Elvis Birth Time - not even The King knew!

Careful astrologers will always make sure that their clients have provided them with a birth time that has been recorded at the hospital of their birth. Most often than not, times that have been given by parents, aunts or uncles are inaccurate. It seems that relatives do not really take note of the time of birth, although they often think they can remember.

To determine the correct Ascendent (Rising Sign) for a client one must have the birth time accurate to within four minutes. This is important as the Ascendent is used to determine events, and is also a very important descriptor of the personailty.

There seems to be two main schools of thought over the time of Elvis' Birth on Jan 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. I would like to present the examples here because one in particluar is very interesting.

I have found two databases containing birth times for Elvis. One is the Hans Taeger Collection which lists four times: 4.35am CST; 3.25 am CST; 3.30 am CST; and 12.20 pm CST - all, presumably, Tupelo, Mississippi, USA, (Long. 88W43 Lat. 34N15). The other database is the Steinbrecher Astrological Data Collection. This collection cites the birth certificate as record of a birth time of 4.35 am CST. This recorded time gives Elvis a Sagittarius Ascendant at 12 20'.

Clearly the birth certificate time is the one that most astrologers would trust. However, it is very interesting to note that there is another vital point of information on the King.

Recently I discovered that a very close friend and employee of Elvis, Larry Geller, arranged for Elvis to have his birth chart erected and fully interpreted by the notable astrologer, Dane Rudhyar. Geller arranged for this to happen in time for Christmas, 1965.

In email conversations with Geller I learnt that he obtained the birth data of 3.30 am CST from Elvis' Father, Vernon Presley, and that Rudhyar corrected the time, after erecting the chart, to 3.34 am CST.

Apparently Vernon's memory of the birth was very detailed. He recalled everything from the unusual blue light that bathed the cottage in which Elvis was born, to the horrible moment when he realised that Elvis' twin brother Jesse had died at birth.

Rudhyar's original, annotated, hand drawn chart is available for viewing at the Dream Productions Site. This chart, using the Campanus House System, gives Elvis a Scorpio Ascendant at 29 25' with Sagittarius intercepted.

This was the first and only time Elvis ever commissioned his chart to be erected. At the same time Rudhyar also erected charts for Elvis' wife Priscilla, and his mother Gladys Presley. The delineation includes a 23 page booklet which is now in Larry Geller's possession.

This information struck me as being very exciting, especially as the chart was claimed to have been erected by Dane Rudhyar. Consequently I verified Rudhyar's involvement by email correspondence with some of Rudhyar's friends. They were kind enough to confirm for me that indeed this was Rudhyar's chart style and handwriting, and one of Rudhyar's friends did remember being told by Rudhyar in 1974 that he had interpreted a chart for Elvis.

It would be interesting to read Rudhyar's 23 - page delineation, some of which is published at the Dream Productions Site. I have also discovered excerpts published in Geller's book "If I can Dream: Elvis' Own Story" (Geller, Larry 1989).

One interesting comment that Geller made to me was that he had no idea where the other birth times, that he considered to be incorrect, came from. He said he wished that somehow people could agree on the truth.

"Robyn, I have seen over the years so many half-truths, distortions, lies, etc concerning Elvis' life that I have no idea how the fans and the general public can possibly really know the 'truth.'"

As a result of this comment and my fanatical interest in Elvis I thought it might be fun to open, or re-open an astrological debate over Elvis' birth time. However, there may not be much of a debate to be had. Although Rudhyar's interpretation is very interesting, I suspect many people will agree, as I do, that the birth certificate is the most trustworthy record of Elvis' birth time and therefore some of Rudhyar's findings may be incorrect.