rebranded to X, a name so vague that users searching the app store don't even recognize it as the same app. On September 18th, he proposed making X a mandatory monthly paid service. But to really understand the direction of Twitter, I needed to know the rising sign of the man accelerating toward the iceberg.
Divination as a Starting Point
Full confession: I cheated to get a head start on the rectification, in a way that most people probably would not consider to be possible. I was skeptical at first, myself. I used astrology dice! They're three 12-sided dice with each die showing planets, signs, and houses respectively. I've written a guide to using astro dice in the past.
By this time, I had already been experimenting for a few months with using astro dice to guess rising signs as a potential starting point for charts with inaccurate or totally missing birth data. I had some seeming successes, but I didn't trust them enough for a public chart with predictive implications like Musk's. You use astro dice to guess the rising sign by only rolling the sign and house dice. The sign die is, logically, the rising sign, and the house die is the degree range of the sign. 1-4 is the first 10°, 5-8 is the second 10°, and 9-12 is the last 10°.
When I rolled for Musk, I got Cancer in the 3rd decan. However, I wasn't and am still not sure just how precise this can get, so I didn't want to rely on this information without verification. But some parts of it seemed to make sense, particularly putting Elon Musk's Mercury in Cancer in the first house along with his Sun, a man notable both for his prominent fame as well as his clownish antics. As Musk with the water-sign Mercury joying in the 1st house might say, "Let that sink in".
Detailed Rectification
On May 7th 2023, I noticed that the Uranus cazimi (exact conjunction with the Sun) would happen soon opposing Twitter's Jupiter while Mars approached its ascendant, a signature for some sort of unexpected and sudden culling. (The next day, Musk announced his plans to purge accounts without recent activity.)
This made me curious about Elon's chart again, and I decided it was time to investigate a potential Cancer rising for Elon Musk more thoroughly. When doing a rectification, I think there are two major steps. The first step is identifying the rising sign, which establishes the prominence and importance of the various planets, and can significantly affect the placement of the Moon as well as the highly sensitive lots, all of which are very important to interpretation.
The second step is typically identifying what the degree or range the rising sign is in, which requires very fine-grained and precise predictive techniques such as primary directions, which project the ascendant forward at a symbolic rate of roughly 1° per year of life and time major events to changes in the bounds of each sign (also known as terms), and aspects from the planets which strike the ascendant as it travels. However, if you use certain lot-based whole-sign profection-based techniques such as zodiacal releasing, you can eschew getting an exact degree as long as you are fairly certain that the lots will be firmly within a given sign with your chosen rising sign since the technique works the same regardless of what degree the lot is at. (As always, there are some exceptions depending on how you do astrology.)
I describe these as steps intentionally. If you get the first step wrong, all further work done on the second step is wasted. It is possible and hopefully likely that you will find testimony that disagrees with the indications of an incorrect rising sign, but both confirmation bias and sunk cost fallacy can have us digging dead ends deeper here very easily. One way to keep clarity here is to roughly categorize the information we have about someone into two types: the facts about their life, and the timing and evolution of those facts. In step one, we want to identify as many broad facts about the native (meaning the owner of the chart, coming from the word "nativity") as possible, and look for as many places to be wrong as possible. With a correct chart, astrology is never wrong and never stops working, so if we encounter something that doesn't make sense, even a little bit, that means we have the wrong chart or there is a gap in our own astrological understanding. In this way, it's actually very easy to toss out many potential charts.
Another thing I will say is that you absolutely should consider more subjective factors including character analysis, psychological profile, vibe, behavioral components, and so on. While my practice is rooted in more concrete predictive traditional astrology techniques, the ancients also considered psychological components in depth, and modern astrology has thoroughly explored this ground in the 21st century. Use all the tools available at your disposal and avoid tunnel vision, which is especially important for this first step.
Details About Elon Musk's Life
While I already knew Elon's untimed chart, if you're doing a rectification of someone whose chart you've never seen before, I would recommend reviewing their biographical details before even looking at the chart. Our own biases about what different signs and planets mean and the ways in which they can manifest, and even those we prefer on a subjective level, can color our reading of the biographical facts of someone's life and have us forming connections in their chart before we even have the whole story. Basically, you want to avoid having a thesis as much as possible, and instead play with the facts like a puzzle where once you have it right, all the pieces fall into place with a satisfying click. I unavoidably had a thesis with my astro dice roll, but to counteract this I took a proactively skeptical approach to this information and played with multiple other rising signs as well.
Let's lay out our puzzle pieces as a loose mix of chronology and facts from Musk's wikipedia page and other sources which we'll tease apart shortly:
Highly prominent billionaire with a history of involvement in various tech companies primarily as an investor and executive
Born in Pretoria, South Africa but immigrated to Canada at age 18
Mother Maye Musk is a Canadian model and dietitian
Father Errol Musk is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, and property developer who partly owned a Zambian emerald mine
Maye described Elon as "shy and awkward at school" and "didn't have many friends"
At age 10 developed an interest in computing and video games, taught himself how to program and at 12 sold a BASIC game called Blastar for $500
Parents divorced in 1980 and Musk chose to live with his father, later regretted it and became estranged from him
Has had many difficult and tumultuous marriages including personal tragedy
In 1995 was accepted to a PhD program in materials science at Stanford, but decided to join the Internet boom and dropped out after 2 days, applied for a job at Netscape to which he never received a response. He instead founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. Zip2 provided an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, marketed to newspapers
In 1999 Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307 million. Same year Musk co-founds X.com, which merged with Confinity the next year to form PayPal
In 2000 was ousted from PayPal by the board for causing technological rifts in the company and trying to insist the company be named X.com
In 2002 May founds SpaceX with the goal of creating affordable rockets, putting $100m of his own money into the company
In 2004 became an early investor in Tesla
In 2006 helps create SolarCity, a solar-energy company, which Tesla then acquired in 2016
In 2006 SpaceX attempts its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket, which fails, but SpaceX is awarded a commercial contract via NASA Administrator and former SpaceX consultant Mike Griffin.
In 2008 SpaceX succeeds launching Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008, nearly bankrupting itself and Musk in the process
In 2012 the SpaceX Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft
In 2013 proposes a hyperloop high-speed transport system
In 2015 cofounded Neuralink
In 2017 founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels for below-ground transit
In 2018 SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy, which carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as its payload
In 2018 Musk is sued by the SEC for a tweet claiming funding had been secured for taking Tesla private and was fined and forced to step down for 3 years as Tesla chairman
In 2018 July, Musk involves himself in the Tham Luang cave rescue by attempting to build a mini-submarine to rescue 12 stranded children. By the time the submarine gets there, most of the job is done and authorities decline its use. A British caver who played a key role in the operation criticized the submarine, and Musk calls him a "pedo guy", leading to public outrage and a defamation case in 2019
In 2022 acquires Twitter for $44 billion, merging it into X Corp
In 2022 April, was accused of selling $124 million Dogecoin (a cryptocurrency started explicitly as a joke and meme) after replacing Twitter's blue bird logo with a Dogecoin icon, and subsequently sued for price manipulation (outcome pending)
Has 11 children, including 2 twins with an employee of Neuralink who he donated his sperm to without a prior romantic relationship, and a general fixation on having many children
At this point we have a number of observations we can make about Musk's life and the patterns he tends to go through. For instance, he has a tendency to drop out of things and change his mind quickly, such as when he dropped out of school before securing a job. He is fixated on his own visions, ideas, and peculiar names, sometimes to his detriment, such as when he was ousted from PayPal (and current goings on with Twitter). He wrote software and works on technical projects, and has a particular love for things involving travel, mapping, and transportation, as well as power and batteries. He was shy and awkward in school, and for all his wealth and prominence seems to remain that way in adulthood. He moved abroad in pursuit of success, with an idea to eventually immigrate to the US through Canada.
