The importance of birth times

I would love to analyze the birth chart of Jack La Lanne, the great fitness expert who just passed away at age 96.  Actually, I had the impulse to write about him last year after reading an article about him in the magazine section of the Sunday paper.  But I couldn't then, for the same reason I can't now:  We don't know his birth time.

Without a birth time we cannot know what the rising sign (Ascendant) is.  The planet that rules the rising sign is the Lord Ascendant, signifying "me" in the chart.  The Sun alone--also "me" in the chart, but more like the essence of the person--is not enough, as I have written about before.

Mr. La Lanne was remarkable because of the condition and strength of his physical body, and he was famous, due in large part to his long-running fitness show on TV.

Here is his chart, cast for September 26, 1914 in San Francisco using a default birthtime of 12:00 p.m.:

I can only speculate as to the astrological explanations for Mr. La Lanne's great physical condition and fame.  There is a method of approaching the problem of birth charts with no birth times; it is called rectification.  However, it requires a great deal of time to research properly, and even then the results are questionable. 

A quick glance at the chart above can only give us a few hints about where we might start:

1) Mars is likely important.  When we progress the chart, we see that in a few years Mars enters Scorpio, where it is super strong.  However, Mr. La Lanne experienced a great turning point at age 15, and Mars is already at 08 degrees by then.  I experimented a little with birth times to see if I could place Mars in a prominent position by progression.  A time of 0800 puts progressed Mars exactly conjunct the Ascendant at age 15.  This is intriguing, but only a guess at best.

2) It is tempting to look at Saturn as the natural ruler of structure, including our physical structure of skin and bones.  It's intriguing that Saturn is so afflicted in this chart--in detriment and tightly conjunct Pluto at 02 Cancer.  But we don't know what this might mean, because without an Ascendant we can't know what role(s) Saturn is playing in the chart.

We could examine essential dignities and reception among the planets--interesting in and of itself--but without knowing what houses they rule we have nowhere to go with the information.

Rest in peace, Jack La Lanne.

Edited July 20, 2012