Well try doing something else with the mind to distract you, something nice like singing or whistling, or just thinking about something very nice. This works too when you are trying to find something, the eye falls on it so much quicker when you are not worried.

No but my moon sign changes if I change the day by about 2 days. And my rising sign changes if I change the time by an hour or more.

I don't know exactly 'how' it works. However, I know two people with Sagittarius Rising, and there is something similar about them that doesn't fit anyone else I know. Similarly, I know two Libras and a Libra Rising, and there is something about each of them that is similar. If I had been born, say, two hours before or after I was, I would be a Libra Rising or Sagittarius Rising. However, the characteristics of those rising signs simply do not fit me. And in fact, the characteristics of most rising signs do not fit me.

With any person, the birth time could have been any other time, but once someone has been born, the birth time and date cannot be altered. Before birth, the date and time of birth are estimates of when it 'should' happen.

If each possible date and time of birth put together created a rope, each thread in the rope a single possibility, there would not be enough room for that entire rope in the fabric of existence; the thread which is woven into the fabric is the one which best fits the pattern, and once ingrained in the pattern it cannot be removed without leaving a distortion in the fabric where it had once been.

Er, sorry about the weird metaphor. I hope that was somehow helpful.

A natal chart is not based on when a person is "supposed to be born" according to a human being. The natal chart is based on the moment of birth, like stated earlier, the momen of first breath. Someone can say it was supposed to be this way or supposed to be that way but when it comes down to it, the moment the baby was born is what is used. Most likely, if someone stated that a person was meant to be born two days later, most likely they weren't. Most likely they were meant to be born exactly when they were. I would say if you're just learning astrology, don't get hung up on questions that have no bearing to what actually "is"! The literal birthtime makes all the differance in the world for exactly the reasons you've stated, because if the literal birthtime is wrong than the whole chart will be inaccurate and therefore it won't fit. It makes a differance because of what was happening with the planets at the time of actual birth. You can't say "well I was supposed to be born two days later so why can my signs be so and so" because you weren't born two days later. It's what the planets and so forth were doing at the time of birth, understand?

I think Sarah was the one who touched this topic most cleanly - it is the moment of the first breath that infuses "the Spirit of Air" into the being, and brings the spirit of the child "full circle" (alchemically speaking) into its life.

Esoterically, Air is related to the plane of Thought... (so, when the baby *thinks* its time is usually *the* time. ;) Each soul and spirit has an "appointed purpose" (which is a thought), and the spirit simply "harmonizes" with the natal energies potential that best facilitates that "thought-purpose" - this is a different thing than "Fate" per se, but rather more like picking the right outfit for the right occasion. ;)

As for whether or not the literal birthtime makes that much of a difference, it does. Although time itself is a perceptual abstract (of a collective of natural forces) created by human beings, its measurement is fundamentally what Astrology is about. If you know the exact "time of spiritual arrival", you can garner a sense of the "thought-purpose" of any given being in why they *choose* to be here *when* they did.

Because that Air "formatting" is what is the Natal chart - its the fundamental fulcrum of when in time that you chose to incarnate in your being. In that sense, being "a little bit off" timewise can actually have a very profound change of meaning when its held up against the Zodiac, where every single degree holds a "slightly different" meaning than every other - you get a couple degrees away, and that's quite a few "slightly different"s that add up to something "completely different".

But it's all a matter of perspective. ;)