What might all this tell us astrologically? What planets are emphasized in his character and interests, and which act in extra pronounced ways, both good and bad? It would put a significant emphasis on the Sun (fixation on self and naming things, the identity of things, also energy and power) and Mercury (technical skillset, love of computers, travel, cryptocurrencies, constant joking). Based on his shy and awkward nature and difficult love life, we might suspect his Venus is weakened somehow, and perhaps also point to a timid, lunar nature which emphasizes the Moon. An underrated ancient association with the Moon is the notion of travel since she's the fastest moving body around the earth, and her lunar of-the-people nature pushes this toward mass transit and migration. Ironically, despite Musk's fixation with Mars, he himself is not particularly martial; he is rarely outwardly aggressive, assertive, or competitive in a way I would call classically Martian. However, his Mars does show up in various acts of daring such as launching a Tesla Roadster into space. This could tell us that Mars is likely an important part of the chart, but Mars itself isn't particularly strong in terms of its essential dignity.
If you're familiar with the idea of accidental dignity or house strength, you already see where I'm going with this. By analyzing how these different planets operate and express themselves, we can already begin to narrow down whether these planets are likely to be in the angular, succedent, or cadent houses. It especially helps if the planets are distinct in condition with some very strong ones and some very weak ones, as this narrows down the rising signs the chart could have based the outlier planets' possible houses alone. The fact he moved abroad for success also gives us an early hint: there will be something here to do with the 3rd, 9th, or 12th houses, or the planets signifying travel and motion (Mercury, the Moon, and Jupiter).
Looking at the Chart
OK, with all that done and kept in mind, let's finally look at Musk's natal chart. Here is the untimed version, using astro.com:
Now, we can break down the chart in stages, starting with planetary condition.
Breaking Down Essential Planetary Condition
First, before even attempting to look at rising signs, we should examine what information the chart gives on its own. Even without the houses, we can learn a lot about how things will tend to go for the native by looking at the planets and their traditional topics. I want to look at the essential dignity (strength by virtue of position in the zodiac) of the planets; look at their domicile relationships; and see which planets make close testimony, that is, come to make an exact conjunction or classical aspect (sextile, square, trine, opposition) while within their respective signs, and especially so when they are 3° apart from their exact aspect or less.
I also want to look at the bounds of the planets (also called terms), the division of each sign into five irregular sections, given to the non-luminary planets. Bounds are extremely important, because they define (or bound, as in limit, or demarcate) the expression of the planet and also provide another minor dignity. You can also throw in decans, but I haven't fully integrated them into my practice to do it as a matter of course; they doubtlessly add another layer of meaning you can use to rectify, with a specific focus on the thematic stories that the native plays out in their life, knowingly or not.
The Sun
No essential dignity in Cancer
Has a separating sextile aspect with the Moon within 3°
Also in the Moon's domicile of Cancer, making it predisposed to the Moon's agenda
In whole-sign trine to retrograding Jupiter, so they eventually make testimony, and the Sun is in Jupiter's exaltation sign of Cancer
In the bound of Mars, which points to his identity being defined by daring acts in a way signified by his Mars placement. Part of his identity is literally bound up with Mars, too
On the whole, the Sun is not all that strong in its own right but is fairly well-supported by Jupiter, although the Moon's interests occasionally "get away" from the Sun
The Moon
Triplicity rulership in earth sign Virgo
The Moon is in Mercury's sign, and eventually applies to make testimony with Mercury via sextile as well as Venus via square, though distantly
Very importantly, Mercury and the Moon have mutual reception, which strengthens them both considerably as they provide mutual support to one another's goals
In the bound of Venus, which is a particularly difficult range since Venus has her fall in Virgo
On the whole, the Moon is fairly strong because of her mutual reception with Mercury and triplicity rulership, but her experiences can come with hardship being in Venus' fallen bound in Virgo
Mercury
Under the beams (within 15°) of the Sun, weakening them slightly
As mentioned, Mercury has mutual reception with the Moon
Mercury has whole-sign testimony with Jupiter in Cancer
Mercury is in their own bound, making them especially capable to express their own mercurial powers
Mercury being in evening star phase (after the Sun in zodiacal direction) in a nocturnal sign makes them stronger
Overall, Mercury is a very well-supported planet despite being under the beams, and especially being in their own bound
Venus
Venus has no essential dignity in Gemini, and its lord Mercury is averse to Venus in Cancer, so she is unsupported
Saturn is copresent in Gemini and far away, but still will make Venus' affairs seem more lonely and difficult
Venus is applying toward a close trine with Mars, with Mars in an overcoming position. Malefics, even in trines, usually harm planets they make close aspect to, even if they also help them at times. This depends greatly on Mars' position and whether or not the native is a day birth or night birth
Being in Gemini, Venus will still try to attend to Mercury's wishes, namely producing aesthetic transport vehicles (though Saturn's brutalist copresence occasionally shows up, as in the Cybertruck).
Venus is in Mars' bound, which means that Venus operates with Aquarian martial tools such as attempting to have as many children as possible, ostensibly to ensure humanity's survival
Overall, Venus is in a very compromised position, copresent with Saturn, the malefic contrary to her sect, and approaching a close trine with Mars, another malefic, while receiving no close support from any other planet.
Mars
Mars has no essential dignity in Aquarius
Mars makes the close trine to Venus as mentioned. Mars also applies toward a square with Jupiter, who is in his domicile of Scorpio.
Mars is in Aquarius, the domicile of Saturn. Saturn entered Gemini long after Mars was out of range of an exact aspect, so they make no testimony. It's like Saturn is dutifully ignoring Mars, and Mars tromps through the latter parts of Saturn's home on its own.
Being in Aquarius, Mars might attempt to help Saturn attend to his goals in Gemini, but Saturn is not able to give Mars direct support
Mars is in his own bound, and is imbued with its own bravery and power as a result
Overall, Mars is in somewhat poor condition and likely a troublesome part of the chart which could be worsened depending on sect. Mars does receive a square from Jupiter which is still moderately helpful given Jupiter is a benefic, and Mars in his own bound
Jupiter
Jupiter has no essential dignity in Scorpio
Jupiter is retrograde, indicating it sometimes fails to adequately provide for the native
Jupiter makes no close aspects with other traditional planets. Jupiter does eventually apply to Mars, and while Jupiter helps Mars, Mars harms Jupiter, especially considering they are of contrary sect. Jupiter also applies to Mercury and the Sun, but from further still.
Being in Scorpio, Jupiter devotes wisdom and optimism to Mars' agenda, which means that Jupiter will often obey Mars. We see this when Mars abruptly cuts Musk's higher education (Jupiter) short to pursue building technology, a possible signature of a retrograde Jupiter as well as the square from Aquarian Mars
Jupiter is in Saturn's bound, which means that Jupiter's actions will be expressed in Saturn-in-Gemini ways, such as learning and tinkering on ideas in isolation, or attending private schools and experiencing his school years as a lonely time
Overall, Jupiter is in somewhat poor condition due to its lack of essential dignity, retrograde status, and upcoming square with Mars. You might also consider his 4° opposition to Saturn. It's in even closer aspect than Mars, but it crosses a sign boundary and is separating
Saturn
Saturn has triplicity rulership in Gemini
Saturn makes no close aspects with any other planet. He is copresent with Venus but they did not make a conjunction. Saturn does make a sign-based testimony to the Moon as they had squared previously
Being in Gemini, Saturn attempts to structure, safeguard, and limit what is there, and often does so through suffering and loneliness. Mercury is averse to Saturn, so Saturn has little support there.
