Elon Musk's Birth Chart

No planet changed sign on June 28, 1971. The Moon had entered Virgo at 3:06 PM the afternoon before and stayed until 3:22 AM on June 30, 1971, so anyone born in Pretoria that day has the same Sun, Moon and planet signs as the chart below, and almost the same aspects between the planets.

Sun in Cancer, Moon in Virgo

The Sun is at 5°53′ Cancer and the Moon at 8°14′ Virgo, a sextile 2°21′ from exact at 7:30 AM; the Moon moves about half a degree an hour, so the orb is the one part of this that depends on the time. Astrologers read Cancer as protective and tenacious, attached to home, family and the past, and as a cardinal sign that starts things from feeling rather than from plans. A Virgo Moon is read as a need for order and usefulness, with feelings worked through by analyzing them or by getting something done. The sextile between them is read as the will and the emotional needs pulling in compatible directions.

Mars in Aquarius, Venus in Gemini

Mars, at 20°54′ Aquarius, trines Venus at 19°23′ Gemini (1°30′). Mars in Aquarius is read as drive aimed at ideas, systems and the future more than at personal rivals; Venus in Gemini as a liking for variety, talk and quick minds. Both are in air signs, which hold four of the ten planets, more than any other element in the chart.

The slow planets of 1971

Saturn, at 1°07′ Gemini, opposes Neptune at 0°48′ Sagittarius with an orb of only 0°18′, and Jupiter, retrograde at 27°38′ Scorpio, is 3°10′ from Neptune. These are generational: everyone born around that time has them. Astrologers read Saturn opposite Neptune as a tension between structure and ideals, the practical and the imagined, and the Jupiter–Neptune conjunction as large hopes and a taste for the visionary. Jupiter's sextile to Pluto (0°33′) and Uranus at 9°28′ Libra squaring the Sun (3°35′) are the other close contacts that do not depend on the minute.

B is Rodden's grade for a time taken from a biography. Astro-Databank counts such times as usually reliable, since an author who gives a time has often had it from the subject, the family or a birth record, but the book does not say which, the figure is a round half hour, and the record cites no birth certificate for the time. Before the book, the time in circulation was 6:30 AM, printed on websites with no source at all, and Astro-Databank suggests it may simply be a rough sunrise time. The Sun rose in Pretoria at 6:54 AM that day.

The two times straddle a boundary. Cancer began to rise at 6:32 AM, so 6:30 AM falls 2 minutes before it and gives 29°20′ Gemini rising instead, with the Sun still below the horizon and the chart a night chart. The Moon stays in Virgo either way, and only two planets change house.

At 7:30 AM the Ascendant is 13°33′ Cancer B time. Cancer rose from 6:32 AM to 8:33 AM, so the sign survives an error of up to 57 minutes either way. Astrologers read Cancer rising as a guarded, protective first manner over a sensitive interior. Its ruler, the Moon, becomes the chart ruler, in the 2nd house, the house of money and possessions.

Mercury, at 14°03′ Cancer, is the planet closest to an angle: 0°30′ below the Ascendant, crossing the horizon about 2 minutes after the time given B time. Astrologers read Mercury on the Ascendant as a talkative, curious, quick presentation. The Sun, which had risen 35 minutes earlier and stood 6°21′ above the horizon, falls in the 12th house, which tradition links to solitude and work done out of view. Both readings stand or fall with the 7:30 time; at 6:30 AM the Sun would be in the first house and Mercury in the first as well, but well below the horizon. The house system matters as much as the minute here: in Whole Sign houses, which count each sign from the rising sign as one house, a Cancer Ascendant puts the Sun and Mercury together in the 1st house and Venus, in Gemini, in the 12th house.

In Pretoria that morning the Ascendant covered 14°44′ an hour, so each degree took 4.1 minutes; the Midheaven covered 15°48′. Venus is the most delicate placement in the table: it sits on the cusp of the twelfth house and would be in the 12th house if the birth were less than a minute earlier. Pluto, Mars and Jupiter would each change house within ten minutes, so with a B time their houses are best read as approximate.