Saturn is in Mercury's bound as well as their sign, and so Saturn's expression of its themes is to write and communicate about it. However, not having testimony or support from Mercury, Saturn's messages can have a desperate, lonely tone to them
Overall, Saturn is in middling-to-poor condition. In some ways, Saturn's absence from the rest of the chart is likely more noticeable than its obstinate presence
I'll leave off the outer planets because while I do incorporate them into my delineations, they don't factor in to most of the traditional techniques I use.
So, we've broken this down without rising signs or accidental dignity. The Sun is not particularly strong but decently supported; Mercury and the Moon are strongest; Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all of middling-to-poor condition; and Venus is in fairly bad shape. Knowing this, what do we make of the fact that despite its fairly weak strength, Musk is such a solar figure, who constantly centers himself on the world stage? What planets most clearly demonstrate Musk's work throughout his life? We could wheel through some different rising signs, check the potential Midheaven and lords and Sun position. Perhaps we find the Moon is in a really prominent position!
Aha! No. I am describing a trap. First, let's do what we can to definitively disqualify as many signs as we can using a combination of different techniques.
Disqualifying Signs
Personally, this is my favorite part. This is where we make our lives easier, and it’s also when a chart really starts to come alive. We use a mixture of timelord techniques (which divide the life up into chapters like a book or acts like a play), general strength and topical assessment techniques, and only at the end play with where sensitive points might land differently depending on rising sign.
I use a few primary techniques and approaches at this stage:
Firdaria - A medieval stages of life technique which divides the life up into different timelords which are the same for everyone, except critically divided up by day births and night births.
Accidental Dignity, House Rulership, Character Assessment - Not really a specific technique but just some good old astrology. We look at potential house placements for planetary strength, examine potential rulership of house topics, and assess the character of the native based on the rising sign and house topics.
Zodiacal Releasing - I will not go into ZR in detail on this writing as it is too complex, but I will provide a brief overview of the technique and how it can help you definitively determine the rising sign.
I won't go through exhaustive workings of all of these--I only want to point out some examples of how you might apply these in practice. These different steps often also muddle together in process, as you won't be able to help but notice different connections. The important thing is that you diligently consider all of the possibilities before settling on any particular rising sign.
Firdaria
I learned how to use firdaria from eminent medieval Islamicate translator and scholar Dr. Ali A Olomi's Patreon, where he has a lecture on the full idea behind the technique. Essentially, the firdaria construct a system that uses mysterious intervals of time to divide the life into 9 stages, with 7 planets and 2 for the North and South Node. The technique is Indic in origin, but the medieval Arabic astrologers perfected the technique and used it to analyze the life as almost a timeline of major events and actions the native takes.
The top-level period planet or firdaria (originally firdariyyah) lord sets the tone, agenda, and major theme for its period of life. The sub-period planet is called the "helper" planet, and describes the ways in which the native will do things or have experiences which contribute to the fulfilling the upper theme. For instance, a Jupiter/Jupiter period might see one contemplating philosophy directly, while a Jupiter/Venus period might see dating someone with a philosophical bent. You should consider the natal condition of the planets who are the firdaria lords as well as the helper planets. Firdaria works in a broad way, and roughly describes the type of events that are likely to occur in the life in that period without providing precise times. However, you can dig into the helper periods and examine whether the actions the native took aligned with the firdaria lords and helpers, because they should still largely match within the time frames you identify.
The particular beauty of using firdaria for rectification is that they are the same for everyone, except split by day and night births. This allows us to disqualify roughly half of the signs at once! Early childhood is a particularly important time to look at, because day births have Sun and Venus periods from 0-18 years old, while night births have Moon and Saturn periods from 0-20 years old. This is a significant contrast. You might think this is way too broad to apply, but in practice it's stunning how well this technique works. I even ran an informal, unscientific Twitter poll with notable results.
Anyway, let's do it. You can go to astro-seek's firdaria calculator, throw Musk's birth details in there, and then switch between Day and Night birth settings and ask yourself: does this line up with the essential dignity of the ruling planets and the topics their natures and resident signs rule? (Note: for settings, you want to use "Proportional sized" under Sub-Periods. That tip comes straight from Dr. Olomi.)
When I do this, I like to toggle back and forth between the Day birth and Night birth (Nodes in the End) tabs, examining the facts about the native's biography and considering how they could match the given period or not.
In a night chart, 0-32 is divided into 3 periods: Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter. We don't have much biographical information about Musk's Moon period, but in his Saturn period (9-20) as a night birth we would expect him to experience loneliness, difficulty, but cope with it in a Gemini-in-Mercury's-bound way by communicating, writing, thinking, perhaps walking about a lot, making morbid jokes. During his Jupiter period (20-32) we might see him engage deeply in Jupiter-in-Scorpio tasks, putting his knowledge and wisdom and faith toward matters of conflict, global and utilitarian matters in the commons (Mars in Aquarius).
In a day chart, skipping past his Sun period to his Venus period (10-18), we would expect him to have been focused on socialization, friendships, and potentially relationships, though Venus' poor condition likely makes this a painful period for him too. In a Gemini-in-Mars'-bound way, he might be pursuing pleasure, socialization, or aesthetic development in some intellectualized, technological, perhaps even daring way, though it would still be accompanied in some way by Saturn's copresence in Gemini, too. During his Mercury period (18-31) we would expect to see him fully embracing the previously delineated focus on intellectual and technological work, mass transportation, through Mercury's mutual reception with the Moon in Virgo. We would also get the added themes of identity, naming things, and personal vision with the Sun's copresence with Mercury here, too.
So what actually happened? There are a few key details we know about Elon Musk's early life, including some I will pull from an early biography I read, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015).
In 1980, Musk's parents divorced and he went to stay with his father and came to regret it. If Musk has a night chart, this might have occurred sometime in the Saturn fardar period starting June 28, 1980, which would continue on to 1991 at the age of 20. If a day chart, he would have stayed with his father at the tail end of a Sun/Mars period starting on June 24, 1980, and then enter a Venus period one year later, continuing until 1989 at the age of 18.
At a broad view, we might say simply: ah yes, he stayed with his father, and then he came to regret it. Classic Saturn experience. Definitely not Venus. Night chart! Done. But we need to remember to consider the natal condition of these planets. Venus is the weakest planet in the chart, and also receives a very close trine from an aggressive Mars in Aquarius. Saturn is also copresent with Venus in Gemini, so Venus periods will likely take on a Saturnian tone as well. What do we do with this? We need to look deeper at what the experience was actually like for Musk, and which planetary configurations it most aligns with.
Here is a descriptive passage from the 2015 biography:
On the surface, life at Errol’s house seemed grand. He had plenty of books for Elon to read from cover to cover and money to buy a computer and other objects that Elon desired. Errol took his children on numerous trips overseas. “It was an amazingly fun time,” said Kimbal. “I have a lot of fun memories from that.” Errol also impressed the kids with his intellect and dealt out some practical lessons. “He was a talented engineer,” Elon said. “He knew how every physical object worked.” Both Elon and Kimbal were required to go to the sites of Errol’s engineering jobs and learn how to lay bricks, install plumbing, fit windows, and put in electrical wiring. “There were fun moments,” Elon said.
Errol was what Kimbal described as “ultra-present and very intense.” He would sit Elon and Kimbal down and lecture at them for three to four hours without the boys being able to respond. He seemed to delight in being hard on the boys and sucked the fun out of common childhood diversions. From time to time, Elon tried to convince his dad to move to America and often talked about his intentions to live in the United States later in life. Errol countered such dreams by trying to teach Elon a lesson. He sent the housekeepers away and had Elon do all the chores to let him know what it was like “to play American.”
While Elon and Kimbal declined to provide an exact recounting, they clearly experienced something awful and profound during those years with their father. They both talk about having to endure some form of psychological torture.
From a 2014 article in The Mercury News titled 2014: Rocket Man: The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk:
While wealthy South Africans typically hired maids and gardeners, Errol decided that his children would do chores and cook their own food, taking shifts.
“I guess I was a bit of an autocratic father — do this, do that,” said Errol, who says he has been estranged from his oldest son for several years. “I was a single parent, and they simply had to help out.”
So we have an autocratic father who simultaneously taught his children but also compelled them to take care of themselves. He was "ultra present", "very intense", and lectured at them for 3-4 hours at a time, and was extremely hard on them. They had to do manual labor, particularly in building construction and even electrical work.
There's both Saturn, Venus, and Mars at play--which makes sense, because Elon Musk's chart configuration is Venus and Saturn in Gemini, with Mars making a very close aspect from Aquarius (Saturn's sign) to Venus in Gemini. The question, then, is which planetary configuration most closely describes the nature of the experience? Is it Saturn, alone and not making direct testimony with anyone but the Moon, stuck in the early degrees of Gemini, or is it Venus in Mars' bound, receiving a harsh and direct trine from an extremely capable but domineering Mars in Aquarius in its own bound? I would argue this is a Venus period.
Another often forgotten ancient signification of Venus is the education of children, and Elon Musk was consistently, forcibly educated for hours at a time (also reflecting the fixed and unyielding nature of Mars in Aquarius). By contrast, if this were a Saturn period, I would expect Musk to experience isolation, being forced to contend for himself, not due to a driving authority figure but perhaps one who left him to fend for himself without much assistance or help.
There is another interesting anecdote we can examine. The 2015 biography states that around 5-6, Musk developed the ability to visualize in great depth.
At five and six, he had found a way to block out the world and dedicate all of his concentration to a single task. Part of this ability stemmed from the very visual way in which Musk’s mind worked. He could see images in his mind’s eye with a clarity and detail that we might associate today with an engineering drawing produced by computer software. “It seems as though the part of the brain that’s usually reserved for visual processing—the part that is used to process images coming in from my eyes—gets taken over by internal thought processes,” Musk said.
5-6 would be in the early Sun or Moon fardars. For a day birth, this would be Sun/Moon and Sun/Saturn periods lasting from 4.4 years old to 7.3. For a night birth, this would be Moon/Sun and Moon/Venus from 5 years old to 7.3. Notably, vision and visualization skills are associated with the abstract, conceptual domain of the Sun, while the Moon is more associated with the physical, concrete, emotive, and intuitive.
The Sun/Moon fardar period would also have activated his mutual reception of Mercury and the Moon, which we know the Sun is attached to in his chart, and it's interesting that he describes the visual processing part of his mind as literally taken over by internal thought processes (Mercury and Moon). As this progresses and he moves into a Sun/Saturn period, he uses this to "block out the world", and was described as disappearing into "dreamlike states. You could do jumping jacks right beside Musk or yell at him, and he would not even notice. He kept right on thinking, and those around him judged that he was either rude or really weird."
If this were a Moon/Sun and Moon/Venus period, we would expect emotionality and attempts at connection to be major themes during this time. Even with an intellectually-bent Virgoan Moon and a mistreated Venus, we would see him attempting to use these faculties to the ultimate end of lunar goals, not abstract solar goals. While the same planets may be involved, noting who helps who with what based on the current period lord activation is very important. Here it seems clear to me that the Moon and Saturn helped the Sun work on Musk's visualization skills, so to speak.
Of course, we do know that Elon Musk was born by day, so we don't need any more examples. You get the idea. If you're in doubt, you proceed to do this for other major points in the career, paying close attention to which planet seems to be running the show.
Assuming we're satisfied with the current evidence, we can say that Elon Musk was likely born during the day, with a rough range of 7AM to 5:20PM, and the potential rising signs of Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn.
Accidental Dignity, House Rulership, Character Assessment
Having cut out about half of the possible rising signs, we can now take a brief look through the remaining signs and make some preliminary judgments based on what we know of the planets' prominence in the native's life and do a rough assessment of character for the given rising sign.
Cancer Rising
Pretending we don't know he's a Cancer rising, if he hypothetically were, this would put his Sun and Mercury joying in the first house, emphasizing their strength. It would put the Moon in the third, in its joy, and it would place both Venus and Saturn in the 12th house (12H), where Saturn would have its joy, pointing to success in isolation but also pain, loneliness, and difficulty in matters of love.
This would also emphasize travel abroad placements: Mercury joying in the first house, the Moon joying in the 3rd, Venus as the lord of the 4H Libra (origin, home) departing far away from home in the 12H (traditionally associated with both exile and going somewhere so far away you never return). It would make his 10H be in Aries, making Mars the planet which defines his career in the public eye. Jupiter would rule his 9H of higher education Pisces, and its retrograde status and applying square to Mars describes him dropping out of higher education to pursue his career ambitions instead. Mars in the 8H also speaks to the frequent problems that Musk experiences related to his businesses' finances, being sued, and investigation by the SEC (an organization known for investigating and probing in a Martial way, though also with Saturnian--Mars in Aquarius).
In terms of his character, Mercury and the Sun in the 1H would make him prominently known for being a joker, prankster, someone who likes to make funny and witty observations and a bit of a class clown. He'd be known especially for being himself, one of those people whose own fame carries him through life regardless of what he actually does or how he does it. Of course, being a Cancer rising would highly emphasize his Moon in Virgo and a frenetic, emotional, changeable nature, and Musk does seem to exhibit these qualities in how he conducts himself in business as well as publicly.
Pretty good fit, hypothetically speaking, of course.
Leo Rising
Leo Rising would have the Sun and Mercury in the 12th house, which is an almost instantaneous disqualifier for Musk's extraordinarily public prominence and apparent fixation with being seen. It would make his 10H be ruled by Venus in the 11H, which is the house of good spirit, making Venus more powerful. Ostensibly his career would be focused on works of beauty, sustenance, and art along the lines of intellectual and communication. While there's some of this indicated with Twitter, it doesn't track for his lifetime biography. We can throw this one out easily.
Virgo Rising
Being a Virgo Rising would put the Moon in the first house, and while Musk is sensitive, he is not as much of an outwardly emotional person as the Moon in the 1st would suggest. It would also make Musk's Sun and Mercury move into the 11H, which seems potentially fitting for his intellectual and solar successes. However, it places Venus angular in the 10H in Gemini. While the 10H is ruled by Mercury, planets who are actually in the house have a very loud presence. Similar to Leo Rising, Musk's public contributions are not of a particularly Venusian nature, although they are of a highly Mercurial nature. Most of Musk's work throughout his lifetime have not contributed to the public commons in a concrete way until Twitter (especially not a Cancerian public way), and instead focus on his fixation with travel.
Knowing how important travel is to Musk’s life, we can also assess the 3rd house ruler for every sign we look at. Is Jupiter in Scorpio in the 3H a placement indicating focus on building transport systems? Not really. Jupiter is wisdom, faith, and hope, and in Scorpio, a penetrating depth to get to the bottom of things and turn them to potentially warlike ends, depending on Mars' position. Even with Mars in his joy in the 6H in Aquarius, this is more like the signature of an occultist (3H can also be divination and magic) who works steadily and relentlessly toward his goals of exploring mystical topics, especially for and directly towards others, with Jupiter ruling the 7H of partners and Mars ruling the 8H of Aries.
This one seemed promising at first, but by sticking to our facts, we can throw this one out, too.
Libra Rising
With Libra Rising, Musk's Sun and Mercury are in the 10th house, which is a promising fit for his prominence and intellectual focus. However, these planets are still ruled by the Moon, and the Moon is in the 12H, suggesting someone whose primary works are devoted toward secret and hidden things, loss, health and healing, death, and contemplating unknowable things. Meanwhile, Venus is far too strong in the 9H, and Musk simply lacks the immediately apparent outward charm and easy temperament to be Venus-ruled.
There's also an important distinction here to be made between Sun and Mercury in the 10H versus in the 1H. In the 10H, the identity and intellectual focus becomes about what one produces in the world, someone's works. In the 1H, the identity and intellectual focus becomes about oneself and one's own value. This might have been harder to tease out in the past, but at this point it seems very clear that much of Musk's actions are motivated to bring attention to himself; his works are merely the best way to go about doing that. (Notably, the Sun also exalts in Aries, his 10H with a Cancer rising--the Sun brings his glory in 10H matters back to himself in the 1H.)
Thus, we can throw Libra rising out.
Scorpio Rising
This one is a bit more subjective on my part, but I find Scorpio rising easy to clock; the intense, glowering and penetrating gaze and relentless drive, and an overall aura of secrecy. Musk is relatively open, and while he can be imposing, he doesn't have that Scorpio vibe. He does have Jupiter in Scorpio which adds a smidge of it, but Jupiter in the 1H does not track for Musk. He is not known for his particular wisdom or holy perspectives--in fact, he is actually rather motivated by a fear of the end of the human race, a more Saturnian expression than Jupiterian, even if Jupiter is in Scorpio. Additionally, this places his prominent Mercury and Sun in the 9H, with the Moon in the 11H. This is more the chart of a notable preacher sort of character. It simply doesn't align with his career.
Goodbye to Scorpio rising.
Sagittarius Rising
We can disqualify Sagittarius rising almost immediately. Musk's Sun and Mercury would be occluded in the dark 8th house and severely curtailed, and his 10H would contain the Moon, indicating a far more emotional, embodied, of-the-people-for-the-people focus in his career. It also places Venus, a planet whose themes we know to be problematic in Musk's life, angular in the 7H which does not particularly align with its strength. Venus in the 7H would not be as easily dominated by Mars' trine from the cadent 3H, and we'd expect the Venus period of his life to show up very differently, such as a significant love interest.
We can let go of Sagittarius rising.
Capricorn Rising
Capricorn rising gives Musk an angular 7H Sun and Mercury and a 9H Moon, which would emphasize a focus on relationships and religion, science, and higher studies. Even angular, the 7H is the house of setting, so we would expect his Sun and Mercury to express themselves in a weaker way. His 10H would again be ruled by Venus, which we know is an unlikely signification. His 3H of Pisces would be ruled by Jupiter in the 11H, meaning that 3H topics are wrapped up in the 11H. This points to siblings, extended family, the environment, or perhaps something like urban planning rather than directly focused on transportation which you get with a planet directly in the 3rd house.
Finally, we can release Capricorn rising as a potential sign.
At this point, it's pretty likely that Musk has a Cancer rising. But let's assume we're still really not sure, and briefly show the final trick up my sleeve for step one.
Zodiacal Releasing
We do not have the time to go over zodiacal releasing, one of astrology's master techniques, in great detail here. I have written about it exhaustively in another essay, Zodiacal Releasing according to Robert Schmidt. I will give a brief demonstration with a couple different placements so you get the sense of it. If you're still undecided on a rising sign due to multiple mixed testimonies or simply not enough biographical data, zodiacal releasing will often offer the final testimony you need, because it outlines many very precise interlocking time lord periods. Zodiacal releasing works so well, you can often zoom in to singular events and see them couched in the narrative of the entire life. Because it's so precise, you also get that click moment when it's right.
Briefly, zodiacal releasing works by "releasing" (profecting) from a given lot, often the Lot of Fortune or the Lot of Spirit, as a way to view the physical and material circumstances of life (Fortune) or the general mindset and desire of the soul (Spirit). Each sign has a certain mysterious number of years associated with it ranging from 8 - 30, which is the amount of time a planet rules over that sign's period. Each of these "level one" or L1 periods can then be subdivided into 8 - 30 months at the "level two" or L2, resulting in an infinitely subdivisible fractal of time throughout the life, though practically speaking we only typically go down to the L4 which are days long.
Zodiacal releasing (ZR for short) uses the entire astrological chart at multiple levels and can even be layered with transits and other time lord techniques, so it requires you to understand astrology very, very well to get good results out of it. However, it is so powerful a technique that you can perform a rectification solely with ZR.
Because the lots used in ZR are projected from the ascendant, they do not have a whole sign relationship to the rising sign but a degree-based one. This means that if you are quite sure that someone's Lot of Spirit is actually in a given sign, in certain cases this can even tell you precisely where the ascendant lies. (This isn't really the case in Musk's chart, as his Lot of Spirit and ascendant are roughly a sextile apart.) The Lot of Spirit itself is such a notable point in terms of its story for the life (especially its decanic myths), that it can sometimes help rectification if you can perceive the mythos that someone plays out through their actions.
Let's do two examples of ZR, first with the correct Lot of Spirit in Taurus so you can the way it works, then we will do an incorrect one for comparison.
ZR with Cancer Rising, Lot of Spirit in Taurus
With Cancer Rising, Musk's Lot of Spirit (LoS) is in 11H Taurus. The domicile ruler of Taurus is Venus, but Venus is averse to Taurus and cannot see it from Gemini, and is thus unfit to carry out the agenda of the LoS, but will still describe it since it is still the domicile of Venus. We have to ask ourselves, which planets can see Taurus to give it testimony, and of those which are inclined to act as the "functional" lord of Taurus? Which one is most capable of delivering on the significations there? For Taurus, there's a clear answer: the other ruler. That's the exaltation lord, the Moon, who is in a positive trine to Taurus.
We can thus expect Taurus periods to be topically about 11H matters, but expressed in the 3H in some way due to the Moon's placement. A good rule of thumb is that the activated sign (and whole sign house) shows the core motivation for that period, while the lord itself shows how the native goes about fulfilling that motivation. Meanwhile, Mars, Jupiter, the Sun, and Mercury all give testimony to Taurus, which means that these time periods will in some way be colored by the agenda of these planets, especially when they are activated in subperiods on the L2 and below. Planets which are averse to this sign (such as Venus and Saturn) will show periods where the native shifts track to focus on something unrelated to the original sign.
In any case, we do this functional ruler assessment for every sign. My assignments follow. For a more detailed explanation of my rationale in these choices, see my essay linked above:
Taurus - Moon (exaltation lord)
Gemini - Saturn (triplicity lord)
Cancer - Mercury (in the sign and an evening star, in its own bound and strengthened by its mutual reception with the Moon) with strong testimony from the Moon and Sun
Leo - Jupiter (sect mate who receives the Sun, though you could make an argument for Saturn--he still gives testimony as well)
Virgo - Moon (in the sign, triplicity lord) with strong testimony from Mercury
Libra - Venus (domicile lord), with strong testimony from Saturn
Scorpio - Jupiter (in the sign) with strong harsh testimony from Mars (rules the sign, has square aspect)
Sagittarius - Saturn (triplicity lord)
Capricorn - Moon (triplicity rulership)
Aquarius - Mars (in the sign) with strong testimony from Saturn
Pisces - Jupiter (domicile lord)
Aries - Mars (domicile lord)
Exaltation lords will often provide testimony to their signs of exaltation too in addition to domicile lords, but we will leave that aside for our purposes. Let's see how this works out in practice. For brevity's sake, I'll look at one key date range: February through March of 1999. Musk sold Zip2 in February and then founded X.com in March, which would become PayPal.
You can use zodiacalreleasing.net to generate ZR charts which look like this:
Here, I've highlighted the Cancer period through its levels all the way down to the L4. While we don't have a precise date for when Zip2 was sold, the zodiacal releasing is loud and clear: FEBRUARY 1ST, 1999. The beginning of a new level one period is always a significant moment, and there's something special happening in this one. In fact, there are multiple special things happening here.
Because Mercury is in Cancer, we say that they are the functional lord; however, the Moon's approaching sextile, sextile by sign, and mutual reception with Mercury factors the Moon in so strongly I might call them cooperating lords in this instance, which is not something I see often. During this time, Zip2 was sold for $307 million, of which Musk received $22 million, and this is indicated in two different ways: first, the Sun is present in the first house, and is the lord of the second. This adds wealth and money as a signification.
Additionally, the Moon as co-lord is in its joy in the 3H, and with the Lot of Fortune (LoF). The LoF lands there regardless of rising sign because it is always projected from the ascendant, meaning its position does not change much over the course of half a day. Even further, Cancer is an angular house in the chart, and is the 11th house relative to fortune. The Lot of Fortune sets up a secondary house system called "fortune houses", as if your fortune is doled out onto your life and chart over time, causing each house to increasingly signify the fortune house topics as well as the natal houses, and supposedly eventually becoming entirely about the fortune houses. This is not a particularly well-studied or covered technique, but I find it is extremely powerful and an essential part of my practice whether I'm using lot-based techniques or not.
The 11th house from fortune (11F) is said to be a place where gains and success are found, as it is the house of good spirit (results following from the 10H, praxis/action/work) but applied to the material realm. So you have the Sun activated, lord of the natal 2H of money who is also in the 11F, Mercury activated there as a functional lord who which rules the 3H where the Lot of Fortune is, and the Moon activated as a co/domicile lord who is also in the 3H with the Lot of Fortune. On top of that, there is a phenomenon observed by Robert Schmidt who noted that when the lord of the natal Lot of Spirit is activated (that is, the Moon), major events in the life story of the native tend to transpire.
So altogether, we have a period which shows a significant amount of testimonies indicating wealth, a focus on the self, gains and reward, and even indications of a pivotal moment in the life--starting in the precise month in which Zip2 was sold, earning Musk a massive windfall that would become the foundation for his projects. Also, note again that the Lot of Fortune is in his 3H. What does the 3H signify? Siblings. Musk's venture in Zip2 was with his brother Kimbal. Indeed, Musk's entire fortune has come from 3H matters, whether it's siblings, close ties, or various forms of transportation.
In March, Musk turns around and creates X.com, which would later merge with Confinity and become PayPal. Certain signs undergo a "loosing of the bond" which occurs when the profected sign has gone around the entire zodiac, arriving at the original sign. Note how in the Level 4 column, the signs go from Cancer all the way around and back to Gemini, then jump to Capricorn. This is often a time period of literally releasing something, doing something new, or changing direction drastically in some way. During the very beginning of this Cancer period, this would be especially important.
There are also culminating periods, the period on a lower level which is the 10th sign from the upper period's active sign. These are major periods relative to the upper period where significant things are likely to happen. In Musk's Cancer L3 the culminating period is Aries, which is his 10H of public success. It's also his 8F house of shared resources (especially wealth) with others, and the Sun is the exaltation lord of Aries placed in the 1H while also being the domicile lord of his 2H of his own wealth. Releasing from the Lot of Spirit shows us how someone is inspired and what actions they take as a result.
With this in mind, it's very likely that Musk committed to creating X from March 8th to March 11th of 1999, because this culminating period circling back after his windfall asks the question: what the hell do I do with all this money? Maybe I make a company that's all about making it easier to exchange your own money with other people? In Musk's chart, neither Saturn nor Mars can see Capricorn, so the Moon is actually the ruler, which is also how we get the transfer of money as the Moon once again pulls in the Sun and Mercury via her domicile rulership of Cancer and mutual reception with Mercury. It's fairly likely that Musk went on to create X.com during the loosing of the bond into Capricorn on March 17th. Additionally, Capricorn as Musk's 7H and 5F indicates signing contracts with business partners (or simply legal counsel) for new endeavors.
ZR with Libra Rising, Lot of Spirit in Leo
Let's look at an example of this not working, which can help you decide what risings to throw away. We'll get through this one much more quickly, because it just doesn't work. If Musk had a Libra rising chart, his Lot of Spirit would be in 11H Leo. From February through March of 1999, Musk is in a Virgo/Aquarius/Aquarius period:
You might note that the L3 lands right on February 1st, 1999. It's also a "completion" period, when the activated subperiod comes all the way back around to the upper period sign, including a loosing of the bond. That timing lines up well, too. There's even a loosing of the bond in March! However, there are three complications here.
First, this significant life event should be louder in terms of the period levels. The higher up a period change happens, the more significant the observable impact should be. Getting a $22m windfall is not an L3 event in terms of the changes it enables to one's lifestyle, nor does it reflect his change in ambition and focus away from mapping services (represented by Venus/Saturn in Gemini activated during the Gemini L1 period from the Cancer rising ZR example) over to finance and direct vehicle manufacturing (the Cancer L1 mutual reception between Mercury and the Moon).
Second, the rising sign changed, which changes the houses the signs belong to. Virgo is no longer this powerful place for the Moon, joying in the 3rd with the Lot of Fortune. Instead the Moon is in the 12th house, a very weak place. She may have mutual reception with Mercury in the 10H, but the topics now become about the interchange between 10H and 12H matters, not 1H and 3H matters.
We might expect the overall L1 period to be concerned with creating a career out of hospice care, funeral homes, or something else stereotypical involving 12H matters (ignoring the rest of the chart which does not support this). This may seem obvious to some, but I find dealing with so much information while swapping between potential lot positions makes me miss this every now and then, so I wanted to mention it explicitly.
Third, because no matter what period you start from all periods have nice round numbers for lengths of time, you will inevitably get periods which begin on key dates in interesting ways. In fact, Leo is actually the place of Musk's Lot of Eros, the lot having to do with attraction, desire, love, and the significations of Venus in the chart. So during this time, we can still say stuff is happening in interesting timing congruences with what we saw releasing from Taurus as the Lot of Spirit.
That does make sense, because the different parts of our lives change, diverge, converge, and line up and impact or at least run parallel to the core motivating inspirations of our life. So we have to be very careful when we see dates that pop out near key points, because they don't necessarily mean this is SPIRIT. It could be a different lot that is very apparent, especially if the native has a particularly strong planet. You have to take a broad perspective and look at the entire picture of the life.
With all that said, this is pretty clearly wrong. Totally wrong life. We can discard Libra rising in this way, too.
Zodiacal releasing is a powerful technique, but it is also very labor intensive. The trick is to look for periods where things are really right or really wrong. Aim for events which have very clear planetary signatures. Even if you can kind of rationalize one period of time or simply don't understand the chart well enough yet, you won't have that play out across every period.
Oh, one last thing I'll note: in three days, on September 23rd, 2023, Elon Musk enters a new level one period into Leo, his second house, but also his fortune 12th house. Who functionally rules Leo as his Sun is averse? Either a middling retrograde Jupiter in Scorpio (becoming increasingly cadent in the 5H-turning-3F), or Saturn. Meanwhile, Musk's troublesome Mars gives testimony to Leo by direct opposition. The implications are left as an exercise for the reader.
Addendum: Firdaria and Zodiacal Releasing
Feel free to skip this part if you wish.
While I used ZR at first to confirm Cancer rising for Musk as my first piece of evidence, I'm increasingly fond of using firdaria then the process of sign disqualification before even reaching for ZR, as it's a bit like using a hammer to push in a thumbtack.
At this point you may be wondering: what's the difference between zodiacal releasing and firdaria? Both of them seem to cover similar-ish amounts of time, and they both have periods and subperiods. How do we resolve these two techniques?
In my personal opinion, firdaria is a broad-view technique with general significations in a range of possibilities, which are then narrowed down by the delineation of the helper planet. These periods encompass the native's life stages expressed through their chart placements. To get more detail and precise dates, you would use the fardar lord and helper planet to zoom in on specific events and experiences in the life overall, especially as it relates to annual profections and yearly revolutions (solar returns).
By contrast, zodiacal releasing is a technique for analyzing the planetary relationships between specific topics of the lot being looked at. The Lot of Spirit will show specifically how the native is inspired to do things in a precise way, although it may appear very general at the L1 and L2 level. When you get down to the lower levels, you can make extremely precise predictions about what is happening by analyzing the relationships between the planets in the nativity, by transit, and as timelords in other techniques--but they deal with a specific concern or topic.
For instance, Musk's Venus fardar period was particularly difficult, but it did not describe (except in a very general way) what Musk himself was inspired or motivated to do. It described the condition of the life overall for that time period and how Musk experienced it in his life overall.
That being said, you will often find that the time periods of fardars and zodiacal releasing (and really any other technique) line up eerily well when it's an important time period. Astrology--and life--is magical like that.
Finding the Rising Degree
At this point, we can make the call on step one. The astrological delineation, even when presented with full knowledge of what Musk's rising sign actually is, still allows us to see concretely why Musk could not be a different rising. Cancer rising has that satisfying click: all the pieces make sense with the structure of Musk's life, as they must, because that's how astrology works. We have looked at it from multiple angles, and it is the most likely according to the rules and structure of astrology, regardless of the fact that we know he is indeed a Cancer rising.
The next step is to find the rising degree. If we have done our job properly, we've made it very easy on ourselves to do. I'll use my 7:45AM time for the following examples, since it demonstrates the ideas clearly, and then we will do a more precise rectification against biographical details to evaluate the published birth time of 7:30AM.
We have a few keys we can use to identify where the degrees may be:
Quadrant house dynamicism
Sect light eminence
Angle placement
Lot of Fortune (and Spirit) placement
Primary directions, which I will only touch on briefly
We can look at quadrant house (QH) dynamicism, chrematistikos, or how "conducive to business" a planet is. I use both quadrant houses (Placidus) and whole sign houses (WSH) in my practice, where the whole sign houses are the concrete topics in the native's life while the quadrant house cusps are how active and capable the planets are according to angularity. (I am still playing around with QH as topical indicators or the way the native relates to the house topics.)
A distinction we might make, for instance, is Venus: if Cancer rising is at 17° as it is in the original 7:45AM time I chose, Venus is in the QH 11H, even though she's still in the WSH 12H. To me, this means Venus is actually quite active in delivering her significations of romantic and social loneliness and pain; she's not sitting over there quietly! Meanwhile, this also places the Sun firmly in QH 12H, while being in the WSH 1H. Musk's identity, his ego, is extremely prominent in his chart topically but in terms of the Sun's individual strength, it is actually very weak, which may signify his deep-seated and anxious need to be seen and praised, which appears to drive most of his actions as of late.
We might also examine sect light eminence. This is a technique where you take the triplicity lords of the sect light to gauge the overall impact the native has on people's lives. This does not necessarily mean for good or for bad; it's just how impactful you've been. Someone working in secret could be extremely impactful to many without the impacted people ever knowing they exist. For Musk, his triplicity lords of his Sun in Cancer are Venus, Mars, and the Moon. This is another reason to suspect that Elon Musk's birth time may be later than 7:30AM, because at that time, Venus and Mars both move into the dark 12H and 8H respectively. They certainly topically signify these WSH houses, but as eminence factors for someone so prominent and impactful, it would be surprising if they were in dark quadrant houses and considered "not conducive to business".
You could also look at the bounds of the angles, and in the cases when the midheaven can cross signs, it's worth considering whether that makes sense. This does happen in Musk's chart; any time of birth after 7:36 AM places the MC in Taurus, not Aries. The MC is where we find visibility. There's an important distinction to be made here between the Sun and the MC. The Sun is how someone is known, as an idea, an identity. Musk's Sun in Cancer in Mars' bound makes him the Mars guy, the SpaceX guy. The Tesla guy. The Hyperloop guy. Musk's identity is defined by the companies and assets he owns.
However, the MC is what we put out into the world that is most prominent, what is seen by the public, what hits the news. What is most public about Musk? His love affairs, scandals, poorly considered tweets and jokes, his constant vacillating back and forth--both of which can be seen in domicile lord Venus in Gemini in the 12H and an exaltation lord Moon in the 3H. Additionally, we can read some of the IC themes of origins into the 5H, ruled by Mars in Aquarius, which we have identified as one of the placements representing Musk's domineering father during his Venus fardar. Scorpio also has to do with penetrating, digging, and underground things, and his father literally owned a mine. His father was also a pilot, and Jupiter is there in Scorpio as well. Also interesting to note that his mother was a model and the MC is in Venus-ruled Taurus.
We could also look at the particular placement of the Lot of Fortune. If we have a hunch about the way in which Musk experiences fortune, we might target it for a certain bound, or place it so that it receives a close aspect from a planet. One question people have had of Musk's Cancer rising chart is his wealth, since it seems to make his wealth indicators not so strong. In the 7:45AM chart I put his Lot of Fortune in Jupiter's bound to reflect his massive wealth, and receiving an exact overcoming square from Venus as a benefic factor. As I mentioned previously, you can also do the same thing with the Lot of Spirit, but it's often easier to clock Fortune since it's manifest in the outer world.
Perhaps Even A Bit Later?
However, I must say--the more I've been looking at this chart and pondering it, the more I wonder if it isn't even later. After all, the 7:30AM birth time reported by Walter Isaacson in Musk’s biography does not cite where the time comes from. You would be surprised how often parents and relatives misremember birth times. Even medical professionals delivering children will write down the incorrect time due to clerical errors, waiting some time before filling out the birth certificate, or not bothering to remember the original time clearly because they don’t think it matters that much. Professional astrologers encounter this problem frequently; it’s one of the most common challenges of our profession.
Until we have precise verification, the birth time could be different. So I can't stop thinking about the dice roll which started this entire adventure: Cancer, 3rd decan, which would be at least after 7:57 AM. Perhaps, say, 8:13 AM?
There are a few reasons I think this might be plausible. First, a later birth time would move the Lot of Fortune closer to the exact Pluto-Jupiter sextile, which is an extreme wealth signature (Bill Gates has Jupiter and Pluto conjunct in Leo, for example). The LoF being in Mars' bound also makes sense, because much of Elon's wealth is bound up in markets and investments, an 8H signification, where Mars is.
It would move the ascendant into Jupiter's bound, which makes sense for Musk, an overall enthusiastic and visionary figure, and in the exalted bound of Cancer, especially lucky. It also moves the ascendant out of Cancer II, the decan of the walled garden and hidden operations, into Cancer III, the decan of overflowing abundance to the point of excess. This would also move Jupiter far closer to trine his ascendant, reiterating his luck. It would also push Saturn, the planet representing his partners and entanglements with others' property into the QH 10th, and most of his partners have certainly not been meek or particularly hidden as figures in their own right. It would put the midheaven in Taurus, but under Mercury's bound, which is far more fitting for the man who bought Twitter in the hopes everyone would love him.
This is also just a guess, but I do feel fairly strongly that if we get Elon Musk's birth certificate, the birth time will at least be later than 7:30AM. For most astrological hobbyist purposes, this degree of accuracy works just fine. Our job here--in lieu of more information, inspiration, or time--is done.
Precise Degree Rectification With Primary Directions
If you were doing this work for a client, especially a billionaire, it would behoove you to get the time absolutely right. One of the most powerful techniques we have is called primary directions. In primary directions, you "direct" the ascendant (or another point, or all points simultaneously) forward (or backward) through the zodiac at a rate of 1° (or a similar but different amount) per year of life, looking for aspects from the planets to the directed point. Because a human life only lasts so long, the directed point only travels so far, and only receives a few aspects. These mark the truly significant life events.
The trick is, there are many ways to calculate and perform primary directions, and it is such a sensitive technique that adjusting the birthday by one minute can move the aspects which indicate events off by months. This level of precision is rarely necessary for most readings and clients and I don't have much practice with it. That being said, I'll tell you how you could do it and figure it out, along with a short example.
Since all events in the life remain the same time apart regardless of how you do primary directions or where you start the ASC from, the job is mostly about figuring out what events are signified by which aspects, and then lining them up. To do it thoroughly, you could write out a full list of dates with events in the native's life, and then compare them against the primary directions.
Petr of astro-seek.com has actually made an incredibly useful rectification module, although I am unsure of what settings to recommend. Here's an example of using it with primary directions on Musk's chart.
Here's the table of primary directions from that link, which is not thoroughly considered:
You can use the - and + buttons to adjust the ASC starting position and examine when the different aspects line up with life events. Since these aspects also have a bit of an orb and the distance between aspects can differ depending on your calculation, it can be tricky to determine what exactly what event each aspect maps to, especially when there are gaps in biographical data. Primary directions is a high precision technique, and requires high precision inputs to get high precision outputs. There is a good book on primary directions called Primary Directions, by Martin Gansten.
In any case, I have tried my hand at a quick and dirty primary direction rectification of my prior suggested 8:13 AM time to 8:13:39 AM. The years seem about right but the months are approximate:
1993 - Venus sextile - While I can't find a specific date for this, Elon's Wikipedia claimed he hosted large ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, which matches with Venus as well as her being the exaltation lord of the 9H and the timeline of him being in college during this time
1994 - Mars opposition - Musk's internships in Silicon Valley, one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, and another at Palo Alto-based startup Rocket Science Games
2000 - Jupiter square - Zip2 is sold, X.com merges with Confinity, Musk returns as CEO but is eventually ousted as CEO (Jupiter retrograde action)
2002 - Saturn square - X.com, now PayPal, is acquired by eBay. At the same time, Musk experiences a great tragedy when his infant child passes.
2006 - Sun sextile - SpaceX attempts its first ever launch. I personally recall people expressing admiration for Musk during this time and his unflappable determination to keep trying, emphasizing that failure is just information about how to do it right the next time.
2008 - Moon conjunction - Conjunctions are the most significant in primary directions. SpaceX succeeds in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit, and the company is awarded a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. Musk begins dating Talulah Riley.
2012-08 - Mercury sextile - Tesla begins its delivery of the Tesla Model S sedan, demonstrating that an electric mass-market vehicle might be viable and leaving a significant impact on the auto industry.
2016 - Venus square - Musk finalizes a second divorce with Talulah Riley. In May 2022, an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant alleged that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016, and was paid in a severance agreement in November 2018 not to sue over the claims.
2022 - Jupiter sextile - Musk begins purchasing shares in Twitter, places a bid, tries to back out of the deal, is sued for it, and then ultimately relents to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share.
This timeline seems to work out well. However, it's just one potential overlay of events; you would want to try out many more when performing a mission critical rectification.
And with that, finally ends step two. The rectification is complete, or at least good enough for most practical use.
Closing Thoughts
Whew! That was a lot. I hope that it provides a useful model for other practitioners and students for how you might approach rectification in a general way, regardless of the chart.
One interesting thing I observed is how many people were surprised by Cancer rising in the reactions to the announcements about Elon's birth time. This, I think, comes from a regrettable drift in contemporary astrology practice, influenced by pop astrology, from focusing on planets to focusing on signs. Where the lord of a sign is in relation to that sign, along with its essential and accidental dignity, significantly changes how matters associated with that sign go as well as the expression of the planets in that sign.
Another factor is that I was a bit of a shoe-in to understand Elon Musk's chart. I have worked in software for over a decade as a developer, architect, and manager, and have been exposed to tech and finance industries for much of my career. I'm in a unique position to evaluate Musk's technical and business decisions, which is also part of why it seemed obvious to me that he would run Twitter into the ground.
If I may make assumptions, I think many people tend to get dazzled by MC-and-Sun stuff--Elon Musk the X guy, Elon Musk the billionaire. But at his root, Elon is a smart, sensitive, insecure, ambitious, wounded, visionary, incendiary, highly changeable person who is driven to great heights and abyssal lows out of a desperate need for praise and love. I do not have a positive appraisal of Musk overall, but I needed to open up the space within myself to recognize these human and raw parts of him to deliver a neutral assessment. Astrology, like all forms of divination and indeed perhaps all of life, is a constant back-and-forth between perception and projection and it is only by skillfully holding ourselves that we can come to find the truth, winking, somewhere in the middle.
As for Musk's future? I mentioned in the zodiacal releasing section that Elon Musk will be entering a new Leo level one period in 3 days. He recently entered his Jupiter fardar period on his 51st birthday in 2022, a placement whose retrograde nature often indicates false starts and curtailed ventures--especially once Mars becomes the helper again in July of 2024.
I'll leave off with Louis Friedman as quoted in Mercury News:
“Mars is what drives him,” said Louis Friedman, an astronautics engineer who has known Musk for a decade. “From a psychological point of view, if you’re stuck on Earth, humankind has limits — and Elon isn’t the kind of guy who likes to live with limits.”
My Stuff
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I just wanted to thank you again. I finished my first rectification down to the minute thanks to reviewing these techniques. It really helped, and I needed it because it was for my late stepfather who passed away last year. It was difficult but it helped me work through much of my grief.
Really well done, I’ve come back to this article as I work on rectifying my late stepfather’s chart to better understand his life (I’ll also be using this my certification exam).